Retekess TR618 AM FM Radio Plug in Wall, Portable Shortwave Radios (Black)

The Retekess TR618 is a modern version of the best budget priced portables of days gone by. It features an EXCELLENT 3 band DSP tuner. The dial pointer is precise and accurate. Tuning is easy and selectively brought in significantly more stations than expected. The FM antenna is extra long and high quality too. The SD/TF mp3 player works great too. Only small gripe is no rewind or fast forward oddly. The speaker sounds extremely clean on all modes. Sound is bright with crispy treble and decent bass thanks to a foam suspended speaker cone. The power/volume knob has a high quality feel to it. The whole radio feels well made! I love that it runs off regular A/C power with a cord. It also uses 3 D batteries so you can take it with you. This is an impressive portable with superb sound!

The Radio will not recognize the USB or SD card if the audio files are written to the wrong format type. To be able to use the USB and SD cards it is required that the format type be FAT32. This is NOT mentioned in the brief User Manual information delivered with the Radio. Limit the drive size to 16GB. MP3 files sound great! The sound and product quality is surprisingly GREAT for the price charged. It's Simple, yet it is solid.

The RETEKESS TR618 FM radio reception is better than my two Sangean tabletop AM/FM radios with external antennas. Those are great radios but the Retekess reception is better. I would like the finish, The knobs and the bright bits to be a little more high-quality. I would've been willing to pay more than that. The labeling for the tune dial is ridiculously abbreviated to "TUN." (I think they had room for one more letter:) So far I have not noticed the FM reception strength red light. Perhaps, I have confused this with another model? A military grade version of this radio would be nice. In addition to some type of rubberized armor, it could have a rechargeable battery, instead of a D battery, and maybe it would have a more robust FM antenna. The antenna mount on this radio is the same as almost every other radio. It will loosen with regular use. Highly recommended for value and FM reception power. Just do not expect that small, weak college radio station over the hill to come in:) For me, that would've been receiving KZSC 88.1 FM, the University of California Santa Cruz radio station, in the San Jose area.

This is an excellent tabletop radio that's portable enough to carry anywhere to listen. D batteries and AC cord options make it versatile. The Micro/SD and USB slots (all 3) are very nice. Sitting near an exterior wall of my house, and near a window, it tunes in SO MUCH MORE than I can tune in any of my cars or other tuners in the house (AM and FM). Shortwave is usable with the telescopic antenna, but a long-wire out the window really makes it come alive. Of course, time of day, weather, other factors influence SW more than AM and FM. It also picks up stations that overlap, and it's possible to tune them sometimes better when coming from either side of that frequency (sweeping from R to L or L to R on the dial back and forth VERY slowly, I find I can tune some stations in better when they're close to others). For Shortwave, there is a TON of frequency space jammed into one little dial (some radios have 8-12 separate bands on a switch, but here, there're all on the same single dial) - PREPARE TO TUNE VERY S L O W L Y, or you'll miss stations. This isn't difficult though. Sound quality is very nice. It's won't reproduce deep bass, and it doesn't have screaming highs. It won't shake the table, or itself much for that matter, but sounds full and will play loud enough to fill a room for all in it to hear. It won't shake the walls, and is certainly no boombox. Pros: - D Batteries and AC option - mp3/wma compatibility, 32GB max card size for SD/MicroSD - Very selective and sensitive tuner - Controls are easy to read, use, and have a positive feel. - Decently long telescoping antenna, feels sturdy and heavier than some smaller radios - Great sound for all day listening, music, talk radio, background, but can be increased to fill a room so others can hear too. Cons: - Handle feels cheap - very thin plastic, but heavy enough to do the job. Doesn't feel like it's going to break. - The display only works in mp3/USB mode. - The light stays on all the time in mp3/USB mode. This will reduce battery life - The tuner has an odd gain control function where a station will be faint, but then get a lot louder all of a sudden. This really isn't a bad thing, but it takes getting used to. It doesn't tune like a completely manual tuner since it's DSP. I'd recommend this radio to anyone looking to get a functional, easy to use, solid radio that's easy to move around and sounds decent for low to medium listening volume either close up or from across a room.

