Opinions on the Tecsun PL880 appreciated

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randyh57

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I want to get back into SW Monitoring,mostly Side Band and Utility's and some other bands also..Is the
Tecsun PL880
A solid choice for my means? They seem to get good reviews, great battery life.portable of course but i have never had a Tecsun so considered about quality.

Thank you!
 

iMONITOR

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N2IXX

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I have one an think it is a solid performer. I also like the number of memory banks where I can keep the stations i like and use the others to hold stations when i do a scan for active station it can hear. SSB works well and battery life is quite good. You might want to pick up a spare 18650 battery to swap out or you can just let the radio charge the one it came with. Some like the PL-660 for its better AM Synchronous Detection but I never use it anyway. I find the sensitivity and selectivity to be quite good.
 

ka3jjz

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As I understand it, the sync on the 880 doesn't work all that well; however it's been rated as quite good, but the 660 is supposed to have better sideband quality. There is a groups.io reflector for this radio - it's gone rather quiet lately but (apart from anyone here) you might find some additional comments .....


There have been any number of reviews on this radio, and it would be wise to check them out.

Now that you're talking about the radio-what about the antenna? Our Receive Antennas below 30 Mhz forum is for that, but keep in mind that a good radio won't perform well without a good antenna...


Be as specific as you can about your situation - can you put something outside? How much room do you have? Are you a tinkerer who knows how to solder? These are all important considerations

Mike
 

ka3jjz

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If you want to get into Utilities, this is where you need to be


And you should also check out the companion site


Mike
 

randyh57

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As I understand it, the sync on the 880 doesn't work all that well; however it's been rated as quite good, but the 660 is supposed to have better sideband quality. There is a groups.io reflector for this radio - it's gone rather quiet lately but (apart from anyone here) you might find some additional comments .....


There have been any number of reviews on this radio, and it would be wise to check them out.

Now that you're talking about the radio-what about the antenna? Our Receive Antennas below 30 Mhz forum is for that, but keep in mind that a good radio won't perform well without a good antenna...


Be as specific as you can about your situation - can you put something outside? How much room do you have? Are you a tinkerer who knows how to solder? These are all important considerations

Mike
Thanks,in the past i just strung a long wire 30 feet or more If I remember right. Not hard to do and it was effective..So I might try that again..And i know its not what it used to be as far as activity..Likely mostly use it in the evenings.
 

MikeThompson

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I have just started in the shortwave game. After a lot of review reading and humming and hawing, I decided on the PL-660. Bearing in mind I have a limited idea of what I'm doing, and I can only compare it to a 50 year old Grundig radio, the PL660 is quite good.

I've paired it with 100ft of speaker wire strung on the eaves of my house. I can usually get quite a few stations in the evening, dependant on other factors of course. I've just started fiddling with SSB, and I can usually grab someone talking.

There are about 2 dozen features on there I don't know the function of yet. But I am new to the hobby and learning. I'm sure one day this will all be old hat to me.

When the radio shipped to me, it didn't come with an English manual so I had to download one.

Hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
 

N9JCQ

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I have the Tecsun PL-660 and I am very happy with it. I use it to monitor some ham nets and for some shortwave listening. AM receive is very good in my opinion and the fact that it uses 4 AA batteries is a plus in my book. be cautious if you get the PL-660 that the power supplies supplied with the radio generate quite a bit of noise. It's a lot of bang for the buck in my opinion. There are tons of reviews of both radios on Youtube.
 

krokus

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I have just started in the shortwave game. After a lot of review reading and humming and hawing, I decided on the PL-660. Bearing in mind I have a limited idea of what I'm doing, and I can only compare it to a 50 year old Grundig radio, the PL660 is quite good.

I've paired it with 100ft of speaker wire strung on the eaves of my house. I can usually get quite a few stations in the evening, dependant on other factors of course. I've just started fiddling with SSB, and I can usually grab someone talking.

There are about 2 dozen features on there I don't know the function of yet. But I am new to the hobby and learning. I'm sure one day this will all be old hat to me.

When the radio shipped to me, it didn't come with an English manual so I had to download one.

Hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
Check some of the YouTube videos, to show some of the features.
 

ka3jjz

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If you get the 660, you might be able to find an alternate supplier for the wall wart here


Cheap wall warts are almost invariably a source of noise - so it's not very surprising at all...Mike
 

KM4OBL

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In my opinion, based on owning A PL-880, the sideband reception is excellent on the new PL-880 units. Much of the criticism of the sideband reception in reviews is in reviews of early units. After several firmware revisions and possibly some unannounced hardware revisions, I don't see a lot of criticism of the sideband reception on the PL-880 from recent purchasers. Of course, because I don't own a PL-660, I can't compare that model to the PL-880.
 

N9JCQ

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If you get the 660, you might be able to find an alternate supplier for the wall wart here


Cheap wall warts are almost invariably a source of noise - so it's not very surprising at all...Mike
I think that group is dead on Yahoo. There is one active on io. groups though.
 

w2xq

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ka3jjz

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This is a re-release of the 750 which had been out on the market for awhile now. Whether there's any improvements from the original I have no clue. Mike
 
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