I purchased one on your recommendation months ago and , man, what a wonderful radio. Most "BANG FOR THE BUCK' radio than any other radio. The SW and MW sensitivity, even with just the whip , is amazimg..
Gilles, I presently don't own a Tecsun radio of any kind but the PL-330 would definitely be on my radar when looking for another quality SW portable indeed!
Back in time you did a top ten series on tabletop receivers. In it you mentioned that some of today’s portable receivers are in essence, as good as tabletop receivers, specifically, the Tecsun PL-330 as also being the best receiver for the money. You went on to explain the problem with tabletop receivers was that they must oftentimes overcome interference because they are stationary, whereas a portable receiver you can take anywhere and set up free of interference. I can definitely see a Tecsun PL series SSB radio in my future, or even the H501X.
I just ordered this on an Amazon lightening deal. I hope I will be as impressed with this unit as so many others seem to be. I want it for camping and AM DXing. I have been taking my Eton Elite field radio which I am pleased with. My issue is space and trying to protect it from motion accident. I have a Sangean 909x which is smaller but seems not rugged enough to survive rough roads. Also , sadly I don’t use it often as it seems to unnaturally exhaust batteries at too rapid a pace. The Eton is not cheap to put batteries in but does last awhile before needing changed. I am eager to see if the Tecsun will solve both issues; give good performance in a small portable package, and be easy to give additional protection using a hard shell case. The new toy should arrive by Monday so I can start playing. My previous purchases with similar size shortwaves has not been a happy experience.
Thanks for this! Looking forward to your other pre-Christmas reviews. I'd like to splurge on a higher end receiver so can't wait for your recommendation.
my first buy then the eton executive......for base my ten tec sp-325 limited run...made for USA Navy...solid stuff.....and of course what makes them all work the mla 30+
Great video. I do like the technical performance of the PL-330 very much. It is imho far better then the xdata D-808. The only aspect of the PL-330 I don't like are the very small buttons right of the display and the tuning knob. The buttons I used very often for changing the SSB/CW tuning and the tuning knob does not has not enough skew. That is why I sold both the Tecsun and the XHDATA and bought the larger, but also easier to use imho, Tecsun PL-990. For the rest, keep up the good work.
I own the PL-330 and it's a great little radio. I use the external antenna wire 'trick' for SW and MW. SW reception improves greatly but I see no improvement in AM reception between the internal ferrite antenna and my external antenna wire. Am I doing something wrong? The external wire is wrapped around the inside of a window. I know that's not perfect but it works for me in my house.
If you want to enhance AM you can't with external antenna plugged as it just enhances the FM and SW and not the internal ferrite. There is a trick though: take a long wire and instead of directly connecting it to the radio, get the cable a couple of times around the radio. The cable will somewhat charge your internal ferrite too 😜
Thanks Giles for this review, as usual, very informative. I concur, this is a very good receiver. However, I have a comment in LW/MW bands. I was getting info on Navtex and saw that there are mainly two frequencies, 490 KHz and 518 KHz. Surprisingly there is a gap of 7 kHz between LW (513 KHz) and MW(520 KHz) that does not allow to tune 518 kHz 😮. Do you know where this gap come from? It is strange that this radio covers so many frequencies and not these.
Yes. My PL330 battery lasts many hours (of operation). If I don’t use the radio for a while, it will hold the charge for many months. I haven’t checked exactly but I’d say an easy 6 months. Most of my other digital radios will chop out the batteries in a few months if if unused.
I just received the pl 330 . A very sensitive receiver even on AM but tuning around the ham bands was weird and the super slow tuning had me return the radio. I still have a PL 660 and a Yaesu 891 ..
New to sw. Where's the best place to buy, and get the latest firmware. What would be the next step up in sw radio that would have better reception and not have synchronous detection. Thanks
PL 330 is amazing technology given the price and greatly overlooked. All these people paying 40, to 100 dollars a month for cellphone plans, then 1200 on top of that for the cellphone. or you could pay 50 dollars once in your life and always be in carrier range. The fact of the matter is that people cannot afford the phones. They should be putting up shortwave towers for sustainability purposes, even if they use a lot of power its worth it! Use some of that hydro quebec power!
Наука
Great little radio. I use mine all the time.
Got to agree with you totally on the Tecsun PL-330. That old saying: Good things come in small packages, that's the Tecsun PL-330.
I got the PL-990x. It’s pretty good. I was listening to pirates over the holidays in the Philly suburbs. 😎👍
I love searching for pirates between 6800 and 7000 kHz. Most come in well over my PL 330, or my D 808.
I purchased one on your recommendation months ago and , man, what a wonderful radio. Most "BANG FOR THE BUCK' radio than any other radio. The SW and MW sensitivity, even with just the whip , is amazimg..
Gilles, I presently don't own a Tecsun radio of any kind but the PL-330 would definitely be on my radar when looking for another quality SW portable indeed!
