TECSUNPL990 Digital Worldband AM/FM Shortwave Longwave Radio with Single Side Band Reception & MP3 Player, Matte Black

Solidly built. Great reception on FM with whip antenna. AM reception is ok but terrific with a loop antenna. Shortwave is good with whip antenna and pretty good with exterior antenna.Controls are easy to use. ATS is a great feature in scanning for available signals in the MW, FM and SW bands. SYNC option is pretty useless as it is in most TECSUN SW radios. I am impressed with the Pl-990 and recommend it. The extras in the box such as external SW antenna, leather like carry case and charging block are nice touches. I like the PL-990 over the 330 due to it being larger and having a kickstand.Reception quality is similar in both with the 990 sounding better due to its larger speaker. A word of caution on the 990s whip antenna. The tip is very thin and easily bent unlike the 330 which is smaller and more compact.I will be purchasing the H-501 when it is available in late June. Tecsun is quality and their radios are widely praised by the experts.

It works well. I'm still learning how to use it. I'm new to shortwave.

Excellent radio if you’re looking for a portable short wave radio buy this one it is much better than all the rest of them on the market I know some of the experts they compare to the Texan PL 880 it’s not even a comparison the 990 blows it out of the water so I give it 100%! It is built solid and The knobs and switches are well-made made. If I had to give the radio score from 1 to 10 I would give it a 9.5. UPDATE..... had the radio since nov 30, been using It exclusively for now 19 days. This radio is phenomenal the reception is excellent and the single side band is easily the best of any radio I have ever had small wise. The Bluetooth connection is easier than possible you can link your phone to the radio in a matter of about two seconds. And music coming out of it speaker is cd quality! I know no radio is perfect but to be honest with you this is as close to 10 as I’ve ever had.

I've been using this radio for about 7 weeks and am pleased with my purchase. It's been used primarily for Medium Wave (AM Broadcast) and FM reception.Audio quality is good for a portable radio. Expect to spend a bit of time familiarizing yourself with the features.The selectivity between AM stations 10 KHz apart is akin to a $500 or greater receiver. Tecsun must be using DSP to produce such selectivity. Sensitivity is very good as well.On the shortwave side, reception will benefit if using an external antenna. It's sad, but world-wide shortwave broadcasting has nearly gone "dark". What remains, that can be received in North America are marginal broadcasters, often with very narrow audiences. SSB reception of amateur radio is stable but again improved with the use of an external antenna. (albeit requiring nothing elaborate)I'm very pleased with this radio. I would rate it as one of the best full feature, general coverage portable radios available in 2021.As a kid growing up in the 1960's and 70's, coping with unstable analog equipment, such a radio would have been miraculous.

I've had this receiver now for 3 weeks. It has excellent receive sensitivity with the aerial included. I also added 15 ft of wire to add in the signal strength. I bought the 990x to receive SSB on the ham bands because of the narrow filters. However, with the narrow bandwidth that matches most ham receivers, this radio is too bassy on this, and the tone switch does almost nothing to correct it. Thats the only complaint. AM receive has excellent sound quality as well as the FM, and FM stereo.

Right out of the box with the battery installed, the battery level indicator showed empty and with a 7:00 hour charging time remaining, which you might expect right off the bat. However when I plugged in the AC adapter, the battery level indicator showed full but still showed a 7:00 hour charging time. That didn't seem right. Well, after charging for several hours it still showed a full battery and a 7:00 hour charging time remaining, but when I disconnected the AC adapter, it showed the word "Lo," an empty battery indicator, and a 7:00 hour charging time. Definitely not right. Well after plugging back in and charging for 24 hours it showed the same thing, full battery indicator, but 7:00 hours charging time remaining. Unplugged it still showed "Lo," empty battery indicator, and 7:00 hours remaining. Now get this! After unplugging the AC adapter AND removing the battery, it STILL showed "Lo," an empty battery, and 7:00 hours remaining. Holy smokes! Was this radio haunted??? Was the battery faulty or was the radio faulty, or both??? By the way, with the AC adapter plugged in the radio received FM very nicely although with a slight amount of static even on the strongest stations. MW and SW however were nothing but very strong static hash. Was this what was to be expected with the AC adapter? Without the AC adapter the radio was silent. Considering the high price, the radio seems fragile and cheaply made of somewhat flimsy plastic. It looks and feels delicate. I was very disappointed. This radio is definitely going back. It has lots of great features but it is waaaaay overpriced!

Overall, a great little receiver. It works much better for SSB and CW on the ham bands, than other portable receivers. The biggest problems are in the software. I noticed the following issues:1) Memory truncates to nearest KHz. If you try to store a frequency of 14.31250, it is changed to 14.312002) Memory is easily corrupted when scanning into it, requiring a reset of all memory to make it work again.3) Battery status wanders from full to empty and back unless fully charged or discharged.4) It lacks true AM synchronous detection which uses both sidebands to synchronize and detect the signal. What it does is use the carrier to lock the frequency (similar to AFC on an FM radio) and then receive one of the sidebands. This only works on signals with little fading. For most fading signals, simply using basic USB or LSB works better.

Me gusta mucho que tiene casi todos los controles al frente.