Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Tecsun PL-880

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Tecsun PL-880
Reviews: 36MSRP: 169.00
Description:
Tecsun's 2013 release of their latest worldband radio with FM/SW/MW/LW. Freq range: FM: 870108/76-108/64-108 (user selectable) Tuning Step: 0.01MHz/0.1MHz
SW: 1711-29999kHz Tuning Step: 1kHz/5kHz
MW: 522-1620 kHz with 1kHz/9kHz tuning step
520-1710 kHz with 1kHz/10kHz tuning step (user select)
LW: 100-519kHz, Tuning Step: 1kHz/9kHz
3,050 Station Memories, Alarm Mode, 3W speaker, Earphone and Line-out jacks. Powered via 3.7V Li-ion rechargeable battery or via USB jack (DC 5V, Current >300mA.
Unit dimensions: 192(W) X 113(H) X 33 (D) mm.
Weight 520g (without battery)
Zippered Leather(ette?) slip cover provided along with long-wire SW Antenna, USB charge cable, and stereo earphones. Also included was a dual USB wall adaptor plug for charging the radio.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00364.4
WB0FDJ Rating: 2022-03-04
Better than I expected Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Long story short: I wanted a small portable general coverage radio to listen to while sitting out with my pooch in my heated garage. Honestly I didn't expect much. Now that I've had it for a while I'm pleased with the radio. The AM/FM experience is great with good audio and speaker. SWL has been fun. I don't expect to hear "DX" but the commonly available HF SW stations are easily found. Sitting in MN with the attached antenna I can have almost solid copy of the MIDCARS net at mid day. I've copied CW on most bands and it's as good as I would expect.

So all in all this is a fun little radio. It would be worth the time for a potential owner to check out some of the more obscure or hidden features by consulting Professor Google. There's a lot here if you know how to use it!
EI3IBB Rating: 2020-11-16
Bad SSB Distortion. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
EDIT: 16th November 2020

I sold the PL-880 and S-8800 and got the PL-680 istead, boy what a difference, the audio is just so good, no harsh white noise in the audio and no distorted SSB and no warble souning audio listening to SSB on SW or MW, zerobeating on LW/MW/SW is just so good on the PL-680, if there's an interfearing source close by hitting USB/LSB can in most cases greatly reduce or completely eliminate this interference.

The SYNC is also decent against mild fading but it can growl and squeal when conditions get challenging but it's at least useful compared to the 880, oh wait, it doesn't even have SYNC, ok, it does but it's in a hidden menu because it works so bad Tecsun tried to hide it out of embarrassment which they should.

I would avoid the PL-880 and S-8800 DSP only ruins the performance and audio especially on SSB.

Another piece of advice, do not connect a Ham radio style wire antenna to this or most portable radios, they overload badly unless you use some serious attenuation.

I use a Bonito MA305 whip with the Tecsun radios and it outputs just the right amount of signal and changing the atenuation to local or medium setting takes care of any overloading and with this Bonito MA305 ( mounted outdoors up in a tree using H-155 coax gorunded ) I can hear much more signals at night than my Ham radio antenna because the MA-305 isn't overloading the radio. The Performance of this antenna has to be heard to be believed for such a small antenna.
W2VIB Rating: 2020-06-17
Exellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This radio is as good as it gets for a portable. I use it as a table top radio for USB/LSB on 20, 40 and 80 meter ham bands with a 130' doublet antenna from my transceiver tuner. It receives as well as my Icom 745. FM has excellent stereo quality in my headphones. AM is great as i live 100 miles south of NYC but could only receive NYC stations with built ferrite core antenna after i discovered the AM interference was because of switching wall warts on surveillance cameras was the source, once turned off, then AM reception was clear. The manual is hard to understand and i have yet to put frequencies in memory channels so i just enter my favorites manually. Recommend using high dipole outdoor antenna for SSB reception and fine tuning + or - .10 khz for clarity. All in all a great little radio, easy to use but remember any shortwave radio is only as good as it's antenna system. Bob W2VIB
SV1DPP Rating: 2020-04-20
Bad for SSB Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My opinion is that it's a bad radio, with leading edge distotion on usb/lsb and a useless "sync". It's a very expensive-very good FM radio.I have one and I am very disappointed.
VE4AMN Rating: 2019-01-31
Truly excellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have owned a host of small portable radios and this beats all. It is sensitive and selective, plus offers great audio for FM. I am seriously considering building a small TR switch and mating it with a QRP transmitter it is that good.

The battery life is excellent and the USB based charging process is fast.

I have two nits. First the leather case, while of excellent quality could be 1/2 inch larger to accommodate the portable antenna, charging line and earphones. Then the unit would make this a truly portable system.

