I got a Sangean ATS-909x. And of course nothing would do except to get the Radio Labs modified version. This has filter modifications to improve sensitivity, supposedly.
I'm not qualified to do a detailed technical evaluation of it, but I'm very happy with it.
It is notably larger than the Tecsun PL-600 and 660, and even bigger than a Grundig G3. Especially, it is thicker. It is surprisingly heavy. Controls seem to be solid and operate very nicely. The display is very good. Sound quality is good too although on the narrow AM/MW/SW bandwith the high end of the sound is attenuated, making the radio sound muffled. It is effective in cutting down adjacent channel interference, though.
Little features are well thought out. The battery charger starts charging when you plug in the power supply with the radio turned off. A light tells you the batteries are charging and goes off when they're charged. The memories come with most of them preprogrammed with popular shortwave frequencies; you can delete these one at a time and replace them with your own information if you want. Automatic Tune System is available on AM, MW, and LW, but not on SW unfortunately. The scan system on shortwave works well, though.
I read in one review a complaint that the radio won't tune between preset shortwave broadcast bands. This is incorrect. If you go to one of the preset shortwave broadcast bands and scan, the radio will scan only within that band, continue to the end, jump back to the beginning of the band and do it again. However you can directly tune to any frequency between 1710 and 29,999, as is typical for digital shortwave.
I'm gonna keep the manual handy because if I don't I'm never going to figure how to set a wake-up alarm. (All the more so because I don't plan to do this often, so I'll have forgotten by the time I have to do it!) There's also something about automatically setting the radio time from the FM RDS. I don't think I'd want to do this since those few FM stations up here in The Sticks which DO have RDS are kind of random as to the time of day, or even the month and year, to which they set their station clocks. But if RDS works in your area, there is a control on the radio that would seem to be to allow you to set the clock from it automatically. I haven't found that in the manual, so I have no idea how it works.
How about the reception? Well, I wanted a SW radio that also worked well on AM and FM, so I could hear everything I wanted on just one radio. This set seems to fill the bill. Sitting here in daylight I am picking up stations all the way from the East Coast (Saginaw) to the West Coast (Traverse City) and even foreign stations far across the waters, such as exotic Milwaukee. At night, all the frequencies are full, of course. FM seems really sharp, and SW is acceptable.
Here the radio lacks a bit of sensitivity, but only a bit. I have noticed that holding the radio, listening to a weak SW station, the signal will fade away when I set the radio down and move away from it. I usually take this as a sign that the radio could use a bit more antenna, and indeed plugging in the supplied reel-up antenna solves the problem perfectly. I have had many radios which included external wire plug-in antennas. This is the only one where that antenna makes a serious difference I can hear.
Using the wire antenna makes the set just fine, and it's a small price to pay for not being deaf on the common broadcast bands. For that matter, shortwave reception with the whip alone is fine for any program listening grade signal. I think an external wire antenna would be more useful for DXing than for program listening. But isn't that usually the case?
The radio is kind of spendy, but I'm really enjoying it.
Hi Bill, nice review on the ATS-909X!
Did Radio Labs also modify the tuning knob to remove the detent? This was a change I did myself to a 909X when I replaced the narrow filter with an upgraded one.
The tuning encoder needs to be desoldered from the PCB, but after that it's pretty easy to remove the ball bearing that's responsible for the detent (click steps). I liked the smooth tuning of the modified 909X's tuning encoder much better.
Posted by: 4nradio | October 21, 2013 at 12:45 PM
I about purchased one awhile back for a nightstand receiver, but I could not readily justify the cost for a portable, especially given how many portables I already own.
I am mostly interested in SW, not MW and FM, so I instead picked up another desktop HF receiver. I shuffled around some receivers, and my Kenwood R-2000 ended up taking a spot in the bedroom.
Posted by: RobRich | October 21, 2013 at 06:05 PM
4nradio, let me be dumb for a moment. I presume the detent is the device that makes the tuning wheel jump or click along as you turn it. If so, no, they didn't remove it. This is a bit of a disappointment to me, since I thought that was part of the modifications.
