A few days ago, I thought about those cheap little scanning FM radios I had as a kid. Those radios spawned the idea: what's the cheapest radio you can find on eBay? I figured it'd be one of those scanning radios, but it turned out to be one you can manually tune. Let me introduce you to eBay's cheapest radio: the Indin BC-R22.
The listing for this radio also listed the BC-R21 and BC-R2033. These models only seem to differ in cosmetics, having the same specs and functionality. The radio ships from the US, which makes me think this was part of a lot of unsold inventory. Including shipping, the total cost came out to $6.80. It shipped in 4 business days, decently packaged.
When I received this radio, I was amazed at how light the package was. The package felt as if it was empty. Fortunately, there was a radio inside.
In terms of size, this radio is closer to an iPod than it is to other handhelds. Here's a photo of the radio's box, with a Sangean HDR-14, Sony ICF-P26, and a 4th gen iPod to compare.
Here's what the radio looks like. It has the cheap silver paint a lot of other cheap electronics have, but it doesn't look offensive. Just cheap.
Only the radio shipped in the box. No quick start guide was provided, and you'll have to supply your own AA batteries.
In terms of build quality, you get what you pay for. It feels reasonable with batteries installed, but the plastics are a little creaky, and the radio doesn't feel very durable. The front and back plastic pieces aren't exactly flush with each other, and the battery door is a little tricky to install. In addition, the right side of the dial is harder to move than the left side of the dial.
The internal antenna moves in a single axis. You can move it to the left, and you can move it to the right. It's also pretty short, measuring 9 inches (23cm) long. The Sony ICF-P26 antenna measures 17 inches (43cm), and the Sangean HDR-14 antenna measures 25 inches (64cm).
Unfortunately, this radio commits a sin that's somewhat common amongst portable radios: the headphone jack is out of phase. Because of this, it sounds like audio is coming from behind you, instead of in front of you. This isn't the only radio I have that has this issue, but I hate that this is an issue with cheaper handhelds.
When ordering this radio, I assumed it was part of a lot of unsold inventory that's been hanging around in a warehouse for a decade. As such, I figured it would be based on an analog tuner. To figure out what's going on inside, I popped it open.
There's two screws at the bottom on the back, one hidden under the battery compartment. These are different lengths, the shorter one goes in the battery compartment.
The back hinges to the front at the top. Rotate the back up, mind the cable connecting the antenna, and you're in.
Higher quality photos of the internals are available on Flickr: Indin BCR-22 Internal Photos
To the surprise of nobody, this radio has very little in terms of active components. The large chip is a DSP tuner, a KT0936MB9 manufactured by KTMicro. It supports frequencies from 150kHz to 110MHz, meaning it covers the longwave, medium-wave (AM), shortwave, and FM broadcast bands. This radio is configured to use it for AM (510-1630kHz, 10kHz steps) and FM (87-108MHz, 50kHz steps). This chip contains no FM stereo decoding.
While the chip contains a 300mW headphone amplifier, that wasn't powerful enough for the built-in speaker. That's where the other chip comes into play, an 8002 single-channel audio amplifier IC manufactured by Income Technology. This amplifier chip outputs 2 watts into a 4ohm load, making it suitable for powering the built-in speaker.
Datasheet for the KT0936MB9 IC
The only other components are passive, including surface-mount resistors and capacitors. The other side of the board contains a crystal, a through-hole capacitor, and the AM loopstick antenna.
Now that we know what powers it, it's time to see if it works. I'm using a Sangean HDR-14 as a reference for a good handheld, and a Sony ICF-P26 as a representative for this class of handhelds.
Sangean HDR-14: My house is in a pretty poor spot for radio reception, as my house is behind a hill blocking reception to the city. Despite this, my HDR-14 was able to receive most of the stations from the city, including some weaker ones. The only stations that came in weak were either lower powered, or further away. I'll use the HDR-14 as a reference for 100%.
Sony ICF-P26: This radio performed similarly to my Sangean HDR-14. For FM, most stations came in at the same strength, some weaker and some slightly stronger. It struggled a bit more on AM, with weak stations on the Sangean being almost inaudible. This tuner is about 95% for FM, and 77% for AM.
Indin BC-R22: This radio performed almost identically to the ICF-P26. For FM, a couple stations came in slightly weaker. It struggled more with AM, losing more weak stations. This radio is about 90% for FM, and 57% for AM. I can't be too hard on that AM result, as the HDR-14 is a really good AM portable (and 10x the price).
I found a spot on campus with a window facing southwest, and did the test again. This time, in a city with about 80,000 people.
Sangean HDR-14: This radio performed as I expected. For FM, all of the full-power stations came in excellently, the lower-powered translators came in a bit weaker, and a few out-of-market stations were listenable. For AM, I had no issues receiving the city's stations, with some out-of-market stations listenable. This is our reference of 100%.
Sony ICF-P26: This radio is not good for city use. While full-power FM stations are listenable, this radio is easily overpowered. Half of the lower-powered translators and out-of-market stations weren't receivable at all because of the cross-talk. AM faired better, dropping some of the weaker stations I received with the HDR-14. FM is 75%, AM is 79%.
Indin BC-R22: This radio surprised me with how well it performed. While the Sony was easily overloaded on FM, the Indin had no such problems. It received the low-power translators and out-of-market stations as well as the HDR-14 did, only dropping one weak station. For AM, it doesn't do as well, dropping most of the weak stations. FM is 100%, AM is 71%.
As a stress test for these radios, I drove close to a transmitter site, tuning to a weak station close on the dial to the station whose transmitter I was next to.
For the FM test, I parked about 1,000 feet (0.3km) from the transmitter site of 99.5. While here, I attempted to receive a weak translator on 100.1. Here's how the radios performed.
Sangean HDR-14: 99.5 came in perfectly. 100.1 was weak as I expected, but no cross-talk from 99.5 was heard.
Sony ICF-P26: Naturally, this radio completely failed to tune into 100.1. The cross-talk from 99.5 was way too strong to make out where the translator was.
Indin BC-R22: This is the most surprised I've been this week. This radio performed identically to the HDR-14: 100.1 came in weak, but with no cross-talk from 99.5.
For the AM test, I parked about the same distance from 1360, attempting to receive a weak station on 1410.
Sangean HDR-14: 1360 was perfect, and 1410 was weak as expected, with no cross-talk.
Sony ICF-P26: Again, the Sony failed to tune to 1410. Cross-talk from 1360 was too powerful.
Indin BC-R22: Surprising me again, 1410 was slightly weaker, but with no cross-talk from 1360.
Now that I've done pretty much everything I can do with this little guy, how much would I recommend you buy it?
If you want a cheap little radio that won't break your heart when it inevitably ends up falling into the lawn mower, this radio will serve you well. If you want a radio to keep on hand in case of an emergency, it'll serve you well. If you want a radio to receive E-skip from Canada in your Kansas backyard, it might work, but you deserve RDS.
For how cheap this radio is, I'm quite impressed. The issues I have with this radio can be forgiven by the great city FM performance, the good rural FM performance, and the price of the radio. I'd say it's well worth the price, although I personally wouldn't pay more than $10 for it.
| Pros | Cons |
| Great city FM performance | Mediocre build quality |
| Good rural FM performance | Out of phase headphone jack |
| Acceptable AM performance | FM is not stereo |
| Very affordable | Built-in speaker not great for music |
page made 2025 by msx.gay - all photos free to use with credit
all products mentioned on this page were purchased with my own money - no sponsorships were accepted
