 Good radio for the money |
| Review Date: April 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: TheGonz, |
This is the best FM and SW radio (portable) I've ever owned so far.
With it's great FM reception I could hear stations I didn't know they exist. Some of they are from far away from my city.
SW is very good too. I can hear many stations when I'm in my kitchen, living room or bedroom at night. All this just with the whip antenna (and my house is heavily surrounded by tall buildings).
AM is good too, with it's internal antenna catches lots of stations, but I can't confirm it catches all of them as I don't hear AM that much.
Tecsun PL-600 has two wake up alarms: a buzz or a radio station can be used.
700 memories are divided in 10 pages with a maximum of 50 per page. As I told, this unit's FM reception is great and it has cought 54 radio stations! so the memory page fell a little short to store all of them :)
The wall adapter is very very good with no noises in any band! this impressed me a lot since i've had problems with my other portables and that horrible noise that bleeded all over the place and I had to use batteries all the time for that reason. Very good Tecsun!
The sound through the speaker is a little muddy for FM listening. Actualy it can be best described as 'flat' no rich basses or highs, but if you use headphones then it sound incredible & in stereo.
Other reviewers have said that the buttons are flat but mine are not and are easy to feel with the fingertips. I wish the buttons were backlighted to easily work with them in the dark...
Since SW was my main motivation to buy this portable and it performs really well, I give it 4.5 stars. Half star less because of the FM sound and the lack of backlighted buttons.
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One extremely fine (4.5 stars) portable lw/mw (am) /sw/fm radio!
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| Review Date: January 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ann E. Revelle, Los Alamos, New Mexico |
I have only had this portable a month now, but I continue to be impressed by this very fine new Chinese lw/mw (am)/sw/fm/air band radio from Tecsun (sold by KaitoUSA in N. America).
PROS: Brief Overview feature set summary-
1) This dual conversion, very high quality PLL (Phase locked loop), worldband radio is a completely new version of the Eton E10 with full SSB (single-sideband band) capability (also previously known as the Tecsun PL-550). This wonderful SSB detection capability also has a very finely controlled, center detent adjustment, BFO (beat frequency oscillator) knob in the center of the left hand side of the radio between the volume control knob and the tuning control knob. There are also numerous ways of tuning the radio using a direct entry keypad, separate digital up/down scanning keys, etc.
2) Dual bandwidths for quality sw reception with dx/normal/local switch as well as AC/DC adapter power input, external fm/sw antenna input, earphone input, nicely controlled backlight, great, five full bar, signal strength meter, small, four bar, battery charge indicator, dual timers, clock always on-screen, bass-treble tone setting switch, 600 memories of which 500 presets are user controllable, two sets of frequency adjustment steps for each available frequency band (fast/slow), with very fine reception and audio clarity on ALL bands, etc.
3) A complete set of system codes is available through a dedicated key for rapidly setting all possible system selection choices (number of preset pages with number of presets per page of memory, type of batteries being used, regular or rechargeable, 9 or 10 KHZ step size depending on the geographic location of the listener, etc.) For example, setting the system set code to "03", a complete airband channel (as noted above, but with the presence on the screen of an actual small aeroplane image!) is also available on an additional high frequency band (4th of five present on this radio) from 118-136 MHz. This band can not be automatically scanned (just like the one available on the Grundig G6 radio which is also for sale on Amazon and built for the Grundig/Eton corporation by Tecsun as its OEM-Original equipment manufacturer).
3**) UPDATE: January 14, 2009:
Officially according to Tecsun engineers in China this aero band is spurious (not real) and the PL-600 cannot detect any type of signals from the 118-136 MHz band at all!!!!! Then why not clear up any confusion right away and remove all this "aero" material in the software stages of this radio's development??? It remains to be seen what this band is exactly since I have definitely picked up signals at least "bleeding over" from the various sw bands directly onto this very puzzling "aero" band. Curiously from what I have been able to learn, the aeroband software works comnpletely and is still installed in the radio, but Tecsun chose to remove the detailed hardware circuitry that would have allowed the unit to detect aircraft frequencies probably so that they wouldn't directly compete head-on with the Grundig G6 as its OEM and as noted earlier above.
4) Separate control of all sw meter bands from 120 m to 11 m using a separate button just to the left of the lw/mw/fm and the "aero" band selection button.
5) Pressing the lw/ mw/fm/ "aero" band key at the bottom right of the main keyboard and holding it down (long press), a complete set of available fm and am stations will be preselected by the radio and are automatically (by performing an ATS system-wide search) put into the first 99 presets of available memory. This is a very very nice feature for travelers arriving at a new location so that they can very rapidly locate the latest and clearest am/fm stations available for their listening pleasure.