I think I would prefer not to have the detent. I'm not competent enough with a soldering iron to remove it myself.
However, I'm going to put up with it. The reason is that I read in some other review, I forget where, that the tuning wheel is purely mechanical. Since it isn't an optical encoder it is prone to wear. Therefore I'm going to avoid using it somewhat. (Since the radio has memory, up-down button, and direct frequency entry tuning, you could get by without the tuning wheel at all if you had to, except for fine tuning in SSB mode.) The detent makes the knob feel mechanical and serves as a reminder to go easy on it.
Right now I'm typing at my keyboard and have the Sangean going on the dining table nearby, tuned to KCJJ, a 10,000 watt AM rock and roll station out of Iowa City. This is pretty good DX for me. My other portables will tell me there is a station on that frequency, and bring it out of the murk from time to time well enough that I can get an ID. The Sangean makes it listenable. I'd say this set is doing pretty well. I'm still happy with it.
Posted by: Bill | October 21, 2013 at 06:31 PM
If it's anything like the old 909 it'll really sing with a good antenna. I highly reccomend putting up at least a longwire. Even an insulated at the ends Slinky between two trees or whatever would do the trick.
And I love, love, LOVE KCJJ. It's one of the last real radio stations. Unfortunately I think they cut off their cQuam (AM stereo) exciter, but it's still a great station.
Posted by: Drive-In-Freak | October 21, 2013 at 09:33 PM
Drive-In-Freak is exactly right. The 909X is not overly sensitive on the external antenna jack and it appears Sangean designed it to work decently with modest passive antennas. While camping in Washington, I've used the 909X with a 100 ft. longwire with no overload problems and ample signal pickup.
Here in suburban Seattle, lesser radios start overloading with 30 feet of wire but the 909X was able to handle 60 feet before any ghosting was noted (mostly intermod from locals appearing weakly on the lower tropical band frequencies... hardly a deal-breaker).
Also, the 909X worked well on a Wellbrook ALA100 loop of 30 ft. circumference, as well as with a 1-meter ALA1530.
If you never intend to use an external antenna with the 909X, it's reception on the whip alone is not up to the level of a Tecsun PL-660 (for instance) on its whip. I for one appreciate a portable that can handle a reasonable antenna at the external antenna jack.
Bill-- yes, I was referring to the mechanism that makes the tuning wheel click as you turn it. Some people like this, but many don't. A lot of radios use mechanical encoders due to the lower cost compared to the optical variety, but they'll typically provide a lot of use before corrosion or dirt or wear causes skipping or erratic operation. I don't think you need to "baby" it; I'd recommend you use it for tuning whenever you'd like.
BTW, there is an article in the ATS-909X Yahoo Group files section titled "Detent Removal Mod" which fully describes the mod in text and pictures. A correction to what I said earlier-- it is a bent piece of wire that needs to be removed, not a ball bearing. I was thinking of another model of radio. In any event it's pretty easy once you get the encoder desoldered.
Posted by: 4nradio | October 22, 2013 at 05:05 PM
Just received a new Sangean ATS-909X black color from Amazon. I knew all about the so called deafness of the 909x. As of now my most sensitive small radio is my Tecsun PL-680. I took the 680 and the 909X out on my balcony in Cebu, Philippines and tested sensitivity and selectivity. Both radios were side by side, but not so close as to have any interference from each radio. Only the whips were used, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the 909X picked up 95% of what my 680 did. My conclusion is that there are more sensitive radios than the 909X but not by too much and that the ongoing quotes of the 909x being completely deaf is as far as I am concerned a lot hot air. Not to mention that the selectivity is outstanding.
Posted by: Carl Boches | December 06, 2018 at 01:03 AM
Hi.
Can anyone on the site help me to input frequencies on the 909x.
Seems there are loads of pre-programed memorys all AM.
Anyway of getting rid of them as they are very annoying
I would love to be able (Read Manual) to just fill the thing with USB/LSB frqs.
Many thanks and God bless you.
Anthony.
Posted by: William Conlan | February 05, 2019 at 08:00 AM