D109WB Weather Radio

Product arrived on time and well packaged. For the record, I am NOT a short wave expert. I am a casual user who likes to surf the bands at times, so this radio and others like it are used for fun as well as for emergency preparedness. I also have a Sangean 909X, which easily cost 4+ times as much as this radio when I bought it back in 2011. That radio is my comparison source. First things first however. This radio has a solid build feel to it. The switches have a nice tactile feel to them. I love the use of the 18650 battery for power (The radio cannot be powered with the battery removed....It MUST be present) because I use that same battery type in many of my high powered flashlights. Now my understanding is that the battery provided in unprotected, meaning that it lacks safety circuitry to prevent overcharge, short circuits, and other issues that could lead to a battery fire. I would highly recommend purchasing a protected 18650 to use in this radio and yes, they DO FIT. I cannot guarantee that every brand will fit, but I was able to install two protected name brand 18650 batteries in this radio with no difficulty. Do not charge the battery unattended. Now all of THAT said, even the lower capacity 18650 battery provided with this radio should power it for a LONG time versus any AAA / AA batteries and likely even better than those that might use C or D cells. Since I can solar charge my 18650 batteries this makes it a great tool for emergency preparedness as well. Now those buttons.....Some are a bit confusing so I do find myself referring back to the operating manual at times, but that should improve with usage and familiarity. The sound quality from the speaker is quite good at this price point. It is mono of course and do not expect Bose quality, but again at this price point...I am very happy. Reception on both FM and shortwave seems to rival every other quality (And much more expensive) radio that I own. I have mixed feelings about AM. It does not seem as good as my other radios but to be fair... I really need to try to outside. It it as good as my CC Radio Plus DX? No, but it is darn close. FM reception was outstanding. On shortwave this radio easily outclassed my Sangean 909X during an indoor test. Yes, it actually did pick up more channels when in scan mode. Now some of that COULD be in how each radio's software is set up...What it selects to stop at versus what it skips. But again...at $45 after the coupon discount?! Obviously at this point I cannot speak to durability, but I can say that I am VERY pleased with my initial impressions. At this point in time I feel that this radio is a bargain at this price due to the speaker's good sound quality and surprisingly good FM and shortwave reception. I will close by saying that I thought about this radio for quite some time before I decided to make the purchase, primarily because I could not believe it would be this good at this price point.....$41 after a $15 coupon.

Multi-band reception is excellent. Shortwave is very good. Battery lasts a long time and sound quality is very good. Build quality is NOT CHEAP. Solid. Performs all functions easily and it’s easy to ready the display. I love this radio. My everyday carry. Looks very stylish also. Not dated. Easy to use.

I bought it at Prime day saving event for $39+tax. It has Silab/Skyworks 4734 chipset, a good med range full band receiver, plus BT and common audio file playback. Overall I would rate 4 stars for the price you pay. PROS: - Good AM-MW and FM sensitivities and can pull in almost the same amount of stations as Qodosen DX-286 - SW sensitivity is OK when an external antenna is used. - LW is useless in NA due to lack of stations, but tested with a signal generator to have a similar sensitivity level at 510KHz LW, vs. 530K in MW band (RSSI is 56dBuV from the same source strength at respective frequencies) - The BT and music file playback are a nice bonus. - Decent full range speaker with good suspension and acoustic design, though just 40mm diameter. It plays loud and clearly with decent bass. CONS: - Front end design saturates easily in SW band, and receives lots of harmonics or inter-modulation signals from MW band when it's overloaded. e.g 2nd harmonics from local 50KW blowtorch 1170KHz KLOK. It pops up strongly at 2.34MHz SW band! - LCD is not biased properly (at least for my unit), best viewing angle is 45 degrees lower than the normal direction. Hard to read in other angles. - USB type C was not designed right, missing 5Kohm pull-down on the CC lines. It won't charge on a USB-C PD charger with type C-C cable, but it would be ok to use type A to C cable (thanks to no CC control) it comes default with 9K channel spacing for MW band, so some may be surprised it only receives a couple of stations in AM-MW (much less hit for common multiples of 9K and 10K at 90K, you will get 1/10 stations). Power it off and press on the number 2 key to toggle to 10K mode in NA, before you return it!

