I haven't found a huge difference in any of them but the 660 was not impressive. FM was not selective or sensitive and AM was deaf. What do y'all reccommend for a Tecsun/Degen/Kaito/Grundig Shortwave radio?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Best Tecsun/Degen/Kaito Shortwave Radio
- Thread starter Carltheradioguy
- Start date
You want selective and sensitive, get the PL880.
I have 5 Tecsun radios..the 880, 660, 450, 398MP, and 310et
You are right, the 660 is not impressive on the selective side, but is is sensitive.
If I were to rank each one as the best for FM dxing, 880, 398MP, 310et, 660, 450.
The 660 does impress on shortwave though....
The 880 is so impressive, it beat all my radios, including both my Sangeans ( PR-D5 and PR-D4W ). The only radio that is a match head on to the 880 is my Panasonic RF-2200.
I have heard the Sangean 909X is great for FM dXing. I'd like to hear other opinions on this before forking over $200, but if its FM performance is better than the PL880, then I will have another Sangean on order.
For AM DXing, none of the Tecsuns are really recommended for serious duty. That's were the bigger Sangeans true performance shines.
I have 5 Tecsun radios..the 880, 660, 450, 398MP, and 310et
You are right, the 660 is not impressive on the selective side, but is is sensitive.
If I were to rank each one as the best for FM dxing, 880, 398MP, 310et, 660, 450.
The 660 does impress on shortwave though....
The 880 is so impressive, it beat all my radios, including both my Sangeans ( PR-D5 and PR-D4W ). The only radio that is a match head on to the 880 is my Panasonic RF-2200.
I have heard the Sangean 909X is great for FM dXing. I'd like to hear other opinions on this before forking over $200, but if its FM performance is better than the PL880, then I will have another Sangean on order.
For AM DXing, none of the Tecsuns are really recommended for serious duty. That's were the bigger Sangeans true performance shines.
These little portables are all full of compromises, so I'm not sure any one model is going to be the best all-around for AM and FM DXing.
I'll throw one that's an off-the-wall choice at you: The CountyComm GP-5/SSB. I don't know if it's technically a part of the Tecsun/Kaito/Grundig family or not but it is one of my favorite radios for casual DXing. It's a super tiny handheld radio, and only has a teency little ferrite bar inside, but it comes with an external larger bar that plugs into the AM jack on top and is rotatable for best results. It's still not big — maybe 3.5" inches long? — but this little radio packs a punch despite its diminutive size. I'm also suitably impressed with its FM chops; it pulls in some of the weakest signals that the other radios just miss completely. It rivals my Grundig G8 in that respect, I believe.
The radio does have some significant downsides, however. It lacks a numerical keypad, so there's no direct entry. Tuning methods and the way you select options are best described as "obtuse", and the speaker is exceptionally tinny due to its small size. You can't really quickly jump from one side of the band to the other like you can with more normal portables. There's a pretty big chuff-mute when tuning, too.
It does have a headphone jack, which negates the speaker issue, and you can plug up just about anything to the AM jack and experiment if the included ferrite bar isn't up to snuff (there's a longer version on eBay, 8" I think, from Greece, but it doesn't really help all that much over the stock one.)
The only other portable I use semi-regularly for quick DX sessions is a Kaito KA1103. It's sensitive on AM and FM (moreso on FM) but lacks selectivity, and again QC is an issue. My AM is spot on, but on FM it's off a bit. For example a station on 105.7 is strongest at 105.75. But there's no soft muting, it's super smooth knob tuning AND has a non-standard but perfectly usable keypad for direct entry.
I use the Kaito with a Tecsun loop for AM work and it does great. The CountyComm works the same with or without the loop - also great.
Frankly, for FM, none of them have the selectivity of my little Insignia HD portable.
I'll throw one that's an off-the-wall choice at you: The CountyComm GP-5/SSB. I don't know if it's technically a part of the Tecsun/Kaito/Grundig family or not but it is one of my favorite radios for casual DXing. It's a super tiny handheld radio, and only has a teency little ferrite bar inside, but it comes with an external larger bar that plugs into the AM jack on top and is rotatable for best results. It's still not big — maybe 3.5" inches long? — but this little radio packs a punch despite its diminutive size. I'm also suitably impressed with its FM chops; it pulls in some of the weakest signals that the other radios just miss completely. It rivals my Grundig G8 in that respect, I believe.
The radio does have some significant downsides, however. It lacks a numerical keypad, so there's no direct entry. Tuning methods and the way you select options are best described as "obtuse", and the speaker is exceptionally tinny due to its small size. You can't really quickly jump from one side of the band to the other like you can with more normal portables. There's a pretty big chuff-mute when tuning, too.
It does have a headphone jack, which negates the speaker issue, and you can plug up just about anything to the AM jack and experiment if the included ferrite bar isn't up to snuff (there's a longer version on eBay, 8" I think, from Greece, but it doesn't really help all that much over the stock one.)
The only other portable I use semi-regularly for quick DX sessions is a Kaito KA1103. It's sensitive on AM and FM (moreso on FM) but lacks selectivity, and again QC is an issue. My AM is spot on, but on FM it's off a bit. For example a station on 105.7 is strongest at 105.75. But there's no soft muting, it's super smooth knob tuning AND has a non-standard but perfectly usable keypad for direct entry.
I use the Kaito with a Tecsun loop for AM work and it does great. The CountyComm works the same with or without the loop - also great.
Frankly, for FM, none of them have the selectivity of my little Insignia HD portable.
PL-880
Additional The audio quality from the built-in speaker of the PL-880 is unusually good, with noticeably more low-frequency content than is common from an "Ultralight" receiver. Also it has selectable AM mode audio bandwidths of 9, 5, 3.5 and 2.3 kHz.
The PL-880 sounds really good at 9 kHz audio bandwidth -- when tuned to an AM broadcast station that (1) can be received without much QRM/QRN and (2) doesn't limit its transmitted audio frequency response to 5 kHz or less.
Additional The audio quality from the built-in speaker of the PL-880 is unusually good, with noticeably more low-frequency content than is common from an "Ultralight" receiver. Also it has selectable AM mode audio bandwidths of 9, 5, 3.5 and 2.3 kHz.
The PL-880 sounds really good at 9 kHz audio bandwidth -- when tuned to an AM broadcast station that (1) can be received without much QRM/QRN and (2) doesn't limit its transmitted audio frequency response to 5 kHz or less.
Interesting you bring that up. I bought on of those. It was decent but came defective. The KA1103 Selectivity is a deal breaker for me. The Insignia only runs on headphone cord which is a huge pain for FM Reception. But you're 100% right about the compromise
The Sangean looks so cool but It scares me to drop $200 on something I might not like.
Indeed, I forgot about that wonderful Mylar speaker. Puts a smile on my face every time I turn it on. Additional snip it on the PL880. I'm picky about how my radios perform, and the 880 is just so surprisingly good with how it handles discrimination on the FM band. I have yet to hear any imaging or overload from the locals. The 660 will, unfortunately, pick up lots of imaging and overload if no station/signal is there on the band. If i turn to a station, say, 104.3, I want to hear static or a weak distant station trying to come in, not 4 or 5 local stations flooding in to fill the void. I would say discrimination is just as important as selectivity and sensitivity. The PL-450 is one of the worst performing radios ( AM/FM ) in my lineup. RP, if you can't afford the PL880, get either one of Tecsuns ultra lites, like the 310et or 398MP/BT. They are great little radios for there size, and they wont break the bank
The 880 is extremely sensitive ( more so than the 660, 310et, and 398MP/BT).
- Status