IM an old fart getting back into shortwave after many years. I purchased a tecsun pl 880 radio. The port to charge the battery says dc 5v/1a no such adapter came with the radio. Now what ? thank you for your help.
Need help tecsun pl880
- Thread starter stevecubfan
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Disregard i missed the bag with the cable. my apologys
I don't have an 880 myself but its a highly regarded radio. The bands have been poor lately so be very patient. The stations we were used to hearing back in the day are mostly gone but there is still stuff to listen to, when the bands cooperate.
Great mainly interested in the ham bands
Tecsun makes some great radios. I have a Tecsun PL-660 and it works great.
Blackswan73
Active Member
Tecsun has a reputation of building quality shortwave radios. Their expertise dates clear back to the highly regarded Grundig Satellite 800. In fact, all their current offerings have a heritage going all the way back to the 800. You have already been bitten by the bug. Now wait and watch your radio collection multiply. I don’t know how they do it. Must happen while I’m asleep 😄
B.S.
B.S.
Be careful using an external antenna with the EXT antenna jack. Perhaps clip a wire to the whip antenna instead.
There have been at least two or three DXers who have said their PL-880's went deaf on SW, and one of them discovered that the EXT jack doesn't have protection diodes, while the whip antenna does.
I plan on getting a PL-880 later in the year. I clip my antenna to the whip antennas on all of my radios, and that method seems to work well.
There have been at least two or three DXers who have said their PL-880's went deaf on SW, and one of them discovered that the EXT jack doesn't have protection diodes, while the whip antenna does.
I plan on getting a PL-880 later in the year. I clip my antenna to the whip antennas on all of my radios, and that method seems to work well.
The Sangean ANT-60 Short Wave Antenna reel antenna does a pretty good job. Use it on my Malahit DSP-2 and my Sangean 909-X2. Easy to mount. Since my Malahit was sma I needed to get an adapter, no big deal.
cherubim
Member
The PL-880 is pretty sensitive off the whip and really doesn't need an external antenna if you're into broadcast listening on MW, FM or SW. I actually prefer the XHDATA D808 overall as it performs excellent on all bands with additional help at the front end with band pass filters.
saioke
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Anyone know if this is the same for the PL-330? I've cut a 3.5mm cable and a sma rg174 just to hook up my MLA-30 to the radio. Generally it picks up well but I don't want to continue using it if it'll damage it. Lately it seems like it isn't picking up nearly as good as my RTLSDR with a Tram 1410 Discone attached, and the Tram isn't even designed to go lower than 25mhz.
The Tecsun PL-880 does not have diode protection on it's external antenna input, so beware. While the internal telescopic whip antenna includes a reversed pair of 1N4148 diodes for static protection, the external antenna input completely lacks this built-in protection, making the RF front-end vulnerable to static charges and strong voltage spikes Static drain for outside long wire antenna. The Tecsun PL-330 has diode protection for its 3.5mm external antenna jack. The radio's RF front-end features a BAV99 dual switching diode to protect sensitive circuitry from static discharges and electrostatic shock.
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I have one, too
Very high quality
I didn’t realize that the PL-880 is triple conversion. The PL-660 is double conversion. Little bit of a difference, Only thing I don’t like about the PL-880 is that the Tecsun PL-880 does not have diode protection on it's external antenna input, but both are great radios.
As Eagle2046 said, the PL-330 has diode protection for both the whip and EXT antenna jack. The two inputs go to the same circuitry -- diode protection, 2 RF amps, some filters, into the DSP chip, basically.
No extra RF amp on the MW loop, though. But with an external tunable loop, the PL-330 DXes well enough.
I think the PL-880 has an RF amp FET on the MW loopstick circuit.
I hope to get a PL-880 before Fall, and intend to just use the whip antenna, or clip my wire antenna to the whip.
saioke
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Thanks for letting me know. I've taken apart my pl-330 once several months ago just to clean the internals and inspect things (bought it used off of eBay, so wanted to make sure it wasn't defective.) But I didn't consider looking into the internals too much. I just wanted to be sure none of the caps were burned, solder joints looked fine, etc.
But yeah, that must be why my MLA-30 does better than the internal loop on MW. Regardless, I'm just happy if I can bring in Coast to Coast am lol. The pl-880 looks like a great radio. I couldn't afford it, but if I had some money to throw around, I'd definitely upgrade to it as well. Fortunately the pl-330 does well enough for me.
I wish I could ditch my mla-30 for a long wire but I just don't have anything I can run it up vertically 20-30 feet. I thought about throwing it up on my roof but that would mean it's horizontal and I'm sure it wouldn't do nearly as well as the mla-30.
But yeah, that must be why my MLA-30 does better than the internal loop on MW. Regardless, I'm just happy if I can bring in Coast to Coast am lol. The pl-880 looks like a great radio. I couldn't afford it, but if I had some money to throw around, I'd definitely upgrade to it as well. Fortunately the pl-330 does well enough for me.
I wish I could ditch my mla-30 for a long wire but I just don't have anything I can run it up vertically 20-30 feet. I thought about throwing it up on my roof but that would mean it's horizontal and I'm sure it wouldn't do nearly as well as the mla-30.
I enjoy my PL-330. The only issue I had with it was the whip connector went a bit intermittent. I took the back off and hit the solder point on the PCB with a bit more solder. No issues since. During the solar peak period in 2024 I'd sometimes get a bit of overload on the high SW ham bands. A 150 ohm resistor between wire antenna and whip fixed it (I clip my wire antenna to the PL-330's whip for SW).
The PL-330's my workhorse for SW ham bands and SW. Sideband and CW are really good, especially through headphones. I sometimes DX the MW band with it, using an AN200 loop. The SYNC sometimes helps with weak signals next to a really strong local or regional signal.
I'm happy with the radio.
The PL-330's my workhorse for SW ham bands and SW. Sideband and CW are really good, especially through headphones. I sometimes DX the MW band with it, using an AN200 loop. The SYNC sometimes helps with weak signals next to a really strong local or regional signal.
I'm happy with the radio.
I did not mention anything regarding the Tecsun PL-330 but yes, the Tecsun PL-330 features built-in diode protection on its 3.5mm external antenna jack. The receiver's RF front-end is equipped with a BAV99 dual switching diode to help protect the circuit from static discharge and minor static build up. I have been checking out the Tecsun PL990 but don’t see anything special about it, no NOAA, no Air, yes I think it is triple conversion but it is $100 more than the PL-880.
Actually, you did mention the Tecsun PL-330 upthread, post #12, where you mentioned it does have diode protection.
I also need to correct one of my posts. I didn't have my PL-330 in 2024, I got it in March of 2025, which is when -- during a few good months where the 12-10M bands were kicking in (late Summer 2025 I think), I did get a little bit of overload / blocking from some overpowered CBers, which was remedied by clipping a 150 ohm resistor between the wire antenna and the whip.
I stand corrected BB, I did briefly mention it. Tecsun has a huge lineup of their radios, many choices. I really like my PL-660, don't see any reason to upgrade at this time. I am surprised that Tecsun hasn't yet got into SDR's.
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