Bill Getting Woeful Performance from His New Tecsun PL-660

Bill R. writes:

Well, I ordered a PL-660 and I’m probably going to return it. I thought I might ask your personal advice, however, or the advice of your Herculodge followers. 

My PL-660 is disappointing on MW. I gather they aren’t the greatest on MW, but mine is clearly outclassed by my PL-390 and some lesser radios. Even given the PL-660 doesn’t seem to have the best reputation for MW DX, I’d expected it to be a little better than it is. 

I’d keep it if that was the only problem. I’ve also noted that the radio is hissy, especially using sync- more using sync on upper sideband than lower sideband. Although based on using the BFO to peak the center frequency displayed is right on where it should be, AM mode signals (by which I mean MW and SW both) are louder and clearer tuned up a bit above center frequency. I am no expert but this would seem to speak to alignment problems that I have no idea how to correct, if correcting them is possible. 

Finally, the radio generates a spurious signal that blanks out 970 KHz on MW, sometimes down as far as 960 or up toward 980. This is some radio signal generated within the circuitry of the radio itself. When I tune another radio to the same frequency and bring it near the PL-660, the other radio will pick up the spurious signal too.

If this is how the PL-660 performs, I don’t want it. So I am going to return it to Amazon regardless. (Good thing that for once I ordered from Amazon instead of Hong Kong via Ebay!)

 What I’d like to Ask the Hive Mind, though, is this: Is this the kind of behavior the PL-660 always exhibits, or did I just get a bad one? If such behavior is typical, I’m through with this set, but if mine is just a stinker I might order a replacement.

 

I was going to just try ordering a replacement, since I’m sure that if this behavior is typical of the PL-660 I would have heard of it. My Amazon order, though, was a “Fulfilled by Amazon.” I gather this means that Amazon is merely acting as an agent for someone else. In any case, while I can return this “Fulfilled by Amazon” order, I can’t just get a replacement from them directly. A little detail I hadn’t known.

Thanks for any advice.

 

Comments

[vimal oberoi]

Jay Allen had reviewed pl660 with doubts on its AM reception:
http://radiojayallen.com/tecsun-pl-660/

[Bill]

Yes, I had read that. He seems to be saying that it picks up the weak signals but they are noisy; mine is noisy and doesn't pick up the weak signals. He also says the radio is free of spurious signals and hets, while mine has that one big spurious signal in it at least. So it sounds like mine is performing even worse on MW than his did. I was hoping someone else here had some experience with the radio and could comment on how common my problems were, or weren't.

[Conniesdad]

Well all I can tell you is that mine, bought from Amazon UK in May this year, does not have any of these problems. I rarely use MW as such but when I do its OK, I mainly use LW and it is more than acceptable. I suffer from poor reception in my immediate area, even mobile coverage and terrestrial TV is very poor. Even so I get pretty good results from my 660 with a random wire on SW. FM is fine and I am surrounded by airports, so airband works well.

People have reported poor QC on Chinese products of all types which is why I bought mine through Amazon. I think I was just lucky.

[Bill]

Thanks, Conniesdad. Doing a web search I found one other case, posted to You Tube, about a fellow with a problem similar to mine. Most people don't report problems like these. Perhaps rather than you being lucky, I was just unlucky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz56I-_qKTA

[Gary]

Bill - It sounds like your PL-660 may be defective. You might consider posting your query on the Yahoo Tecsun PL-660 group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TecsunPL660/

[Huesby]

Bill:
I like your radio and I even though of buying one but after this report from your radio it´ll never happen. My advice get a CCRadioSW and you won´t be disappointed.

[vimal oberoi]

Please consider CCRadioSW latest QC issues reported by Gary,before taking a decision.
You may require tweaking IF coils,changing coil antenna position,and even replacing 6''ferrite with 8''one;as suggested by Huesby.

[Huesby]

Vimal:
I like to do that to every radio but ccradiosw is after mods one of the best radio I ever worked, very sensitive and selective indeed.

[vimal oberoi]

Huesby:
Seems that we are of the same kind.Even I love experimenting.

[Huesby]

Vimal:

Join us, It´s free !
Forum for radio lovers

http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=2ef7fcc1b9f8f94b5f421bebd92541e6

[vimal oberoi]

Thanks Huesby,offer accepted.