PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM Longwave Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception

I think I have bought this radio by mistake - I'm not sure if it is configured for UK - it does not pick up any AM stations - FM is fine - SW is not good.

タイトル通り、非常に気に入りました。欠点はバッテリーが特殊な事ぐらい。 このラジオ、チューニングダイアル、ファインチューニングダイアル、ボリュームコントロールが 右端にまとめて配置され、見ての通り、親指と人差し指でつまんで回せるタイプとなっています。 この配置とつまんで回せるという事が今のラジオでは非常に珍しく、使い勝手の向上に貢献しています。 Sonyの7600も所有していますが、使い勝手でPL880の方が気に入っています。 今、買うべきBCLラジオはこれです。

Excelente desempeño en onda corta y banda lateral, único con sintonía fina de dos dígitos. Cumple lo que promete. Lo mejor de todo es poder cambiar la frecuencia sin que se vaya el audio o los molestos “chuff” o sonidos de cambio de frecuencia. Podrían mejorar el rendimiento de la batería que aunque es recargable el consumo es alto. En general muy buen equipo para dxers.

The PL-880 is the third shortwave receiver I have bought. First I had the PL-600, which got me into the hobby in a big way, but once I wanted to start really hunting distant signals I picked up a Grundig 750 (actually a Tecsun radio too, everyone) because I don't have a few grand spare to buy something from Icom. Next I went searching for something that would work for DXing, but also be very portable. I chose this over the Sangean 909x after a long back and forth. Here was my calculus: the 880 has reported firmware issues (which are fixable and have been/are being fixed) whereas the Sangean 909x has reported sensitivity issues, which without putting your radio under the knife yourself, cannot be remedied even with great antenna work (portables, all portables, tend to overload when attached to a serious outdoor or active antenna). Sensitivity issues of any kind are a no-go for a DXer, so I got the Tecsun. Man has it blown my expectations out of the water. Here is the blow by blow: Build and aesthetics: solid, solid, solid. I will be moving to China soon and bringing this. I am more worried about breaking my own leg than anything happening to this thing. It includes a nice feaux leather (animal lovers thank you, Tecsun) carrying case that is perfect for travel. The knobs, and I must admit, I am a sucker for turning knobs, are smooth and tuning with them is dead on accurate. They are not overly sensitive like on that on the Grundig 750, so no worries about sneezing and loosing your signal. The radio feels well built, the buttons are responsive and touch firmly. Display is standard. It does not display a ton of information, but I do like having a numeric value for the signal strength and S/N ratio. Helps for reception reporting. Finally, this radio just looks classy. It is the sort of thing that I would not mind leaving out in my living room with guests over. It has the look of some of the old Zenith radios. No offense Tecsun, but the 600 and 660 looked straight out of a 990s sears catalog, however quality their internals were. Thanks for changing this with the 880. Features: While some are hidden and not fully implemented (don't even try the sync) it is packed with useful features. The band scanning function works wonderfully. Before I night of shortwave listening I like to go ahead and log domestic stations along with Radio Havana Cuba so that I can just dial past them as I try to pull in weak signals. One simple scan once the 49 and 60 meter bands open up at night, and all of the strong signals are in memory so I can quickly log them and then ignore them as I band scan later. Short of jamming Brother Stair's signals and/or shutting him down, this is the best gift Tecsun could give to North American SWLs who aren't interested in religious wackjobs or right-wing conspiracy theories. Single Side Band tuning is absolutely rocking on this receiver. First, it has both LSB and USB modes. A nice feature not found on many portables. Rather than a traditional BFO, it engages a >1khz frequency selection function (adding .00 to the readout) when in SSB mode that allows you to tune with the precision necessary to really get the most out of listening to the amateur bands. It surpasses the Grundig 750 even, which is no slouch on SSB. The 750's BFO suffers from the same limitations of other portables: you are always going to be just a few hertz off, and thus HAMs will always sound a bit distorted, when all you can do is tune SSB to the nearest 1 Khz and add a carrier on the back end. This is particularly true for DXing, where you are already fighting noise and interference to hear HAMs on the other side of the globe. I can't fathom the negative reviews this gets for SSB. It has precision tuning that is normally found exclusively on high end tabletop transceivers/receivers. The station memory works fine, although other than the use listed above, I don't fool with memories that much except to save my local NPR stations. Backlight is great. Contrary to popular belief there is a way to turn it off (the side switch has only automatic/on). Press and hold 5 while the unit is in standby. Sorted. Battery life is excellent. I have to charge it every 3 days or so with heavy use. I *love* that it charges over USB. That means one charger for my phone, ipad, and radio will do the trick when traveling. It does not come with an AC adaptor. They used to ship with the units, but the drawback to Lithium ion batteries is that when charging they produce RF interference, so the only remedy was for Tecsun to stop including an AC unit. They should, I will say, state explicitly in the manual that the unit is not meant to be listened to while charging. Just charge it like you would anything else when not in use. It does, I would also add, take quite a while to charge fully. But once charged it stays charged. The speaker sounds incredible. While the unit only has a bass/treble switch for EQ emphasis control, Tecsun has calibrated these to the sweet spots for stereo-FM and MW/SW audio. No comparison to my Grundig 750, where