Hi - I'm sorry to say you couldn't have picked a harder radio to programme than the PL360 if you tried, I bought one and after a couple of days trying to make any sense out of the 'manual' I chucked into the bottom drawer and never touched it again until just now! Lets see if I can make any sense out of the 'short presses' and 'long presses'!
OK, let's assume that you have had the charger plugged in for a couple of days and the little battery symbol at the top left of the display shows that its fully charged. You should only use nickel magnesium hydride batteries (Ni-MH). If you haven't charged the batteries, then you can use any USB charger or plug it in to a running computer - check that it is actually charging - (here we go!) - short press on the "VM" button (lower row in the middle has a battery symbol in red) then a long press on the same button, the display should show "CHA" and the battery symbol will show that it's charging.
So lets go right back to what you want to hear - the WWV time signal. WWV has three useable frequencies, 5000kHz, 10000kHz and 15000kHz and a couple of others that you may or may not hear, 2500kHz and 25000kHz. You haven't said where you are located so I'll just have to guess where you will get the best reception. An easy one to find is the 15.MHz frequency which should work all day in the US. Short press on the "Power" button, it will come up on the last frequency you used. Short press the "VF" to get into frequency mode, the short press on the SW down arrow, the display will show the frequency band top right such as '13mb" - the 13 meter band - keep short pressing the up or down arrow buttons until is shows "19mb" and the frequency should miraculously show 15000kHz! Pull the whip antenna out as far as it will go and turn up the volume thumbwheel a bit until you hear some noise. You should hear the WWV male voice announce the time at 7 seconds before the minute beep and maybe even the female voice from Hawaii at 15 seconds before. No?
Perhaps you're too close, works for me in the afternoon. Ok, lets try for the 10000kHz frequency - we will have to tune this one. Short press the SW down arrow until the display shows the 31mb and 9200kHz - now turn the tuning thumbwheel many times to increase the display frequency to 10000kHz. Can you hear the signal now? Should be good late afternoon until mid evening - works for me and I'm a lot further away than you. Ok, lets try the 5000kHz frequency from early evening onwards. Short press the SW down arrow until the display shows 60mb and 4700kHz and the turn the tuning thumbwheel up until the display shows 5000kHz. Surely you must hear something now!
If you want to store these frequencies into memory locations, just short press the "MEM" button then quickly rotate the frequency thumbwheel until it says 001 or whatever number you want, then short press "MEM" again. Repeat for the other two frequencies with a different memory number of course. To recall the memories, short press on "VM" and then turn the frequency thumbwheel to the desired memory number - wait for the display to return to normal before rotating the wheel to the next location.
A word of caution about the whip antenna - don't push it down from the top! One slight misalignment and it will bend/break. Pull it down into the case from the bottom thick parts then finally you can push it all home. Don't forget, HF radio is not like your local AM broadcast station, propagation is entirely dependent on the time of day and the atmospheric conditions. OK, that should be enough for todays lesson - let us know how you got on! Have a play with the "MW" or "FM" broadcast bands now that you know how to move around. We may get on to the Auto tuning later!
