Need help tecsun pl880

[stevecubfan]

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.

 

[stevecubfan]

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.

Disregard i missed the bag with the cable. my apologys

 

[N9JCQ]

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.

 

[ditto1958]

OP, how do you like it so far?

 

[stevecubfan]

Great mainly interested in the ham bands

 

[eagle2046]

Tecsun makes some great radios. I have a Tecsun PL-660 and it works great.

 

[Blackswan73]

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.

 

[Boombox]

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.

 

[eagle2046]

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]

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]

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.

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.

 

[eagle2046]

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.