ESP138 Portable Radio with TEF 6686 and Si4732 Chip

[zero7]

After trying out Qodosen DX286 for a few days, sold it in market place. It's an excellent radio but the audio out from the radio to the external amp was degrading the audio quality.
Today, I got a new radio which I accidentally found while browsing. It has both TEF6686 chip which I am interested in and Si4732 one of the renowned chip for AM / SSB bands. You can switch between the chips to listen to the bands you are interested in. FM, AM is available with both the chips.
I got it from AliExpress.


First impressions
1. Has lot of features, much more than Qodosen DX286
2. It doesn't have a 3.5mm audio out port but has Bluetooth. Sounds good when connected to Bluetooth speakers.
3. Catches stations easily. Haven't tried distant stations yet and need to check them once I get am back in India.
4. Sound quality is decent with the built in speakers. Less bass, Qodosen and Tecsun radios have better inbuilt speakers.
5. Looks more like made by a hobbyist and not mass produced.
6. Wish the antenna port is on the side or top. It's on the bottom and once you connect external antenna, you can't keep it vertically
7. TEF6686 FW is upgradable and the github link is provided in the instructions sheet.
8. Sound quality is slightly better with Si4732 chip than TEF6686 is what I felt. Need to listen a few more stations to confirm this.
9. Instructions came in English, which is a good thing. Also it's printed on A4 sheet and printed in normal fonts. You don't need a eye glass to read the instructions. Lol.

(just for reference, haven't watched it)

 

[zero7]

I also bought a RTL-SDR V4 dongle to try out DRM stations once I am back in India. It worked better with Android phone than a Windows laptop for FM stations here.

 

[sriram_shol]

You can also try DEEPELEC DP666 or SPARKELEC DP666 FM tuners which comes with TEF 6686 chipset. They are really good interms of features and firmware support.

Available in banggood..

 

[redilbear]

The dual-chip setup with TEF6686 and Si4732 sounds especially appealing for anyone who likes experimenting across bands. Interesting to hear that the Bluetooth output performs better than the wired option you had with the DX286.

The design quirks you mentioned, like the bottom antenna port and hobbyist-style build—are good to know before buying. Looking forward to your update once you test distant stations back in India. It seems like this radio has great potential for DXers who don’t mind a few rough edges.

 

[zero7]

As mentioned in the first post I already bought the ESP138, which has the TEF 6686 chip. It's very good.

 

[sriram_shol]

Oh super.

If you can manage to use a stellar labs omni directional antenna (75 ohms), you could connect it with an F to SMA connector, you can input channels from external antenna to your tuner.

 

[sriram_shol]

A few of my friends in Chennai are getting loads of channels from Srilankan broadcast with QUDOSEN 286. They are able to pull channels from Myanmar and from other eastern country channels.

They are using the SMALL 5 antenna to connect.