PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver

TLDR: Outstanding Audio Quality, Excellent Top-Notch Performance (sensitivity/selectivity-but with a controversial ssb/sync issue), Ease of Use, Rechargeable Battery Operation, Extreme Performance to Price Ratio, The Best Quality Control of Amazon Offerings. I have been into DXing since I was a kid cuz my dad had also been into radio when he was a kid, building crystal radios, etc. The original single store Radio Shack was in the city where I grew up and a weekend outing with my father to The Radio Shack was always an adventure. As a teen I had a Hallicrafters as a bedside radio. Skip to 1990's. Lived in a high rise with a balcony where I could set up an awesome antenna. Discovered E&B Electronics (now closed), a 20 minute drive from my home that sold top shelf SW,Ham Transceivers, UHF Scanners, but I eventually had to move to a condo with no balcony and had generally lost interest. In my storage closet are a Drake R8, an Icom IC-R7100 (unblocked), an AOR 3000A(unblocked), and an iconic Sony ICF-SW77. For the past 10 years my bedside radio has been a small portable 5 station preset Sony ICF-M410V that I paid $60 for. (It's still available on Amazon but the link is like a paragraph long). It served me well and had good sound from its 3" speaker. It's tuning knob now only goes in one direction so I decided to replace it. I have been studying the top battery operatable AM/FM/SW radios on Amazon for over a month. I must have watched at least 50 comparative videos on YouTube and concluded that the PL880 could not be beat performance wise and sound quality was important to me. (The PL 600 was right up there at the top of the performance scale, but my major use of the radio will be for FM listening and sound quality was of great importance to me.) Along with performance, the single factor that made me ulitamately zero in on this Tecsun PL880 was quality and quality control. Yeah, I'd like to have a Grundig 750 cuz it looks so cool, or a Sangean 909x cuz of it's display (but sub par performance without an outside antennae), or a CC Crane, but looking at all the reviews for those there were just too many peeps who received dead on arrivals or short-lived radios. The Tecsun has almost none that I saw. So when I saw the PL880 being offered for same day delivery yesterday I impulsively pulled the trigger and I am happy I did. This radio excudes the feel of quality. It's audio quality is nothing short of amazing. I keep a Grundig S3250DL on my desk. The Grundig is known for its excellent sound. If you were not doing a side by side comparison, unless you are tone deaf, you would have to admit that the audio quality from the PL880 is outstanding both for voice and music. It also can pump it out at room filling volumes. Side by side, while I can hear a subtle overall difference, the audio that the PL880 puts out is hard to distinguish from that of the Grundig. Kudos to Tecsun! While I am not yet fully familiar with the operation of the 880, 5 minutes after the battery was installed and fully charged I did a scan on the FM/AM/SW bands; 1.) FM Band - I was stunned at the number of stations that I had been missing with my Sony and the excellent radio I have in my car. All crystall clear; 2.) AM was ok but much better than expected.In the building where I live the way it is configured and the materials used to construct it AM is hardly worth the effort, yet the 880 pulled in quite a few stations well that I did not know existed; 3.) SW - Then I said what the hay and attached the included antenna, ran it across a window inside and did a SW scan. I expected nothing, but got 39 hits :-) Some were very strong and clear, but as they were all foreign speaking except one, I have no idea where they were broadcasting from. Looks like my DXng days have been revived. I do agree with those who say that the final top extension of the antenna is extremely thin and fragile. I wil not be extending the antenna its full length because of this . Also, having lived with this radio for a few days now, I find accessing stored channels somewhat cumbersome and anti-intuitive, but I gues that's the price you pay for having THREE THOUSAND storage channels :-) If you can spare the bucks and are looking for an outstanding sounding, battery operated, easily portable, handome looking radio (with the added benefits of SW/LW/Emergency Info. abilities), buy yourself a PL880 -You'll love it. The way I look at it, at my age if I can buy myself a thrill for $169 bucks it's a great deal :-)

