Tecsun PL-600 AM/FM/LW SSB Shortwave Radio, Black

I tried the Tecsun PL-660 and the Grundig G3 before I bought the PL-600. Both these radios are similar in size and performance to the PL-600, but both are more advanced in that they have fancier features, nice ergonomics, and a synchronous detector. However, both performed poorly on AM broadcast (also known as Medium Wave). Both had false signals generated within the AM band (one strong one that blanked a section of the dial near 970 on the PL-660, a series of whistles and squeals not strong enough to blank everything, but still annoying, on the G3). Also, both these radios had to be tuned so they said they were off frequency before the signal would sound its best.The Pl-600 doesn't have those problems. Mine picks up signals clearly everywhere, AM, FM, and shortwave. I haven't found any spurious signals generated inside the radio, anywhere.It sounds as good as you can reasonably expect for a medium sized radio; nice, but this can't be a 100-watt stereo system. Some people complained that sound quality is distorted, especially on the earliest production models of this radio. Others I have read claim the circuit has been changed to fix the sound distortion. All I can say is that mine, purchased in April 2013, sounds just fine.Where the Pl-600 falls down is in the system codes you need to use to set the radio to operate properly. The later PL-660 does without these, one way or another, which makes its ergonomics better.Setting the radio to charge the batteries internally is a bit annoying, and a lot of people complained that this feature just didn't work. First, read the early reviews; many of them say that buyers in North America got wall wart power supplies made for 220-240 volt power, while our standard power is half that. If you provide a charger with half the voltage it needs, it won't charge anything. That might explain some of the early problems.But the charger itself is complex to set up. First, you have to tell the radio you're using rechargable batteries- System Code button, press 2 then 8, press system code again, turn the tuning dial until the numbers flashing in the display match the power capacity of the batteries you plan to use. Or almost, I should say. In my case I had to set the capacity of the batteries to 2100 when they are in fact 2200 milliamp-hour capacity before the charger would work. I have no idea why, but having to set the capacity a bit low seems to be a regular problem. And even then, when you want to charge the batteries, plugging in the charger doesn't do the job. You have to plug it in and then press the CHARGE button.Really, when you go down to Wally World to buy the better quality NiMH batteries you will probably want for this radio- the ones that come with it are no great shakes- you should get a set of EverReady 2200 mi-a-h batteries and one of the fairly cheap but good wall chargers. Then just keep an extra set charged up and swap them out when you want to. The wall chargers are faster, they are automatic, and many of them will tell you when one of the batteries you put in them has gone bad, which the radio won't do- except by refusing to work and getting you angry.Finally, while my PL-600 is a great little set, one thing I've noticed is that the quality control on these Chinese-made shortwave receivers is spotty. Check the thing out thoroughly, check all the functions and all the bands when you get it. It's a good design that can give you good performance on all bands. If it doesn't do that, sending it in for an exchange will probably help.