Back in time you did a top ten series on tabletop receivers. In it you mentioned that some of today’s portable receivers are in essence, as good as tabletop receivers, specifically, the Tecsun PL-330 as also being the best receiver for the money. You went on to explain the problem with tabletop receivers was that they must oftentimes overcome interference because they are stationary, whereas a portable receiver you can take anywhere and set up free of interference. I can definitely see a Tecsun PL series SSB radio in my future, or even the H501X.
I like mine, it's an excellent travel radio.
Really like my PL330. Chaffing is not too bad unless you have the volume set high. All the positives make this a great portable!
I just ordered this on an Amazon lightening deal. I hope I will be as impressed with this unit as so many others seem to be. I want it for camping and AM DXing. I have been taking my Eton Elite field radio which I am pleased with. My issue is space and trying to protect it from motion accident. I have a Sangean 909x which is smaller but seems not rugged enough to survive rough roads. Also , sadly I don’t use it often as it seems to unnaturally exhaust batteries at too rapid a pace. The Eton is not cheap to put batteries in but does last awhile before needing changed. I am eager to see if the Tecsun will solve both issues; give good performance in a small portable package, and be easy to give additional protection using a hard shell case. The new toy should arrive by Monday so I can start playing. My previous purchases with similar size shortwaves has not been a happy experience.
Great. May I know how much was it during the lightning deal? I see $80 USD today.
Thanks for this! Looking forward to your other pre-Christmas reviews. I'd like to splurge on a higher end receiver so can't wait for your recommendation.
I like the muting when you tune.
PL330 📻👑
my first buy then the eton executive......for base my ten tec sp-325 limited run...made for USA Navy...solid stuff.....and of course what makes them all work the mla 30+
Thanks for the review. The only SW radio that I have right now is the Raddy RF320 and I want to try some other's out.
Great video. I do like the technical performance of the PL-330 very much. It is imho far better then the xdata D-808. The only aspect of the PL-330 I don't like are the very small buttons right of the display and the tuning knob. The buttons I used very often for changing the SSB/CW tuning and the tuning knob does not has not enough skew. That is why I sold both the Tecsun and the XHDATA and bought the larger, but also easier to use imho, Tecsun PL-990. For the rest, keep up the good work.
No caso recomenda o 990 ?
Not that impressed by the Tecsun t.b.h. XHdata in my view is the winner.
Nice job.
I agree I have this radio It’s Realy Good
I own the PL-330 and it's a great little radio. I use the external antenna wire 'trick' for SW and MW. SW reception improves greatly but I see no improvement in AM reception between the internal ferrite antenna and my external antenna wire. Am I doing something wrong?
The external wire is wrapped around the inside of a window. I know that's not perfect but it works for me in my house.
If you want to enhance AM you can't with external antenna plugged as it just enhances the FM and SW and not the internal ferrite.
There is a trick though: take a long wire and instead of directly connecting it to the radio, get the cable a couple of times around the radio. The cable will somewhat charge your internal ferrite too 😜
Wrong, the PL-330 can activate the mediumwave band on the antenna jack if you turn it on via the hidden features in the radio
@@OfficialSWLchannel cool!
Hold and press 3 to change external antenna input. Try it out and tell us how did that go 🙂
Thanks Giles for this review, as usual, very informative. I concur, this is a very good receiver. However, I have a comment in LW/MW bands. I was getting info on Navtex and saw that there are mainly two frequencies, 490 KHz and 518 KHz. Surprisingly there is a gap of 7 kHz between LW (513 KHz) and MW(520 KHz) that does not allow to tune 518 kHz 😮. Do you know where this gap come from? It is strange that this radio covers so many frequencies and not these.
I liked your video
I don't see the BL5C battery as a disadvantage as it seems to be very efficient with reasonably long battery life between charges.
Yes. My PL330 battery lasts many hours (of operation). If I don’t use the radio for a while, it will hold the charge for many months. I haven’t checked exactly but I’d say an easy 6 months. Most of my other digital radios will chop out the batteries in a few months if if unused.
I just received the pl 330 . A very sensitive receiver even on AM but tuning around the ham bands was weird and the super slow tuning had me return the radio. I still have a PL 660 and a Yaesu 891 ..
You have to change the tuning step to make it faster... learn to use it before returning it for no reason
Just received mine from AliExpress and it now has a USB-C charging port.
Does this have any advantages over an RTL-SDR in terms of being able to listen to distant AM stations assuming both use the same external antenna?
How does it compare to the PL680?
For that radio, what would be the best external antenna for the radio?
New to sw. Where's the best place to buy, and get the latest firmware. What would be the next step up in sw radio that would have better reception and not have synchronous detection. Thanks
airband?
Qual carregador externo utiliza para as baterias BL5C ?
Can I get data from USB port? Or is it only for charging ?
Charging only
Sir Price in Pakistan
PL 330 is amazing technology given the price and greatly overlooked. All these people paying 40, to 100 dollars a month for cellphone plans, then 1200 on top of that for the cellphone. or you could pay 50 dollars once in your life and always be in carrier range. The fact of the matter is that people cannot afford the phones. They should be putting up shortwave towers for sustainability purposes, even if they use a lot of power its worth it! Use some of that hydro quebec power!
I am really confused in 2024 on buying a SW radio.For travels.Thx for posting 👍.