anyone own this radio? i just purchased it off of amazon because i'm getting sick of my g8. fm reception is ok but am really sucks on it. i purchased it from amazon and the thing has 5 star reviews on the site. nothing but 5 stars. so it must be a damn good radio. we'll see. here is my dxing background. my first radio i used was the grundig/eton e10. it was a real good radio. but i front ended the thing and killed it after 3 years of use. then i got the g5 which was ok but the buttons were too small. then i got the g8 in june of 2010. i like the controlls on it but again, the reception is not up to par. i'm blind so i can not see but i think the pl-390 will be an easy radio for me to opporate. and i have dxed from car radios as well. those were the most fun. my e10 was the one that came close to that experience. i hope the pl-390 can do the same or best the e10.
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Tecsun PL390
- Thread starter austingrace
- Start date
a Schaub Lorenz i use has 5 buttons on top left, FM, SW, MW, LW, Line-In, 7 buttons on right for SW bands. 3 knobs on right for tuning SW MW/LW and FM, three knobs on left for volume base and treble. operating it simply by feel without looking at it, in the dark is incredibly easy and fun. smooth reduction in tuning makes fine tuning a breeze. superb large speaker sound. a gigantic MW ferrite means in Boston afternoon i can listen to NYC AM stations without an extra coil.
it is called the Touring Professional 107, a variety of their radios are available on ebay.de
it is called the Touring Professional 107, a variety of their radios are available on ebay.de
hey guys. anyone have the manual to this radio in txt or pdf format? i can't find it anywhere. or can someone give me a layout of the buttons and switches? well i did find a site to download the manual but it did not work well with my screen reader. i really appreciate the help 
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.well guys. i finally received this radio today. i have had it in my ownership since about 4 pm eastern time. first impressions are as follows. it's an incredible radio. the reception is better than i thought. easily bests my e10 and my g5 that i owned. the am bandwith setting is amazing. for a long time i thought my sony walkman had the best am sound quality but the pl-390 has beat that as well. the selectivity and sensitivity is the best i have ever sceen on a radio. this radio is car stereo quality if not better in terms of reception. it seems fairly easy to opporate even when you can't see the controlls like me. i can't figure out how to preset the stations into memory and am a bit confused on the functions of the buttons. i get the top right buttons are for the bands and stuff. not 100 percent sure on the buttons on the left. if anyone has this radio and can fill me in, i'd really appreciate it. which button is the lw and sw? also, how do you change the tuning modes? i would like to skip by .1 on the freqs. not have the fine tuning setting on all the time. if anyone can help me, i'd really appreciate it . i'll post more when i figure it out and let you know what kind of catches i get with it. if you can, tell me which buttons to press. like "the third from the left then second from left" and so on when changing a setting.
. i'll post more when i figure it out and let you know what kind of catches i get with it. if you can, tell me which buttons to press. like "the third from the left then second from left" and so on when changing a setting.I'm also visually impaired & have 2 of these radios. I love them.
I will give you some help, here in the forum, but it would be better, (in concern for other readers) that we communicate off the board, where I can give you much more detailed info on this radio.
Feel free to email me at [email protected]
On the left side of the front of the radio, the buttons are mainly for tuning features. Far left is the ETM button for a special tuning memory, next to that is VM to go into the preset-able memory mode. Next, is VF for entering the direct frequency entry mode. The AM BW (bandwidth selector) button is next. The FM ST (stereo/mono selector) is next to the left edge of the display. The display light/snooze button is the lone button under this bunch.
On the right side, going from the display...are: SW meter band select down, then SW band select up. Next to that is the MW/LW selector button. The first press goes to MW. Pressing it again will go to LW. Next to this button is the FM band button. Then the power button is on the far right.
Setting memories is fairly easy. Tune in the desired frequency, press the M button (left of the zero). You can then select the preset slot number (in the upper right corner of the display) by turning the tuning wheel.
Hope this helps a bit.
I will give you some help, here in the forum, but it would be better, (in concern for other readers) that we communicate off the board, where I can give you much more detailed info on this radio.
