Tecsun PL-880 Portable Band Radio Receiver with AM/FM/SSB Modes

It's all been said for this multi-band radio; lots of excellent reviews as this radio is a real winner, especially for any serious shortwave listener... even with the telescopic aerial/antenna, it produces good signals across the HF band; FM has great sensitivity too, and long-medium wave is a little above most average receivers, which is a same; if an additional RF amplifier stage or even better, a longer/diameter ferrite-rod, would have been the cream on top for this great receiver. Where this radio comes into it's own, is the ability to change the filters to reduce or remove interference QRM, and in some cases QRN; LW-MW can also select filter band-pass too, and there are a number of unofficial un-published button functions, that will provide some useful tweaks to suite your own preferences; search SWLing for this information at: http://swling.com/blog/2014/06/complete-list-of-tecsun-pl-880-hidden-features/ The two changes that need doing for shortwave is, the DNR Dynamic Noise Reduction, and MUTE... however, for most general users, they will be more than happy as the radio comes out of the box, without any tweaks required. If I compare my Icom IC-R75 that's now a little long in the tooth, regarding it design life; the Icom falls short along side the Tecsun PL 880 portable, and so compact with very good sound quality, from such a small package... for the price you get a lot of quality radio technology, considerable thought has been put into this receiver, with great results. I Highly Recommended this receiver. Unfortunately I have now to state one caveat ! after several days of enjoyable use, the pre-charged battery discharged without any indicator showing it was depleting ? I did think this was odd, but now is evident of a faulty charging problem within the receiver; thus had to return to Amazon... having said this, it's still a great receiver and hopefully, my replacement will be as good.

A great radio, very good quality, it is very sensitive and can pick up channels really well, I put on the SW antenna that came with the radio, hooked it outside my window, I live in a very built up area so not much space for a good signal but this little gem picks up stations really well, the fine tune button is very handy, I am still learning but it’s a cracking radio. It’s got a good reputation for a reason. Buy one.

Tecsun PL-880 Portable Band Radio Receiver with AM/FM/SSB Modes This is a premium price worldband radio. It comes in a solid packaging box with a rechargeable battery that you fit in to the radio, a short wave antenna an earphone and a charging cable. There is an instruction book with the radio that you will need. The radio has Long Wave, Medium Wave, VHF and Shortwave. Air bands are not covered, and there is no DAB. Confusion about Long Wave coverage in some reviews probably stems from the fact that you have to toggle it on and off, while the radio is turned off, and then access it via an 'AM' button. I have no idea why this arrangement is used. The Long Wave and Medium Wave bands use an internal antenna. I was disapointed in them at first, but then discovered on line that you have to turn off a muting function - there are any number of internet pages explaining what to do. That made a big difference, and I was much happier with it after that. The Short Wave bands are easy to use, although there is not as much on them as I remember from the last time I had a Short Wave radio in the 1980's. Difficult to blame the radio for that! There are a very large array of adjustments you can make to the radio, and it's worth spending some time reading the relevant webpages if, like me, you are not expert in this. The sound is good, and the radio charges easily using a USB lead. No plug is provided, so have to use your own USB charging plug (I used one from a Kindle). The battery life is good, and I have used it on three trips away for a total of about ten hours, and it is still on the first charge. Another reviewer noted how fragile-seeming the attached aerial looks. They are absolutely correct. The second time I used the radio, the topmost length of the aerial broke away. I used no more pressure than would be normal. A quick look on-line found a number of sellers who sell replacement aerials for the radio (usually with advertising beginning, 'has your Tecsun 880 aerial broken off?) so this must be a common enough shortcoming for there to be money to be made from it. This is, obviously, disappointing in a radio costing over £150, and must be worth some attention from the makers. I could have sent it back, but it seemed to make very little difference to the operation of the radio - more of a cosmetic and convenience issue. There are various posts on line about the firmware (programming that is embedded directly on to the memory of the device). There were problems with earlier versions. You can't update it yourself and you can't check what version you are getting until it arrives. In my case, it was the most recent firmware, but some reviews suggest this varies depending on where you buy it. Still, it's a good radio. It came with a leatherette case which fits it well, and protects it in my case when I take it away with me. I'm pleased I bought it, but I'm not looking forward to replacing the aerial when I get round to it.

After posting a question regarding soft muting on this radio and receiving a very helpful answer, I took the plunge and ordered it. This radio is fantastic and well above my expectations. Filtering for such a portable is better than any other of it's kind. Great sensitivity on the whip antenna and an amazing sound for it's size on fm. I am totally blind and there are none of it's functions I cannot access, (apart from back light "ha ha"). I have many receivers but this is the one I reach for most of the time. It was purchased from Amazon with the latest firmware and without the fine tuning bug so all smiles from here.

Got the Tecsun as a backup for crossing the Atlantic ocean from Cape Verde to The Caribean Isl. ... Actually preferred the weather maps from the SSB radio - compared to sattelite. The Radio is stable, low noise, clear and very eay to handle. It works right out of the box with the supported HF antenna. A VERY good buy!

Excellent performer, maybe the best for price and quality. Go to our trusty google and read the reviews, but remember, there is a new software 8820 since Mid-2014, so all complaints of those old reviews are history. Google for 'hidden features' too, you will see, it is a highly complicated machine...

One star as I’m annoyed that I’ve bought the radio but now can’t charge it without buying a 12v to 5v converter. Why doesn’t it come with a 12v type car charger. I’m sure the Radio is great but it should have listed if you want to recharge it you need to buy MORE equipment.

Soy fan de Tecsun!. Este es el segundo radio que compo en Amazon y la recepción es excepcional. He logrado captar mis emisoras favoritas de la onda corta y decodificar el shortwave radiogram sin una antena externa. El audio es bueno, pero no tanto como el del eton elite field.

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 :-)

Using it mainly for shortwave and am not disappointed even when using the telescopic antenna by itself. The sound quality is really great as well.

Este receptor es otro más de la serie PLL de Tecsun, no tiene chip DSP como otros receptores. No tiene RDS ni datos complementarios, como todas las Tecsun. No tiene banda aerea y tiene banda lateral. Recepción de FM aceptable y buena en Onda Media y Larga. Onda Corta aceptable.

Es ist leider kein Radiorecorder aber die Empfangseigenschaften dieses Weltempfängers sind hervorragend gut DANKE für dieses Produkt , Ich bin stark begeistert . Die recordereigenschaft bezieht ich nur auf die Möglichkeit Sendungen via USB mitzuschneiden . Bei einem Radiorecorder setze ich Voraus das man kein 2tes gerät anschlissen muss .