Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Carel Kuijer, who shares the following images of the new Tecsun PL-990:
Thanks for sharing these, Carel!
FYI: I have not heard a solid update yet on pricing/availability of the Tecsun PL-990 and Tecsun H-501. Carel did note that the price in China is 1150 CNY, thus about 150 Euro or $166 USD, but not sure if this price will remain the same for the exported version. I will post updates here on the SWLing Post when they are available!
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It’s now August 21 2020 and we may be seeing the PL990 soon .
Thanks very much for the review .
One great function to add is a digital command edit code for TUNING the speaker bass and treble – most of us I think would add a little brightness and roll off some low mids – half way between the PL880 and PL660 sort of for general listening
Further tweaking for AM /DX etc.
Maybe holding down the bandwith button could bring up the code .
Is there an adjustment for this in the final production stage that we might get access to ?
Hgg
I was all set to buy a new PL-660 to replace the one I’ve nearly worn out, but now… looks like I’ll wait for the reviews and maybe for the 990 to get past the version 1.0 blues. Maybe later this summer.
$166 is a bit pricey, but it has SSB CW . would like to see more specs before I buy
It looks like a few days ago Tecsun officially launched the PL-990 and the H-501 radios. At least that’s what I understand from the Google Translate version of this web page:
http://bbs.tecsun.com.cn/0002.asp?open=631059
The radios are available for purchase on Taobao, but they are already out of stock. The H-501 costs 1500 CNY, the PL-990 is 1280 CNY. I understand there is a discount offered at launch.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c.w4002-3219166564.9.22ed7134NKtnlD&id=611319639635
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c.w4002-3219166564.9.749a7134GHU3lc&id=610843277680
On the Tecsun BBS website I’ve noticed messages from people who already received their radios.
I’m not sure how google translate works, but from what I have seen before translations from Chinese to English are usually very off.
The comments section I would take with a grain of salt, because if you read Chinese the first thing that jumps out right away is these are what they call in China ????? or what is more common ???, which roughly means five dimes or wumao. Which are paid internet comments a practice very common in China.
Nice to see “SYNC” on the feature list, but still bummed they have abandoned VHF air band. I have a radio collection/addiction issue so I imagine I’ll buy this once the usual Tecsun firmware dust settles.
Does anybody have an idea when this radio will go on general sale in Europe?
It is interesting that this radio covers long wave which has only ever been used in Europe and nowhere else. Many of these long wave AM transmitters have been switched off.
So where it the DAB+ reception and DRM?
A single chip decoder is available, it will require a new tuning coils for a 47 – 68 MHz and 174 – 230 MHz bands The screen would need to be changed to be able to display colour images and there would need to be firmware changes.
Re longwave, here in the States we do have airport beacons and, more recently, the 630 meter ham band. That’s not precisely nothing, but it is awfully close. Still, there are some people who like dialing those in, and I’m glad to see LW on this one last analog radio.
> It is interesting that this radio covers long wave which has only ever been used in Europe and nowhere else. Many of these long wave AM transmitters have been switched off.
Not that interesting; the middle and upper Tecsun SW models have had LW for years. It’s a ham band in some places (e.g. USA, NZ); there’s a few VK hams with permits for LW (there was one near me I used to catch running a beacon occasionally, but I haven’t heard him in a while); there’s licence-free LowFER in the USA; there’s NDBs (I can regularly get 5 or 6 around here); and there’s DGPS correction transmitters (I’ve got a semi-working homebrew decoder for that I’ve been working on for a while).
“Only ever” isn’t true either – it ignores the original LW BC band here in Aus, for starters…
> “So where it the DAB+ reception and DRM? A single chip decoder is available, it will require a new tuning coils for a 47 – 68 MHz and 174 – 230 MHz bands The screen would need to be changed to be able to display colour images and there would need to be firmware changes.”
So new front end, new chipset, new screen, and new firmware to give new features. That’s called “a completely different radio” 😉
Still have not seen any sign of availability. Seems they would have to authorize at least one significant production run for these and the H model…