the Bass control seems to pull up your highs for whatever reason, and whose speaker is far inferior, as far as sound is concerned. Bandwidth filtering on here is another stand out feature that Tecsun clearly but some work into. There are 4 selectable filtering options in AM, and 3 in SSB, and they are perfect for tuning out interference without sacraficing too much audio quality. I do wish that the 2.3 khz wide filter setting on AM were just a bit narrower. IMO your narrow filter should go for readability over sound fidelity, whereas Tecsun appears to have tried to save both. But there are no cases where the 2.3 khz wide filter has been inadequate enough to cause anything under a 3 in the SIMPO ratings of my reception reports, and I have logged about 250 with the Tecsun. The included random wire antenna works well. I suggest doing what I did: get some standard 3.5 mm cable extenders so that you can have the entire length of the reel outside. I mounted one that came with my 600 onto my chimney and ran it into my room with great results. Since I am about to move to the big city and outdoor antennas will be difficult, I also got the Kaito active loop and it works well with the Tecsun. What noise it does amplify is taken care of on the back end by the Tecsun. I have also used the Sangean reel antenna with the unit, with good results. I saved the best feature for last: the telescopic whip antenna. These are famous among shortwave listeners for, well, sucking at pulling in high frequency AM signals. Both my Tecsun 600 and my Grundig 750 are spotty with Radio Havana Cuba on 49 meters (and I am right here in Georgia where they should boom in) if just using the telescopic whip. RHC, along with tons of South American broadcasters, boom in on the barefoot Tecsun 880. I have logged Romania, Deutche Welle out of Rwanda, Australia, and more without any external on this thing. If tuning local FM stations, do not extend the whip at all: just stand it up. It is so sensitive that it will overdrive the unit. Extended, it can pull in FM signals from Atlanta that normally are marginal here in NW Georgia. It is extremely long, and at the end is thinner than a toothpick, so handle it carefully. One small complaint is that it does not fit snugly back into its socket. I think that the factory fastened it to the unit too tightly, so this may be fixable. Of course, serious DXing means you need something external. But it is nice to be able to listen to Radio Australia in the morning as I have my coffee without having to hook up the external. If the signal propagates well, the Tecsun's whip can pull it in on its own. Rare indeed for a shortwave radio. Hidden features are well documented so I wont go into them here. Reception: Sensitivity is excellent, although admittedly at times it is too sensitive. I have to attenuate the antenna gain, for example, when listening to the Voice of Vietnam's relay signal out of South Carolina. But better too sensitive than useless for DXing! Selectivity is this radios one major weak point. I think that Tecsun focused on delivering a really capable radio that can pull in signals like a champ at the expensive of a selective unit. This is really only a problem when tuning distant signals that are adjacent to domestic broadcasters. I have only needed to go over to my Grundig 750 to log a decent reception report once, however, so this problem is not a deal breaker. Since most SWLs have multiple radios, it is not even much of a concern. If you need better selectivity, go to something like the Grundig 750 or a high-end tabletop. I hear the 660 is more selective. My 600 is about the same as the 880. FM reception as I noted above is excellent. MW reception is good, not outstanding, but good. You will not be doing any MW DXing on this unit without something like the external ferrite passive loop that Eton offers. Cannot comment on LW since we do not have anyone broadcasting LW signals North America. When propagation conditions are poor, this radio far outperforms the 600 and the G-750. When they are excellent, this radio usually outperforms or matches them. It sounds better than both. It looks better than both. Save for Airband on the 750 (which is just there, but not any good at all) it matches them feature for feature and then some. It will not replace my Grundig, which hs become my go-to unit for MW DXing and my backup unit when I need the selectivity. But it has brought high-end features to my monitoring setup without the high end price tag. To the hardcore SWLs out there who want to give good reception reports: you need a portable exactly like this one. Why? Our hobby is a service to international broadcasters who want to know how they reach their audience. Broadcasters that beam signals to the developing world don't give a rats behind that you pulled in their station on a 4 grand transceiver that costs more than the lifetime income of many in their audience. They want to know how everyday radios pick up their station. Here you have an everyday radio. It may have functionality that blows other radios in its class out of the water, but it is nonetheless in that class. Not a perfect radio. But perfect enough for us SWL fanatics, and imperfect enough to make our reception reporting worthwhile.

Has very good reception on AM , FM and Amateur radio bands with SSB (Single side band ) . I have not used the memory feature yet but like the timed turn off because it helps me fall asleep and the radio turns off. I had to pick a 5 volt charging device but it does come with a mini USB plug in cord. It comes with a plug in external wire antenna and ear buds. Has a good instruction manual and a zippered leatherette carrying case . It has an easy to see display screen . I have had no reason to use the telescoping antenna yet as it has great reception for a small radio. It's approximately 7 1/2 inches (19 cm ) by 4 1/2 " ( 11 cm ) by 1 1/4 " ( 3 cm ) thick.

Good as expected.