A while back, I purchased the Raddy RF750 Multimedia Music Player and did a blog post reviewing that remarkable little radio. The folks at Radioddity reached out to me recently to see if I would be interested in taking a look at their latest offering. A week or so later, I received the Raddy RF760. [Disclaimer: In the interest of full disclosure, this radio was sent to me free of charge to evaluate and review. This was with the understanding that I would write an honest and unbiased review.] 　 What It Is The seller refers to the RF760 as a “full-band radio”. That’s an apt description, since it covers everything from the AM broadcast band up through the UHF range. Raddy RF760 Portable shortwave Receiver Here are the specs from the iraddy.com website: • FM 1: 64.0-108MHZ • FM 2: 76.0-108MHZ • FM 3: 87.5-108MHZ • AM: 520-1710KHZ • SW: 2.00-30.00MHZ • CB: 25.00-28.00MHZ • AIR: 118.00-138.00MHZ • VHF UHF: 20.000-520MHZ • VHF: 30.00-223.00MHZ • VHF: 144.00-148.00MHZ • VHF: 156.025-163.275MHZ • UHF: 430.00-520.00MHZ • WX: 162.400-162.550MHZ • Product dimensions: 4.37 x 2.36 x 0.79’’ / 11.1 x 6 x 2CM • Lithium battery: BL5C 1000mAH 3.7v 3.8WH • Loudspeaker: Ф40MM 8Ω 1W • Headphone output: 3.5MM stereo input • External antenna hole: 3.5MM • Storage Capacity：700 stations in total（FM: 100, MW: 100, SW: 100, AIR: 100, CB: 100, VHF/UHF: 100, UBD: 100) With the battery installed, the RF760 weighed in at a mere 3.8 ounces (108 grams) on my kitchen scale. The box includes: • RF760 radio • 1000MAH 3.7V Lithium battery • Earbuds • USB-C cable for charging • External antenna wire (approx. 10 feet) • Wrist strap • Storage pouch • User manual 　 RF760 vs RF750 It's clear from the specifications that the RF760 is not an upgraded RF750. The RF750, with its Bluetooth and ability to play MP3 files, is more of a multimedia player. The RF760 does not have those capabilities, but, rather, provides expanded frequency coverage. The Raddy RF760 (left) and the Raddy RF750 In my view, the RF760 is aimed more towards shortwave listeners and scanning enthusiasts. It includes features like selectable bandwidths, selectable demodulation modes on certain bands (AM/USB/LSB/NFM), and adjustable squelch. The RF760 also includes a headphone jack (earbuds included) and a connection for an external wire antenna. These features are lacking on the RF750. The RF760 also has a digital display, which the RF750 does not. Both radios are charged via a USB-C connector. The RF760's additional features come with a higher price tag. As of this writing, it was selling for $99.99 USD 　 My Impressions The RF760 is one small radio. It’s roughly about the size of an Altoids tin and weighs next to nothing. (It weighs about 0.65 ounces less than the RF750.) You can fit the RF760 in a shirt pocket, and you might even forget that it’s in there. There’s a lot going on with the RF760. Even with the power off, a press of any button will light up the display showing time and temperature. Oh yeah, did I mention this thing even has a built-in thermometer? It even includes an alarm clock and a sleep timer. If you can think of a function, the RF760 probably has it. The user manual does a decent job of covering the myriad of features in this radio. The small size of the printed manual, however, is a little tough on my old eyes. Fortunately, the website has a PDF version of the manual for downloading. The softcopy manual allows me to search for specific functions, which is handy. I also stored a copy on my cell phone, so I always have it available. As is typical of manuals for Chinese products, some of the wording is not always clear. For example, a section covering how to delete a station that has been saved to memory is titled “Delete the radio.” The various configuration options (e.g., bandwidth, demodulation mode, tuning increments) vary according to the band you are on. Once you get the hang of it, navigating through the options and selecting specific values becomes an easy task. In the FM mode, the sound quality is reasonably good, considering the RF760's diminutive size. In all honesty though, I think the RF760’s audio lacks the richness and fullness of the RF750. When using the included earbuds, however, the RF760’s audio is greatly improved. On FM, make sure you have the radio set for the proper de-emphasis (75 microseconds here in the U.S.). The weather alert function is one of the more important features for me, and I had the opportunity to give it a “real world” test. My area was under a tornado watch, and we had multiple severe thunderstorm warnings. While tuned to the weather band, a long press of the “SET” button places the radio in the “SCAN” mode. When NOAA issues an alert, the radio comes on with a brief tone followed by the weather station’s audio. There’s no loud siren like the RF750 has, but that’s fine with me. After an alert, you