SANGEAN ATS-909X2, Ultimate FM/SW/MW/LW/Air Multi-Band Radio

With such a wide range of bands to explore, there’s a lot to like about this radio. Mine, however, had a faulty antenna circuit. When you’d plug in an antenna (I tried 2) the volume on a shortwave or AM station already receivable without an external antenna would drop by 50% when using the AC adapter. The volume drop was even worse when using batteries. At first I thought perhaps there was an internal/external antenna switch that had to be adjusted but I saw nothing like that on the unit or referenced in the instruction book. This was very disappointing because I got it for a great Amazon price. Thankfully Amazon makes returns very simple. I may try ordering this item again, provided inflation and the ongoing supply chain issues don’t drive the price too high.Round Two (Update August 27, 2022)With a number of months having passed since trying my first 909X2, I felt it was time to reorder. When the radio arrived I installed 4 alkaline batteries, strung the included wire antenna across my basement ceiling and got to work.The first order of business was to see how the antenna input would work on shortwave. Given my location (the basement), I felt the wire antenna did very well on this second radio. It didn’t drop the volume at all like it did with the first one. Secondly, the radio worked even better with my Godar DXR-1000 antenna that I have yet to have installed on the house. This antenna is designed for use with 75 ohm coax. (An adapter is needed to connect coax to the 909X2.) So it appears that this set is capable of operating quite well with a varied range of antennas.Unfortunately there’s bad news. This radio has a scanning feature that allows you to quickly jump from one meter band to another. This feature didn’t work on mine. At a certain point when trying to set this feature up the meter band indicator is supposed to flash but it wouldn’t. I even tried resetting the radio and it just wouldn’t work.Another suspicious issue involved the tuning wheel. Initially it wouldn’t work at all. I did a reset and from then on the wheel worked as it should. How long it would have continued to operate is anyone’s guess. Btw…my radio’s firmware was version 073.For these reasons, this radio also went back. I wanted to give Sangean an opportunity to impress me as much as they have via their WR-11 wood table radio. With the exception of the severely narrow-banded AM sound, it’s a nice radio. In my opinion, this radio and it’s siblings would be the best table sets on the market if Sangean would see fit to include a wide-band/narrow-band switch for AM on the back. In fact, the WR-11 outperforms my GE Superadio when both radios are operated using the CCrane twin coil ferrite antenna.So…2 faulty 909X2 sets in a row. Hopefully your purchase experience will be better.April 2024 Update:FirmwareOne of the first things I did was to check the firmware version. 078 is the latest and I was pleased to see that mine is from this batch.AntennasThis radio seems to prefer higher impedance antennas when connecting through the 3.5mm antenna jack. Lower Impedance antennas work better when attaching them via alligator clip to the telescoping antenna.TuningTuning is executed via a ridged thumb wheel that is flush with the face of the radio. The idea is that as you hold the radio, you can extend your right thumb and spin the wheel to tune. On the left side of the wheel there are two seek/scan bars, the upper one is for tuning up while the lower one handles moving down the spectrum.There’s also an interesting “step” button in the middle of the tuning wheel. Pressing this button changes the length of the tuning steps for both the tuning wheel as well as the seek/scan bars. Hold it for about a full second and it disables the tuning wheel. I suspect I unknowingly engaged this feature on my second radio and ended up thinking that this was one of the things that was wrong with it. When it happened again on my current radio, I dove back into the manual and found out about the disable feature but fail to see its purpose. I thought maybe this was added so in case you leave the room for some reason, your kids or grandkids can’t come along and accidentally move you off frequency. What I find unusual is that this function doesn’t also disable the keypad or the tuning bars.AM ReceptionIn a word: terrific. So far the best reception occurs when I use a Tecsun AN-48X amplified antenna. When used on a camera tripod to allow for directional focus, this antenna is a great indoor reception option. During a nighttime band scan, from 540kHz up to about 1200kHz there was a station (or stations) to be heard every 10kHz. After that the band was very crowded but some great DX still came through. From my Midwest location I was receiving many stations from Canada to Texas and the Deep South to the East coast. So as far as AM is concerned, this radio/antenna combination is a winner!FM ReceptionMy 909X2 picked up 53 stations off the whip antenna. That’s 5 short of the record at my location which is held by my CCrane CCRadio3. Nonetheless, that is exceptional.SW ReceptionI’m not a collector of SW radios so I won’t be providing comparisons with other brands. However, I’m surprised by those who claim there’s little to listen to on SW, or worse yet, that this radio is deaf on SW. In the latter case, there may be a reason for that and it has nothing to do with a faulty radio. The manual clearly states that you need to have the gain control turned up to “Max” in order to hear anything on SW. Utilizing the Tecsun AN-48X antenna, during one listening session I picked up 23 stations in an area of the spectrum ranging from 4.84 to 9.71MHzSSB ReceptionWhen you come across what might appear to be a SSB transmission in SW mode, press the SSB button. Continue to press this button and you’ll see in the display that it toggles between AM, lower sideband (LSB) and upper sideband (USB). The manual indicates that amateur radio operators transmitting below 10MHz generally use the lower sideband while amateur and commercial stations transmitting above that frequency generally use the upper sideband. Choose the sideband that gives the best reception. Next, press the step button in the middle of the rotary tuning wheel that I referenced earlier to select the slow stepping mode. Then rotate the rotary tuning wheel to fine tune the voice transmission. The minimum fine tuning steps are set at 20Hz by default. This can be changed via the menu to 10Hz.Some folks complain because the radio has only one preset bandwidth for SSB. I’m fine with that because the one they chose sounds very clear to me. Still others complain because they say the SSB volume is very low compared to regular