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Reviews For: Tecsun PL-200

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Tecsun PL-200
Reviews: 2MSRP: 54.00 plus shipping from China
Description:
High performance 200 memory digital portable.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024.5
ZACH0000 Rating: 2011-08-22
Very good radio for its size Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am happy user of a PL 200 which has been repaired and enhanced by Degen /Tecsun team after a claim of nearly defunct operation in the MW band if I remember correctly (it is about 6 years ago! ). It is one of a broad series of products of Degen and Tecsun I bought the older times (2005 -2007)


This radio has been severely used the older times but later has been only used as an alarm radio(!!!) till recently

IN overall :
MW band has been left tuned to 1700 kHz with most enhancement in the 1000-1700 kHz the surpasses the signal levels of PL600 and De 1102 . Greek pirates here in N Greece can be received with nearly maximum levels in the indication level
All bands can be received OK with quite good stereo audio in FM using the MDR E755 earphones (though Sansa Fuze’ ears are still good )

Its drawbacks
-Poor AM audio due to high selectivity
-Possible offset reception by 0.5 kHz in AM mode and 0.05MHz from the displayed freq
-Single superhet with images from utes inside the main bands . Also strong images on 5+ and 6.2+ MHz from stations of the 6 and 7 mHz respectively
-Can be overloaded with the external antenna on local nights
AB7JK Rating: 2003-10-31
Excellent new portable Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Tecsun PL-200 is one of several new high-performance portable receivers produced in
China and available from far east distributors through E-bay. Hopefully many will be made
available soon in the United States.

The radio's construction is high quality and performance itself is great - Using a sloped dipole at 15
feet with a tuner (Ant Gain switch turned down on radio) I heard all the stations I could hear on
my TS-430S ham rig and the audio quality was much better although not as mellow as larger radios.
A few images appeared but otherwise little overload. Very little background noise for a portable.
All India Radio 11620 came in well - much better than with the Grundig S350. Also I heard several
Middle Eastern and Eastern Europeans broadcasts. I haven't really tried out AM or FM yet but but
both have good audio. The Low tone setting works best for me. Program listening for long periods
of time is very pleasant on shortwave broadcasts.

I had a few problems with the radio the first day. The radio would turn off after being on only
10-20 seconds. After half an hour of trying various things it turned the out batteries that came
with radio died (after only 3 hours). The AC adapter does not work but it could be because
I don't have 220V here. It took awhile but I finally figured out Sys Set features and I loaded
several memories. To load memories, you need to set the page number first (default is P 1)
on M Page button - this is best explained near the beginning of the manual. (By the way the
maual for the YB-550PE [same features as PL-200] is downloadable at the Eton website -
the PL-200 manual is in Chinese). After that forget the manual - it will mess you up - very
confusing! Just tune to the frequency you want then press MEM EDIT and the frequency
will automatically load at the first available memory - (P 1 01) after 3 seconds. Deleting
memories is easy also. Other explanations in the manual are easier to understand.

I like the radio alot but it really doesn't have the feel of an analog radio that I was hoping for.
When you tune up or down the bands using the tuning wheel or the UP DOWN 5 khz keys you
hear a slight electronic clicking noise which gets to you after awhile. Also it takes several turns of
the thumb wheel to go from the bottom to the top of each band - so I find myself pressing
buttons about 95% of the time. I've always believed that digital sets are actually less user
friendly than analog sets, despite all the extra features - they sure don't feel the same - just
my opinion. Maybe I'll feel diffently after using it awhile. 4 1/2 STARS