need to long-press the “SET” button to go back into the “SCAN” mode. During the storms, the RF760’s weather alert function worked flawlessly, going off three or four times. Tuning is interesting in that it uses a combination of two methods: up/down tuning buttons on the front panel and a rotary “shuttle tuning” knob on the right side of the radio. You can select the tuning increments for the buttons, which is helpful. You can also select the digit of the displayed frequency that is adjusted by the rotary knob. Now, I’m an old “knob spinner” from way back, so I’m generally not a big fan of using buttons for tuning. However, once you get the hang of using the shuttle tuning knob, you can tune to a specific frequency quickly. You can also scan the selected band by long-pressing the “up” or “down” tuning buttons. There’s a lot of information shown on the display panel. On such a small radio, though, I find a few of the smaller items hard to read with my old eyes. Fortunately, these are items that I don’t have to deal with often. You folks with better eyes probably won’t have a problem. I haven’t done any formal measurements on battery life, but you should be able to go for days before recharging. The USB-C charging port is handy; I can charge the radio with the same chargers I use for my phone. 　 Bottom Line The RF760 is a small, lightweight, and feature-packed radio. For camping or in my emergency go-kit, I’d go with the versatility of the RF760. It’s like the Swiss Army knife of radios. I especially like how the NOAA weather alert feature is implemented on this radio. However, If I want to listen to music while working around the house, I’d go with the RF750 and it’s superior audio. 73, Craig WB3GCK

By Robert Gulley K4PKM I confess to have been a little bit skeptical when Thomas asked me to review this radio, not because of past experience with RADDY, but because tiny radios in general don’t usually impress me, and I have had plenty of them over the years and considered most of them a novelty. There are a few exceptions, of course, such as the C.Crane Skywave or the Tecsun PL-368, but for the most part there are simply too many limitations to tiny radios for my listening style (this one can literally fit in a shirt pocket!). Upon opening the box I was still skeptical, despite the rather impressive packaging and extras. But hey, a little skepticism is a good thing, right?! The radio comes with some nice accessories! Accessories The radio comes with a thin carry case to protect it from scratches, a rechargeable lithium battery, strap, earbuds and a wire antenna to improve shortwave reception. There is also a Type “C” USB cable for charging the battery. Oh, and a spare set of earbud covers – a nice touch! Ergonomics Picking up the radio I noticed right away it has a solid, comfortable feel to the unit. I start with that because most tiny radios feel very flimsy, and usually have something of a rough or hard plastic feel to them. This radio has a glossy feel to it, meaning it is comfortable and actually nice looking. Looks aside, I must admit the ergonomics of the radio impress me. I like the feel of it in my hand, and the controls are laid out well for one-handed operation. Being left-handed, that is not always the case, but the controls seem well thought out for either right- or left-handed folks. As you can see in the images there are two primary rows of buttons, as well as a tuning knob on the right side of the radio. There is also a belt clip on the back which is unobtrusive – I can’t speak to its longevity as I really never clip a radio to my belt, but for those who do, I suspect it will hold up well with a little care. The telescopic antenna (fixed) is rather impressive as well, measuring ~18 inches in height when fully extended. As one might imagine, at this length the antenna is fairly fragile – I would not walk around with it fully extended while attached to my belt. For hand-holding it should be just fine, and standing upright on a table it does not tip over, but if out in an open-air environment with a strong breeze it will tip over, so a stand would be advisable. The display is very readable, and the orange background light which pops on when making adjustments is quite nice. The light stays on for ~9 seconds after pushing any of the buttons. Another nice feature of the radio is a press of any button while the radio is off will turn on the display, indicating time, temperature, and battery strength. Yes, it has a built-in thermometer, and it seems quite accurate, at least on the unit I received. On top there is an external antenna jack, headphone jack, and slot for the strap. 　 