Sunday, January 31, 2021

Silvercrest radio SWED250 A1

This is a report for a radio that has been  returned back
due to flaw on batteries 


a nice radio with  big problem !!

This year (2016?)  my parents in law had problems with their Degen 1102 models . The one has  button hardening  and the other  has problem with it battery connection. Even more the technician cant help for servicing the second . this made my parent in law  to look into a cheap solution.

Two weeks ago  my in-laws  have bought two  Silvercrest  SWED250 A1 MW SW FM  radios from  Lidl at a price of only Eu10.

As my  in law told me this  new   radio had also a big problem  which is  that  the radio operated  OK for several hours  then the battery drained out completely. He has used only the one of them and  decided to return  both of them

I just kept the Silvercrest  radio only for  short time  for a review . And kept using various batteries for the check . 

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Here  I post a report on how the radio worked

First some pictures :


 THis is the front of the radio . A digital radio with all buttons on the front big LCd screen memories etc


Here is a  close up of the keyboard

Form the let to right:

Top line : memories , memory store , band , and search . The step is by 5 kHz in SW, 100 kHz in FM and 9 in MW . 10 memories per band . pressed for more than than 3 secs the search buttons  start scanning

Medium line: Clock , 12/24 set , digital  volume  from zero to 16

Bottom line : DX local . alarm sleep , snooze . a low battery LED and power button



Earphones  and mains power socket . No adaptor  provided.  Radio requires 5 V. This is clearly  USB voltage

Fist for the socket . I have  several power adaptors in my collection . Nothing was compatible with  this radio!...


And these are the  earphones .
Their audio is very bad so needless  to call for more


Second about the audio : Connecting  with earphones  the audio is sounded  as if the plug is loosely plugged into the socket !! It gives a stereo wise diversity though the output is MONOPHONIC !!! (that  is ridiculous. first time  i find radio of this type still using monophonic output !!) 

Operation: 

Battery: I have fist used a alkaline  battery from LIdl . The battery  was drained  after  10 hours  while radio  was ....OFF!


These batteries  have been  bought from 'sellers on the road' The battery set is 16 pieces for only .....1 Euro !!!  Their thickness is ca 0.5mm shorter.

And this is more funny : Batteries really seem drained  immediately ! The little  LED battery  indicator  was constantly blinking !The multimeter  shown a voltage of 1.56 V ....(and this is the funniest of all! )

Actually  the alkaline batteries  show as drained (as shown in the LED indicator blinking )in  ca 10 hours

Weight : the  radio though bulky is very light . Only 146grams !

FM : the  radio has good  sensitivity  fair selectivity (around 250 kHz ) with all stations on the band received  in clear, providing the use of the DX/ LOCAL buttons  set to DX. Otherwise  the only a few stations  could be herd. MY in law  found that this  radio had better selectivity  than 1102 without noise.

MW:   The radio  has good reception . IN most frequencies  during the night were occupied  and directivity zeros are very sharp    . During the day  all empty frequencies were occupied by self images. No enhancements from the basketena close to it , except during morning. That means to me the  radio uses DSP technology 

SW : the same with  MW : nice sensitivity  with DX/LOCAL button set to DX . or very string signals could be  received . Using the external 8 m antenna  with button set to LOCAL   has the same signals levels. radio is NOT  overloaded  if external antenna  is used with button set to DX !

Once set to LOCAL i had nearly the same reception with the  external 8 m antenna! Sensitivity  is comparable with the 1102

These are the bands  as separated: with memories 10 per band

  • 5.0 -7.5
  • 7.51-9.5
  • 9.51-11.5
  • 11.51-13.5
  • 13.51-15.5
  • 15.56-18.2


Earphone audio with  the Creative Zen earphones: Zen has the highest audio level  than any other earphone i have.   The  sound is quite audible with volume set to 1 in my very quiet room


Verdict  3/5: if the radio had not the  so fast  battery drain woud be a very good radio (very similar  to my DSP radios though not so narrow in FM )

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