What a great DX'r! It does what it was built to do! The Tecsun PL-880 is now my No. 1 go to tuner. The radio controls are ergonomic and intuitive. The sound is impressive with its larger speaker. There are more features on this radio than most comparable radios. Tecsun just makes good radios. Period. I will put them up against any other brand. The tuner seems very sensitive to input from the controls. Day time channel surfing is impressive, and night time is incredible. I live in a deaf area in the rural southwest. I have an extensive radio collection and this one beats them all. I'm sorry I waited so long to pull the trigger. From features like the easily replaceable single 18650 Li-on battery, to the dial back lighting switch, to the stereo switching capability, the bandwidth selector, to the now current Type C charging port. The feature list is extensive and I only name a few here. The antenna gain switch is a nice touch. So far, I haven't needed an external antenna for much. Using a clip-on adapter to the telescoping antenna does help FM reception during the afternoon and early evening hours. But it is not entirely necessary and the signal strength meter says so. There is not much S/W radio out here. But I did pick up a station out of the Miami area the first night. The AM is so strong, adding a secondary inductive coupling antenna only increases the gain to an uncomfortable hissing level on some stations. I don't use head phones, but I did connect the "line out" jack to my home stereo receiver Aux input for fun. The sound was as good as it gets. There aren't many FM stations here to choose from but the 'stereo" is there if you want it. There was no low-level hissing and the Stereo separation was quite good. The "tone" selector switch seems more like a high pass filter, and I just leave it on "treble" The sound really is awesome for a radio with a single speaker. Tecsun knocked it out of the park on this one feature alone. When I am looking to pull in more distant FM stations, I turn the stereo selector to "mono" and the reception gets better. The extendable antenna is very long. Reception is strong. The digital tuner does cut out DX lower power stations. That's just a fact. But it does so in a way that favors the stronger stations and makes them more listenable. To be honest, most distant stations here aren't listenable at all. I don't like listening to noise. This radio pulls in stations and makes them clearer if you set it up right. Read ALL the instructions. If I want those weaker stations, I have other older analog radios to do the job. The ATS tuning is nice, and there are more memory locations than I know what to do with. I manually save the clearer S/W channels, and will never utilize all of the memory on this radio. The bandwidth selector helps dial in weaker radio signals. The USB and LSB are there if you need them. The radio has a nice plastic case and the tuning knobs are metal. There is a nice weight to the radio. All the controls are in the perfect position for operating it while holding it in your hands. There is a kickstand on the back which lays the radio back a little. I use a radio stand when I am not hands on with it. The clock feature is 24 hours only unless I havent yet figured out how to change it. Features like alarms on receivers seem gimmicky. I never use them. But it is there if you need it. There are no flashlights, solar panels, or sirens on this radio, and there should not be. The signal meter, and signal to noise ratio meter is nice. You can switch to the current alarm time status, or ambient air temp. This is a serious radio for DX'ing. No gimmicks are necessary. The Tecsun PL-880 doesn't need them, and I applaud the manufacturer for resisting any urge to add them. The included rechargeable 18650 button top battery is at the lower end. It still does last a long while. I left the radio on for a full afternoon and an into the evening session, and it still had some charge the next day. It is easy to change out and the choice of replacements with more amp hours is unlimited. You can almost double the playtime with the "right" battery... I know that there are more Tecsun radios with stereo speakers, like the PL-990x and the H501, but they do not get the sound quality that this radio enjoys with its large and "tuned" Hi-Fi speaker. The fidelity really is amazing! I watched quite a few reviews before purchasing this radio, and I think that I made the right choice. The brown leather (look) storage case is a nice touch. There are other nice accessories available from Tecsun as well. A plastic foam lined case is on my list of them as is a long wire antenna, and a second rechargeable battery. The 18650 is nice, and easy to upgrade to a higher milliamp battery, but I would like to see a BL-5c battery here and maybe an on-board storage compartment for the extra battery. I would also like to see Tescun produce a larger "table" radio with these features. Something bigger like the C.Crane CC3. A radio that I could leave in the kitchen or on the fireplace mantle. This is a nice portable radio that can double duty as a kitchen table top radio. The reception and sound are simply amazing and I have nothing but positive things to say. I don't regret my purchase and neither will you! I can't wait to travel to other cities and see what my radio will do!

