Tag Archives: Tecsun PL-880

Paul’s DXing location in Galena, Alaska with sample logs and an update of music broadcast

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the image above and the following:

How about a video [from Galena, AK]? Here’s one I shot on the evening of April 15th while DXin’g and apparently logging Radio Bandeirantes 9645 kHz in Brazil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fnLA9aYvA

Looks like a beautiful DX location you’ve got there, Paul. You’ve obviously found ways to mitigate receiver overload from the broadcast station with the number of loggings you’ve been posting as of late.

Indeed, Paul recently forwarded the following sample of logs from this very DXing spot. Paul writes:

Unless otherwise noted, all loggings were from a Tecsun PL-880 with an 80 foot long wire 5 feet up in a tree. My location is Galena, Alaska which is a village of 500 people about 300 miles east of Nome, Alaska and 300 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Comments questions or thoughts always welcome!

I was able to log Channel Africa broadcasting in French on 15235 kHz, two mornings last week.

This recording was made on Friday April 8, 2015 at 8:45 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1645UTC. I would rate the signal about 6 1/2 out of 10 with good audio, some light fading and no interference.

Audio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAvB-s7GeG4

This recording was made on Wednesday April 6, 2015 at 8:37 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1637UTC. The signal was about a 6 out of 10 with moderate fading, a little more then the recording made on April 8th.

Audio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vylScGVsYfM

Radio Thailand 9390 kHz

This recording was made on Saturday April 9, 2015 at 10:36 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1836UTC. I would rate the signal about 7 1/2 to 8 out of 10 with good audio, some light fading and no interference.

Audio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=31&v=nKwKakToMNs

Voice of Indoneisa 9526 kHz

This recording was made on Saturday April 9, 2015 at 10:36 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1836UTC. I would rate the signal about 4 1/2 out of 10 with ok audio, some light to moderate fading and some interference.

Audio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ZvqXEVhyE

Voice of Vietnam 9625 kHz

This recording was made on Saturday April 9, 2015 at 9:00AM Alaska Daylight Time/1700UTC. I would rate the signal about 4 out of 10 with fair audio, some light to moderate fading and little interference.

Audio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39s2HNJmHEs

All India Radio 11620 kHz

This recording was made on Saturday April 10 , 2015 at 1:29PM Alaska Daylight Time/2129UTC. I would rate the signal about 6 out of 10 with GOOD audio, some light to moderate fading and no interference.

Audio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89QJHdZyVKU

Note: This was by FAR the best reception I’ve ever had of AIR. Their audio is usually pretty piss poor with poor quality and low modulation. Plus, their signal just isn’t that good usually.

I have also logged Voice Of Korea on 2850, 3320, 6100, 6400, 12015, 7220, 11910, 11935, 11735, 15105, 15180, 13760, 13650, 7580, 9650, 9875, 9445, 9665, 9425, 6170 and 3250 kHz.

Radio Algerienne Holy Quran and Radio Saudi are fairly regular visitors here and at times, pretty strong.

6160 kHz via Vancouver is heard several times a week…sometimes just barely, and other times, like a few days ago, nearly like a local.

The upper bands, 15 and 17 MHz seem to do real well here, especially by day, even smack in the middle of the day. I’ve heard RFI and DW via Issoudun right around lunch time in the 15 MHz area of the band.

I get Zanzibar on 11735 kHz from time to time…usually at least at fair levels.

CFRX 6070 is heard just about nightly, sometimes poor and barely audible but many times at least poor to fair and listenable. Now and then it’s pretty strong and listenable.

That is an impressive number of stations you’ve logged. It appears one of your easiest catches is Voice of Korea–I’m not surprised since you’re certainly within their broadcast footprint.

New Music Show and Contest

Many of you know that Paul also hosts an occasional music show via shortwave. Paul recently set times and frequencies for the next show–he notes:

I will be on WRMI, 7570 kHz from 0400-0600UTC Saturday June 2nd, Which is 12 midnight to 2 AM Eastern/9 PM to 11pm Pacific on Friday June 1st.

More oldies and rock n roll music with some country thrown in. I’m working on a CONTEST with some cool radio prizes and even bigger…. I am ironing out the technical details and going to try and do the 2 hot show live from my studio in Galena, Alaska.