6) Complete four, AA battery system for automatically recharging Nickel Metal hydride batteries within the radio.
7) This radio seriously competes with the Kaito KA1103 for quality reception capabilities while it is slightly larger and slightly heavier. To compensate however, it has a much finer ergonomic digital action and display system for handling the numerous options available. Obviously the microprocessor-computer controls available are now far more extensive than they were even just a few years ago.
8) The standard Kaito return policy (30 days) and year-long warranty is a great deal for purchasers from N. America (if you choose not to purchase the unit directly from Tecsun in Hong Kong or in Shenzhen, ROC).
Summary CONS:
1) This is quite large and fairly heavy unit (7.5 " X 4.75 " X 1.25") with a weight of about 1 pound, but at least it comes with a quality carrying strap handle as well as with a quality velcro-sealed case.
2) Presets cannot be stored alphanumerically as on more the much more expensive Sangean (ATS-909AP) and the Sony (ICF-SW7600GR) units, but they are stored on the Tecsun PL-600 by both band and by frequency.
3) You need to always remember that a "short" push on the buttons performs a different action than a "long" push on the buttons. This is semi-standard now on all new Tecsun/Degen/Kaito/Redsun brand radios.
4) The battery door is not hinged to prevent loss, but this is a finely constructed radio and the battery door fits the unit very securely nonetheless.
5) My first unit had a problem with the BFO tuning unit (center detent lock-up problem), but I sent it back and they quickly sent me out a new unit in exchange which all works properly.
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Excellent features, performance and sound quality
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| Review Date: July 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: -, Boston |
| This radio is excellent, good quality build, sensitive, selective, easy to use. The analog controls for volume & center-detented BFO for SSB are great. I also have a Kaito 1102, and this one is similar in performance with better sound. The volume can get low enough for night listening with ear buds unlike my 1102. Although I wish it could copy page zero memory to the other memory locations like the 1102 can; this is handy because page zero can scan and save to memory automatically, when traveling this is very useful. The AM sensitivity is good but not as good as the Kaito 2100 which is remarkable, FM is quite good, and SW is very good. The size is small enough for bedside and travel unlike the 2100 but larger than the 1102. I use the 1102 for travel because it is so small. Automatic charger built in works well but is slower than an external one. I do not like the power supply provided: the DC cable is too short and it is not world travel capable (it is not 100-240 VAC), I have not been able to find a replacement supply. Overall happy with this radio with the exception of the power supply. |
A "Best for the Buck" radio from Tecsun
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| Review Date: August 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: jr_Tech, Portland OR. area |
Even though the Amazon price has increased since I purchased this radio for about [...] bucks (with free shipping), this is still a great radio for the money!
What I like:
1. Performance is nearly as good on AM, FM and SW as the Kaito 1103/ Eton E5 series of radios.
2. The center detent on the BFO makes SSB signals, mostly used by "hams" easier to tune.
3. Easier to operate than the Kaito 1103, similar to the more expensive E5.
(see my reviews of these radios)
4. Switch for fast/slow tuning steps, which allows tuning the FM band in very fine steps (10kHz)
5. LW band goes down to 100 kHz...If you want to hear the sounds of the old Loran navigation system.
What I don't like:
1. Rechargeable batteries *are* included, but are low capacity (1000 mAh) and 2 of the 4 that I got worked poorly, limiting the run time considerably.
2. Even though this radio is larger than the 1103 and E5, to my ears it does not sound as good on AM and SW. FM sounds GREAT and stereo is provided through headphones.
In all, a very fine multi-band radio for the money!
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Solid radio
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| Review Date: November 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: BeSwift, Maryland |
Trying not to echo what's already been posted...I researched a LOT prior to making this purchase.
Likes: Quality is good, everything works, FM reception very good, multiple tuning options are nice, tons of options (I'm relatively new to DX'ing), auto scan is nice, decent ergonomics...
OK features: operating requires a bit of a learning curve, AM reception is just OK so far, SW autoscan feature isn't as sensitive as I would like, sound quality is good, just not super...still haven't figured out the benefits of SSB
Dislikes: Relatively minor overall: tuning knob isn't "smooth", battery charge function doesn't seem to be working (I think I've isolated it to a bad battery, seems to work good with my Eneloops), my favorite 2 strong local FM & AM stations have spotty reception at times.
Overall I'm happy with this purchase..I don't LOVE it, but LIKE it a lot...In hindsight I might have overthought this purchase..
I don't know if I NEED all the features that come with this radio, but I figure it's better to have them than not. LOTS of bang for your buck. |
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