Category Archives: Ultralight DX

The brilliant little Tecsun PL-310ET: serious DXing on a budget – part 2

Hi there, here is part two of my original post containing various reception videos for the amazing Tecsun PL-310ET pocket shortwave receiver. I continue to be amazed at the sensitivity and selectivity of this rather modest and diminutive receiver, particularly at it’s price-point of around £40 in the UK and less elsewhere! Here is the second half of the reception videos, with some nice signals from Brazil, Guinea, Ethiopia, Swaziland and India. You might notice that some of these catches involve the use of a 240 metre (approx.) length of barbed wire fence! I’m not sure how beneficial the electrical properties of the fence were, probably somewhere between not great and not good lol, but some pretty decent DX was had with the PL-310ET attached to it via the external antenna socket and a crocodile clip!

The barbed wire fence extends almost to the treeline on the horizon; about 240 metres

I hope you enjoy this set of reception videos, they certainly help to demonstrate the great performance of the PL-310ET and in addition of course, it’s ability to handle large antennas quite well. Embedded videos and text links follow below. Lastly, there are now approaching 1,200 reception videos on my YouTube channel Oxford Shortwave Log and I would like to take this additional opportunity to thank everyone for their support, friendship and advice. In the meantime, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and excellent DX!

Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.

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Medium wave SDR spectrum with over 20 transatlantic signals: a quick tour

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Tour of a medium wave spectrum with over 20 transatlantic signals

Hi there, I thought some of the readers of SWLing Post might be interested in a review of a MW spectrum with multiple transatlantic signals – all with audio. This is one of the recordings I took with the 200 metre Beverage antenna and although I haven’t properly counted, I believe it generated about 50 catches that were either personal firsts or best-ever receptions. You will note that this video is nearly 20 minutes long, whilst the recording is only just over 5 minutes, thus to capture the signals listed below and demonstrate audio to you, it was necessary to effectively ‘rewind’ a few times. I haven’t annotated the video, however, the stations I’ve paused on to demonstrate audio are listed below. There are actually more catches in this spectrum, but hopefully the video will give you a good idea of propagation on the morning of 10/10/16 and the effectiveness of the Beverage/Elad FDM DUO combination. Also note, I didn’t have time to fully optimise the demodulation settings, so for example, I haven’t used AM SYNC in this demonstration. Individual videos of all catches, with optimised settings appear on my YouTube channel Oxford Shortwave Log. I hope you enjoy it! Recorded in Oxford UK on 10/10/16 at 02:00 hrs UTC. Thanks for watching and I wish you all great DX!

590 kHz VOCM Saint John’s
600 kHz CBNA Saint Anthony
620 kHz CKCM Grand Falls-Windsor
660 kHz WFAN New York
710 kHz WOR New York
730 kHz CKAK Montreal
750 kHz CBC Radio 1 Bonavista Bay
790 kHz WAXY (presumed)
800 kHz VOWR
970 kHz WBGG
1010 kHz CFRB Toronto
1030 kHz WBZ Boston
1130 kHz WBBR New York
1190 kHz WLIB New York
1280 WADO New York
1390 WEGP Presque Isle
1400 kHz CBC Radio 1 Gander
1440 kHz WRED Westbrook
1510 kHz WMEX Boston
1520 kHz WWKB Buffalo
1570 kHz XERF La Poderosa, Mexico
1580 kHz HJQT Verdad Radio 1580 kHz, Bogotá, Colombia
1610 kHz Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla
1660 kHz WGIT Puerto Rico

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Trying to chose between the CC Skywave and Tecsun PL-310ET?

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Joe, who recently asked in our comments section:

“The CC Skywave is more than double the price of the Tecsun PL-310ET. The two radios appear to have similar features and performance. Can anyone suggest a reason why one would want to pay the extra charge for a Skywave?”

Thanks for your question, Joe. I’m asked this a lot by SWLing Post readers, so quickly realized I should just turn my response into a proper post. Here’s my response in a nutshell:

The Tecun PL-310ET

The Tecsun PL-310ET is (and has been for years) one of the best budget shortwave portables out there.

For the price of $40-45 US shipped (via eBay, for example), you really can’t go wrong. It’s certainly a benchmark among the ultralight DSP portables.

The ($79-89 US) CC Skywave, in my opinion, has a few advantages:

An excellent weather radio receiver (for folks in North America)
The AIR band which is a fun and useful addition if you live near an airport or like travelling by air
I prefer the Skywave over the PL-310ET on the mediumwave band. Its selectivity and AGC, in my opinion, have a distinct edge over the ‘310ET for MW DXing.