My target audience this time with be the West Coast of the US and Canada. I expected the Midwestern US to get a good signal from the 315 degree beam towards Vancouver, Canada as it has to pass over the Midwest to get to the West Coast.

Contest details and QSL information to be released before the show!

I’ll plan to re-post this announcement, with any updates, closer to the broadcast date of June 2, 2016.

Thanks again, Paul, for sharing some of your radio world!

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Gary discovers a way to lock narrow filters on the Tecsun PL-880

PL-880 (1)

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Gary (WN9U) who writes:

Just an FYI comment about the narrow filters NOT staying on while tuning. I read about the similar problem that you encountered during the initial testing of the PL-880.

While tuning CW stations with the 500 Hz filter turned on (fast or fine tuning), the filter would always revert back to the 3.0 wider setting. It had never done this before. I tried several resets with no cure.

After further testing I found the fix: I had turned on the Hidden Menu Noise Reduction (switch 6) and did not realize it was on.

After turning off the Noise Reduction, I was able to tune with the narrow filters set at any band width. Evidently, the filter opens up to 3.0 when tuning with the Noise Reduction turned on & reset does not turn off this function.

Thanks so much for the tip, Gary! I’ll add this to our (still) growing list of PL-880 hidden features and tips. Seems there’s always something to discover on the Tecsun PL-880.

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Tecsun PL-880 fine tuning bug solved by Anon-Co

PL-880-Tuning-BugMany thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Georges (F6DFZ), who writes:

As you may know, a few [of us PL-880 owners] have documented the extremely annoying bug that affect the Tecsun PL-880 during Fine Tuning of SSB signals.

To sum it up, recently manufactured Tecsun PL-880 tune backward when using the Fine Tuning knob in SSB mode. This result in a very bad tuning feeling, especially for SWL and Ham radio operators, 1 kHz frequency jumps each kHz and a displayed frequency that can be off as much as 2 kHz.

Anna from Anon-Co has been very cooperative, serious, kind, in short: an outstanding person. She never denied the problem, and found a solution to correct it by loading a 8820 firmware just anterior to the buggy one.

Now, all PL-880 sold by Anon-Co have the corrected firmware.

I am extremely pleased with my PL-880 and I need to add that the tuning experience with the corrected firmware is night and day. Now, you can tune continuously using the Fine Tuning knob, without hitch and very smoothly ; the lack of shuffling is also very welcome, as is the Variable Rate Tuning (10 Hz or 50 Hz tuning steps).
This makes the PL-880 an outstanding receiver for its price, considering the 10 Hz fine steps, the choice of selectivity, the long life on its battery, etc…

Be sure to choose a distributor that sells PL-880 with the tuning bug corrected.

Click here to purchase a PL-880 via Anon-Co.

Many thanks, Georges, for the follow-up. I’m very happy to hear that PL-880 retailers like Anon-Co are assisting in such a helpful and effective way.

No doubt, other PL-880 retailers will also begin to offer a firmware upgrade to fix the fine tuning bug. As Georges notes, please check before purchasing!

Reders/Retailers: Please comment if you can confirm that others are now shipping PL-880s with the fine tuning control fix.

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George demonstrates the Tecsun PL-880 tuning bug

PL-880-Tuning-Bug

[19 January 2016: Please read this updated post.]

In response to Pawel’s post about a tuning bug affecting a recent batch of Tecsun PL-880s, SWLing Post contributor Georges (F6DFZ) comments:

I have posted a new video about this important bug of the PL-880.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KZFlO-C-Gk

I did so because it seems some people don’t understand this very important issue.

This video shows the Tecsun PL-880 tuning bug which is present on SSB when using the Fine Tuning knob.

The PL-880 is tuned to the Shannon Volmet on 5,505 MHz USB.

At the beginning, I use the coarse Tuning knob to shows the effect of tuning 1 kHz down ; the pitch of the voice increases as we are on USB.

Then, I tune down 1 kHz using the Fine Tuning knob, and now the pitch of the voice decreases, indicating the bug with the reverse tuning using the Fine Tuning knob on SSB.
At the end, I use the coarse Tuning knob to hear the voice with a normal pitch, and you can see that the displayed frequency is 5,503.01 MHz, a difference of nearly 2 kHz versus the true frequency.

