TECSUN PL-380 DSP FM Stereo. MW. SW. LW. World Band PLL Radio Receiver, LCD Display, ETM Function Added

I have been a shortwave listener for 61 years, an amateur radio operator for 32 years and did military communications for many years. I have owned receivers dating back to the 1920s most of which I worked on and enjoyed for many years. The reason I mention all of this is it might lend my review a little more weight than a review from someone who doesn't really know what they are talking about. I received the radio on Thursday and I put it through its paces for many hours on MW, SW and FM. I was really shocked by the performance on FM. It is better than my Sony 2010 on FM and bear in mind that the Sony cost about 8 times as much! I live in a horrible area for FM because there are mountains and hills in all 4 directions. What is called multipath distortion is caused by the station you are listening to bouncing its transmitted radio waves off the mountains and hills so they arrive at your radio at different times and angles. This little radio gives me a perfectly clear signal from Portland, Maine which is 65 miles away. My Grundig YB400 pe cannot quite do that and neither can my Sony 2010. On FM the only other portable I have which can get this station cleanly is my Sangean ATS 909 Deluxe which cost $ 289.95. I had mods done to the Sangean which cost me 50 bucks so it was worth it. The Tecsun is $ 46 dollars and it is really a keeper. The SW performance is stellar at this price point and the variable bandwidth feature is great! On MW I know there is a station in Cuba on 530 Khz and the Tecsun was picking it up about an hour ago very faintly which is surprising as I live 85 miles from Canada. I set it near my Tecsun AN-200 MW loop antenna and the Tecsun pair really hauled the signal up enough so I was able to hear it quite well. A word on some of the radio reviews and I perceive a lack of logic in quite a few. For instance the criticism that an external antenna cannot be hooked up to this radio. Wrong! One reviewer said that some of his other models of portables overload when he attaches an outside antenna. Either shorten the antenna or take and inductively couple it to the whip. It is a simple fix so do some research on radio sites if you are interested. On Youtube one reviewer said he liked this radio but then said the only negative was that it doesn't receive ssb signals. Balderdash! You wouldn't buy this radio if you want ssb capability so that is not a negative! That really is a stupid statement. It wasn't designed for ssb as it is an entertainment broadcast radio and the engineers did a great job with this little treasure. Oh yes, I once reviewed a model airplane and it was a four engine model and I really loved it. The only negative was that it couldn't maneuver near as well as my buddy's Mitsubishi Zero. See what I mean about nonsense? I am extremely impressed with this little gem and it came with an English instruction manual and a one year warranty. If the radio all of a sudden refuses to turn on with good batteries, take the batteries out of the radio and after 30 minutes or so put them back in. In winter in colder climates the air can be very dry and there is a lot of static around. A tiny static pulse from just having the radio near a miniscule charge can lock up the circuitry. What you have done is a reset and hopefully that will fix it. It has happened to me with my 350 dollar Sony 2010 so don't blame the radio as it is sometimes normal with any radios that have memory chips in them. Today I went to turn on my new PL 380 and it was dead. Did a reset and now just picked up Cuba on 530 Khz a few minutes ago barefoot without the Tecsun loop. Amazing for such a small 46 dollar radio. Oh yes, I think the audio produced by this radio is excellent and can fill a decent sized room. Have fun, read the manual and remember to do a reset if it locks up!

Really pleased with this amazing radio. Won't rehash the content of other reviews but will mention a couple of things that I find most notable. I'm a radio amateur and an SBE CPBE broadcast engineer. FM performance is outstanding. One reason for this is that the radio dynamically adjusts the detected bandwidth according to signal strength. This so far unmentioned behavior results in a major threshold enhancement plus essentially eliminates adjacent channel splatter. As well the high resolution "dBu" and "dB S/N" signal strength indication is handy for snap signal comparisons among FM stations. Due to design sophistication the PL-380 FM performance is very noticeably better than my Kaito KA1102, which was already quite good. I saw that very strong nearby FM signals can desense the front end of both receivers, but that hasn't been a practical issue so far. AM band performance is good, plus the adjustable bandwidth is a great touch. The KA1102 may be just slightly more sensitive on AM, but both radios are very adequate in my opinion. Plus again there's the handy nuanced PL-380 signal strength indication. SW performance is very good. The PL-380 is noticeably more sensitive than my KA1102 plus the bandwidth is adjustable as with AM. The KA1102 does have a functional BFO so CW and SSB reception is possible, but I very seldom use that, so it wasn't a consideration. The PL-380 is the hotter receiver. On LW the PL-380 is very insensitive, but that's not a practical issue. I can't get a single aircraft beacon station on it and can with other receivers. Probably works OK in those countries with LW broadcasting as those stations are often very powerful. The PL-380 is far easier to use in hand than the Kaito. The tuning arrangement is extremely convenient and better thought out than that of my Kaito 1102. The PL 380 speaker audio quality is acceptable. When you shop Tecsun radios note that not all models use the SiLabs receiver chip as this one does. The behavior I describe applies to the Tecsun full DSP models with that ingenious chip. I haven't used the PL-380 long enough away from the batteries, but I can tell you that the KA1102 with three 2Ah AA batteries will only run a small matter of hours before recharge is necessary. It's a serious power hog. The KA1102 is not the radio to take on a multi-day backwoods trip. However, others report that the PL-380 has very good battery life. It should since it is a far simpler design. The bottom line is that I like the PL-380 so much more than my two Kaito KA1102 radios that I've set the latter around the house as little local radios and will be using the PL-380 as my primary portable. My KA1102's are a 10 year old design that has been overtaken in the march of technology.

