London Shortwave has discovered an innovative way to monitor broadcasts while recording from his Tecsun PL-660. He writes:
“Tecsun PL-660 doesn’t have a line out, which means that when recording from it one has to use a pair of headphones to listen to it simultaneously.
Most portable speakers I’ve tried generate tremendous amounts of RFI when connected directly to the receiver. I solved this problem by using TaoTronics BA-01 Bluetooth audio transmitter and a Bluetooth enabled portable speaker, together with a cable that splits the audio output into two, so the transmitter and the audio recorder can both be connected to the radio.
The recording [in this YouTube video] is of Radio Australia and was made in London, UK on 09/04/2014 at 1543 BST.”
He makes a good point about the RFI/EMI (interference/noise) generated by directly connecting an audio cable to the output of these portable radios. In my case, I am exploring ways to connect the PL-880 (inherently good audio) to high quality amp and speakers. There must be some way to do this without “re-broadcasting/re-receiving”. Better, shielded, audio cables help a bit but, the problem noticeably persists. Naturally, this noise does not occur with other radios I own, but they are more table top variety (Lowe HF-150, Icom R71A) and all share sockets on a tripp-lite which is designed for cleaner power