How to find the Tecsun PL-330’s firmware version

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jaap de Goede, who shares the following note:

Thanks for posting the hidden feature table to the Tecscun PL-330.

I see more and more videos of the PL-330 popping up on YouTube. I’m wondering what firmware they run. It’s easy to identify the firmware version.

Press and hold the VM/VF button when the radio is off. Release the button when all icons are displayed. Next, the display will briefly show the firmware version in the upper right corner. As you can see in the picture (above), mine has version 3302.

Thanks so much for the tip, Jaap! I am curious, too, if Tecsun is updating the firmware version with each release/update of the PL-330. With the PL-880, there were a number of iterations all carrying the same version number (8820, if memory serves).

It would be great for comparison purposes to check the firmware number.

Spread the radio love

15 thoughts on “How to find the Tecsun PL-330’s firmware version”

Dan January 12, 2023 at 10:56 pm

Tecsun Australia has released PL-330 User Manual in English:
https://www.tecsunradios.com.au/store/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PL-330-USER-MANUAL.pdf

Reply ↓
Murray Paulson December 8, 2021 at 2:07 am

Hi Prafulla;

I ordered my PL330 at the beginning of December and its firmware is 3306. It also had the BW at 1.0khz . I looked for some hidden code to change it and through through pressin “9” with the radio off and working my way through all the hidden feaures i somehow enabled the variable Band Width in AM and SW. so it now works. 2.5, 3.5 & 9khz.

I just got the radio and I am now trying to see if I can put it back in the 1.0 khz mode so I can get the right sequence to get it back out…

Sorry to be nebulos, but there is a way to get it working properly.

Murray

Reply ↓
1. Neal Lewis July 23, 2022 at 9:04 am
  
  Hi Murray
  
  Did you work outy how to unlock the 1.0KHz setting? I have just purchased a PL-330 and it is stuck on 1.0KHz bandwidth in AM. I have looked everywhere but haven’t been able to find how to change it to allow the multi step bandwidth.
  
  Many Thanks
  
  Neal
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Murray Paulson January 13, 2023 at 12:45 am
    
    Hi Neal:
    
    I contacted Anon Co and Anna responded that it should return to normal if you pull the battery and let it go completely off. You do not loose any of your stored stations, just make sure the LCD goes out completely. It worked and I have the variable bandwidths that I had before.
    
    Reply ↓
    1. Neal Lewis January 13, 2023 at 5:46 am
      
      Hi Murray, many thanks for the response. I will give that a go and see what happens.
      
      Cheers
      
      Neal
      
      Reply ↓
    2. Manix November 5, 2023 at 12:09 pm
      
      Kind Sir – You’re a true gentleman and a scholar. Thanks much for posting the response. After tearing half of my hair out, this battery pull finally resolved the issue.
      
      Reply ↓
Prafulla September 13, 2021 at 2:55 am

My pl-330’s AM Bandwidth is stuck on 1kHz. Not sure how it ended up here as the supported settings are only one of 2.5, 3.5, and 9.0 kHz.
Pressing AM Bandwidth button followed by volume rotate is not changing this value.
This setting seems to work on SW and SSB-USB/LSB, but not for MW.
I don’t know how to factory reset. My firware version is 3306.

Any help to get back the AM Bandwidth to normal on MW is highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Reply ↓
James February 19, 2021 at 10:33 am

I ordered a PL-330 on 1/30/21 (Anon-Co) which was shipped on 2/1/21 and received on 2/18/21. The firmware is 3305 and it does not have the SSB reverse fine tuning bug.

Reply ↓
John G8XTJ January 17, 2021 at 5:50 pm

Mine delivered UK 15 Jan is 3305.
Yet to check the SSB fine tune problem but the synchronous detection on USB worked very well on the WRMI 7780 signal tonight.

I’ll have a proper play later

Reply ↓
1. Aljosa February 16, 2021 at 9:53 am
  
  where did you buy your radio PL330 with FW ver. 3305?
  
  Reply ↓
  1. Cynical Sin April 20, 2021 at 6:33 pm
    
    anon-co.
    
    Reply ↓
Larry Darner January 12, 2021 at 12:38 pm

Please keep us informed on the Tecsun 330 . I am interested in a great ssb radio for ham bands (KD8RER) my radioshak DX440 bit the dust looking for a replacement thanks!

Reply ↓
Gilles Letourneau October 27, 2020 at 9:46 pm

I have received my Tecsun PL-330 and can confirm the weird behavior of the SSB tuning.. I have only noticed it in LSB and it’s not always there.

Mine came with firmware version 3303

Reply ↓
Pawel October 27, 2020 at 3:02 am

The product is of good quality but has a few bugs in the firmware 3303.
The most important of them is “SSB reverse fine tuning bug” which can be described as “the last two digits of hundreds and tens Hz in SSB mode correctly change the direction of rotation of the knob fine tuning, however, the actual frequency varies in the opposite direction”.
The same error is described in the article https://swling.com/blog/2015/12/pawel-discovers-a-tuning-bug-in-his-tecsun-pl-880/ and occurs in the following devices: PL-330 and PL-365. By the way: the title Pawel is me.

Reply ↓
1. Jaap October 27, 2020 at 1:16 pm
  
  Thanks Pawel! Now I understand the strange SSB fine-tuning behavior of my PL-330 running firmware version 3302.
  
  Reply ↓