My first unboxing video LOL. The rumours I've heard - the sync is really, really good on this portable. Otherwise shortwave is okay, pretty good when using a wire.
Cheers Igor, I had nothing to listen to Air band. So now I'm happy because I live right under the flight path for airports taking off and landing at the airport. 73!
My pleasure Michael, well the 880 is generally an amazing portable radio. But it's more expensive, its SSB sync doesn't work, lacks the air band feature.. Then on the other hand I'd say it's superb in economics, sound, has switchable permanent display backlight, line out jack, all uses a single 18650 cell that lasts for ages.. On 660/680 I'm struggling with SSB. It sounds fine once finely tuned. But to get there is a pain. Finding where's the right position just by ear takes a lot of patience. On the 880 it's dead easy to tune and watch frequency on the radio's display. Oh well this is life, comprises.. It looks like there's no such thing as an ideal portable. Some shine in one area but have drawbacks in other:) By the way, I noticed that the 680's wall wart -type of charger is relatively quiet. It doesn't create such terrible hash as the 880's charger. I was surprised that the 680 can be plugged in and MW reception was almost not affected at all. While tuned to a weaker station. On the 880 all I could listen to while charging would be FM band. Thank you for watching and 73!
@@TheMajkla Tecsun just released the PL-990x in a few places, but it's not on Amazon yet. That's a radio I might consider since I don't already have the 880. There is review of it online at radiojayallen.com. I think it's worth a read just in case your 880 ever gets broken. Have a good night and 73s.
@TVRadio1972 good morning Michael, I watched Gilles unboxing it on his last live show. Looks great but that MP3 and Bluetooth don't justify its high price for me. A nice review is here too swling.com/blog/2020/09/tecsun-pl-990x-vs-pl-880-comparing-ssb-audio-characteristics-and-pre-production-production-pl-990-models/#comments I'd prefer if they included Air band/weather for US instead.. It would be cheaper to order from Anon.co for those who are willing to wait. I had my 880 from them. It was funny how the radio was sent to USA, then to France and finally to UK:) Have a nice day, 73!
I didn't reaslise you had a problem with your 660 Ron, glad you were able to get a refund. I haven't played around with the 680 but the build quality looks much better. I'm sure you'll produce some good DX with it!
Hi Nick, on the 660 it was this ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dftwDj4oKps.html I tried setting the switch to local for my 1548 kHz Forth 2 now. The sound is better but whistling is still present in the background. Audio also sounds a bit choked. So it's stil the best when I tuned it +11 or 12 kHz. Not the end of the world and easy to work around. The returns via Amazon were hassle free, I just needed to find a local shop, they printed a label and off it went back. The radio was otherwise in great condition so they did full refund. Then I missed the radio because of it's Air band feature. When I found out that the 680 is a similar, updated version of it, I went ahead:) The time will show but hopefully it's going to be a keeper!
Yep, I returned it and they gave me a full refund. You're right, the buttons are easier to use than those narrow recessed ones of the 660. This one has a lovely case but it doesn't cover edges of the radio. I'm enjoying the air band, there was a big military plane landing yesterday afternoon so I was listening to them and tower.
Hi, mine had it to (660 stronger and 680 weaker but still present). Normal for those two but then the 880 doesn't suffer from that. It's present only when I tune into string MW stations. To mitigate this you can offset it for about extra ten to twelve kHz for proper rich sound. Or you leave it at narrow BW.
@@TheMajklaThanks for your reply and suggestion. I wonder why it's making the whistle noise on strong signals on wide bandwidth? If it's also occurring on the pl660, which is a pretty popular radio, I do find it odd that not more people are complaining about it. Oh well :)
I received some replies from people who never observed this saying that they don't have any strong AM transmitters nearby. Mine is Westerglen near Falkirk, Scotland. It pushes sweet powerful waves also on LW Radio 4 and on MW there are all big stations coming from there BBC 1 Scotland, Absolute Radio, TalkSport, Radio 5 Live.. Except of Radio Scotland (100 kW) the others are 50 kW. I'm 37 km away from this transmitting station. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerglen_transmitting_station My guess is that these two models which are very similar share a design flaw of some kind. Funny that my tiny pocket radio Sangean DT-200 has a lovely clear audio with no weird artifacts. The 680 is great so far but I'll keep testing SSB. It's the only thing that's bugging me - it's quiet on weak signals so listening in the outdoors would require headphones. Also it's difficult to tune by that BFO knob. Tuning on the PL-880 is really easy compared to the 660 or 680:)
@@MetroHuman Hi, i think I had them on the 660 sometime. I'll need to try some very strong signals on 680 to see. I rarely listen to seeing stations like China or Turkey. Not my cup of coffee to lap up their propaganda. But some pirate stations can have very good strong signals. Because I really enjoy listening to them, whistling would be annoying.
Hi there, love watching real people unboxing products. What is the radio like now you’ve had it a while? Do you recommend? Appreciate any tips and advice as I am thinking of buying one. Laurence
Hi Laurence, I mainly wanted a radio capable of receiving the Air band (I live near the airport so I can listen to the tower). The main advantage of this radio over other models is that there are no annoying sounds when you tune. You could get much cheaper and still very popular XHDATA D-808 but there are some pops audible when tuning. Also it feature soft muting which can cause that you won't hear some stations if you tune faster. The PL-680 also has a nice audio coming from its speaker. It's not tiresome even after longer time. The best idea is to order any radio (Tecsun, XHDATA, Radiwow I'm sure but maybe other makers offer this too) from Amazon UK because you can return it for a full refund within two or three weeks. No questions asked. The only thing I don't like on the PL-680 is that some stations on shortwave are extremely quiet if their transmitter output is low. You have turn your volume to maximum and still it's hardly enough. This doesn't happen when I listen to a reasonably strong stations. The 680 is great on every band, just a small detail - it doesn't have RDS on FM.
@@TheMajkla that’s great my friend and thanks for taking the time to reply with such great information. I’m liking this radio very much and I feel that I will more than likely buy one. The SW signals can improve with good antennas but I’m not too concerned. How is the Airband? Does it pick up ok? Really appreciate your reply my friend.
@@soldierloz the air band reception is great but I'm very near the airport with planes flying almost above the house for landing. You can see and hear it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--EFgXQyY2c0.html It's also possible to listen to high level flights sometime but it's more difficult of course.
Olá meu amigo, não experimentei o PL600, por isso não posso dizer. Embora o PL-600 seja semelhante ao 680, as caixas são diferentes e deve haver melhorias / atualizações feitas no firmware. Obrigado e 73!
