Yesterday, we posted a photo of a Tecsun S-9900 “prototype” that was shared by @katsu3_uc on Twitter:
Screenshot of katsu’s tweet with translation by Google.
Shortly thereafter, another image was shared featuring the Tecsun PL-990:
To put this in perspective: there hasn’t been a new product announcement like this from Tecsun since the appearance of the S-8800 nearly four years ago–!
This buzz created a flurry of emails to me in only a few hours.
Readers wanted more information and details about the new radios and, frankly, I wanted to confirm what details we could infer from the photos. I only knew that there would be a “high-performance” receiver introduced this year, but knew very little other than that–I certainly didn’t expect two radios in the works.
So I reached out to a trusted source and now have some solid information I’ll share below:
The Tecsun PL-990
Yes, the Tecsun PL-990 is real. The image above is a correct representation of the working prototype.
There is no official launch date yet, but if all goes well with production and testing, the export version will become available in December 2019 at the earliest. It’s highly unlikely it will ship prior to December–it’s more likely it could ship sometime in early 2020.
The Tecsun “S-9900”
There is a new model in development, but the anticipated design and model number are not as shown in the picture above. When @katsu3_uc corrected his initial post and clarified that the radio in the photo was only a prototype, this was correct. I believe this was one from many years ago.
There are few details about this radio as it is in the early stages of design/development.
Production, availability, and other product details are simply not available yet. I get the impression the chance of it shipping this year are very low.
Stay tuned…
As I learn more about these two Tecsun receivers, I’ll post updates here on the SWLing Post. I’ll tag updates with model numbers (Tecsun PL-990 and Tecsun S-9900) so posts can be read in chronological order. Note that even though “S-9900” will not be the model number of the second receiver, I’ll use it until we have the new model number.
Of course, I’ll review both radios as soon as they’re ready for evaluation!
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