From the moment I picked up the XHDATA D109WB, I could tell it was something special. Despite its relatively compact dimensions, this little radio delivers on ambition: AM, FM, SW, LW, NOAA weather band with alerts, Bluetooth, MP3/TF card playback, alarm clocks, SOS mode — and all wrapped in a solid, thoughtful design. Design & Features Right up front: this radio doesn’t skimp. The D109WB supports FM (64–108 MHz), AM/MW (522–1620 kHz), LW (153–513 kHz), SW (1711–29999 kHz), and NOAA weather channels (162.400–162.550 MHz) with alert capability. It also offers generous memory capacity: 100 presets each for FM, LW, MW and up to 300 for SW. The audio side is strong too: a 40 mm speaker with 5 W spec, 2 W output, plus TF (microSD) card support (up to 32 GB) and Bluetooth mode for use as a wireless speaker. In terms of build, it feels robust — buttons have good tactility, the tuning knob and volume wheel are responsive, and there’s a flip-out stand and rubber feet. The radio is powered by a rechargeable 18650 battery, with USB-C charging. he designers also included external antenna and headphone jacks, which opens up flexibility for listening setups. One particularly clever touch is variable-speed tuning: turn the knob slowly for fine 1 kHz (or equivalent) steps; turn it faster and it jumps in larger increments (e.g. 10 kHz on FM). That gives you both precision and convenience depending on how fast you want to scan. Also, a DX/Local switch helps tame overload when using external antennas or in strong signal areas. Performance & Reception My experience — and reports from other users — confirm this is not just a specs sheet radio: it performs. On FM, stations come in cleanly with surprising strength, often matching much pricier sets. The weather band/NOAA reception is also solid. On shortwave, performance is very good for a radio in this class: I was able to pick up distant SW stations and compare side-by-side with more expensive radios and find that, in many cases, the D109WB held its own. Some reviewers say it rivals or nearly matches a CCrane Skywave 2 in many signals. External antennas help further, although one must take care to manage overload (the DX/Local switch is useful here). Audio from the built-in speaker is surprisingly full and enjoyable for spoken programs or lighter music. In Bluetooth or TF card mode it becomes a quite respectable little media speaker. Battery life is also commendable: users report many hours of operation even with frequent use, and the radio holds charge impressively. Extras & Usability The extra features really push this over the top. The NOAA weather alert function is a standout — the radio can scan the weather frequencies and alert even when you’re not tuned exactly inline. The SOS alarm mode is a thoughtful inclusion for field or emergency use. Dual alarms, sleep timer, backlit display, key lock — these small touches enhance all-around usability. At its price point, the XHDATA D109WB delivers outstanding value. It’s not perfect — you won’t get SSB capability (so ham sidebands are out), and the manual could be more intuitive — but compared to what it offers, these are small compromises. Many reviewers call it a “sweet spot” device for price vs. performance. For casual listeners, emergency prep, travel, or as an introduction to multiband listening, it’s a very compelling choice. Highly recommended.

The reception is very good on all bands. On medium wave have gotten station 850 in New Orleans which is 920 miles away. I get the blowtorches out of NYC without signal fade, cross talk or chuffing on most nights 450 mi. away. I've owned this radio for almost a year. The issue is that occasionally (about once a month) the radio totally refuses to turn on despite having adequate battery charge. The only way to get the radio functional again is to do a factory reset on it. Fortunately, resetting it doesn't wipe the channel memory or I'd be super upset about having to keep resetting it for no apparent reason. Also, the quality control is not the best. I had to return the first radio I received because it was making an oscillation beeping noise on medium wave band. The sound quality is far superior to a Skywave radio and is a reasonable price for what you get. It's nice to be able to play your own micro SD card with your own podcasts or audio dramas. Maybe the next version of this radio will have air band in place of the defunct long wave band. I've yet to find a portable with this many bands and the air band along with it. Update 2/12/25: Being a portable radio buff, I bought the highly internet touted and around $80 QODOSEN DX-286 with the new car radio chip, so I could compare the xhdata to it. Side by side testing shows they are equal in both sensitivity and selectivity in my side by side comparison. The 286 is getting rave reviews on sites like radio Jay Allen and he's even grouped the 286 up there with the ccradio3 and the EP-Pro despite it only having Am/fm and shortwave. The 286 has an enclosed speaker back just like the d-109wb but the 109 has better low end. Either radio will give you better sound quality than the skywave. Also the 286 is a battery eater- max battery life on a 3300 Mah battery is only 15-17 hrs with about an hour a day usage on medium volume with minimal back light use. D-109wb is around double that. Just wanted to put this update out there for those who are thinking the car chip radio is worth the extra money. It wasn't in my experience, so I returned it and am happy with the d-109wb and knowing there's still nothing in it's size and price point that will top it (yet).

This is a great radio! Sound quality is excellent, no hissing when nothing is playing and it sounds really good as a bluetooth speaker. It picks up SW stations very well on just the telescoping antenna. I wish it had a squelch for amateur HF bands, and I wish it could listen to VHF frequencies like 2m 144, I feel like it can given it can tune to the Air band. Anyway, this is a good little radio! Def worth the money!

This radio is my first shortwave receiver. It’s very well made, and very capable. FM reception is really good. AM is also good. It also pulls in some interesting SW broadcasts. The weather band is a nice feature to have also. Speaker sounds nice for voice and music. The sound is even better with earbuds. It’s easy to pair with devices to use as a Bluetooth speaker. A few things could be improved: the instruction manual leaves something to be desired. The way that the buttons work and how they are labeled is not intuitive. It takes a bit of experimenting to learn how to use the radio’s features. Fortunately there are a number of YouTube videos on the D-109WB that demonstrate how it works. This seems to be a good radio- I recommend it.

Shows to have lot's of features. Radio function worked. Problems came when attempting to set the time of day. Could set 12/24hr. Could set the hour. Could NOT set the minutes. Repeated attempts, following included instructions would lock up all functions. Couldn't even power it up. Pushing the "RESET" allowed it to operate again. Tried to set the time again. Wouldn't set minutes. Repeated tries locked it up again. I returned this to Amazon.

Ótimo rádio não é muito simples de operar mas com o tempo fica fácil, a pilha dura bem e carrega rápido. Estou muito satisfeito está me atendendo muito bem. O som dele pelo tamanho do alto falante é ótimo.

Super

Fonctionne très bien, merci

Nice size, good screen, decent controls. FM Reception is top notch, AM is very good, and weather radio reception is 5 out of 5. Bluetooth actually works well. Sound is simply phenomenal - as good or better than anything else of comparable size, and way better than a radio this $ should sound. The battery is an 18650 Lithium ion rechargeable that will easily last for a dozen or so hours of playing, making this a good weekend at the cottage radio. But it's not AA or AAA, so perhaps not your ideal choice for an emergency radio. You can charge radio using micro USB port (my unit came with the cable) - but playing while changing/plugged produces a noticeable hum...

Dice con o a pilas... Es mucho mejor, lleva un acumulador! Se retrasó el envio, pero también es cierto que lo compré en un puente festivo. Todo muy bien.