Universal Radio has lowered the price of their Tecsun PL-660 to $109.95. Even with $9.95 shipping, this is still less than the current Amazon price of $129.99.
Note that eBay still has some PL-660s available for $101 shipped, but there would be no guarantee of receiving the radio by Christmas day.
SWLing Post reader, Tom, writes:
Just thought I would tell you that at the moment I am seeing the White Sangean 909X Shortwave radio on sale from Amazon for $163.81 at the moment.
Says on the page it is 64% off which is the cheapest I have seen it so far and it ships from Amazon and not a 3rd party.
Link is http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XU76PQ/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Tom
Many thanks, Tom! I believe that is the lowest price for a 909X I’ve ever seen.
Ironically, the price of the Tecsun PL-880 has been climbing on Amazon (currently $179.99) and the PL-660 price is back to $129.99 (up $30 from November pricing).
Note that I could not advise purchasing the PL-880 from Amazon at the moment as it appears that they have a stock of older firmware version radios (see previous post).
Harold Woering ’s radio story is the latest in our series called Listener Posts, where I will place all of your personal radio histories. If you would like to add your story to the mix, simply send your story by email!
In the meantime, many thanks to Harold for sharing his personal radio history:
My shortwave experience started in 1967 at the age of 13. My father brought home these old AM/FM/SW tube radios probably dating back to the 30’s and 40’s and asked if I wanted them. That’s all it took and my first QSL is dated May 20, 1967 from Radio Cairo, Egypt. I found out from my cousin that if you wrote the station a letter telling them what you heard, that they would send back a verification in the form of a card, pennant, or letter. Today my count for unique verifications is well over 500 with numerous “goodies” that I have received over the years.
My first purchased shortwave receiver was a Knight Kit Star Roamer in 1969. From there it was the Heathkit GR-64 in 1972 and the Realistic DX-160 in 1985. From 1985 to 1990 I was the awards chairman for SPEEDX (The Society to Preserve the Engrossing Enjoyment of DX’ing).
Kenwood R-1000 (Source: Universal Radio)
I was beside myself when I bought my first digital readout radio, the Kenwood R-1000 in 1987. No more guessing as to what frequency I was listening to. That was also the year I ended up as station of the month in Popular Communications magazine. Currently I use an Icom R71a and a Sangean ATS 818ACS and a 450 foot horizontal loop antenna. I have a lot of great memories and still enjoy the hobby immensely. Many of the Big stations are gone but that has had room for many of the smaller ones. I continue to listen almost daily and still enjoy the hobby.
Many thanks, Harold, for sharing your story!
Click here to read our growing collection of Listener Posts, and consider submitting your own!
On the afternoon of November 29th, while traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday, I took my wife to an art supply store who was having a “Black Friday” sale. While she was inside shopping, I sat in my truck and remembered that I had my Tecsun PL-660 in tow (after all, never leave home without a radio, right?). I slightly opened the driver’s side window, turned on the PL-660 and extended the telescopic antenna out the window. I instantly I heard a station playing music on 6,925 kHz. What? I couldn’t be hearing a pirate this time of the afternoon, with a portable radio in a crowded parking lot!?!
Then I heard the station ID of Channel Z.
I quickly used my iPhone to log into my home computer (in a different part of the state) and tune my WinRadio Excalibur to record the broadcast. I could clearly see Channel Z’s AM carrier on the spectrum display.
After hearing the station email address, I sent in my signal report using my iPhone. Later, I received an eQSL (see above) and the following about the broadcast and Channel Z:
“You heard the special program, “Before They Were Famous – Part 3” from guest DJ Andy Walker. I was very lucky to have Andy do this show for Channel Z Radio, as he has been in semi-retirement the past three years, with only occasional guest appearances on Crazy Wave Radio in Germany, and now for the third time on Channel Z radio. Since Andy’s shows have received such a huge response from the DX community, there is a good chance he will do another show on Channel Z sometime soon.
(Source: DXArchive.com)
Andy has been involved in free radio for over 37 years, and got his start at the age of 15 as part of the site crew with Radio Kaleidoscope in London. He was instrumental in bringing long-time land based pirate Radio Free London (RFL) back to the air waves in the mid 1990’s, and was a regular DJ on WNKR (West and North Kent Radio) for over 20 years. In addition, he was part of the crew on Britain’s first legally licensed offshore station, Offshore Radio 1584 in 1992.
Channel Z has been on the air since November 2004, and started because of my interest in building homemade shortwave transmitters. To date, Channel Z has been heard in 30 states, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Newfoundland, Norway, Poland and Venezuela; all on homebrewed transmitters. This time I was using my favorite transmitter, the Commando, designed by Dave Martin of WNKR. The Commando does 25 watts carrier on 43 meters with a 14 VDC supply. The antenna was a horizontal dipole, cut for 6925 kHz, and was approximately 15 meters above ground.
Many thanks to Channel Z for the feedback. I’m amazed that I was able to hear the 25 watt Commando with my PL-660 in the middle of a crowded parking lot. Of course, that’s part of the magic of the shortwaves (and pirate radio listening).
For your listening pleasure, here is 50 minutes of Channel Z, staring around 21:40 UTC on 29 November 2013. This broadcast was recorded via my home SDR. Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
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.
This hidden feature was described by Diemtar on the Tecsun PL-880 Yahoo Group:
I just tried this on my PL-880 (firmware version 8820) and it worked well.
Many thanks, Dietmar!
You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.
Click here to learn how to display your PL-880’s firmware version.
It seems that there are some important differences emerging between PL-880 firmware versions.
You may have noted that the PL-880 I reviewed yesterday has a firmware version of 8820. I purchased my PL-880 through eBay seller, Anon-Co. As far as I can tell, most, if not all of the units Anon-Co has sold have the same (i.e. latest) firmware version: 8820.
Several readers have contacted me with concern about units they’ve purchased from Kaito Electronics and from their Amazon.com vendor account Electronnix which have firmware version 8819. (Not sure what firmware version you have? Click here to discover.)
It seems that firmware version 8819 lacks a few features that I mentioned in the review I posted yesterday:
It also seems that Kaito’s PL-880s are not shipping with the same carrying case Anon-Co ships.
On a side note, I don’t think Kaito is to blame for this as they probably had no idea there were different versions of the PL-880 firmware. I’m sure they will work with their customers to correct this.
If we found that the PL-880 firmware could be updated by users it would eliminate this problem. So far, I have not heard that this is the case.
Please comment if you notice other differences in firmware versions and I will amend the list above.
You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.
