Tecsun PL880 in Production Now?

Thanks, Owl:

Tecsun PL880 in production now?

A photo of a PL880 manufactured on 27th September appeared in Tecsun's customer forum:

http://bbs.tecsun.com.cn/0002.asp?open=549213

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Comments

[owl]

Tow more photos from a seasoned Chinese radio hobbist:

http://www.zmdz.com/bbs/forum_read.asp?id=170907&page=1&property=0&ClassID=0

[Bill]

Good pictures! You can see the button labels clearly.

I see no synchronous detector control, just USB/normal and LSB/normal buttons. It appears to have the excellent Tecsun ATS function. The symbol of a square with horizontal lines in it, like a box of cards, appears on pictures of some of the latest PL-660s available direct from China. On those radios it is described as a memory sorting button, which organizes your memory channels in frequency order and eliminates any duplicates-- a rather useful feature on a radio with a couple thousand memories.

I'm looking forward to seeing some test results on this puppy. Apparently there is not a medium sized (or smaller) portable with excellent sound, excellent performance on SW, AND excellent performance on MW. (My Redsun RP2100 meets the bill but it's honkin' big by modern standards.) Since nobody's managed to put all those features in one portable yet, there are probably good reasons why they can't, or won't. Still, Tecsun keeps coming out with nice and nicer radios, so I can always hope.

[RobRich]

Bill, you might like the Redsun RP3100, assuming it is legit this time around....

http://www.redsunelect.com/list.asp?sid=35&rcid=27

That said, PL880 pricing is going to be the determining factor for my wallet. If upwards of $200, I would rather spend a little more money on a decent used desktop receiver, versus buying yet another portable that will likely be relegated to collecting dust after a few months - more like weeks or even days with some of my radios.

[Dave P.]

If Chrome translated correctly, it appears that someone mentioned a price of 18650 Japanese yen. Current conversion would be approx. $192 US. Ouch.

[owl]

Dave: 18650 is the model of the li-on battery used in this radio (a laptop battery usually contains several cells of this type of battery).

BTW, a PL880 ad has appeared in the October issue of a chinese electronic hobbist magazine so I guess we won't have to wait for too long now:

http://bbs.tecsun.com.cn/0002.asp?open=549793

[Giampaolo Galassi]

With excellent stability, 10 Hz steps and good filters there is no need of the automatic synchro mode. Just turn the radio on LSB or USB to avoid the offending interference and then fine tune (it's more funny, too).

[Jim Nugnes]

I need a new contemporary radio to supplement my vintage receivers. My Grundig G3 just died and I don't want another of those.

Hopefully this new PL-880 will fit the bill. I am interested in the new speaker fidelity and there are even some comments about a redesigned screen over the speaker. Looks like it might be metal mesh or something like that.

I would consider the Redson 2100 if i were smaller. Maybe that is the right radio to get anyway. Have seen nothing on the 3100 as yet. If the 2100 really does have great performance on all three bands, maybe the size is justified and worth it.

[Gary]

The biggest disadvantage of the Redsun RP2100 (aka CCRadio-SW) is that it lacks built in SSB. It can be added via an external TG37 device, but this isn't as convenient as having it built in.

I find the MW and SW reception on my CCRadio-SW to be very good, and the FM reception is excellent, as is the sound quality.