jWIN JX-M14 AM/FM/SW Radio
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- Display: LED
- Tuning: Digital
- Type: Portable
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9 Bands, $15.00, Not Junk!
Pros
Compact, good sensitivity, accurate frequency readout, nifty tilt stand, clear sound, wakeup timer.
Cons
Strange controls, thin sound, no light on display, not really digital.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Although the performance of this radio is strictly average, I have rated it above average because of the $15.00 price tag and the unexpected display accuracy.
My Radio Shack DX-351 finally bit the dust. It still works but the speaker sounds very distorted. But what to replace it with?
I was in a local store that sells hardware, car parts, and toys and spotted the jWIN JX-M14 in the radio aisle. It was $14.99. I figured it was total junk but thought I could always return it.
I fed it 2-AA batteries and turned it on. I tuned across the FM dial and was surpised to find I could easily receive our local 300 watt high school station from my house. Even my GE SuperRadio has a hard time with that one.
It's not supersensitive on AM and shortwave, but then again it's far from being insensitive on those bands. For the techies, the shortwave bands are free of birdies and images -- something many low priced multi-band radios are plagued with.
It has a digital tuning display, but is not really digital. A true digital radio has a crystal controlled frequency standard that is digitally converted to the correct frequency for tuning in the stations.
An analog tuned radio has a tuning capacitor which is a mechanical device attached to the dial and no internal standard frequency source.
The jWIN JX-M14 is an analog tuned radio but it has a digital frequency counter that displays the frequency that is currently tuned in. This method can be quite accurate but only if the circuits are properly adjusted. jWIN did their job, at least on mine. The display is nearly always right on for all the stations I checked on various bands. Very surprising for an under $50 radio, probably $100.
The sound is clear and crisp, but with a 2 inch speaker, lower and bass tones are strictly left to the imagination. I plugged a pair of good headphones into the earphone jack and found it has a full range sound.
Working the way around the radio: on the back is a little fold out easel type stand that supports the radio at a convenient 30 or so degrees angle from horizontal. The left side has the volume control, the previously mentioned earphone jack (mono sound), and a 3 volt DC input jack for use with a not provided AC adapter, and a permanently attached carrying loop. The loop is made of pretty thin material and not really long enough to wrap around your hand or wrist.
On the top is a fold down, swivel, antenna that telescopes out to a somewhat short 18 inches.
On the right side are the tuning control and power switch. To me the tuning control tunes backwards from what I expected but after a few minutes of always starting off in the wrong direction, I got used to it. Likewise the power switch is reversed from what is standard in the US. Down is on and up is off.
The front panel has the speaker, the display which shows frequency when the radio is on and the time when off. Five oddly placed buttons to set the clock and the alarm, a tiny slide type AM/Shortwave bandswitch, AM and FM mode buttons, and 3 LED indicators: Tuning, AM, and FM.
I say the clock setting buttons are oddly placed because the minutes set button is on the left under the hours display and the hours button is under the minutes. Setting the clock or alarm consists of holding the time set or alarm set button while pressing the hour or minute set buttons. The time set is very slow taking about 40 seconds to get from :01 to :59. There is also a Alarm on/off button. It is also pretty easy to accidentally activate the alarm. The clock remembers the time while you change batteries if you're fast enough.
The alarm wakes you up by turning on the radio. A nice feature, but it always turns on in FM mode so you can't choose an AM or shortwave station for the function.
Other limitations: When you switch the radio on, it always comes on in FM mode. There are 3 indicator lights on the front, AM, FM, and one that indicates signal strength -- not really necessary. But there is not a light on the display. If you hold your hand just right you can reflect the light from the green AM light onto the dial, but the red FM light is too dim -- and you can't use this trick to see the time because the time only displays when the radio is off.
Since this radio is not really digital, it has no memory or presets. "Real" digital radios usually remember the station you were tuned to in each band. This one doesn't.
Shortwave coverage is limited to 7 broadcast bands -- 49, 41, 31, 25, 22, 19, and 16 meters. There is some extended coverage, especially on the higher frequency bands. And of course it has no BFO.
The instructions are usable but poorly translated into English.
I was in a local store that sells hardware, car parts, and toys and spotted the jWIN JX-M14 in the radio aisle. It was $14.99. I figured it was total junk but thought I could always return it.
I fed it 2-AA batteries and turned it on. I tuned across the FM dial and was surpised to find I could easily receive our local 300 watt high school station from my house. Even my GE SuperRadio has a hard time with that one.
It's not supersensitive on AM and shortwave, but then again it's far from being insensitive on those bands. For the techies, the shortwave bands are free of birdies and images -- something many low priced multi-band radios are plagued with.
It has a digital tuning display, but is not really digital. A true digital radio has a crystal controlled frequency standard that is digitally converted to the correct frequency for tuning in the stations.
An analog tuned radio has a tuning capacitor which is a mechanical device attached to the dial and no internal standard frequency source.
The jWIN JX-M14 is an analog tuned radio but it has a digital frequency counter that displays the frequency that is currently tuned in. This method can be quite accurate but only if the circuits are properly adjusted. jWIN did their job, at least on mine. The display is nearly always right on for all the stations I checked on various bands. Very surprising for an under $50 radio, probably $100.
The sound is clear and crisp, but with a 2 inch speaker, lower and bass tones are strictly left to the imagination. I plugged a pair of good headphones into the earphone jack and found it has a full range sound.
Working the way around the radio: on the back is a little fold out easel type stand that supports the radio at a convenient 30 or so degrees angle from horizontal. The left side has the volume control, the previously mentioned earphone jack (mono sound), and a 3 volt DC input jack for use with a not provided AC adapter, and a permanently attached carrying loop. The loop is made of pretty thin material and not really long enough to wrap around your hand or wrist.
On the top is a fold down, swivel, antenna that telescopes out to a somewhat short 18 inches.
On the right side are the tuning control and power switch. To me the tuning control tunes backwards from what I expected but after a few minutes of always starting off in the wrong direction, I got used to it. Likewise the power switch is reversed from what is standard in the US. Down is on and up is off.
The front panel has the speaker, the display which shows frequency when the radio is on and the time when off. Five oddly placed buttons to set the clock and the alarm, a tiny slide type AM/Shortwave bandswitch, AM and FM mode buttons, and 3 LED indicators: Tuning, AM, and FM.
I say the clock setting buttons are oddly placed because the minutes set button is on the left under the hours display and the hours button is under the minutes. Setting the clock or alarm consists of holding the time set or alarm set button while pressing the hour or minute set buttons. The time set is very slow taking about 40 seconds to get from :01 to :59. There is also a Alarm on/off button. It is also pretty easy to accidentally activate the alarm. The clock remembers the time while you change batteries if you're fast enough.
The alarm wakes you up by turning on the radio. A nice feature, but it always turns on in FM mode so you can't choose an AM or shortwave station for the function.
Other limitations: When you switch the radio on, it always comes on in FM mode. There are 3 indicator lights on the front, AM, FM, and one that indicates signal strength -- not really necessary. But there is not a light on the display. If you hold your hand just right you can reflect the light from the green AM light onto the dial, but the red FM light is too dim -- and you can't use this trick to see the time because the time only displays when the radio is off.
Since this radio is not really digital, it has no memory or presets. "Real" digital radios usually remember the station you were tuned to in each band. This one doesn't.
Shortwave coverage is limited to 7 broadcast bands -- 49, 41, 31, 25, 22, 19, and 16 meters. There is some extended coverage, especially on the higher frequency bands. And of course it has no BFO.
The instructions are usable but poorly translated into English.