Operation For such a small radio it is literally packed with features. I will not go over all of them in this review, but I will cover some of the highlights as well as make mention of most features at least in passing. I was not expecting so many features in this little radio, so I was pleasantly surprised by some of the more advanced options. Naturally the radio has AM/FM capabilities, as well as weather, air, VHF above the air band, SW and CB (yes, CB!). There is also a customizable frequency range setting for monitoring a desired set of user-selected frequencies. There are presets available for various modes listed in the manual, including predefined amateur radio bands and shortwave stations (always subject to change, of course!). There is an attenuate function available if needed, as well as numerous step modes for tuning various modes. One interesting feature of the radio is two separate tuning methods, one by up and down buttons, and the other by a tuning knob on the side. These can be set independently of each other in terms of the step-change on a given band. This is particularly useful when scanning a band with the buttons after a station is found, because sometimes being slightly off frequency can produce a better signal – the scroll wheel can be used to make as little as 1 Hz changes. Finally, there is a very useful bandwidth feature which can change between 3, 2.5, 2, 1.8, 1, and 6 kHz. Tuning is quite functional both with the scroll wheel and the tuning buttons. Holding down the tuning buttons will start a scan of the current band, and a longer press will speed up the scan if no stations are found initially. Unlike some scanning radios, when a signal is found, scanning stops and does not resume. I like that feature better than the alternative method of some radios restarting a scan after 5 seconds or similar. I want time to figure out what I am hearing, and a short stop does not really allow for that most of the time. This is a very compact and lightweight radio! Reception I have to say I am impressed with this little radio. I have listened to amateur frequencies, shortwave frequencies, AM/FM, weather and tried airband (nothing close to me except a minor airfield). I live in a very quiet location in terms of local man-made interference, and this provides a great opportunity to really test out a radio’s sensitivity. My conclusion may surprise you as it did me. This is one sensitive radio, given its small form factor and limited antenna movement. (I did not test the external antenna option. While it has one, I felt it only fair to make tests using the built-in antenna on all the radios I compared it with, thus eliminating extraneous or otherwise hard to compare situations.) Side by side with one of my favorite portables, the Sangean ATS-909X2, this little guy was right in there with difficult to receive stations. While the Sangean has a much larger speaker and therefore fuller sound, in terms of actual reception, most stations came in about equally. I even used an old, but very reliable Select-A-Tenna to boost AM reception on both radios, assuming the Sangean has a much larger ferrite rod given its size, and yet both performed equally well next to the passive antenna. Impressive! On various shortwave and amateur stations the RADDY RF760 held its own again, picking up almost station for station what the Sangean and the Sony 7600 GR (another favorite of mine) did, in a package less than 1/3 the size of the Sony, and about ¼ the size of the Sangean. Am I going to dump my Sony and/or my Sangean? Of course not – there are many reasons I prefer those radios for my daily use. But if I were wanting to go extremely lightweight/portable, the RADDY is a keeper with impressive performance and most features one could want in a portable radio, all while still fitting in your shirt pocket. I truly do not know how one could get much better performance or features in another radio this size. It makes one wonder where can they go from here? FM reception is also quite good, pulling in weaker stations while still being quite listenable. I have heard a few stations on this radio which I have not caught before, and this with some atmospheric noise due to storms in the region. Likewise, listening to AM while there were storms in the general area, still allowed for reasonable reception. As we all know AM broadcasts are highly susceptible to atmospheric noise, especially lightning, but this radio recovered nicely after each static crash. Some radios seem to linger longer in recovery after such events, but this radio was quick to bring back in the signals. 　 