TR618 AM FM Radio Plug in Wall, Portable Shortwave Radios (Black) | for Home, Kitchen,Drive in,SD/Micro SD, USB Flash Drive, Best Reception

The Retekess TR618 is a modern version of the best budget priced portables of days gone by. It features an EXCELLENT 3 band DSP tuner. The dial pointer is precise and accurate. Tuning is easy and selectively brought in significantly more stations than expected. The FM antenna is extra long and high quality too. The SD/TF mp3 player works great too. Only small gripe is no rewind or fast forward oddly. The speaker sounds extremely clean on all modes. Sound is bright with crispy treble and decent bass thanks to a foam suspended speaker cone. The power/volume knob has a high quality feel to it. The whole radio feels well made! I love that it runs off regular A/C power with a cord. It also uses 3 D batteries so you can take it with you. This is an impressive portable with superb sound!

I am not a portable radio connoisseur but as your an average joe just looking for a decent little radio, I think I made the right choice. Pros: • Good size radio, it's got a good thick width to it so it feels sturdy. • The dials work as intended, the volume control is sensitive but I don't see that as a bad thing. Very light touch is all you need. • USB / SD / Micro SD ports are a great added function for this radio. I've put Classical Music on a small usb (so it doesn't protrude from the side too much) and it works perfectly. Just switch the dial to 'usb' turn on the radio via the Volume dial and have fun. • The speaker sounds great as well, good sound quality in my opinion. • The actual stations area is easy to read and navigate with the Tuning dial on the side. • AM / FM come in great. I don't even have the antenna extended and I get great reception. I haven't used SW yet but I can imagine it works as intended depending on your location. • The handle is great as well, easy to carry around. The radio itself isn't overly heavy, just a good weighted sturdy feel while being easily portable. Cons: • I think the only con I could see is maybe the price, though I'm not really upset having gotten this for $37 as I've seen this radio go for much more elsewhere. All in all: This is a good portable radio, worth the money.

Item as described? Yes, but.... I got the radio primarily to playback USB mp3 files of my audio books. However the radio offers no mp3 file search or file selection functionality except for a forward or backward, 1 x 1 sequential movement through the files. If you put more that one audio book with multiple mp3 files (eg chapter by chapter for each book) there is no ability to jump a particular Book or Chapter except by stepping through all files sequentially until you stumble upon the desired chapter file. It is also not clear to me yet, what file attribute or field the radio using to sequence the files. (Likely the file name, but could be 'Track #' or some other meta file data field?). One 'happy' USB playback feature I've discovered is that the radio seems to remember the file where you were when you last turned off the radio *and even the location in the file* while listening to USB mp3's... that is 'if' the same USB stick is left inserted in the radio... though not sure it works if the stick is removed from the radio and then radio is used in some other way before the original USB stick is reinserted... This I will learn overtime. If USB playback is important to you, hope this is helpful! UPDATE: An Image File (.jpg) added to the review which shows the Retekess TR618 Radio's file designations compared to the File Names saved on the USB Memory Stick. The radio only displays a four digit # for the files in the order that they appear on the memory stick... UPDATE: ...with one exception I cannot explain, ie. Memory Stick file 039 is indexed by the radio as mp3 '0001' and is put at the head of the playback queue. Why? I have no idea. UPDATE: Delete Above phrase *...and even the location in the file...* as I found this was not actually still happening now, if it ever had! Sorry, my error!

This is an excellent tabletop radio that's portable enough to carry anywhere to listen. D batteries and AC cord options make it versatile. The Micro/SD and USB slots (all 3) are very nice. Sitting near an exterior wall of my house, and near a window, it tunes in SO MUCH MORE than I can tune in any of my cars or other tuners in the house (AM and FM). Shortwave is usable with the telescopic antenna, but a long-wire out the window really makes it come alive. Of course, time of day, weather, other factors influence SW more than AM and FM. It also picks up stations that overlap, and it's possible to tune them sometimes better when coming from either side of that frequency (sweeping from R to L or L to R on the dial back and forth VERY slowly, I find I can tune some stations in better when they're close to others). For Shortwave, there is a TON of frequency space jammed into one little dial (some radios have 8-12 separate bands on a switch, but here, there're all on the same single dial) - PREPARE TO TUNE VERY S L O W L Y, or you'll miss stations. This isn't difficult though. Sound quality is very nice. It's won't reproduce deep bass, and it doesn't have screaming highs. It won't shake the table, or itself much for that matter, but sounds full and will play loud enough to fill a room for all in it to hear. It won't shake the walls, and is certainly no boombox. Pros: - D Batteries and AC option - mp3/wma compatibility, 32GB max card size for SD/MicroSD - Very selective and sensitive tuner - Controls are easy to read, use, and have a positive feel. - Decently long telescoping antenna, feels sturdy and heavier than some smaller radios - Great sound for all day listening, music, talk radio, background, but can be increased to fill a room so others can hear too. Cons: - Handle feels cheap - very thin plastic, but heavy enough to do the job. Doesn't feel like it's going to break. - The display only works in mp3/USB mode. - The light stays on all the time in mp3/USB mode. This will reduce battery life - The tuner has an odd gain control function where a station will be faint, but then get a lot louder all of a sudden. This really isn't a bad thing, but it takes getting used to. It doesn't tune like a completely manual tuner since it's DSP. I'd recommend this radio to anyone looking to get a functional, easy to use, solid radio that's easy to move around and sounds decent for low to medium listening volume either close up or from across a room.