Feel free to email me at [email protected]
On the left side of the front of the radio, the buttons are mainly for tuning features. Far left is the ETM button for a special tuning memory, next to that is VM to go into the preset-able memory mode. Next, is VF for entering the direct frequency entry mode. The AM BW (bandwidth selector) button is next. The FM ST (stereo/mono selector) is next to the left edge of the display. The display light/snooze button is the lone button under this bunch.
On the right side, going from the display...are: SW meter band select down, then SW band select up. Next to that is the MW/LW selector button. The first press goes to MW. Pressing it again will go to LW. Next to this button is the FM band button. Then the power button is on the far right.
Setting memories is fairly easy. Tune in the desired frequency, press the M button (left of the zero). You can then select the preset slot number (in the upper right corner of the display) by turning the tuning wheel.
Hope this helps a bit.
C
cd637299
Guest
Questions:
(1) How does it perform vis-a-vis the Kaito 1102? (I own a Kaito)
(2) Is it stereo, or just a "bonus speaker"?
(3) Can it be connected to a stereo system if needed to record (via line-out)?
(4) Is it very selective/sensitive/both?
(5) Is the "AM wide" comparable to FM, in fidelity?
Would luv to check one out on trips....
cd
(1) How does it perform vis-a-vis the Kaito 1102? (I own a Kaito)
(2) Is it stereo, or just a "bonus speaker"?
(3) Can it be connected to a stereo system if needed to record (via line-out)?
(4) Is it very selective/sensitive/both?
(5) Is the "AM wide" comparable to FM, in fidelity?
Would luv to check one out on trips....
cd
Hello. i can answer 4 of your questions. the am fidelity is almost fm quality on the radio. the speakers are stereo. you can hook it to a stereo through the headphone jack. and the sensitivity is very good. i hope this help. and @dxer720 thanks for the help man. i'll be e-mailing you....
hey guys. i'll tell you what!!!!!! everyday this radio keeps amazing me. this is the best radio i have ever owned. i can say that with no problems now. stations that were weak on the peace of crap g8 come in a lot better on this radio. if you don't own this radio and were on the fence about it, you should defanatly buy it. you will not regret it. it's like 70 bucks on amazon. plus am is incredible on this thing. i hated trying to am dx on the g8 but now i love it again.
I own 2 PL-390s & the PL-380. The overall performance of the PL-390 is better than the PL-380. I think it's because both the internal ferrite bar (for MW & LW) & the whip ( for FM & SW) are longer.
If the ferrite bar antenna is long & well aligned, greatly improves reception. The 5 bandwidth choices help a lot, too.
On FM, the DSP chip really helps selectivity & seems to improve overload rejection.
If the ferrite bar antenna is long & well aligned, greatly improves reception. The 5 bandwidth choices help a lot, too.
On FM, the DSP chip really helps selectivity & seems to improve overload rejection.
D
Darth_vader
Guest
Does the shortwave section of the PL390 also demodulate single-sideband, or is it AM-only? If it has SSB, Santa might be bringing me one for Xmas this year. ;o)
austingrace, if you don't have one already I should also suggest a Sony XDR-F1HD for really great VHF-FM DXing. It has an Ibiquity system decoder in it, and can't be forced into analogue mode out-of-the-box, but it can be with a modification. It works okay for mediumwave, I mean, with my Selectatenna and a self-built MW coil aerial I can pull in KTNN well enough at night here in southwestern Washington, but VHF is where it really screams. It's a tuner only, so you'll need to use a stereo receiver or a boombox (or even a pair of compter speakers, if nothing else) with it. You can find all of this for fairly cheap (sometimes <$100) on Amazon.
austingrace, if you don't have one already I should also suggest a Sony XDR-F1HD for really great VHF-FM DXing. It has an Ibiquity system decoder in it, and can't be forced into analogue mode out-of-the-box, but it can be with a modification. It works okay for mediumwave, I mean, with my Selectatenna and a self-built MW coil aerial I can pull in KTNN well enough at night here in southwestern Washington, but VHF is where it really screams. It's a tuner only, so you'll need to use a stereo receiver or a boombox (or even a pair of compter speakers, if nothing else) with it. You can find all of this for fairly cheap (sometimes <$100) on Amazon.
I also took the plunge and bought one from Amazon. Ive been looking for a portable unit with shortwave and almost bought a Grundig. But now I think I'll be glad I held out for this.