Because of these particular advantages, the Skywave has become my travel portable of choice when SSB reception isn’t a priority.

The CC Skywave

You might check out my CC Skywave review because I tried to include reception recordings which I felt represented both radios fairly:

https://swling.com/blog/2014/12/review-of-the-c-crane-cc-skywave-portable-radio/

In short, though? If I didn’t care about the AIR band or NOAA weather radio, I’d be quite happy with the PL-310ET. In truth, you really can’t go wrong either choice.

I can say that I now take my CC Skywave on travels more than my PL-310ET.

Click here to search for the Tecun PL-310ET on:

Click here to search for the CC Skywave at

C.Crane ($89.99 and free shipping through Dec 6, 2016)
Amazon.com ($89.99 with free shipping option)
Universal Radio (lowest price without shipping: $79.95)
eBay (pricing varies greatly)

Either of these radios, by the way, would make for an excellent gift.

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The brilliant little Tecsun PL-310ET: serious DXing on a budget – part 1

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Hi there, a good friend of mine Mr Thomas Brogan mentioned to me recently that his little Tecsun PL-310ET was proving to be an excellent receiver and that it would suit my DXpedition activities. Now, as someone who likes to push the envelope of performance with sophisticated portables, usually coupled to very large antennas, a cheap little Tecsun might not have been an abvious choice for my next purchase. However, Mr Brogan (who has an excellent Youtube channel by the same name – check out his wonderful collection of vintage and modern receivers) previously suggested I buy, for similar reasons, the Sony ICF-SW100. That little masterpiece of electronics turned out to be one of the best receivers I’ve ever owned. I felt compelled to take notice because Tom never gets this stuff wrong! A few days later I found myself in Maplins – again – and there it was on the shelf at just under £40, so I bought one.

I got back into shortwave listening about 18 months ago, after many years of inactivity whilst my poor Sangean ATS-803A rotted away in the garden shed and Sony ICF-7600G long-gone via eBay. To start all over again, I bought a Tecsun PL-360. What a great little portable that turned out to be – there are over 100 reception videos on my YouTube channel demonstrating how it continually performed above and beyond the very modest price tag. I even managed to hear ABC Northern Territories 4835 kHz on it once – simply amazing for a receiver under £30. Given my extensive experience with the PL-360 and having learned the PL-310ET shared the same DSP chip, I was expecting the same, or at least very similar performance and the only real benefit to upgrading to the PL-310ET was the direct frequency access. However, I was wrong about that!

The brilliant Tecsun PL-360 got me back into shortwave radio for less than £30

About a week after buying the PL-310ET, I managed to get out on a DXpedition and with 30 metres of wire attached to it via the external antenna socket, I started tuning around the SW bands. Quite simply, I was amazed at the sensitivity and selectivity of this diminutive little portable. With the proven DSP receiver chip and a number of audio bandwidth filter options from 1 to 6 kHz, coupled with direct frequency access via the keypad, it was a joy to use and listen to. In just over an hour I had copied signals from North Korea, including their internal service KCBS Pyongyang, Zanzibar BC, ABC Northern Territories (at the first attempt!), Zambia NBC Radio 1, Radio Oromiya and Radio Amhara from Ethiopia, amongst others. Brilliant stuff and clearly demonstrating that the overall hardware/software package with the PL-310ET is a step up in performance over the PL-360 and capable of proper DX for a very modest outlay. Interestingly, in a conversation with Thomas Witherspoon regarding the PL-310ET, he reminded me that it was one of his go-to radios for travelling and confirmed it’s excellent performance. I would definitely recommend this radio to novices and experts alike.

Reception videos follow below, with more to come in part 2; I hope you enjoy them. Thanks for watching/listening and I wish you all excellent DX!