Best regards, and a Happy New Year

Georges F6DFZ

Thank you, Georges. Since I have an early PL-880 model that doesn’t have this bug, your video and explanation does clarify the situation.

That is frustrating. Until this bug is fixed, I couldn’t recommend purchasing a new Tecsun PL-880. I hope someone can confirm when the bug is fixed and the production run is once again free of this tuning issue.

Many thanks to Pawel and Georges for bringing this to our attention.

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Pawel discovers a tuning bug in his Tecsun PL-880

PL-880 (1)

[19 January 2016: Please read this updated post.]

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Pawel (SQ9ZAV), who writes from Poland:

Hello Thomas,

On November 4, 2015, I bought a Tecsun PL-880 from ErcomeR company.

I found an error: the last two digits of hundreds and tens Hz in SSB mode correctly change the direction of rotation of the knob fine tuning, however, the actual frequency varies in the opposite direction.

I reported a bug in the company ErcomeR, and they sent an e-mail to the Tecsun company.

ErcomeR received information from Tecsun that one of the PL-880 integrated circuits had been changed to the one used in Tecsun PL-365; no one checked whether the program was working properly.

The previous version of the radio made in May 2015 does not have this error.

Best regards – Pawel Kita, SQ9ZAV

Pawel also noted that communicating with Tecsun’s Engineering/R&D department is quite difficult since all communications are first passed through the Tecsun Sales department.

I hope that Pawel can keep us apprised of the situation. My Tecsun PL-880 is one of the earliest production runs, so doesn’t have the PL-365 IC Pawel describes.

If you purchased a Tecsun PL-880 recently, you might verify this as well–please comment.

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Does the Tecsun PL-880 have a hidden ETM function?

PL-880-ETM-Display

SWLing Post reader, Claudiu, writes:

I have a question regarding the ETM (Easy Tuning Mode) function on the Tecsun PL-880 model. Its indicator is visible on the LCD screen [see above], but I couldn’t find any mention of this function for this model. What should one do to enable that indicator and use the function? I’ve seen mention of this for earlier models (PL-380/PL-390), but not for PL-880, even after looking over the hidden features. Do you, or your followers, have any idea on this?

Very good question–it would be nice if the PL-880 had a hidden ETM function, but I suspect the PL-880 may simply use a stock Tecsun display; “ETM” may be standard print.

By chance, has anyone discovered a hidden ETM function on the Tecsun PL-880? If so, please comment.

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Tecsun PL-880: Evans notes signal meter and other discrepencies

PL-880 (1)

SWLing Post reader, Evans (in Greece) writes:

I would like your opinion regarding two strange points we noticed in two different Tecsun PL-880 models, which a friend and I have recently purchased. In particular:

  1. The signal meter is supposed to measure up to 99dBu (my Tecsun PL-390 s-meter goes indeed up to 95-97dBu for very strong amateur signals in my area included mine in mw zone). The point is that for both devices (both of which have 8820 firmware) the signal meter does not exceed 85 dBu and in particular my Tecsun PL-880 signal meter does not goes over 70dBu (ie. even lower measurement). Why this behaviour?

  2. Another strange point is that my friend’s Tecsun receiver displays for a “quiet” frequency (mw) a noise level of about 10-12dBu, while my Tecsun device shows only 2-3dBu noise (same frequency in the same spot!). We both tried the threshold muting adjustment (key 9) and this worked a bit but with minor results in sensitivity, especially for my Tecsun PL-880 receiver. Is it possible to adjust the noise level so that it can be 10-12dBu instead of being only 2-3dBu and hence better sensitivity? And is it possible to adjust the maximum signal level (99dBu instead of 85dBu or even worse 70dBu for my device)?

  3. I have noticed that the hidden feature regarding the external mw antenna didn’t work in my case, even though I did resets an tried many times. I pressume, hence, that maybe Tecsun disabled this hidden feature. Is there any modification available to “add something” into the radio hardware in order to be able to listen mw/lw frequences with external antenna and thus, increase sensitivity?

Many thanks for your questions, Evans. Since my PL-880 is a first production run unit, I’m hoping readers who’ve recently purchased the Tecsun PL-880 might comment.

I suspect Tecsun engineers give little thought to calibrating the S meters. I’m very curious if there is a hidden feature to do this, but I’m guessing this is limited only to those who can program the DSP functionality of the chip inside.

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