Negatives In short, there really are not any glaring negatives to this radio, so allow me to point out some little things which are, after all more about personal preference than any deficiency in the radio. Your mileage may vary, as they say. An articulating antenna would be a nice touch, but that might require an increase in size, and likely would make the antenna more susceptible to damage. Many times, being able to bend an antenna this way or that can improve a signal. Changing the frequency steps can be a little fiddly at times, but that’s probably me When powering on, the short press acts like pressing any other button, meaning the light comes on, the time, temp, and battery power indicator displays. A longer press brings up the sleep timer. Two short presses turns on the radio, but not too short of presses. This takes a little getting used to, and I would prefer one longer press to turn on the radio, with the two short presses activating the sleep timer, but that, I know, is getting really nit-picky! Conclusion If you are in the market for a small, lightweight, but solid radio – this RF760 is definitely one you should consider. It is so light as to be almost weightless, compact but with easily reachable and useful controls, and has more modes and features than almost any similar radio I have run across. As an old-timer I have to shake my head in amazement at what can be packed into such a small radio these days! This certainly isn’t your grandpa’s transistor radio (and it’s even smaller!). Cheers!

We've released a NOAA weather license-free radio (FRS & PMR446), which is with dual display and dual watch function, Radioddity FS-TI / PR-T1. Radioddity T1 comes with the function of automatically scanning through 10 available weather (WX) band channels and locking onto the strongest weather channel to alert you of severe weather updates.  Let's learn something about NOAA weather radios. This quick-to-read article will give you the instructions you need to be fully informed about Weather Service watches, warnings, forecasts and emergencies. An NOAA-equipped device is a “must have” when you’re out hiking, camping, skiing and for businesses that regularly operate outdoors. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a scientific agency that’s part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. They report on ocean and atmospheric conditions and warn of dangerous weather approaching. Their nationwide radio station network, NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR), broadcasts continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, issuing reports on all types of hazards, including natural disasters (avalanches, earthquakes), environmental disasters (oil spills and chemical releases) and public safety issues (such as 911 telephone outages, AMBER alerts or a terrorist attack). They work with the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Emergency Alert System to be the single trusted source for all weather and emergency bulletins. Their extensive network of transmitters covers the entire U.S. How Can I Listen to NOAA Weather Radio? To listen to these important broadcasts, you’ll need a special receiver or scanner that can pick up the stations. The NOAA weather radio band can be found in standalone receivers designed to receive these specific frequencies and in multi-band receivers such as AM/FM radios, CB radios, shortwave receivers, VHF marine radios, scanners, car radios and GMRS/FRS two-way radios. NOAA stations broadcast in the VHF public service band and are found at these 7 frequencies (in MHz): 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550. Whether or not a two-way radio has built-in NOAA weather stations which will be indicated in the product’s details. To tune in to a weather channel, it’s typically as easy as pushing a single button, but this may vary between models. Check your owner’s manual for details. Channels 1 through 7 are the weather radio channels. Depending on your model of radio, a particular weather channel frequency will be assigned to a certain channel. Is My Area Covered by NOAA Weather Radio? To see the coverage in your particular region, see the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards coverage map. They also provide a station listing by state, county coverage listing and transmitter search. Typing in your city or state and then clicking on the location on the map will bring up the transmitters in the area. Once you know the transmitter’s frequency, you can find which channel on your radio is programmed to it and then activate that channel according to your radio’s instructions. Why the NOAA Weather Radio Network is So Important For keeping all your family members and friends on a road trip or hiking adventure informed of an approaching storm, landslide or local flooding, a walkie-talkie system with NOAA radio stations is invaluable. It can be literally life-saving, in the event of an earthquake or a hurricane, and at the very least, knowing about a major tie-up due to a large-scale emergency can save valuable time that would otherwise be spent stuck in traffic. It’s a feature that’s even available on less expensive models, making them not just a smart but also an easy decision! Source: TECHWHOLESALE