I have bought this radio for my husband, so I let him do the review on my behalf. George Nagy's review: General observations: 1. The size of the radio is 8.25 x 5.25x2.50 inches. 2. The radio has analog tuning on AM, FM and SW. 3. Three D batteries or the power cord supply the energy. 4. The long antenna is helpful in tuning FM and SW. 5. The digital readout works for the MP3 player only. Positive qualities: 1. The large speaker provides excellent sound (3W) 2. The stations can be tuned in by turning the tuning knob. Many stations come in except for SW. Reception on SW depends on the time of day and the location of the radio. 3. The operation is so easy that one hardly needs the instruction booklet. 4. The sound of the MP3 is excellent. I like the fact that the radio has input for TF, SD as well as for USB. This brings it from the old analog radio world to the digital world. 5. The compact size makes the radio ideal for travel or outdoor use although the three D batteries add some weight to it. 6. The radio is a godsend for older folks who are used to analogue tuning and simple design. Features not found: 1. The radio does not have a clock or sleep timer. 2. The MP3 screen shows the number of the song and time elapsed but not the name of the song or album. 3. The radio stations come in clear but show interference if the radio is next to a computer or other electronic device. Overall impression: I have a collection of more than 50 radios going back to the 1960's. I have chosen the TR618 for everyday use because of its convenient features and powerful sound. This radio takes the place of my 1980's giant boombox which used cassettes. One 32 GB SD card play as many songs as hundreds of my old cassettes or CD's. A big thank you to my wife for buying me this radio.

I am not a portable radio connoisseur but as your an average joe just looking for a decent little radio, I think I made the right choice. Pros: • Good size radio, it's got a good thick width to it so it feels sturdy. • The dials work as intended, the volume control is sensitive but I don't see that as a bad thing. Very light touch is all you need. • USB / SD / Micro SD ports are a great added function for this radio. I've put Classical Music on a small usb (so it doesn't protrude from the side too much) and it works perfectly. Just switch the dial to 'usb' turn on the radio via the Volume dial and have fun. • The speaker sounds great as well, good sound quality in my opinion. • The actual stations area is easy to read and navigate with the Tuning dial on the side. • AM / FM come in great. I don't even have the antenna extended and I get great reception. I haven't used SW yet but I can imagine it works as intended depending on your location. • The handle is great as well, easy to carry around. The radio itself isn't overly heavy, just a good weighted sturdy feel while being easily portable. Cons: • I think the only con I could see is maybe the price, though I'm not really upset having gotten this for $37 as I've seen this radio go for much more elsewhere. All in all: This is a good portable radio, worth the money.

The AM and FM is good. But I checked the SW bands first and found it to be very sensitive with just the whip antenna. I first tuned to 10 mhz for GMT which came in good then 15 mhz for GMT time and came in good also then checked the shortwave bands and at evening 9.5-10mhz several stations came in loud and clear. 7.5 mhz several stations also as well as 6mhz. Surprisingly many stations are able to receive with this radio only using the whip antenna. Because it is only one scale for all the bands you have to tune very slowly so you don't miss the station. Once on the station or GMT the station is rock solid and no drift. I also heard 20 meter ham band loud and clear but could not decode the SSB of course. This only plays MPS but is good not great and speaker is loud but not the greatest sound for fidelity. The display has no backlight so have to use another light to tune at night. They should have put a tuning light in for the display even if it would increase the cost by $1. The tuning needle is not that stable but ok for this price.

A review of a radio is largely based on what the buyer's expectations were. I saw the three band feature a major plus, as I wanted to listen to all of them. My initial evaluation is as follows: FM: largely good quality sound. Tuning is a bit tricky because the dial is very sensitive and one must turn it very (!) slowly when capturing a frequency. I think a digital read out function would have been better. The tradition dial stem is ok but hard to judge its accuracy. On my radio it is not exactly straight which is a bit annoying. The printed frequencies on the dial face are very general, so one has to estimate where the stations are specifically located. Strong, local stations, however, are relatively easy to find. AM: Stations come in strong and clear. I see no cons here. SW: largely worthless. One has the impression that the SW band was added just as a selling point without any practical function. The lack of SW activity could be because there is not much going on in SW in the first place. However, the 10, 11, and 13 meter bands should have been included, as that is where better SW day stations can usually be heard. But even at nighttime reception on other meter bands was largely non existent. Retekess could have indicated where NOAA stations can be found on SW. Antenna: If you are in a remote area you could clip an extended wire antenna to it using an alligator clip if reception is not good. Otherwise the telescopic antenna works fine. I like the battery backup feature. Too bad they can't be rechargeables, but that is a small criticism. I haven't yet tried the USB and and SD features, but I will when I have some recorded music. All in all this is a fine radio if you don't demand too much of it. For the price I paid it seems worth the investment. It is relatively well built, but if it fails in some way I will probably write another review.