I've had the radio for about a week now. It's excellent in its class, having been an Extra Class Amateur Radio operator for 38 years, originally licensed in 1967, with a 21 year career in the US Army Signal Corps. I've used numerous HF (aka SW) receivers, military and civilian, some quite high end. My original "portable" receiver is a 1977 Sony DR-22 (aka RF-2200). It's showing its age with dirty switch contacts, dirty contacts in the rotary controls (potentiometers for volume, RF Gain, etc.) and undoubtedly aging circuit capacitors going leaky. Worked extremely well for its era and class. I consider this one similar in overall performance thus far. The decision was narrowed down to the similarly priced Eton Elite Executive. Aircraft band wasn't important to me and comparison reviews gave this one better audio from its larger speaker. The modern household is loaded with RF noise generators, from laptops to compact fluorescent and LED lamps, and the big LCD TV in the family room. The internal antennas are great for local AM and FM broadcast stations. The built-in whip antenna will pick up weaker signals, along but also all the RF noise being generated in the home. Works much better with an external long-wire antenna - especially mounted at a window. Serious SWL'ers use large outdoor antennas - along with lighting protection on them. Super if you have one, but not necessary for most SWL listening. Anyone that serious should also be looking at a much more expensive desktop communications receiver. Don't expect great performance living in cubeville inside an office building with fluorescent lights everywhere and surrounded by steel reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling. While not a Faraday Cage, some offices come close to it. In SW mode the band up and down feature (two buttons) makes large leaps up and down the HF spectrum to various SWL broadcast bands when not using USB or LSB - plus WWV's time signal frequencies. When the USB or LSB BFO is switched in, it jumps between amateur radio bands, a nice feature as that's normally the only use for the sideband BFO. Comes with nice faux leather zipper case, external long-wire antenna wound around a frame to store it with a spring clip that allows clipping the end of it somewhere convenient to hold it up, wired stereo earbuds and a 5V USB cable for charging the battery while it's inside the radio (also powers the radio)). You can use a 5V USB wall plug to run it from an AC wall outlet. I've got a half dozen or more of those laying about for charging cell phones, tablets and iPods. Downsides: The zipper case is nice, but will only hold the radio itself, not any of the accessories, which risks them being misplaced and lost, especially when traveling. The rotary knobs are on the right side and must be rotated on their sides from the front. You cannot rotate them on the end as they don't protrude far enough for that. The main tuning knob cannot be rapidly spun. For rapid frequency change across a SW band I entire a leap on the keypad and then tune from there, as the SW up and down are quite large leaps. The rechargeable lithium is very good with decent energy to power the radio for some time. Better than AA cells. It uses a 3.7V 2000 mAh 18650 Li-ion with button top, about 69.2mm in length (these vary from 65mm-70mm), so one that has internal protection circuitry and even a USB charging port should fit if it's no longer than 70mm. I strongly recommend one with internal protection. It also require a button top on the "+" end as the battery box has an inset on that end to prevent putting a battery in backward (a flat top won't work). Thus you can use a higher capacity if you wish. Note that flat tops without internal protection are made for use bundled with others in battery packs, such as those found in older laptops. Overall I give it high performance marks for a portable, especially in its size class. It can easily fit into a suitcase for travel without taking up any more space than a man's modest shaving kit (some men travel with an entire medicine cabinet of stuff; I don't). Took off one star because the accessories don't fit in its leatherette zipper case. No photos or video uploaded; wouldn't add anything to those already uploaded with other reviews.

I had read quite a bit about Kaito's latest addition to their line of fine, well built and well engineered line of small portable worldband radios. Being an amateur radio enthusiast and long-time shortwave listener myself, I am always looking for something new and exciting to add to my own collection of portable and tabletop receivers so, with that in mind as well as all of the positive feedback for this radio I went ahead and "took the plunge' and ordered one from Amazon. First off, I am an Amazon "Prime" subscriber so my little radio arrived within two days time; always a nice feature especially if you time it's arrival, as I did, to be right before a long, holiday weekend! The radio was sent through a company named "Electonnix". Great packaging, o bumps or bruises to the box or to the radio which was, (of course!), contained inside of the package and which upon visual inspection was in excellent condition. The radio itself is truly a small portable rig in all of the best senses of that definition. Packaged with the radio were the following: 1. Ear buds 2. USB chord (for recharging the battery) 3. A small Lithium battery 4.A reel type wire exension antenna 5. User Manual The radio works great, folks! Although the location I live in is not the best for any true long distance reception, this little radio, with the extra wire antenna extended, allowed me to listen to such far off shortwave broadcasters as Radio India, Radio Havanna, Radio Japan and many of the other more well known world band broadcasters as well! The radio does NOT come with a "wall wort",( i.e. an AC charger!) It recharges the battery through the use of a small USB chord that can be plugged into any computer OR connected to the power plug of virtually any cellphone, Ipod or tablet charger! The controls on this radio are pretty straight forward! Nice tunning knob as well as a fine tuning knob located directly beneath of it! The tone of this radio is both rich and pleasant to the ear, unlike so many other of the other small portable radios out there in the marketplace! There are quite a few "hidden features" associated with this radio that I have read about on the various radio sites out there on the internet, (the synchronous detector, the muting feature, firmware version indicator, etc.) To be honest, I haven't gotten around to searching out those features as of yet. I plan on doing that very soon! In conclusion I can only say that, given the price for this little radio, and knowing something about the quality of Kaito built radios I have owned in the past, I do not hesitate to recommend this little gem to anyone out there looking for a well built, smaller portable world ban radio! Happy DXing!