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Oxford Shortwave Log: dxing in the tropical rainforest of Pará, Brazil – part 1

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Hi there, I was fortunate enough recently for my work to take me to a very remote area of tropical rainforest in Pará, Northern Brazil and of course, I travelled with a shortwave radio. In fact I take a portable with me everywhere – even to work – just in case. During this trip I was using a Tecsun PL-680, for very specific reasons:

It can handle a longwire very well without overloading (I actually only used a 5 metre wire)
An excellent synchronous detection circuit and audio bandwidth filtering options
Excellent sensitivity, as demonstrating by the many DX reception videos on YouTube
If it got lost or damaged it would be a pain of course, but not difficult to replace

Although effectively travelling on business, I was hoping to find the time for a DXing session because I felt it would be really interesting to find out what could be heard on shortwave (and medium wave for that matter) out in the jungle, in the middle of nowhere! The environment was challenging – around 37/38 degrees C during the day and still 33 degrees C at 2 am, all day and night, every day and night! Furthermore, as you might imagine for a tropical location, the place was crawling with bugs lol, including mosquitos and thus a number of vaccinations were necessary, prior to the trip. Several days after arriving, I eventually managed to find the time for a DXing session in the jungle (with another the following week in Barcarena, on the coast).

So, what can you hear in the jungle? Part 1 of my group of reception videos follow below – I hope you enjoy them.

Tropical rainforest DX in Pará, Brazil: Radio Romania International 7335 kHz

Tropical rainforest SW in Pará, Brazil: Radio Nacional Brazilia 6180 kHz

Tropical rainforest DX in Pará, Brazil: WHRI 7385 kHz, Cypress Creek, Georgia, USA

Tropical rainforest DX in Pará, Brazil: Radio Mediterranee 9575 kHz, Nador, Morocco

Tropical rainforest DX in Pará, Brazil: EWTN (WEWN) 11520 kHz Vandiver, Alabama, USA

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The Sony ICF-SW100: a miniture DX marvel, never likely to be repeated

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Hi there, I’ve owned my Sony ICF-SW100S for about a year now and in that time it has demonstrated a level of performance way beyond my expectations. Notwithstanding it’s incredibly small size (about the same as a packet of cigarettes, give-or-take), the DX results I have obtained with it are simply incredible. A fully featured ultra-portable receiver, complete with synchronous detection, selectable side bands, SSB, CW and coupled with sensitivity that has my (wonderful) Sony ICF-SW55 beat – and knocks on the door of the legendary ICF2001D. I simply can’t recommend it highly enough. Plug in some headphones or connect an external speaker such as the Bose SoundLink Mini 2 and you effectively have table-top receiver performance and audio in a very compact package.

Originally introduced into the market in 1993 and discontinued in 2005, this little radio covers the broadcast FM band from 76 to 108 MHz and AM from 150 to 29999 kHz, continuously. There are numerous other features that I won’t list here as they’re available on the web, but suffice to say, this (now vintage) ultra-portable DXer’s box of tricks is likely never to be repeated. They are available on eBay and prices remain robust for a radio that will be one to two decades old. Of course there’s also the issue on the first generation models with the ribbon cable connecting the lid of the set with the LCD display etc. to the base, which would fracture after some time, but this was rectified in later models with a notch cut out of the hinge to reduce the stress on the cable – see photo. They are also repairable and in fact I believe Thomas has a posting on here detailing how the ribbon cable on his example was replaced. In my opinion, this receiver is worth the hassle of a repair, because it’s quite simply unique.

Below are selected reception videos from my youtube channel Oxford Shortwave Log using the Sony ICF-SW100, which I believe epitomise the performance of this great little portable. Thanks for watching/ listening.

Direct link to reception video on Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel

Direct link to reception video on Oxford Shortwave Log youTube channel

Direct link to reception video on Oxford Shortwave Log Youtube channel

Direct link to reception video on Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel

Direct Link to reception video on Oxford Shortwave Log reception video

Direct link to reception video on Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel

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Tropical Band DXing at home with Elad FDM DUO and Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop

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Recently I have spent a little more time listening out for Tropical Band stations from my shack in Oxford UK, attempting to emulate some of the very nice signals I have previously recorded out on DX’peditions. The obvious problems with this (and they are numerous) include the relatively weak signal strength of many tropical band stations, the ubiquitous blanket of QRM, resulting in generally poor SNR, lack of space for a large antenna……need I go on?! Fortunately, the Elad FDM DUO has proven to be a very senstive and selective receiver, capable of, at times, incredible SNR, coupled with almost limitless signal conditioning options and SSB, SYNC, ECSS etc. Throw the Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop into the mix (not literally!) and you have a very powerful Tropical Band receive set-up. The Wellbrook is able to null most (although not all) QRM in my shack and that really can make the difference between simply observing a carrier and actually hearing audio. Clearly one cannot expect to hear DX at home under heavy QRM as well as you might outdoors, however, the following stations were logged in the past month or so, with respectable signals, with the ALA1530 indoors: