Tecsun PL680 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM/LW/SW and Air Band Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception

The media could not be loaded. First off do the setup and then calibrate, after that tune accordingly and this thing sounds great! I was disappointed at first because I was hearing chopping on FM but then I tuned the radio and wow! My favorite station these days is 88.1 FM KJAZZ for music. I calibrated the FM band and only noticed a little noise on the station. I tuned to 88.07 and perfect! The station sounds better that on my other radios. The noise is gone. I thought noise was just that station. I haven't tried SW, AIR, or LW but I think I will enjoy them on this receiver.This thing has big sound! I think it sounds better than the Sangean HDR 16 on its one speaker. Jazz sounds great on HiFi headphones. Rock rocks! Hip Hop has great bass. I recommend this for collectors and not casual listening.

I did a lot of research before buying this radio and I’m very pleased with all aspects of it. The SW sensitivity is very good, which is saying a lot since I live in the upper midwest of the US (not a great location for SW reception). I can pick up broadcasts that I never could on my old Realistic DX-380, including New Zealand, France, Cuba, and Madagascar, just using the whip antenna. The sync feature helps somewhat on some signals. I’ve used SSB to listen to ham radio and air band to listen to air traffic control. (There isn’t much to hear on air band.)AM and FM stations come in perfectly.Sound quality is excellent using good quality earphones (haven’t tried the ones that came with it), and still very good with the single built-in speaker.I like the fact that it uses NiMH rechargeable AA batteries, since I use a lot of those anyway. Note that the supplied batteries only have about half the capacity of typical NiMH AAs, so you may want to buy better ones.The faux leather case is very nice and exceeded my expectations. The instructions are minimal, but adequate, and the radio is easy to operate.

This is a great radio for the money if you're looking to get into shortwave with only a few issues.Pros:-Feels quality and looks great. Buttons, tuning knobs, nothing feels cheap.-Sound is really good given the size of the radio-Comes with a wire antenna and faux leather case-Fun to DX shortwave stations-Upper and Lower SSB-Synchronous detectionCons:1) The display light only stays on for 30 secs at a time, I would like to have a way to keep it on, especially when listening in the dark.2) The leather case that comes with it is really only for travel. It's not really practical to use while listening to the radio, that's a bit disappointing.3) My shortwave frequencies seem spot on so far, but my FM stations seem to be off about 5 hz. Not a big deal, but noticeable. Your mileage may vary.

This is my first shortwave radio and I am very happy with it! I live in central Montana and have been able to pick up stations inside my house from very far away using just the built-in antenna. Some I have come across are some stateside religions stations, Radio Rebelde, Voice of China, and even one out of New Zealand one night. It totally blew my mind that I was listening to commuter traffic reports in New Zealand from 7,600 miles away with nothing more than a handheld radio and just the right atmospheric conditions. I was also able to pick up the "Superbowl" CB/ham radio station at one point.I also purchased a whip antenna and an amplified one that looks like a kite and have found that it is a bit trickier trying to get a good signal from inside my house with those. It's almost as if the radio is way too sensitive and it picks up too much local interference to work well with those. I will play around with them some more when I have the time but for now just the radio itself has been amazing!A couple notes:You will have to initially calibrate the radio to get it to align with the frequencies correctly. This can be done by doing the following:Frequency Calibration:1. Turn the radio on select the band you want.2. Tune to a known radio station frequency, such as 89.5 FM, 1490 AM, 10000 SW.3. On FM: Press & hold the [SYNC] button until the screen starts flashing rapidly;OR On AM/MW and SW: Press and hold the [AIR] button until the screen starts flashing rapidly;4. Rotate the tuning knob until the signal becomes clearer, then quickly press the [1] key to confirm thecalibration.5 The screen will return to the "correct" frequency and you are finished.You may have to repeat this multiple times until you feel that you have a good lock on the frequency, and you will have to do it for each frequency band.One other note, the included batteries are NI-MH rechargeable batteries. It wasn't clear to me at first if they were or not. Make sure the display says NI-MH Battery on the top left corner, and change it in the settings if it doesn't. If you use standard Alkaline batteries in it, make sure you turn it off. The radio has incredible standby and usage time on the included batteries if you only listen for a couple hours a day. I have had the radio off and on over the last couple weeks without being plugged in and it still shows at least half charge. Make sure you charge them fully at least overnight on their first use so they will last longer.Finally, I almost never use the DX setting on the antenna gain switch, even when picking up far away stations on shortwave. The Normal setting works great and gives me the clearest reception.