shortwave transmissions. Assuming they have the RF gain jog wheel at max where it should be, you still should expect lower volume because obviously you’re only receiving the energy from one side band. Yes, there’s a difference in volume, but on my radio it’s certainly not objectionable.Birdies and BreakthroughIn 3 months of occasional usage thoroughly going through AM, FM and SW, I’ve yet to experience any birdies. However, on one occasion when using the Tecsun antenna I did experience some low volume breakthrough on SW in spots from approximately 2.2 to 2.7MHz. 2.3MHz is the second harmonic of a local, high power AM station whose tower site is about 15 miles away so this interference isn’t surprising. If this is happening to you, simply divide the frequency where it’s occurring (in kHz) by 2 and that should give you the approximate frequency of the offending station. I should add that this “breakthrough” didn’t occur when using the built-in telescopic antenna.Later in the day, and using the Tecsun antenna once again, I tuned through this range because this particular station reduces it’s power post sunset. The power reduction did lower the number and intensity of the incidents. While people may assume the radio is being overloaded by the amplified antenna, It could actually be spurious emissions from the station. The only way to know for sure would be to contact the engineer of the station.Battery Power DetailsI’m using rechargeable batteries. In their pre-charged state, straight from the package, they gave me about 10 hours of listening time. Recharging the batteries took over 4 hours on the radio’s built in charger and I’m assuming the play time moving forward will be even better. This radio is unique in that it not only tells you via the screen when the batteries need recharging or are finished with the charging process, it also informs you if one of the batteries is faulty.ConclusionThere is so much this radio can be set up to do. There’s nearly 2 full pages in the manual just on using, storing, recalling, locking, deleting, moving and renaming preset stations. There’s also the ability to scan only within specific meter bands, the use of 3 alarm timers, how to use the record standby/line-out jacks, squelch, automatic bandwidth and much more.In the end, while it was frustrating having to deal with two faulty radios to get one that works right, I’m glad I stuck with it. I’m enjoying this one very much and I hope you enjoy yours too!

This radio had mixed reviews when it came out so I intentionally bought this from Amazon in case there were issues. Turns out to be a great radio and it’s a keeper as far as I am concerned. I purchased this right before Christmas and have the latest firmware (73) so that might explain while mine works well compared to earlier reviews.. Not sure though.One of the main complaints on this radio is that it has low audio on SSB. First thing I did when I got the unit was to test for this issue and here is what I have found: Yes with a weak signal, you may notice this. But with a normal or strong signal this does not happen. The bathroom off of my hallway is the most central room in my house and is a dead zone and great room for testing. In my bathroom on the whip antenna, I could notice the audio go noticeably lower when switching to SSB. I then walked in my backyard and still on the whip/same station and it did not do this because I had a stronger signal outside. I then made a longwire antenna that runs along the eve of my house into my bedroom . On this antenna I have never experienced this SSB audio issue.The other common complaint that I do agree with and consider it a big oops is the lack of filter selection on SSB. On AM, it has 5 different filters to choose from but only 1 on SSB. Not sure why but for the price, it should have more. That said, the one it has works well for SSB - not too wide, not too narrow.Last oops: Sangean was an early adopter of RDS and had it years before just about anyone else. I know they had it by the mid 90’s so why in the heck does this thing not show RDS time/date data? The ⅓ the price XHDATA 808 has this feature so this is another oversight.Despite what I have said about SSB, I will say this radio has some of the best SSB audio I have heard. Yes that is very subjective so let me say it is very clear and the kind you can listen to for hours without getting “tired”. The Tecsun 880 also has excellent audio but it gets distorted on strong signals and the 909x2 does not do that. The 909x2 also appears to be more sensitive (on SWL) over the 880 in my bathroom tests and seems to tie the XHDATA D808. Again, my tests are very subjective but at least I know this radio is not deaf by any means.Features: basically functionality is pretty intuitive. You can change frequencies by using buttons, the dial or the keypad. Storing a frequency in memory is easy as well once you play with it a bit and learn their system. But some of the more advanced features require reading the manual but it is NOT HARD once you read the manual. Now they do gloss over some details like the fact the radio has 3 memory banks. If I had not read the Amazon ad, I would have never known this because it’s only briefly mentioned in the manual and you have to enter a sub menu to access it.Not hard, just got to read the manual to enjoy the radio to the fullest.Looks-Feel-QualityI am more of a function over form person but I will say this is a very attractive radio. It at least appears to be of higher quality than any of my other radios (Tecsuns and XHDATA). It is not cheap plastic like the Chinese brands and the Antenna is much better quality than what the Chinese provide. The buttons look and feel better and the radio is much heavier .The LCD is very large and easy to read, by far the best display I have.The front of the radio reminds me of some high end Sony from their heyday and the top reminds me of my grandfather's Trans-Oceanic from the late 60’-early 70’s .The bad side of this is the radio is too nice to be a constant travel companion- vacations are fine just not all the time. . If I was someone who travels a lot , I would bring a smaller Tecsun or Xhdata in case it was lost/stolen or damaged . They are much smaller in both price and size and I would not feel as bad if something happened. This radio is at home in your shack or by your bedside on your night stand and that is exactly how I use it.Button line: The only reason I would think of returning this radio is the fact that Amazon has dropped the price $30 since Christmas and I am still within the return period . But I know I have a good one and I am happy with it., If you have any reservations about the radio, just buy it from Amazon so there is no risk if you have any issues.