I also decided to get the Saito AN-200 tunable AM antenna since you could get $10 off if you bought it with the PL-390 from Amazon making it only $20 for a decent AM antenna. The more common Terk antenna is $35 but it sounds like the AN-200 is just as good.
I also decided to get the Saito AN-200 tunable AM antenna since you could get $10 off if you bought it with the PL-390 from Amazon making it only $20 for a decent AM antenna. The more common Terk antenna is $35 but it sounds like the AN-200 is just as good.
you guys will literely flip out once you get it and start spending time with it. last night we had crazy tropo here in altamonte springs florida just outside of orlando and i had miami blasting in. i have never heard any miami stations on any of my other radios. the pl-390 was the first one. it was incredible....
So my PL-390 showed up in the mail today! ;D
There was some light tropo today but nothing to call home about. Im near Watertown, NY and we usually don't get decent tropo until at least June. But I was amazed to see this thing pull in Binghamton, Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal stations when I took it outside in a clear spot. This thing is better than most car radios I've ever used. It makes you wonder why DSP chips like this aren't commonplace in radios.
You can set the FM band to Russian mode to get the OIRT and Japanese bands added on. This gives you 64mhz-108mhz. This allows you to listen to TV channels 3, 4, 5 and 6. I still get some analog channels from Canada, and I will also be checking this during e-skip.
The automatic scan to preset setting is nice for shortwave, otherwise I would get lost on that band. I took this thing back in the forest so I could get away from interference and did a video of the shortwave band. I will be uploading it to youtube soon and I will post a link to it.
Compared to the Sony XDR-F1HD which has been the holy grail of FM Dxing radios, I'd have to say that the sensitivity of this unit may be slightly better than the Sony. The selectivity is better on the Sony as I get a bit of bleed through from my strongest locals (nothing that can't be overridden by a decent signal), but the Tescun is still better than most car radios selectivity. The Sony does a better job of locking in the FM stereo signal than this unit does, even though the Sony has no stereo indicator. But for dxing purposes and the fact that the speakers are tiny, a mono signal does just fine.
There was some light tropo today but nothing to call home about. Im near Watertown, NY and we usually don't get decent tropo until at least June. But I was amazed to see this thing pull in Binghamton, Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal stations when I took it outside in a clear spot. This thing is better than most car radios I've ever used. It makes you wonder why DSP chips like this aren't commonplace in radios.
You can set the FM band to Russian mode to get the OIRT and Japanese bands added on. This gives you 64mhz-108mhz. This allows you to listen to TV channels 3, 4, 5 and 6. I still get some analog channels from Canada, and I will also be checking this during e-skip.
The automatic scan to preset setting is nice for shortwave, otherwise I would get lost on that band. I took this thing back in the forest so I could get away from interference and did a video of the shortwave band. I will be uploading it to youtube soon and I will post a link to it.
Compared to the Sony XDR-F1HD which has been the holy grail of FM Dxing radios, I'd have to say that the sensitivity of this unit may be slightly better than the Sony. The selectivity is better on the Sony as I get a bit of bleed through from my strongest locals (nothing that can't be overridden by a decent signal), but the Tescun is still better than most car radios selectivity. The Sony does a better job of locking in the FM stereo signal than this unit does, even though the Sony has no stereo indicator. But for dxing purposes and the fact that the speakers are tiny, a mono signal does just fine.
austingrace said:
Here in Tampa, I've often heard a couple Miami stations during tropo on my Sangean PR-D5 though they were not too strong.
I'm the same distance from Miami as you are.
WEDR 99.1 seems to be the one that shows up the most during tropo from that direction.
There was a good tropo event a little while back where they all came strong and some sounded almost like locals.
Here's a sample of one station, Power 96.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcDkM02oHcM
Here is my shortwave band scan video. I would have stuck around and recorded and FM one too, but the mosquitoes were terrible back there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txf7hWLXE8Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txf7hWLXE8Y
gar fla said:
It was around 5:30 Eastern time. I'll probably end up doing some more videos when I have time and am more prepared to go back in the forest. I'd like to spend some more time on certain frequencies and maybe string a long wire antenna in the trees. I could have done the scan out in an open field nearby but the sun was putting too much glare on the screen for my camera so I had to relocate.
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