I have bought this radio for my husband, so I let him do the review on my behalf. George Nagy's review: General observations: 1. The size of the radio is 8.25 x 5.25x2.50 inches. 2. The radio has analog tuning on AM, FM and SW. 3. Three D batteries or the power cord supply the energy. 4. The long antenna is helpful in tuning FM and SW. 5. The digital readout works for the MP3 player only. Positive qualities: 1. The large speaker provides excellent sound (3W) 2. The stations can be tuned in by turning the tuning knob. Many stations come in except for SW. Reception on SW depends on the time of day and the location of the radio. 3. The operation is so easy that one hardly needs the instruction booklet. 4. The sound of the MP3 is excellent. I like the fact that the radio has input for TF, SD as well as for USB. This brings it from the old analog radio world to the digital world. 5. The compact size makes the radio ideal for travel or outdoor use although the three D batteries add some weight to it. 6. The radio is a godsend for older folks who are used to analogue tuning and simple design. Features not found: 1. The radio does not have a clock or sleep timer. 2. The MP3 screen shows the number of the song and time elapsed but not the name of the song or album. 3. The radio stations come in clear but show interference if the radio is next to a computer or other electronic device. Overall impression: I have a collection of more than 50 radios going back to the 1960's. I have chosen the TR618 for everyday use because of its convenient features and powerful sound. This radio takes the place of my 1980's giant boombox which used cassettes. One 32 GB SD card play as many songs as hundreds of my old cassettes or CD's. A big thank you to my wife for buying me this radio.

The AM and FM is good. But I checked the SW bands first and found it to be very sensitive with just the whip antenna. I first tuned to 10 mhz for GMT which came in good then 15 mhz for GMT time and came in good also then checked the shortwave bands and at evening 9.5-10mhz several stations came in loud and clear. 7.5 mhz several stations also as well as 6mhz. Surprisingly many stations are able to receive with this radio only using the whip antenna. Because it is only one scale for all the bands you have to tune very slowly so you don't miss the station. Once on the station or GMT the station is rock solid and no drift. I also heard 20 meter ham band loud and clear but could not decode the SSB of course. This only plays MPS but is good not great and speaker is loud but not the greatest sound for fidelity. The display has no backlight so have to use another light to tune at night. They should have put a tuning light in for the display even if it would increase the cost by $1. The tuning needle is not that stable but ok for this price.

I really like the look and sound of this radio. The reason I bought it was to be able to play a thumb drive of mp3 music and old radio programs downloaded from free sites on the net like Old Time Radio internet archive and play them while preparing lunch and dinner. I also liked the fact that the unit has an a/c power cord so I don't have to worry about charging or replacing batteries. I am very pleased with the sound and easy controls. However, my unit would not play my USB thumb drive. Since this ability was the prime - if not the only -- reason I purchased the unit, I planned to return it. But before returing ir (because I liked it so much), I contacted Retekess support. They immediately responded with a list of suggestions, one of which was not to use a thumb drive larger than 16 Gigs. Well....THAT was my issue since the drive I initially used was 64 Gigs. I copied mp3 files on to another smaller drive with a capacity of less than 16 Gigs and now the radio plays the USB MP3 files JUST PERFECTLY. And there are hours of play on that smaller flash stick. I recommend highly.

I don't really write that many reviews. But to make people aware and be very clear I have posted photo of my install utilizing a google plug. Yes this is a very small radio and whoever guided me to tell me that a Google plug would not work. They are wrong since this has the old style power volume control- it will it will allow the radio to turn on and off from a distance, which is a great security device. If you're looking for quality of sound I wouldn't look to this radio it does not provide good quality sound. The 1 radio speaker very small and only operate in mono sound. The signal seems to be fairly good overall, however the short wave feature I find to be useless. I was actually hoping for a weather radio feature but can not figure out how exactly to tune that in - if anyone knows??? I don't agree with all the high ratings on this radio, because I have owned some very awesome Sears brand boom boxes that had TV channels- weather radio and great stereo sound. With digital sound now out there needs to be an upgrade on this model. I am giving this radio a fair 3 out of 5. Please check my photos out, I took time to help and guide others so please if you know the answer to my question above, take a moment to reply! ~thanks