Chibo KK220Unboxed and reviewed

Norice this radio has been used for short time as it worked trribly

totally useless radio

Chibo KKD220 is my new mini toy. The reason i bought it (at a price of $20 plus shipping $10 form Taiwan)is that i needed a radio quite small with the ability to have a good audio level while i am on streets to listen with quite good fidelity audio.And also quite small , smaller than my De17 to fit better in my pocket . The parcel has been received in 16 days. There was also a paradox with the reception , as the offices of my work were closed due to strike . Hopefully the head person of the mail service knows me well and gave it me me without providing them the necessary reception document . Otherwise i had to wait 5 days more !

This radio seems as clandestine ie a not so well known . There are only a few sites selling it.

This is the packet , enough small to be included ina A4 envelope!

One hour later while in the office i managed to open the envelope and look at the contents of the box presented here:

As you look Ther are many goodies . Except the radio there is a nice white earphones on bottom left , an antenna (middle bottom ), a guarantee , a second document , a user's guide (right to the radio ), a second pamplhet (at left of the radio ), a case . There are also some other interesting goodies as a pen , a pencil , a rubber and a small green tree sample !!

The earphones are similar to Sony design ie elongated with 90deg elbow.

This is the first page of the user's manual . As you see it is printed in Chinese . BUt the radio is still easy to use

The second leaflet is more curious ....

Hmm it seems it is a frequency guide! With the littlechinese I know i understood that this bklet shows the frequencies of CNR stations of China

And these are again the earphones and the provided antenna ! I havce not removed from the plastic so far to check its length. As you may see e plug is elbow type , suitable for use in pockets

And here is the photo of the rather funny in ear-earphone ,. With this design its base comes direct downward to the ear...

This is the bag of the radio

Here is a ribber and a 'imitation' of a fish

and this is the radio . All information is in Chinese

although most are self explaining . i needed some help to understand some of its functions . But Google translate has the solution!

Now (when exactly??) Google has the ability to use handwritten text in order to make translation easier !

Here are the functions of the radio

reset

display power

Sw band band change

mem dwn mem up

mem store scan

tune down tune up

vol down vol up

SW : Audio quality is the same as with MW. Best signals are achieved with full antenna. Memory and time is always shown in the display. After a frequency or memory change for ca 2-3 secs signal and signal to noise radio are shown in the display . Same happens to all bands (inc MW and FM ) . Audio is not good probably due to narrow bandwidth and is similar to 17’s audio quality

Inductive effect can greatly enhance reception . Connecting to my external antennas leads to radio overload

Shortwave band can be disabled from settings (ie during power off )

FM : Audio quality is rather fair (using its earphones but fair to good using the Sony earphones ) and more ‘equalized’ than the ‘trebly’ 17 . Testing in parallel between De17 and KK220 I found more bass coming from 220 and more treble coming from 17 .Earphone cable can also be used as antenna but does not affect too much as best reception can be achieved with antenna. Narrow bandwidth also effects on the reception of signals as they are heard as distorted (something that does not happen to any Degen or Tecsun DSP radio ). The bandwidth is about 200 kHz and very close to other DSP radios from Tecsun and Degen

Earphones: the earphones seem to be quite good , ~~quite close to to AKG 508's quality~~ . False the earphones a lower audio level than 508 as tested in parallel, a shifted upwards bass and lower middle tones.

Memories : 30 memories for each band. I have a minor complaint with the memory change . Sometimes changing up and down the memories the button does not work properly ie losing a memory and requires me once again to press the button

Some information about volume

This is a digital volume with 40 steps (I didn’t check do far ). In a silent place the volume of 9 – 10 is OK . Using earphones as I the best setting is 9 with 10 being quite high . This is what I was expecting from this new radio .

Here are a couple of complaints :

1.In this range 8-12 at least the volume steps are too high volume difference between each step.

2. Sometimes navigating memories (especially in FM )the audio volume drops or jumps upwards

And little about the display /readout .

With the radio off the time and date are shown with radio on the frequency is shown with EEEEe readout and time / volume / signal strength (db S/N and S ) / memory on the top of the display

The buttons on off switched off have some interesting functions :

-Storage /time button can disable shortwave band

- band change function can be used for time adjustment . The readout can show the day and the date (Monday etc as number )

On off button pressed for more tan 2 secs adjust the sleep time

Frequency up change MW step by 9 or 10 can be set when radio is switched off and pressing the freq up button

Verdict : This radio is possibly the fist one using SDR technology in so small size tough is a bit too bulky. A medium quality radio with quite simple operation

And here is a photo of the sockets in the left pane of the radio. earphone socket and mains supply (no adaptor supplied ) .

Operation and comparison with De17 in short :

The radio works best with the telescopic antenna unwounded, in FM and SW !

MW : Frequency band is 520 – 1710. Rather poor audio due to narrow bandwidth. There is a high level of soft mute that affects reception of low signals. DE17 shows signal test clicks on empty freqs but not 220 . 220 seems little more sensitive (parallel listening with 17 ) but seem tt both have poor sensitivity comparing to PL880 . 220 has a ‘hard’ mute (intense degradation of audio and sensitivity comparing to analogue radios especially in lower signals that are below a S/N of 10 db ). I found that many empty frequencies ar filled with radio’s self generated noises etc I found a level of ca 90 db from a the 500 W station of the university in a distance of 50 meters This station effects SW band reception in such a short distance

U~~pdate: operation in zero temperatures~~

~~The radio as other gadgets sometimes once switching on , resets its operation That means , the clock is set to 1200 the volume is set to 10 and the last successfully swited off is played~~

~~This can happen also during listening time~~

~~It happened also for the radio to deny witching on for several times until is heated ….~~

aBUt the problem seems rather solved : the battery was down ....!!! (in less than 10 hoursof use )

And another mini update : about earphones : testeds earphones with the Blong radio revealed that the earphones thoug quite good filter out completely freqs above 10 kHz thus removing any hets between two non adajacent freqs . Goodforme who has tinnitus