RD239 Air Radio VHF/AM/FM/shortwave/Weather Bands Transistor with Bluetooth/TF Card/Flashlight,Key Backlight, Digital Record, Alarm Clock,Sleep Timer,Powered by AA & BL-5C Battery

Firstly – there were no reviews or ratings at all for this particular radio (the green version) but it is identical to the black one for functions, only the color is different. So all of the ratings and reviews for the black one, also apply to this unit.https://www.amazon.com/Shortwave-Transistor-Bluetooth-Flashlight-Backlight/dp/B0C8XLQCPZ/I got this radio primarily for recording live FM radio when at a convention. The convention organizers recently switched from using frequencies in the regular USA FM band (88-108MHz) to one in a lower band (somewhere around 72MHz). So I needed a new radio which would allow recording from the lower frequencies. This radio can receive radio transmissions from frequencies used all around the world. You do need to set the FM band to the Russian frequency band (64-108MHz) to be able to receive broadcasts lower than 88MHz. But this is easy to do. I did not find the instructions to be difficult to understand, as others appear to have reported.Recording quality: The quality is very good indeed as long as your broadcast is reasonably strong. I checked the resulting file of my FM recordings and they are at 160Kb/sec, which is quite high quality, easily enough for most music, and certainly high enough for recordings of speech. I don't believe you can change the recording quality. But this is a nice "mid/high" quality level.Recording sizes: The FM recordings I tested resulted in recordings of about 70MB per hour. So you really don’t need a huge SD card. I threw a 32GB card in there and the long recordings are still not making a dent in that. The unit just says it supports “TF” cards (trans-flash, a general term) but the card you need is a standard micro-SD card.Battery life and charging: Battery life is pretty good using the included BL-5C rechargeable battery (the included one is rated at 1000 milli-amp-hour) but you can get higher rated ones if you want. You can get a 2-pack of the 1600mAh ones and a charger, for about $20. I found I am able to record about 9.5 hours of FM radio on a single charge. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the included battery from flat to full, using a regular USB charger. I did check the charge rate and even when the battery is low (which is when batteries draw the highest charge rate) it only pulled about 1.2a (5v x 1.2a = 6 watts). There’s no point in using a fast USB-C or PD charger with this unit as it will not charge any faster. In fact, these kinds of device-integrated chargers are designed to charge slower (which is better for the battery anyway).Playback: Playback of your recordings is pretty easy, you just find the folder and scroll to the track and it plays back. No FF/RW feature that I can see. But I mostly just transfer recordings to the PC to edit them anyway.Build quality: It feels pretty solid to be honest. Better than you would expect. I love having the old-fashioned tuning dial! Nice touch. The top part of the antenna is a little thin, so be careful not to bend it when compressing the antenna back down.Things I didn’t test as I will likely never use them: Bluetooth, alarm clock, timed record.Bugs: There are a couple of bugs that I found. One is that if you want to record a broadcast from the radio, but not listen to it at that time, you want to just turn the speaker volume down to zero, correct? Well … if you do that, it actually just records a blank track. If you want to record and not listen, you will need to plug in earbuds (or I guess at least an adapter) so that sound doesn’t come out of the speaker. Also, while recording, if you are listening to the broadcast as well, the output sounds a little “muffled”. But, when you listen to the recording, it’s not muffled at all, very clear. These two small bugs are not enough for me to deduct a star, due to the superb value of the device given that it can record from the radio … and also because …..Support: I emailed support about the blank recording with volume at zero, on a Saturday afternoon. When I got up on Sunday morning, I had a response, advising they would test this, and aim to release a firmware update to eliminate the issue. I replied again, and again, got a quick response. The manufacturer appears ready to stand behind their product with future updates. So that’s a big plus. Bugs are a normal part of product development. It’s how you deal with your customers that matters.Value: For a radio that receives all manner of radio recordings, can record, and has a bunch of other features as well, the price point of about $55-60 is really good. At the time I bought it there was also a $10 coupon which brought it down under $50 also.I recommend this product.

I wanted a radio that was reliable in case of emergencies, but I am not a radio expert. I can pick up channels, the sound is ok, the light works well, and the blue tooth works too. It is easy to tune and not too heavy. I like that there is a timer and sleep function. Some nice features for a fair (not competitive) price.

This is pretty simple, quality control is non existent!1st unit ordered back light wouldn't work!2nd sound was horrible, nothing but low bass distortion!3rd and final attempt, the sound "astonishingly" was somehow worse than the 2nd which I didn't think was possible!

I bought this radio for my dad. When it was delivered I like it so much that I ended up buying another one for myself. It has nice features and all of them works great. And my dad who lives overseas love it very well.

This is a terrific radio. It has so many features! It is compact, so it's perfect for travel. I got this to take to the beach and fishing trips. My husband loved it! He started playing with all the buttons right away. The instructions are clear, but I would not say it's intuitive to use, so make sure you read the instructions carefully. I somehow put it on sleep mode instead of turning it off and it would turn on at the oddest times. We eventually figured it out, but it was operator error, not the radio's fault. For me the BEST feature is the rechargeable battery and how long it lasts. I charged it overnight when it arrived, and have not charged it since! Of course, can't forget the flashlight feature as well. Overall, if you enjoy the outdoors and want to have a good radio, this is the item for you.

An interesting little radio with pretty good reception on SW and the other bands, but...the first one I got had serious FM bleeding over into the SW and VHF bands on both the whip antenna and an external loop antenna - some unidentified FM station(s) with muddy, poorly-modulated sounds at 11930 kHz and several other frequencies that made the SW station unlistenable, and then at about 31.82MHz, an FM station broadcasting on 95.9MHz. None of my numerous other radios have this problem with birdies or overloading to this degree. Listening to and seeing the frequency signal at and around 32MHz with an SDR, was able to determine it's just this little radio that's "hearing" that signal at that frequency...For the price this radio has a lot of features. I'll see if the replacement has the same problems or if this first one was just a fluke that shouldn't have passed QC...UPDATE: The second radio has the same problems as the first. Plus unlike many SW radios, there is no choice of bandwidth, and no RF gain control. No SSB. Also in SW you cannot tune by 1 kHz, only by 5 kHz step at a time. And when you tune, the radio "chuffs", boo! I have contacted the manufacturer by email asking several questions and to get firmware update info - but no answer back after several weeks now.I will keep this second one. But knowing what I know now, I would not have bought this radio. Too bad, it promises a lot and would be a real star performer if it delivered on its promises - but it does not.

This radio that works digitally with retro theme color works really well and I think the quality of the sound is pretty good and that it can pick up a lot of stations with ease. The controls are very easy and simple to use. The size is nice for display as well. Overall this is a nice radio that functions great and seems high quality.