The Redsun RP-3100 Is the Radio They Should Have Built in the First Place

 

 

Bill writes:

I'm fond of my RP-2100. Mine is an early model, from before they were much known in the US. It uses a 220 volt internal power supply. The seller included a free 110v to 220 v step up transformer, so I can still use the 220v internal power, but I'm stuck with a radio that has an internal power supply that still requires a wall wart! Pity that. For a while there the Redsun or Kaito units sold in the US had proper 110 v internal power supplies.

Now I believe the only way you can get them is to buy the C Crane version. That one is inferior in my crackpot opinion because they cheaped out and removed the internal power supply altogether; you're stuck with a wall wart yet again. C Crane should be ashamed. If the RP-3100 has any differences other than SSB and a keypad I don't know them, but isn't that enough? The only way to get SSB on a 2100 is to use an outboard adapter. Strangely, Redsun did include the IF Out jack that makes it possible to plug in their outboard BFO unit, but didn't choose to put a BFO inside the radio itself. A rather bizarre decision, since it probably wouldn't have cost much or any more than adding the IF Out jack itself, and adding SSB capability would remove the one serious complaint I've read about an otherwise good radio.

Of course, the RP-2100 does have a few strange design choices. The '3100 is the radio they should have built in the first place. Why go full digital, and then not include a keyboard or BFO? Why include an RF Out jack? Why include memories when, absent a keyboard, they're hard to use? Why include a provision for two switchable sets of batteries- four D cells AND four AA cells- but not a dual-voltage switch on the internal power supply? For all that, it's a great set. It performs well. The big speaker and powerful audio make for great sound that makes up for a lot of evils.

So what about the RP-3100? It looks to me like they're dumping off their pre-production models. Why would they only make 200 and then stop? The main reasons I can imagine are that some critical part, from another manufacturer, went out of production. Or that the radio just didn't work properly and they couldn't get the bugs out, so they gave up on it. It might just be they didn't think they could make money selling this in the domestic market. I suspect they could, selling them in the US, but how many would they sell? And do they have marketing agreements with somebody else for North America? If so, if we ever do see this radio produced and sold for our market, it will likely be an inferior, stripped down version, at an elevated price.

Comments

[owl]

The first model from Redsun is in fact RP2000 (not sold in mainland China but still available re-badged in some other countries) which has not station preset at all! The 50 presets was added to RP2000 to convert it to RP2100 in the last minute before Redsun decided to release the radio in mainland China a few years ago, after receiving many complaints about lacking station memory on RP2000 - that's why RP2100 has such a strange "better-than-nothing" preset scheme.

RP2000 was cleared designed as the successor to Tecsun BCL2000/3000, i.e. a digitised 1970-style BCL radio (the lineage is best shown by the slider switch hidden behind the psudo-rotatory band switch presented on both BCL2/3000 and RP2000/2100).

It's said they might have been designed by the same engineer who once worked at Tecsun but moved (along with some designs) to Redsun...

As for the off-board BFO unit, if you refer to the one sold on ebay by TQChina, it's not a Redsun product but designed by TQChina and co. (they also have a 455k-12k down converter prototype but it is difficult to get the required parts esp. cystals at a reasonable cost for commercial production ).

The IF-out is very convenient if you have the down-converter so that you can play SDR or receive DRM. I can understand why manufacturers like Tecsun/Redsun are a bit heasite in making such accessories. To use these stuff properly, certain amount of knowledge/skill are required. Unfortunately, many users have far too high expections on the performance of these accessories while on the other hand they lack the required skill/patience. A good example is Degen's loop antenna DE31. As far as I can tell, the majority of complaints towards it are due to unrealistic high expection or incorrect operation by the users.

It's true some critical parts (mainly IC) for traditional radios are more and more difficult to find. It's said Degen DE1103 will soon be out of production. Tecsun's switch to DSP chips is more or less for similar reason.

[Ken K. in NJ]

I have the Silicon Scientific version which was sold for a short while in 2007-2008 via Heartland for the closeout price of around $60, a great bargain. That version has no presets but does have an internal power supply. It's a great radio, with excellent AM DX capability (see below) and good FM sound.

This remains the only radio I have ever DXd Arizona and Manitoba on (from NJ). Both in January 2010. For what it's worth, each time I went right to my Panasonic RF 2200 to compare, and got nothing.

[owl]

For many radios etc made by Chinese manufacturers in recent years, the lack of an internatl power supply could in fact be a plus point.

Many bulit-in power supplies, in addition to introducing RF interferences, also make either an annoying hum while on standby, or polute the audio with AC noise (or do both). I have at least 10 such radios (some are $150+ models).

That said, the internal power supply on RP2000/2100 is a rare model that is shielded well and generates almost no noises at all.

BTW some customers have recieved the RP3100 their ordered. There are three photos in the post from Tecsun's customer service forum:

http://bbs.tecsun.com.cn/0002.asp?open=509151

It's said the kyes are not backlited (don't know why, keys on RP2100 are backlited)

Below is a photo of the remote control of the new RP3100:

http://bbs.tecsun.com.cn/up_fls/20133312145666297.jpg

Obviouse, the remote control is not a full-function one, you have only got the following keys:
snooze, power/sleep, tune up/down, count-down, ATS, Memory scan, ATS memory scan, band, metre-band, mute and clear.

In other words, it seems that you can't control the volume from the remote (except to mute the radio).

[Pike]

Which is the difference between RP3000 and RP3100?

[Gary]

For one thing, the RP3000 was supposed to have a sync detector. The RP3100 does not.