First things first, this is my 1st world band or shortwave receiver I have ever purchased. So what I may write could be common knowledge among more experienced ham operators or shortwave receiver enthusiasts. 2nd, as of this writing I have only owned this radio for about 24 hours. But I will try to update in one month as well as update in exactly one year (if Amazon still sells them by then)). And 3rd, I guess ill point out that I am 19 years old as of this writing. I bought this just for fun, as well as the fact that I can use it in emergencies if need be (we get quite a bit of power outages during storms so this radio could come in handy).So I became interested in these types of radios almost two months ago. I read many a reviews and countless youtube video's of these types of shortwave radios receiving broadcasts of music, news, data (like rtty or psk31 etc), as well as hams that are conversing with one another. So after much decision I opted for this radio.Before I received this radio I was expecting three things. 1) it was going to be large 2)it was going to be light, 3) it was going to be some hallow feeling cheap plastic box. Well to my surprise, it was practically the opposite. Its a lot smaller then I thought, which is a good thing for me. It was also much heftier then I imagined it would be, which again is a good thing for me. I dislike anything electronic similar to this that feels suuuuper light. And finally it seems really well built. I've held a Grundig G8 / Eton Traveler II at a local Radio Shack. And this Tecsun radio does NOT have that rubbery feel to it. But! It is well constructed. All the buttons work on my unit out of the box, and they all feel the same when pressed. Sometimes you can get cheap electronics where some of the buttons feel different when you press them. Not on the pl-600.The display is nice, legible, and large. An orange backlight lights up for 3 seconds on mine before it goes out again. You can also press and release the LIGHT button for a few seconds to keep it on indefinitely.Again all buttons work, but my tuning knob is slightly funky. Every turn I will encounter greater resistance, then less, then more, then less. So sometimes when I try to go slowly at a certain frequency, the sudden loss of resistance makes my fingers twist too far, thus making me counter-turn. Its a small annoyance and I'll live with it, but it is annoying.Performance: (The following are impressions while wearing headphones (Sony MDR-V6), the speaker works on my unit but I prefer private listening.)FM band - Really great FM tuner. I was actually surprised at how well FM sounded on this unit. In general I don't listen to FM radio, but this little Tecsun has piqued my interest. Stereo sounds real good and you can also force-mono if the signal is bad.AM band ("MW" on the display) - I wasn't interested in AM and I still am not. But the AM band does work well.Shortwave - Within 10 minutes of turning the unit on I found two hams talking to each other. And this was off the attached whip antenna. It wasn't SPECTACULAR sounding, but you could listen and follow their conversation. Later that night I strung a long wire out my window. I didn't measure it or anything, but a rough guesstimate would be 30 to 40 feet and about 3 to 4 feet above ground, and the wire is strung North-South. And I just wound the end to a branch, and the other end I wound it around the whip antenna of the PL-600. No soldering or anything. And instantly the radio lit up. I couldn't believe that a simple wire actually improved signal but it does! Since it was at night I was picking up stations left and right. My location is Northern Indiana, and I was catching hams from the East coast. As well as foreign radio stations from Portugal and Japan, as well as some Canadian repeater stations. It was really exciting. And finally you could hear so much Morse Code and b-psk31 flying around, especially around 41 meters. It was entertaining to see, hear, and follow the different conversations going on on one frequency. (I have my PL-600 hooked up via headphone jack into my PC, and using "Digital Master 780" to 'decode' some of the stuff.)Miscellaneous -*Single Side Band works. I always assumed you select USB or LSB but that's what the BFO knob is with its detent.*Volume get plenty loud. 1/3 volume on an FM radio station was enough to wake me up this morning as an alarm.*The included wire antenna works ok, but my 30 foot wire out my window was better, im not sure how or why but it is.*The antanna gain switch seems to do its job. Most of the time I leave it on "DX", but ive set it to "NORMAL" when some signals come booming in, just to ease my listening.*The tone control works, I set it to bass but that's all personal choice.*One thing that I also really like about this radio is that it included some rechargeable NiMh batteries. They are labeled 1000mAh. The radio is also a recharging unit, and is capable of using/recharging batteries from 1000mAh to 2300mAh. You could argue that the provided AA ones are cheap and low-capacity. But I don't mind. They seem to last a good couple hours. I've used my radio for about a total of 4 hours already and the battery indicator has just lost one bar.Miscellaneous Functions - *There are two alarms that can be set which is nice. (oh btw everything is in 24hr military style). You can set the alarms to go off by the minute. The two alarms can be set independently and also have timers on them. So when Timer A goes off, it'll play the radio station for up to 90 minutes, depending on how long u set it too play.*The memory functions work well. By default there are 10 pages with 50 memory slots each. There is also a page 0 with 100 slots, but its mostly used when you auto-scan the bands. I wish you could label them, even 4 or 5 letters but alas you cannot.*The signal strength indicator "works". Sometimes it'll be full-signal indicated, but all you'll hear is static. But most of the time it has worked for me.Basically, this radio performs well for my book. Maybe some have heard better, I don't know. The only other radio I ever bought was a "Coby" brand Weather receiver from Big Lots that cost 5 bucks. And that was 5 years ago. So all in all a good product, and one that I hope will last a good time.******************Update below**********************(8/17/2011)A well over due update. I appologise that I didn't update my review in one month as described, if anyone was watching.Anyway, Its been well over three months since I ordered this from Amazon. And in that time, I have used it quite extensively around the house.Pluses++Nothing on the unit has fallen off, broke, or cracked. Everything looks like the way it did from the day I opened the box. I haven't dropped this on concrete yet, but have dropped it on laminated hardwood floor and nothing changed/damaged physically.