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most functions are either available at the press of button–or by pressing and holding a button for three seconds A great portable radio for worldwide reception as well as local broadcast coverage on AM and FM. The short wave section offers superb performance on SSB and CW as well as AM. Even with the short telescopic antenna performance is great. and you get a great kit of parts and a smart travel case. I have never seen such a eager response and extraordinary anticipation over the announcement of a new portable radio as with the new Tecsun PL-880. And I’m not surprised. You see, it has been a couple years since a really good portable radio has been introduced to the market. Plus,Tecsun has proven itself a competent radio manufacturer; the predecessors to the PL-880–i.e., the PL-660 and PL-600–are both excellent portables (I own both). Their smaller DSP radios are favorites of travelers and ultralight enthusiasts. If your new review has not been Approved after several days you can assume that it was found to not be within the product review T's&C's shown below during screening.
No obscenities, discriminatory, abusive, or other content not suitable in public or for younger readers. But what does the PL-880 actually deliver? Let’s take a look… Drumroll, please….and now, the PL-880Products to be reviewed typically should be tangible ham radio related items such as radios, antennas, towers, test equipment, feedlines, etc.
When I turned on the PL-880 for the first time and (ironically) tuned to a local AM station on 880 kHz, I was most impressed by the audio fidelity of the 880’s built-in speaker. I believe the PL-880 uses a speaker system similar to the Melson portables: a small mylar speaker cone with some sort of acoustic chamber that produces great bass tones and treble highlights. The sound is room-filling…and delightful. Performance: First impressions Every radio has its pros and cons, of course. When I begin a review of a radio, I take notes from the very beginning so that I don’t forget my initial impressions. Following is the list I formed over the time I’ve been evaluating the Tecsun PL-880: Tuning increments are in very fine 10 Hz increments with absolutely no muting between frequencies…Brilliant. I then tuned all of the radios to 18,135 kHz, where ZD8UW (The Cambridge University Wireless Society) Ascension Island DXpedition was handling a pile-up. You won’t hear stations calling ZD8UW, because they were working split and listening on 18,141 kHz. There is an adjacent SSB station, though, that you’ll hear on the side. Receive FM mono/stereo, medium wave, long wave, short wave, short wave single side-band signals with this portable world band radio.
Performance: First impressions
Update: Jan 1, 2013] PL-880 owners living in urban areas with strong AM (MW) stations are hearing multiple images from those stations across the MW band, making it difficult for medium wave DXing. Until the PL-880 arrived I was using an ATS-909X up here – and seeing Thomas mention it here I thought I would ask about it. All in all, I really like the PL-880. It’s a quirky little rig that boasts more features than any other portable I’ve ever used (save the Eton E1). It’s sensitive, selective, has silky-smooth tuning and robust audio…but it’s not perfect. Many of the cons listed above could be fixed with firmware updates…ones which I hope users can make at home as opposed to needing to buy a newly-updated radio. The SYNC is also decent against mild fading but it can growl and squeal when conditions get challenging but it's at least useful compared to the 880, oh wait, it doesn't even have SYNC, ok, it does but it's in a hidden menu because it works so bad Tecsun tried to hide it out of embarrassment which they should. I’m not sure why Tecsun decided to hide these features. I’ll admit that I’ve really enjoyed hunting for and discovering them–most are terrific additions. On the other hand, it has been frustrating as well: I came close to posting an article describing what seemed to be an unfortunate audio stability problem in the PL-880, as I found that when I tuned in a weak station, if the signal level either fell below or climbed above 5, the audio gain would increase or decrease dramatically, making listening very fatiguing. A reader then discovered the hidden “muting threshold” feature, and the story changed. I found that my radio had shipped with a default threshold of “5”– I was able to turn off muting, changing the threshold to zero, and this instantly fixed the problem.
Choosing a bandwidth couldn’t be easier: simply press the “AM BW” button to display the current bandwidth setting, then either use either tuning control to widen or narrow the filter, or press the “AM BW” button to cycle through the options. Though I haven’t tried FM DXing with the PL-880, like other recent Tecsuns, it seems outstanding in this regard. (Herein lies the extent of my FM test…More to come.) Supplied battery charger is a bit noisy on medium wave and shortwave if listening while charging. (Not a problem for me, as I’m a batteries-only listener.) With all of its features and functions, hidden or not, I’ve found the PL-880 to be a challenging, but thoroughly enjoyable, portable to evaluate. Indeed, I’m still not done yet: I plan to take my new PL-880 traveling in the future. So, stay tuned: there’s more to come!The new Flagship portable radio from prestigious radio manufacturer Tecsun fitted with analogue Hi-IF circuit, multi conversion , & DSP decoding technology, which greatly enhances the sensitivity, selectivity and reduces interference from close by stations. With that disclaimer out of the way, I find that the PL-880 certainly holds its own on the AM broadcast band (570-1600 kHz). The PL-880 can hear every local and relatively distant AM station that my C.Crane CCRadio-SW could hear. For this type of armchair listening, the PL-880’s speaker delivers fidelity that is nearly unmatched amongst portables of similar size. It’s most impressive. The first test was in AM, and I chose Radio Exterior de España on 9,605 kHz, which was moderately weak compared to other broadcasters on the 31 meter band. I recorded one minute clips. Halfway through the PL-660 and ICF-SW7600GR clips, I turned on the sync detector. On the PL-880, I simply turned on SSB, as I did not feel that its sync detector added to intelligibility. The keypad on the front of the PL-880 has a quality response/feel. Selecting a frequency is as easy as entering the number in kHz. No other button pushes are needed, much like the PL-660, and the Grundig G3. By pressing the “SW METER BAND” up/down controls, you can move through the broadcast bands with ease. Indeed, if you change the mode to SSB and use the same up/down arrows, the PL-880 will cycle through the amateur radio bands as well. Nice touch, Tecsun! I have owned a host of small portable radios and this beats all. It is sensitive and selective, plus offers great audio for FM. I am seriously considering building a small TR switch and mating it with a QRP transmitter it is that good.
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