Drive-Thru Freak writes:
A reader on here that goes by the name of Bill was generous and kind enough to send me a Tecsun PL-660.
I'd heard some good, and some bad. Seems like the opinion on this one was a mixed bag at best. After dialing around on it for a few days and putting it though its paces (including testing the MW/AM band around noon in a park away from any r.f.i.) I can say that this is a sweet little rig. It's quite impressive for not only its size, but for being a portable in this class range.
In all fairness I no longer have a sable of radios to compare it against, but after 30 or so years of collecting radios and tuning in DX I'd like to think I know the good from the bad.
It does very well with just the built in whip, and holds its own with a 50' longwire as well. Quite sensitive and selective. The bandwidths are well chosen and the narrow setting is quite effective.
Its performance on SSB is very good. The sync detector locks in to just about anything and does as it should.
MW/AM performance is better than average. It does not offer the same performance as a GE Superadio or an old RF-2200, but that's exactly why those radios are held in such high regard. I'd say it's quite a bit better than average if not a touch better than the Grundig S350 models. The sync detector really does its job here.
A couple things of note it that it's very directional. You have to turn it carefully to find the sweet spot. To me this is a bug plus as it nulls out what you don't want to hear. It's also sensitive enough to pick up noise from r.f.i. sources, but that's to be expected.
This one's out of tune by about .75 KHz. No big deal at all as you can zero in on SSB signals with the b.f.o. knob.
The sound though a good set of headphones is outstanding.
FM? Yea, they play the same ten records over and over on that band. So there you go.
Oh, alright. I'd say it's actually quite a bit better than average. It'll pull in everything my PL-310 and PL-398mp will and then some. On MW/AM and the shortwave bands there's no comparison. The PL-660s simply blows those two away (yes, even the PL-398mp which is essentially the same thing as a PL-390).
Thank you so very much for the radio, Bill. I'm having a blast with it, and it's great to be able to tune back in again.
I'm glad you like it. I listen to MW a lot, and MW is the PL-660's weakest point, in my opinion.
I tried a PL-600 instead. It doesn't have the sync detector the 660 has, nor does it have the Easy Tune Method that works so well on the 660. But it completely lacks any squeals or false signals across the MW band. Its sensitivity on SW seems about as good and on MW it is much better.
I think we both have the radios we need, now.
Posted by: Bill | April 29, 2013 at 06:52 PM
"A couple things of note it that it's very directional. You have to turn it carefully to find the sweet spot. To me this is a bug plus as it nulls out what you don't want to hear"
Surely all AM portables are directional?
Posted by: Bob Balser | April 30, 2013 at 01:11 AM
All AM portables are directional, but I've noticed that some of them seem a lot more so than others. Bothers me since I have no idea why that should be, unless the non-directional ones have so little antenna that they're equally lousy in all directions, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think it's one of those effects that highly trained scientific experts call "just one of them there things."
Posted by: Bill | April 30, 2013 at 03:20 PM