The manual is poor. When I first switched the radio on, the sync was engaged and the SSB and CW sounded bad. After hunting around on Google I figured out how to turn this function off (which has always been marginal on any small radio I have heard). There are many "hidden" features not covered in the manual, but users have unearthed some really useful tricks. They appear at https://swling.com/blog/2014/06/complete-list-of-tecsun-pl-880-hidden-features/

In short this is a great radio.
N4MU Rating: 2019-01-27
Exceeded my Expectation! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got the PL-880 after selling a tuner. Total cost: $24.99! This little gem has truly exceeded what I hoped would be a great receiver. I have had other comparable receivers but sent them back due to "non-performance". I bought it just to listen to the ham bands, especially CW and I have to say it is superb. Of course it does AM & FM but if I want to listen to those I can sit in my truck. The 10 Hz steps do the job very well and it is rock stable. There is absolutely no chuffing even when rapidly changing frequencies. The 500 Hz filter is great for CW!
I don't write a lot of reviews but when something this good comes along folks should know. It's great...did I already say that?
KB3HJK Rating: 2019-01-09
The best portable out there Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It's incredible. I have owned the 1103, a lower Tecsun, and a few Sonys. The SSB reception is outstanding. The bandwidth filters are excellent. It blows away the radios I mentioned. After researching this and the Sangean 990, reviews pointed me to this. Thank god. Note...this is based on using the supplied wire antenna. I did see a massive difference between the and the whip.
KB0HAE Rating: 2018-12-09
Very good portable radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I already had a Kaito KA1103 (see my review of it). Part of the reason that I bought the Tecsun PL880 is that it got good reviews, and that it runs and charges from USB (5Vdc), using an 18650 3.7V Lithium-ion battery. While the KA1103 is a decent radio, I wanted some of the features that the PL880 has that the KA1103 lacks. I made sure that the radio that I bought had the 8820 firmware, as I had read that PL880s with the older firmware had a few problems that were solved in the newer firmware version.

I have to say that the PL880 had exceeded all of my expectations! It is easy to operate, and works very well. Why I wanted a radio that would run and charge from USB is the availability of solar/hand crank power banks that can charge USB devices. I have paired the PL880 with a solar/hand crank power bank with 10000Mah battery capacity. This will allow the radio to operate indefinitely without an AC power source.
KM4OBL Rating: 2018-08-12
Excellent Performer With Great Speaker and Controls Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this radio to replace my aging Degen 1102. I had heard of the problems with the SSB AGC on the early PL-880's, and I was concerned that the problems had not been addressed adequately on currently-produced units. I need not have worried. While there are still quality control mishaps possible (my first PL-880 had to be returned due to an off-center tuning knob that didn't rotate smoothly), the 2nd unit is a stellar performer that looks and sounds wonderful.

This is a very attractive radio, with a somewhat retro, classy look. There are separate knobs for volume, tuning and fine-tuning, all of which feel solid and have the right "feel" in turning - just the right amount of resistance.

My PL-880 is very sensitive and selective on all bands, with none of the tuning "chuffing" heard on my 1102. The controls are also more intuitive on the PL-880, with setting memories and getting into SSB being particularly easy. You have to be careful not to press and hold buttons on this radio unless you are sure of the result - because there are "hidden" features that are activated by pressing and holding various buttons. I find the radio a pleasure to operate and tune. You have a wide selection of tuning bandwidths appropriate for each band - although the narrower bandwidth choices can produce a muting effect on some bands, as on other portables. The attractive amber backlight turns on when any button or knob is pushed/turned, and it can be set to stay on all the time or left on the default setting to turn off after five seconds.

The clock is easy to set, and although I have not used the alarm features, they appear easy to set also. The lithium-ion cell used to power the radio operates the radio for a long time - I have yet to recharge it. And the 18650 cell that comes with the radio is not a high-capacity cell compared to alternatives available for under $10 that will power the radio even longer, if you decide to go that route.

I do not detect on my radio the AGC kick-in delay or "wobbly" sound on SSB that were reported on some earlier units in online revivews - everything sounds great to my ears. And the speaker is really astoundingly nice for a radio of this size and price point. This is a huge improvement over any other portable I've had - I'm happy I finally bought one.
OPP4BABA Rating: 2018-01-11
great for the money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my 880 a couple of years ago. I have used it and compared it with my 30 odd other SW receivers..Sound wise it is in the top 5....only one really beats this one and that is the vulnerable old Grundig Professional 600....not much compares to that rig.

I took the 880 to India on my last trip and was really impressed with it's ability to pick up all kinds of stations, weak, strong, close and far....all without issue, all with just a long wire about 8 feet long strung and attached in my closed in balcony. Sensitivity, selectivity are top notch.

Should this one end up being broken from being dropped or whatever, I would get another in a heartbeat.....it is one of the few keepers.

P.S. It is a supreme pleasure to hear all the SW activity on the Broad cast bands still going strong in the south asian arena.