Good advice here, especially if there's a promotion running on this one. I love my PL-330. Actually I have two of them, I seized an opportunity of a heavily discounted one on Amazon (returned goods, without battery). I also have a PL-680 and a D-808 among others and the PL-330 one is my favourite to carry around when I go outdoors for SWL, whenever I want to have a SSB receiver. Otherwise my Qodosen SR-286 takes over 😄 I haven't noticed it being less sensitive than the two aforementioned radios, still it has kind of a "squelch" effect on the weakest signals that I find a bit annoying. Its very close sibling the PL-368 has it too. It's not without some flaws. The imprecise and too sensitive tuning wheel gets on my nerves sometimes, I miss a real BFO wheel too. Using the step button for precise SSB tuning isn't quite practical. Still a very, very loveable radio for that price!
Thanks. The squelch effect you mention is the AGC / Automatic Gain Control being too aggressive. It is a common issue on Tecsuns. I remember my Tecsun PL-390 did this & there is a menu trick to turn it off. My Tecsun PL-880 has a hidden menu feature to turn it off. The Tecsun PL-660 I had to do a hardware mod by soldering two parts together. Tecsuns are good quality radios but they should give us the option on every radio they make to turn off the AGC.
It's a nice portable radio. The good includes ETM+, the ability to calibrate, switching to external or whip antennas for LW/MW, and good sensitivity on the bands. The bad includes mute on tuning, small buttons, and the tuning wheel.
In the past i used to acknowledge Tecsun but due to their price despite this model, the XHDATA D-808 seem to perform better in MW. Although, the radio is armed with a number of features and considered as a premium model. Thank you for sharing your insights John 73!
You're welcome. I agree the XHDATA D-808 is the better performer on MW, though for the price the PL-330 is also a good starter radio. Thank you for watching & 73.
Absolutely agree...I'm very pleased with my PL-330. It does very well on both AM and FM so if one wants to catch some distant stations, go for it. Great video MadRadioDXer.👍
This seems pretty odd for the PL-330 to work for longer on a single battery charge, as the BL-5C has only 1020mAh, where as the XHDATA's has 2000mAh, or at least that what it says on the battery. Could XHDATA consume much more power than PL-330? I wonder if replacing the factory battery with a 2600 or 3600mAh would help a lot. So far I am running it all day long since yesterday and it won't stop :)
Maybe the battery on my XHDATA D-808 has discharged over time, but it still lasts a good amount. The PL-330 lasting longer is based off my experience & will probably differ with others. I think the D-808 does consume more power but I cannot confirm & it needs a scientific analysis.
Good advice here, especially if there's a promotion running on this one.
I love my PL-330. Actually I have two of them, I seized an opportunity of a heavily discounted one on Amazon (returned goods, without battery).
I also have a PL-680 and a D-808 among others and the PL-330 one is my favourite to carry around when I go outdoors for SWL, whenever I want to have a SSB receiver. Otherwise my Qodosen SR-286 takes over 😄
I haven't noticed it being less sensitive than the two aforementioned radios, still it has kind of a "squelch" effect on the weakest signals that I find a bit annoying. Its very close sibling the PL-368 has it too.
It's not without some flaws. The imprecise and too sensitive tuning wheel gets on my nerves sometimes, I miss a real BFO wheel too. Using the step button for precise SSB tuning isn't quite practical.
Still a very, very loveable radio for that price!
Thanks. The squelch effect you mention is the AGC / Automatic Gain Control being too aggressive. It is a common issue on Tecsuns. I remember my Tecsun PL-390 did this & there is a menu trick to turn it off. My Tecsun PL-880 has a hidden menu feature to turn it off. The Tecsun PL-660 I had to do a hardware mod by soldering two parts together. Tecsuns are good quality radios but they should give us the option on every radio they make to turn off the AGC.
It's a nice portable radio. The good includes ETM+, the ability to calibrate, switching to external or whip antennas for LW/MW, and good sensitivity on the bands. The bad includes mute on tuning, small buttons, and the tuning wheel.
I agree it's a good value for the money the side brand works quite well My only issue is the size of the buttons it's very hard for me to see them
In the past i used to acknowledge Tecsun but due to their price despite this model, the XHDATA D-808 seem to perform better in MW. Although, the radio is armed with a number of features and considered as a premium model. Thank you for sharing your insights John 73!
You're welcome. I agree the XHDATA D-808 is the better performer on MW, though for the price the PL-330 is also a good starter radio. Thank you for watching & 73.
Nice portable little receiver with SSB. I have this model.
Indeed it is a nice radio.
Absolutely agree...I'm very pleased with my PL-330. It does very well on both AM and FM so if one wants to catch some distant stations, go for it. Great video MadRadioDXer.👍
You're welcome. Have a nice weekend.
Several friends of mine have one and they love it😊
It is a neat radio. Thanks for watching.
This seems pretty odd for the PL-330 to work for longer on a single battery charge, as the BL-5C has only 1020mAh, where as the XHDATA's has 2000mAh, or at least that what it says on the battery. Could XHDATA consume much more power than PL-330? I wonder if replacing the factory battery with a 2600 or 3600mAh would help a lot. So far I am running it all day long since yesterday and it won't stop :)
Maybe the battery on my XHDATA D-808 has discharged over time, but it still lasts a good amount. The PL-330 lasting longer is based off my experience & will probably differ with others. I think the D-808 does consume more power but I cannot confirm & it needs a scientific analysis.
I have a couple, great radio but better with a decent SW outdoor antenna
Yes it works well with an external antenna when I tried it out.
👍
Thank you.
Just ordered one for £40 off alixpress ,it’s a bargain IMO 👍