Jonathan comments on the efficacy of Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum

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(Image Source: Critical Distance)

(Image Source: Critical Distance)

Jonathan Marks writes:

“Shortwave radio stations rarely did public events in my day as editor in chief. Radio stations often played around with the idea of having an Internet café at the studios, especially music stations like Capital Radio in London at Leicester Sq. For the last few years DW has been building an annual discussion forum. Although not open to the general public, it has now grown to a point where many NGO’s seem to drop in. But DW needs to watch competition from other media organisations because others in Germany are building more participatory conversations.”

Click here for Jonathan Mark’s post regarding the Global Media Forum on Critical Distance.

The Tecsun PL-880 charger and battery

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The supplied Tecsun PL-880 charger/power supply (Click to enlarge)

The supplied Tecsun PL-880 charger/power supply (Click to enlarge)

I’ve had a lot of questions and comments about whether the Tecsun PL-880 is supplied with a power supply/battery charger.  I purchased my PL-880 from from Anon-Co on eBay and they sent a charger along with the radio.

The charger was not in the actual PL-880 (OEM) box, but wrapped up inside Anon’s FedEx shipping package. I found it instantly.

I mention this because I’m not sure if other vendors are supplying a charger as well–perhaps other PL-880 owners can comment?

The charger has two ports where the supplied USB cable can be plugged in–both 5 VDC, but one rated at 1000mA and the other at 2400 mA. Either would work to power the PL-880 as it only requires 300 mA. For charging, I would use the 2400 mA port–though the 1000 mA port may work as well.  You certainly can’t hurt the radio by using the higher mA port as the radio will only use the amount of amperage it requires.

Tecsun-PL-880-Charger-2-SWLingPost

I will also note that while I prefer portables having the more standard AA cells, the supplied PL-880 rechargeable battery (see below) has superb capacity.  With all of the listening time I’ve been logging, I still haven’t needed to recharge it yet. I suspect its capacity is superior to that of most AA rechargeables.

PL800-Battery

You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.

Video: Tecsun PL-880 tuning through a CW pileup

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photo (5)

While working outside today, I propped the PL-880 up on the tailgate of my truck and listened to some international broadcasters on shortwave. I then received a message from a reader asking if I would make a video of the PL-880 being tuned to CW (Morse Code).

I switched the PL-880 into SSB mode and quickly found a “pileup” of CW operators around 14,035 kHz.

In this video, I used the fine tuning control and the bandwidth selector to give you an idea how the PL-880 sounds in tight conditions. The bandwidth will narrow all the way to 500 Hz (.5 kHz)–a very respectable width for CW. While it doesn’t sounds as good as an amateur radio transceiver, it is certainly better than any other portable shortwave radio I own.

Also, about halfway through the video an operator begins tuning up in the middle of the CW pileup (terrible manners!); I used it as an opportunity for you to hear how smooth the PL-880’s 10 Hz steps sound as I move away from his signal.

You’ll also note that I press and hold the number 6 and the display flashes “OFF.” I believe this is a noise reduction feature, but will need a little more time to experiment.

You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.

Video: Tecsun PL-880 vs. PL-660 and coping with interference

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Tecsun-PL880-SWLing-Post-0526I normally like to do in-line recordings for audio comparisons of radios, but my digital recorder is non-functional at the moment. This fact–coupled with a bit of reader peer pressure–prompted me to take a short video with my iPhone of the PL880 and PL660 in action. While this will not be a true representation of the PL-880’s audio, of course, it should serve as some point of comparison in terms of function.

In this (very basic) video, you can hear the difference between the PL-880 and PL-660 when both radios are coping with adjacent signal interference. In this case, I tuned to Radio Australia on 9580 kHz–typically a blow-torch signal here in eastern North America. I wanted to gauge how each radio coped with adjacent signal from China Radio International broadcasting out of Cuba on 9570 kHz,  which can cause major adjacent signal problems, even though it’s a full 10 kHz below Radio Australia.

In this video, I tried to use both radios’ bandwidth controls and (upper side-band) sync lock to cope with the interference. Forgive the lack of tripod. Here you go:

You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.

Hidden feature: Adjusting the Tecsun PL-880 muting threshold

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Tecsun-PL-800-Sync-SWLing-PostSWLing Post reader Owl points out another hidden feature of the Tecsun PL-880:

“Press and hold 9 when you listen to AM or SSB, you may adjust the muting threshold using either tuning knob. Press 9 again after you are done, the new threshold will be saved.”

Many thanks, Owl, as this solves a small problem I discovered with my PL-880.

Evidently, the muting threshold of the PL-880 defaults to 5 DBu. I found that listening to a marginal station produced a dip and jump in volume as the signal level hovered around 5 DBu. It was most annoying!

Owl is correct–simply holding the number 9 down while listening allows you to adjust the muting threshold between 00-25 DBu.  It seems setting the threshold to 00 turns off all muting. I prefer it off, so this is the setting I will use most of the time.

The PL-880 has a number of hidden features.  I will post them as they are uncovered.

You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.

Arctic DXing covered in the Chinese press

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Photo of Saariselkä courtesy of DXing.info

Photo of Saariselkä courtesy of DXing.info

A few years ago we mentioned Mika Makelainen and Jim Solatie, who make a DXing pilgrimage each year to the most northern region of Finland for two weeks of DXing bliss.

The small cabin is very remote, but connected to 14 wire antennas and contains all of the necessities one needs for serious, long-haul DXing. Indeed, they even rent their cabin to other DXers.

I was happy to see Mika and Jim’s annual DX trip recently mentioned in the Xinhua News. Check out Hunting for radio signals near Arctic Ocean, an article by reporters Li Jizhi and Zhang Xuan.

Hidden feature: The Tecsun PL-880 has a sync detector

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Tecsun-PL-800-Sync-SWLing-PostWhile evaluating the Tecsun PL-880 this afternoon, I discovered a hidden feature: synchronous detection.

By pressing and holding either the USB/NORM or LSB/NORM buttons, you can make the PL-880 sync lock on either the upper or lower side band. By pressing either button momentarily, it simply puts the mode in either upper side band or lower side band.

Now to properly test it…

You can follow all Tecsun PL-880 updates by bookmarking/checking this link.