I bought one a week ago upon your recommendation. I love mine! My antenna jack is a little wonky and the battery life leaves something to be desired, but I'm still happy with the radio.

Last week I bought 2 18650 batteries with 3400 mAh in a store called Battery Plus for about $16 each and see a little improvement on the Qodosen, but not much. I keep low volume and the backlight off. I still think like you. It’s a great radio for its size and with great sound. Its construction is very good as it get dropped several times and it came through without damage.

Thanks for the update. I suspect the TEF6686 was never designed with low power consumption and portable use in mind. The "battery life" issue almost scared me off, but I finally decided to order one. It arrived about noon on Saturday and I used it quite a bit on Saturday and Sunday. Now, Monday morning, I'm still on the first battery. I have four Tecsun 2600 mah batteries so between the Qodosen and my PL-990X and my external charger they should keep me going. Not sure what to say about display noise, I live in a quiet area, especially when I move away from the house, but there is a high voltage line not too far away and it tends to create a bit of "sputter" on hot, humid days. I think that's all I'm hearing. On LW it's noticeable on the whip but mostly gone on the loopstick. I would think if it was coming from the display it would be present on both of those antennas. Pairing it with my AN-200 "works a treat"! UPDATE: I switched to TAKEN brand 3000 mah batteries (recommended by Qodosen). They fit slightly better (18 mm diameter vice 18.2 mm for the Tecsun batteries). I've been using one battery for two weeks so far with casual use. As far as display noise, yes it is present on the whip, but is easily eliminated by turning off the display. I found this when searching for LW beacons from a very quiet rural location.

Your reviews have shown this is a nice radio. I use the SDRplay's RSP Duo at home and was hoping the Qodosen would be what I wanted to use when I go camping. However, I enjoy listening to the Pirate stations on SW and many of them are SSB.

I now own one. Plug in the tunable Tecsun loop antenna, and it is slightly better on the AM band than the radios like CCrane 2E and the old GE Superadio 3. On FM I sometimes hear WKAR-FM (Classical and NPR News) from Lansing, Michigan without the local station on 90.3 or the semi-local on 90.7 getting in the way. My location is Sarnia, Ontario so sometimes the WKAR-FM signal is weak on every radio.

I use batteries labelled as 3500 mAh, with an effective capacity of around 3000 mAh, according to my charger. Running the radio several hours daily, it takes me about four days before the battery icon goes from 3/3 to 2/3 bars. When I stick the battery in the charger at this point, it says my battery has about 30% charge left. I detect a bit of digital-sounding noise when RDS is turned on. The noise goes away if I turn off RDS or if I turn off the display. Most evident with earphone but can also be heard on the speaker, if I lower the volume and press my ear right up against the grill.

LCD display gives noise on MW and LW when you use it with whip antenna not loop or so.

Gilles, what is your observation on the speaker quality of the Qodosen DX-286? The speaker on some occasions seems to have a little distortion?

I am using a 9900ma flattop battery which I modified a bit to fit and I am getting exceptional battery life.

Power consumption is not an issue for me at all. I am using 3400mha batteries. Yesterday, I used the radio extensively for 4 hours and batterie indicator still displayed 3 out of 3 bars at the end of the session. To be fair, I was using head phones, but I always do. The major issue with the DX-286 is - IMHO - mirror frequencies / ghost station around 2.4 - 2.5 mhz.

Sir , You are a seasoned old radio veteran ,Can you suggest some good old radio recievers might be i can get some in india my native country ,Right now i just have The XHDATA 109 and i have ordered the PL-330 but not received it yet . I plan to pause my purchases and focus on antennas then go for the newer purchases of receivers .I am also planning to buy a transreciever or a SDR Radio if you can suggest something please