TECSUNPL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver

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!

Shipped to Southeastern europe from america in 4 bussiness days with the expressglobal shipping.radio works as described. after some mild very simple calibration accurate to 0.01khz on SSB and LW/MW/SW. FM works much much better than anything i had, although no RDS. AM reception very good with the inbuilt ferrite rod although can be improved with a 5€ piece of wire inductively coupled to the radio. i like that they also updated it to USB_C charging. Selectable bandwiths are very very nice. The sync detection is usable unlike from previous firmware versions it seems. it isnt good but its usable. battery life very good. Scan function has a good stopping threshold so it doesnt stop at random spots where theres interference but rather actual channels. Remember to adjust fm deemphasis if youre in europe to 50 instead of 75. TOtal price was 235€, 30€ of that being shipping and the rest taxes, there is no import customs into europe. Included antenna works very nice. shortwave doesnt overload, but sensitivity is great. the SW ANT GAIN switch for dx/normal/local sometimes comes in very handy. the switch works for all modes mw/lw/fm too, not just the external antenna which is SW and FM mode only, from what i noticed. and internal antennas also change in gain when changing the switch. Manual is incomplete but hidden functions easily found on internet.build quality is very good from other radios i had. metal tuning knobs, nice buttons, sound is superior to any portable radio i have. very long whip antenna. fm stereo works normal.

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 buds2. USB chord (for recharging the battery)3. A small Lithium battery4.A reel type wire exension antenna5. User ManualThe 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!