For those of you who aren’t satisfied with the PL-880’s internal ferrite antenna for mediumwave and longwave reception, here is a video explaining a work-around that will force the PL-880 to use an external antenna on those bands:
Many thanks to YouTube user pesnyaozemle for posting this video and to SWLing Post reader Jon for sharing.
Many on the PL-880 Yahoo Group have been reporting “soft mute” or “noise gate” audio jumps that are heard when the PL-880 is tuned to a weak SSB signal.
SWLing Post reader, Tim, has a Tecsun PL-880 with firmware version 8819 (mine is 8820) that exhibits this soft mute behavior. Check out the following video where he uses the built-in attenuator to force the PL-880 to engage the soft mute. Tim notes that the sound quality of his $30 camera phone is poor, but I can still easily hear what’s happening:
There have even been confirmed reports of SSB soft muting in PL-880s with 8820 firmware. With that said, I have now spent hours trying to force my PL-880 to engage soft muting in SSB, but to no avail. My SSB copy is solid, regardless of signal strength, noise level, or adjacent signals (at 5, 10 or 15 kHz and much closer)–no muting at all in SSB.
While I’m very pleased with my PL-880, I would encourage many readers to consider waiting a couple of months before making the purchase. Many of the PL-880 early adopters have felt a bit like Beta testers–admittedly, I’ve felt this way as well–but with time, I imagine many of the 880 quirks will be ironed-out by Tecsun.
This is a fascinating video about how one Paris based clandestine radio station gets an independent voice into the only country in the world that rivals North Korea for a lack of press freedom: Eritrea. Radio Erena currently uses satellite to reach its audience, but would like funding to broadcast over shortwave:
Radio Erena (English version) by rsf_internet
Tecsun PL-880 owner, Patrick, has made a video showing how to calibrate SSB on the PL-880. In the video, you can hear what it sounds like to zero-beat an AM carrier. Patrick writes:
Some people reported their PL-880 wasn’t properly calibrated in SSB (off-frequency).
Here is a simple tip to calibrate your TECSUN PL-880 for zero-beat operation (SSB mode) : either tune to USB or LSB, say 500 Hz off-frequency (603.05 USB for example, if you wish to calibrate your radio on 603.00, or 602.95 LSB).
PRESS and HOLD the 0 button of the keypad.
Look at the UPPER RIGHT corner of the display, where stands the clock and S/N ratio. A 2-digits number is BLINKING as well as the Hz digits of the tuned frequency.
RELEASE the 0 button, and properly adjust the FINE TUNING. You will probably have to slightly tune, de-tune and re-tune before calibration is perfect. Play a bit with it to understand how it works … (the change is effective AFTER you press again the 0 number to validate the value).
Do the same for both USB and LSB modes.
Check the tone when tuned to xxx.95 USB and xxx.05 LSB. They should sound exactly the same.
Et voilà !
Merci, Patrick!
You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.
In the following video, I compare single side band reception between the Tecsun PL-880 and PL-660. On 80 meters, in SSB mode, you can hear that the PL-660 has a slightly lower noise floor than the PL-880. Note again, however, that I mistakenly had the tone control of the PL-880 set to “bass.” I’ll try to make another video later with the tone control set to the “treble” position.
You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.
In the following video, I have tuned both the Tecsun PL-880 and the PL-660 to a relatively local AM station (880 kHz). Note that I had the tone control switch set to “bass” on the PL-880 (it would have been better on “treble”):
For normal AM radio listening, I believe the PL-880 produces better audio fidelity than the PL-660. I will try to record a weak medium wave station this evening, if time allows.
You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.
Photo source: Tecsun PL-880 Yahoo Group
In this video, I’ve tuned both the Tecsun PL-880 and PL-660 to All India Radio on 9,445 kHz (transmitted from Bengaluru, India, some 8,800 miles away).
Thanks to an image of a (prototype?) PL-880 keypad posted on the Tecsun PL-880 Yahoo Group–an excellent group you should join, by the way–I’ve discovered that if you press and hold the number 6 on the PL-880 keypad, it engages the hidden DNR function. I assume DNR is an acronym for “digital noise reduction.”
I engage the PL-880 DNR feature in this video and compare with the PL-660 audio. Again, apologies for quality as this was made using my iPhone.
You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.