First impressions...WOW!! This radio is great! I've been an SWL'er for a while now and have several receivers. I have an old Radio Shack DX-398 basically a Sangean 909) which I wanted to upgrade from. I decided on the Tecsun PL-880, and I made the right decision. I considered the 990, but you don't get much more functionality or quality than the 880, for $100 bucks more. I wanted to get a nice portable radio to take with me in the field. At home I have an ICOM R-75, so believe me I understand high quality receivers. Personally, I think the PL-880 is the best bang for your buck in smaller portable receivers. Is it better than the ICOM R-75? No, but it doesn't cost 10x as much either. I've run the PL-880 through its paces and it did astoundingly well for what it is. It is a very feature-rich radio. On shortwave it is very sensitive and picks up stations all over the world even in poor atmospheric conditions (like today). On the MW band (AM) it did shockingly well and picked up stations thousands of miles away. I haven't played around with FM too much, but it sounds great. The sound quality of the radio is top notch. The controls are easy to master. I've read some negative reviews about the receiver sensitivity on SSB, but mine seems to work excellent with no drift. Plus, one of the hidden features can adjust the calibration (which I adjusted up about 1kHz on LSB). Great radio, quick painless delivery and overall I am very impressed. One side note; I did use the external antenna (included) for most of my shortwave DX'ing, so I do recommend this (for all shortwave radios actually).

This is a great shortwave radio which allows further customization with "hidden" features as noted on other reviews. On my first evening of listening, I heard a good transmission from an Australian radio station (ABC Radio) using the included wire antenna sitting on my deck; I'm in central Texas. The FM band sounds as good as my iHome iH9 radio which has two speakers. Both the FM and AM bands pick up stations that a dedicated AM/FM can't. The side-bands work well too. I've used this for about 25 hours now. Product seems well designed and built. I got over 14 hours of use with the battery. The line out to a digital recorder worked perfectly. It pays off to read the manual which does a good job of going over the features and controls. The internet also has lots of helpful information. If possible, I'd rate this at 4.5 for two minor issues. The first one is that this radio cannot keep time. Within a day, It can easily be off by +/- 20 seconds; so don't waste time trying to display the seconds using the "hidden" feature. Secondly, it doesn't use common batteries such as AA or AAA. I suggest buying a dedicated charger and spare batteries. This device will pick up interference from chargers and other items such as computers and routers. To me, this aspect is a positive sign of it reception capabilities. I'm really happy with this purchase.

What a lovely little machine this is. With a smartphone in my pocket at all times, there is something refreshing about a quality purpose driven device that does one thing (or a few related things) very well. That's exactly what this is: very full-featured radio receiver, and absolutely nothing else. Beautiful. First of all as a traditional AM/FM radio receiver, this delivers warm, and brilliant sounding music and voice. This is my primary purpose: I was looking for a portable radio to take to the park/beach and listen to local jazz or baseball on the radio (I'm in my early 30's going on 75, I know), and it does this perfectly. The size and weight is actually something of a happy surprise: it's sort of an in between size that just works perfectly. Substantial and solid without being bulky it's easy to put in the included (nice) carrying case and tote along. The one drawback with the case is that I'd prefer if it had an external pocket to slide in an AUX cord or the USB Type B charging cable, but this is a minor gripe: the speaker sounds great so no need to plug it in to another amp unless I'm at home and have the cable, and the battery lasts and lasts and lasts... When I started to look for a radio, I quickly fell into the long rabbit hole of SW and DXing and all this cool stuff that, admittedly, is not my hobby. However, I have had some fun tuning on SW and I while I see the appeal, I really don't have enough experience to say whether this is the perfect machine for a hobbyist (or how it compares to the 660, or the grundig, or a Sony from 1975. Like I said: I went down the YouTube rabbit hole). What I can say is that if you're looking for a well-built, old-school, single purpose machine to deliver hours of listening pleasure, look no further than this wonderful little radio.

Total garbage. Bad reception. Complicated. Instructions in Chinese.