Excelente y muy manejable

I don’t often take the time to write reviews but I do when I care when this may help or influence people in going for it or avoiding it. There are a lot of other reviews - read those. Read the ones on specialized websites like eHam where people in the know can give you a proper review. Summary For the price, this seems to offer a lot of features and be of reasonable quality. Pros: Easy tuning mode(ETM): searching for frequencies with activity when you have thousands possible is impossible to do manually (well not really but you get idea) this facilitates it. ETM doesn’t overwrite your existing preferences - smart Regional settings: can customize to various settings Thermometer: not sure accurate, but get ambient temperature You can recharge your 3 NiMH AA batteries via USB - this is soo practical. I have 3 cheapo dollar store Panasonic NiMH batteries and works great. Included external antenna, which is basically a piece of high gauge wire (did not measure it, but seems like 8 to 12 feet long) with clip that snaps to extended built-in antenna, and with other end that clips to something (like a smaller version of those potato chip bags clips). Works. This does NOT attach to an internal Antenna port like other SW radios do. Backlight, clock, alarm, button lock functions etc, makes a lot of sense. Gain and S/SN display: this is incredibly useful and interesting, you can “see” what the radio “hears”. Great for adjusting positioning of radio/antenna. Works for all bands. Little display that shows you what wavelength band plan you are in (10meter band, 11 meter band, etc). As an amateur radio operator I like this. For AM/SW/LW you can change the bandwidth from 6,4,3,2, or 1 Khz. This is extremely useful on some hard to hear stations. Comes in a usable neoprene like case. I squish my radio, manual, antenna and headphones in mine. Cons: Manual is in improved “chinglish” - I’ve seen worse, but some translation needed No single sideband (USB or LSB) - this is typically a feature of >$100 SW radios, but would have been REALLY sweet to have, but alas, not here. (this is useful for weather fax and other data sent over the airs, typically used by sailors and others) If settings to North American FM spacing setting, assumes temperature in F, vs 9hz spacing (asia) in C. Canada and other civilized countries use 10 Mhz spacing and don’t use Fahrenheit (booooooo. Stupid setting). Wish this was a specific setting, but alas does not see to be the case. There have been comments about the internal AM antenna being of limited size due to the radio’s limited size. I haven’t had any issues with local AM stations, so YMMV. There are some publicized hacks on those who like to take things apart, you can find those online. Some have noted that the speaker quality does not compare to more expensive speaker sound quality. Big surprise. You can always output the audio to an external speaker or headphones. Someone noted that this doesn’t have the NOAA Weather Bands. That could have been useful, but many people have those on their FRS/GMRS two way radios, emergency radios, or dedicated units. You can get a $25-$35 baofeng dualband radio and use it as a scanner and weather radio (just don’t break the rules) or have your nerd friend configure it for you if you are unable to do so (And also benefit from other interesting bands like Marine weather, etc). Also, some people (like me) like to read the manual to get better info on the specs. This was one was hard to find, but I found it for you, so here it is: http://tecsunradio.cantonmade.com/files/2011/12/Tecsunradio-PL-380-English-Manual-PDF-Download.pdf Overall this is an impressive radio for something <CAD$60. Are there Radios with more sensitivity, better RF shielding, stronger speakers, more speakers? Sure. Not at anything near this price point. Don’t take my word for it, look at the other reviews. Good enough as an everyday AM/FM radio, scan SW/LW channels at night to see if you can pick up interesting international channels. Could be useful when camping under the stars and want to hear something else than your mp3 or other devices.

Good choice, value for money. Working as per expectation. Free delivery to AlMagrudy was not my choice.

Súper recomendable, tiene muy buena recepción de todas sus bandas, vivo en Tizimín Yucatan y capta señal desde Miami hasta Francia

I wish to have more brighten display panel