+The rear stand is still attached, even through all the button pressing (which would strain the hinges of the rear stand a little).+All button labels are flawless and still white/legible.+The speaker still works great, even though I had once set the volume on its highest setting. So high that it distorted the speaker (at this level, it actually got uncomfortable listening because it was so loud, so no complaints on volume output).+The three knobs to the right (tune, ssb, volume) still work great and have not failed once. All buttons still register from the 1st press as well.+There are some rubber stubs near the bottom of the radio, but these haven't fallen off yet.+Radio reception hasn't changed. The antennae, even though I bent it from lifting the PL600 too high indoors and striking the ceiling, is still attached and working.+Display still works with all digits working. Led light still lights up whole display.+Clock function isn't the best. After 3 months, the clock drifted +3 minutes. Not bad, but still annoying. I *can* trust this as an alarm clock, but only if you plan to adjust the clock at least once a year.+Battery charging function still works. I used the batteries in a wireless mouse since I don't take this radio out a lot, and the batteries performed fine for a month.+Batteries have crap capacity, but the fact that they are rechargeable, as well as being able to charge inside the PL600 negates the capacity for me. And it uses AA's so you can just buy some spare's just in case, from any store.+Haven't used the pseudo-air function, so I keep it disabled.+Also haven't used the LW function so its disabled.This thing is turning into one of those trinkets you own that becomes part of the house. I use it as a bedside alarm clock, fm radio listening, sw radio listening, cb/truckers-radio receiver, and as an emergency radio.Minus'--It's not a professional radio receiver, so you wont get anything from the other side of the country (for USA users.). Usually the foreign stations you hear (sans Spanish speaking ones) are from repeater stations around North America. Although you *can* receive ssb transmissions from Europe quite often, if they bounce around the earth well enough/weather permits.-I'm still afraid the rear stand is going to break.-Again the clock drift is quite annoying.Miscellaneous**Not a big issue for the average person, but I could not get stereo sound when I was using a cheap, portable FM transmitter from an mp3 player. The FM transmitter I own does indeed do stereo (so does my mp3 player), but listening to music from the mp3 player, to the FM transmitter, into the PL-600 with headphones does not produce stereo at all, no matter what frequency or setting I try.*It would have been fun and interesting if Tecsun added "TV" bands as well. Although I understand that major stations are digital, there are some station's that output using analog. But it would have probably added unneeded cost to theunit for a function no one would or can find useful.*Also adding weather band might have been nice. Though again, it would probably add to the cost.*Even though the Air band mode for the PL-660 seems like a nice addition, I found myself forgetting about this possible function that I do not have. Even though I go to a university with its own airport.All in all it's a great radio for our home. And its fun listening to radio stations from around the world. Still a great buy, and I recommend this model if you are considering a Shortwave radio.******************FINAL UPDATE**********************(12/11/2012)After owning it for 1.5 years, I can say that I am completely satisfied with the PL-600. Not much to update compared to the previous update from 8/17/11. Everything again is completely functional. None of the buttons have failed. The rear stand is in fact still attached. Radio still receives GREAT! I've used a lot of different antenna's, and some that seem to overpower the little PL-600, but it's held through all the abuse admirably. Speaker still works fine.Ive stopped using the included batteries and switched to alkaline's. The rechargeable ones were decent and usually last a good few weeks to a month. But after putting in some alkaline batteries and setting the code inside the radio correctly, its lasted MUCH longer. I'm one month in on some AA alkalines and the battery bar hasn't lost a single `step' (battery meter) yet. Realizing that give me a lot more security knowing that in case of a power outage or an extended crisis/disaster, store bought AA alkaline's will work great for at least a month or two.Build quality has been pretty good. The exterior plastic has held up great. Almost no scratches on mine even though I take it to camp sites, barbecues, etc and play background music. The screen plastic on the other hand is a bit fragile. A few scratches are evident. But nothing that impeded the use of the display. All labels are still legible and none have really faded.Interestingly, the clock drift has seemed to stabilized. I had to set it to the correct time a few times a year, but for the past year I have never had to re-correct the time.Final Miscellaneous Notes --Taking out the batteries to change them doesn't reset the radio/memory.-Reset button is present on the bottom but ive never used it-UP and DOWN key seems to have two switches for one button.-Hand loop has held up well. Still using it to carry from time to time-Included carrying case is great. Used all the time to transport and has probably saved the radio from a few drops.-I have not been outside with this while it has rained. So im not sure what light rain would do to damage it. But use your common senseSummary and final update thoughts-It's great. I use it every day as an alarm. And use it a few times a month as a radio. And it has never let me down once. Tecsun has done a fine job with this radio. A few more features such as weather band or tv bands would be icing on the cake. But this thing can be made to be used in any situation. Alarm, background music radio, shortwave listening, fm listening etc. etc. etc. All in all, two thumbs way up. Nicely done Tecsun.

Using for ham radio. Does the job. Good customer service

generally, as described. Thank you

It's a good product. Very good reception for its size.

Difficulty in using

Not sure if you should splash out on one of these babies? The radio is great, batteries provided are rubbish. This is sold by Tecsun but it's also rebranded under the likes of Intek, etc. You will be able to find this cheaper on the web and note there is a higher model that does inc the Air Bands. As a radio, it does what it claimed and does it well.