Tecsun PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver

What a great DX'r! It does what it was built to do! The Tecsun PL-880 is now my No. 1 go to tuner.The radio controls are ergonomic and intuitive. The sound is impressive with its larger speaker. There are more features on this radio than most comparable radios. Tecsun just makes good radios. Period. I will put them up against any other brand. The tuner seems very sensitive to input from the controls. Day time channel surfing is impressive, and night time is incredible. I live in a deaf area in the rural southwest. I have an extensive radio collection and this one beats them all. I'm sorry I waited so long to pull the trigger.From features like the easily replaceable single 18650 Li-on battery, to the dial back lighting switch, to the stereo switching capability, the bandwidth selector, to the now current Type C charging port. The feature list is extensive and I only name a few here. The antenna gain switch is a nice touch. So far, I haven't needed an external antenna for much. Using a clip-on adapter to the telescoping antenna does help FM reception during the afternoon and early evening hours. But it is not entirely necessary and the signal strength meter says so. There is not much S/W radio out here. But I did pick up a station out of the Miami area the first night. The AM is so strong, adding a secondary inductive coupling antenna only increases the gain to an uncomfortable hissing level on some stations.I don't use head phones, but I did connect the "line out" jack to my home stereo receiver Aux input for fun. The sound was as good as it gets. There aren't many FM stations here to choose from but the 'stereo" is there if you want it. There was no low-level hissing and the Stereo separation was quite good. The "tone" selector switch seems more like a high pass filter, and I just leave it on "treble" The sound really is awesome for a radio with a single speaker. Tecsun knocked it out of the park on this one feature alone. When I am looking to pull in more distant FM stations, I turn the stereo selector to "mono" and the reception gets better. The extendable antenna is very long. Reception is strong.The digital tuner does cut out DX lower power stations. That's just a fact. But it does so in a way that favors the stronger stations and makes them more listenable. To be honest, most distant stations here aren't listenable at all. I don't like listening to noise. This radio pulls in stations and makes them clearer if you set it up right. Read ALL the instructions. If I want those weaker stations, I have other older analog radios to do the job.The ATS tuning is nice, and there are more memory locations than I know what to do with. I manually save the clearer S/W channels, and will never utilize all of the memory on this radio. The bandwidth selector helps dial in weaker radio signals. The USB and LSB are there if you need them.The radio has a nice plastic case and the tuning knobs are metal. There is a nice weight to the radio. All the controls are in the perfect position for operating it while holding it in your hands. There is a kickstand on the back which lays the radio back a little. I use a radio stand when I am not hands on with it.The clock feature is 24 hours only unless I havent yet figured out how to change it. Features like alarms on receivers seem gimmicky. I never use them. But it is there if you need it. There are no flashlights, solar panels, or sirens on this radio, and there should not be. The signal meter, and signal to noise ratio meter is nice. You can switch to the current alarm time status, or ambient air temp. This is a serious radio for DX'ing. No gimmicks are necessary. The Tecsun PL-880 doesn't need them, and I applaud the manufacturer for resisting any urge to add them.The included rechargeable 18650 button top battery is at the lower end. It still does last a long while. I left the radio on for a full afternoon and an into the evening session, and it still had some charge the next day. It is easy to change out and the choice of replacements with more amp hours is unlimited. You can almost double the playtime with the "right" battery...I know that there are more Tecsun radios with stereo speakers, like the PL-990x and the H501, but they do not get the sound quality that this radio enjoys with its large and "tuned" Hi-Fi speaker. The fidelity really is amazing! I watched quite a few reviews before purchasing this radio, and I think that I made the right choice.The brown leather (look) storage case is a nice touch. There are other nice accessories available from Tecsun as well. A plastic foam lined case is on my list of them as is a long wire antenna, and a second rechargeable battery. The 18650 is nice, and easy to upgrade to a higher milliamp battery, but I would like to see a BL-5c battery here and maybe an on-board storage compartment for the extra battery.I would also like to see Tescun produce a larger "table" radio with these features. Something bigger like the C.Crane CC3. A radio that I could leave in the kitchen or on the fireplace mantle.This is a nice portable radio that can double duty as a kitchen table top radio. The reception and sound are simply amazing and I have nothing but positive things to say. I don't regret my purchase and neither will you! I can't wait to travel to other cities and see what my radio will do!

