Introduction
Setting the clock on the Qodosen DX-286 gets complex if you want to have the radio display both local time and so-called world time, also called Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). I found the instructions in the user's manual to be confusing. Rather than clutter my review of the radio with detailed instructions, I've created this page specifically for the purpose of explaining setting the clock and the alarm on the DX-286.
General concept of setting the clock
Before getting into a lot of detail, here's a high-level explanation of setting time on the Qodosen DX-286.
- Set the time zone for the main clock. Use the time zone for your current location. If you're on daylight savings (summer) time, set the time zone one hour ahead.
- Set the local time at your current location.
- Then set the time zone for the "world" clock to be GMT.
Details on how to set the clock
The radio must be off in order to perform these steps. First, note your time zone. During Daylight Saving Time (advanced or summer time), you will need to set the zone one hour ahead. For example, in the United States Mountain Time Zone, in the summer set the zone for Chicago (-6) instead of Denver (-7). To set the time zone:
- Long-press the M/TONE button.
- Scroll the tuning knob until you reach your time zone. Note that the zones are listed in alphabetical order by primary city, and not in numerical order.
- Press PAGE to confirm.
Next, set your local time. Again, the radio must be off.
- Long-press the PAGE button. "CLOCKSET" should appear in the display. Note that this button is also labeled TIME underneath the button.
- Turn the tuning knob until the display shows the current hour, then press PAGE.
- Turn the tuning knob until the display shows the current minute, then press PAGE.
- Then the bottom of the display will flash either RDS AUTO or MANUAL. Use the tuning knob to select either one or the other and press PAGE. I always use MANUAL, because some radio stations transmit incorrect time data in their RDS or RBDS text.
Then, again with the radio off, set the time zone again, this time to GMT. The manual does not explain this.
- Long-press M/TONE.
- Turn the knob until GMT appears.
- Press PAGE to confirm.
You can skip these three steps if you don't care about the "world" time display on the radio.
Setting the alarm
This is actually much less complex than setting the time, but this page is a logical place to put these instructions. There are still some things to watch out for.
First you need to set the time and mode (the speaker or the buzzer). You do this with the radio off.
- Long-press BW/ST. Note that this button is also labeled ALARM. ALARMSET will appear in the display.
- Turn the tuning knob to set the hour when the alarm will go off, then press PAGE.
- Turn the tuning knob to set the minute when the alarm will go off, then press PAGE.
- Turn the tuning knob to set the number of minutes the radio will stay on after the alarm goes off. This will appear at the bottom of the display as DELAY followed by the number of minutes. Then press PAGE.
This sets the alarm time, but does not actually activate the alarm. To activate (or deactivate) the alarm, the radio must be off. Then:
- Quick-press M/TONE.
- Press M/TONE to toggle through these choices: SPEAK (the radio will turn on and play through the speaker), BUZZER, or ALARM OFF.
- A speaker icon will appear in the display if SPEAK is selected; a bell icon will appear if BUZZER is selected.
- Note that you cannot turn on the alarm if anything is plugged into the headphone jack.
The alarm uses the local time you've set; not the "world" time.
Finally, you need to set the frequency that the radio will tune to when the alarm turns on. This time, the radio has to be on to perform these steps!
- Turn the radio on.
- Tune to the station you want the alarm to use.
- Long-press BW/ST. AL FREQ should appear at the bottom of the display.