Probably the best working radio I have ever owned. I get more FM stations than any other radio I own. I haven't tried the shortwave and the AM station's don't come in well inside my home, maybe because of the foil insulation uf the home.

I've had the radio for about a week now. It's excellent in its class, having been an Extra Class Amateur Radio operator for 38 years, originally licensed in 1967, with a 21 year career in the US Army Signal Corps. I've used numerous HF (aka SW) receivers, military and civilian, some quite high end. My original "portable" receiver is a 1977 Sony DR-22 (aka RF-2200). It's showing its age with dirty switch contacts, dirty contacts in the rotary controls (potentiometers for volume, RF Gain, etc.) and undoubtedly aging circuit capacitors going leaky. Worked extremely well for its era and class. I consider this one similar in overall performance thus far. The decision was narrowed down to the similarly priced Eton Elite Executive. Aircraft band wasn't important to me and comparison reviews gave this one better audio from its larger speaker.The modern household is loaded with RF noise generators, from laptops to compact fluorescent and LED lamps, and the big LCD TV in the family room. The internal antennas are great for local AM and FM broadcast stations. The built-in whip antenna will pick up weaker signals, along but also all the RF noise being generated in the home. Works much better with an external long-wire antenna - especially mounted at a window. Serious SWL'ers use large outdoor antennas - along with lighting protection on them. Super if you have one, but not necessary for most SWL listening. Anyone that serious should also be looking at a much more expensive desktop communications receiver. Don't expect great performance living in cubeville inside an office building with fluorescent lights everywhere and surrounded by steel reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling. While not a Faraday Cage, some offices come close to it.In SW mode the band up and down feature (two buttons) makes large leaps up and down the HF spectrum to various SWL broadcast bands when not using USB or LSB - plus WWV's time signal frequencies. When the USB or LSB BFO is switched in, it jumps between amateur radio bands, a nice feature as that's normally the only use for the sideband BFO.Comes with nice faux leather zipper case, external long-wire antenna wound around a frame to store it with a spring clip that allows clipping the end of it somewhere convenient to hold it up, wired stereo earbuds and a 5V USB cable for charging the battery while it's inside the radio (also powers the radio)). You can use a 5V USB wall plug to run it from an AC wall outlet. I've got a half dozen or more of those laying about for charging cell phones, tablets and iPods.Downsides:The zipper case is nice, but will only hold the radio itself, not any of the accessories, which risks them being misplaced and lost, especially when traveling. The rotary knobs are on the right side and must be rotated on their sides from the front. You cannot rotate them on the end as they don't protrude far enough for that. The main tuning knob cannot be rapidly spun. For rapid frequency change across a SW band I entire a leap on the keypad and then tune from there, as the SW up and down are quite large leaps.The rechargeable lithium is very good with decent energy to power the radio for some time. Better than AA cells. It uses a 3.7V 2000 mAh 18650 Li-ion with button top, about 69.2mm in length (these vary from 65mm-70mm), so one that has internal protection circuitry and even a USB charging port should fit if it's no longer than 70mm. I strongly recommend one with internal protection. It also require a button top on the "+" end as the battery box has an inset on that end to prevent putting a battery in backward (a flat top won't work). Thus you can use a higher capacity if you wish. Note that flat tops without internal protection are made for use bundled with others in battery packs, such as those found in older laptops.Overall I give it high performance marks for a portable, especially in its size class. It can easily fit into a suitcase for travel without taking up any more space than a man's modest shaving kit (some men travel with an entire medicine cabinet of stuff; I don't). Took off one star because the accessories don't fit in its leatherette zipper case. No photos or video uploaded; wouldn't add anything to those already uploaded with other reviews.