Sangean ATS-909X2 VS Tecsun PL-990x personal observations and comments

Both are excellent radios, each with their own positive and negative aspects

[@raymondmartin6737]

Thanks 😊 for your reviews of the Sangean AT-909X2. When I googled the internet advertisements on line, one must be careful to check if it is for the current AT-909X2 or the older model. I once had the original AT- 909, when it came out years ago. I do 👍 like the RDS for FM, and agree with you that other companies should include RDS. The lowest 😔 price I found was Walmart with $285.99 and free shipping in a couple of days for delivery. Amazon and others we're higher in price. Ray W2CH

[@CyprusTM]

Just bought a pl990x, eagerly awaiting its arrival, my first radio since i left the old world :D

[@markharwood7573]

Thanks for comparing these two models. I'm looking at both of them as possible upgrades on the Sony ICF-SW7600GR.

[@charlieway8392]

Have you noticed on the Sangean that when you use AC power that it is more sensitive and louder? Is this a characteristic of portable SW radios in general? Thanks for the review

[@ademirgomesdasilva8823]

Eu tenho um desses aí comprei a poucos dias pelo mercado livre. Ainda estou aprendendo a mexer no rádio. Tô aprendendo com os seus vídeos.

[@revadan]

is the whip antenna came loss and not sturdy?

[@xavierathorne]

I have a question for you. I have set my radio’s clock to WWV on my 990, and have noticed that it gains about two to three seconds per month. Is that normal with the digital clock on this radio? Thanks.

[@OfficialSWLchannel]

yes it is normal

[@michaelhayward9532]

Many years ago I asked Chris from Radiolabs why Sangean radios are deaf on the whip reception and he said they did that by design, something about Asian and European stations being very strong and damaging the front end, they do have an attenuator for that on the 909s while they seem to handle outdoor antennas very well performing good but a portable should hold it's own without external help.

[@MrAwschannel]

That man Chris was very wright. I live in Europe and most of the time my Tecsun radios overload the front end when a stronger station is received. I then have to reduce the antenna gain, otherwise I only hear QRM. I don't have that problem with the Sangean and Grundig radios I own. They seem to be less sensitive to the QRM.

[@sidneycavalcant]

@@MrAwschannel No caso o 909x2 é ruim através da antena telescópica ? Pois esse é um recurso principal para meu uso.

[@rickwilliams5817]

I just received a Tecsun PL-990 yesterday and have been testing the performance and features. I was not able to source a 990X from a U.S. vendor but there may not be much difference in performance except the "X" can go lower on LW than this 990. I would have liked to receive WWVB on 60 kHz to demonstrate to others that there really is a signal that sets their "atomic clocks," but it is a minor consideration. It took me a while to figure out the storage and retrieval of the memories. You have to be in the right V (View) mode. The PL-990 only came with one battery which was a bit disappointing. The PL-990 was from Kaito via Walmart. I don't know much about the 18650 cell differences, but apparently some have better safety features and Kaito points this out on their web site. One feature that I noticed (and perhaps others have mentioned this and I missed it), is that if you are in the VF (View Frequency) mode and press the previous or the next buttons for the player, the radio moves one step. When in the VM (View Memory) mode, these same two buttons step through the memories and you can go one forward or one backward with each press of the appropriate key. I find this useful because I switch between some FM stations. A bit off topic perhaps, but the main reason that I bought the 990, was that I wanted better FM audio in a portable radio, plus the other bands. I have been using an HT form factor B-Tech GMRS V1 for FM, which is OK and more sensitive for one harder to receive station. The PL-990 has similar sensitivity and has good SSB capability in a not too small and not too big portable. I have many amateur radio transceivers, with some that work fine for SW and even VHF/UHF, but they are mobile/base type units. This is the first SW portable that I have had since back when I was in USAF military service and stationed overseas and wanted something to receive SW. Due to the remote location (Wake Island) in the late 1960's, we had no TV since direct to consumer satellite was not quite invented yet. But, it was the first time I saw a satellite printout with an on-coming typhoon which the Flight Service Station had and was probably a new technology. Other than movies and the "Stars and Stripes" military newspaper, the only other source of information was from the Communications Group of airmen who had access to AFRTS TTY. I think Wake was a major link across the Pacific, but most of their work was heavily classified and we could not even ask them what they did at their job. I am guessing undersea cables and we had some array type antennas and even though I was friends with a civilian technician who maintained them, we never discussed it. We had AM radio station KEAD 1490 which mostly played canned programs from AFRTS on LP records and some people, such as myself, would volunteer a few hours a week for a DJ slot. Then we would read the TTY news if the Comm Group had time to drop off some text. Ironically, their comm center was on the other side of the wall from the "studio" of KEAD. As it turned out I did not need the SW radio I bought because our day room had a Hammarlund HQ-series general coverage radio. I used to dream about having such a radio when I was a youngster, but it was completely out of my price range. What a disappointment to find that the receiver drifted, especially on SSB, and never seemed to settle down so you would have to touch up the tuning every few minutes. The equipment today is so amazing to an OT like me. And so affordable.

[@fortesmentum1719]

Hello Rick, a most interesting account. Thank you.

[@shannonpriestley3833]

Thanks Both are great but I have more Tecsun products than others.

[@STR82DVD]

The signal meter on my display works great in displaying simple but somewhat accurate signal strength on my Eton Elite Executive. Plus, I prefer the display colour on the Eton. If the Eton's keypad was backlit, I'd be very happy.

[@NsndoBrasil]

I want to buy this Sangean ATS-909X2 radio. Anyone have one to sell at a low price? If anyone has it can answer me. Thanks Oliveira

[@wesfoulds47]

I like the pl-890

[@catalinalb1722]

Gilles you have a lot of good wanted Radios :) You are a happy owner of a great collection! :)

[@greggaieck4808]

Gilles I wood get sangean ATS 90 9x better then the Eton with air ssb I am thinking of getting sangean ATS 90 9x

[@elkabong6429]

I appreciate your candor, but an actual demo would have been nice, as well, especially since you seemed to be set up for it (unless you made another video doing that and if so, I apologize!). Thanks for the honest impressions.

[@OfficialSWLchannel]

There are several videos on the channel and more to come

[@elkabong6429]

@@OfficialSWLchannel I’ve subscribed!! 👍

[@elkabong6429]

@@OfficialSWLchannel By the way, after viewing your other vids on the Tecsun PL-990x, I’m going to purchase one because of it’s SSB capabilities as you demonstrate, compared to other portable brands (most notably the Sangean 909x2)!

[@milkychan1725]

Guess the market for shortwave radios is shrinking. So manufacturers mostly will prefer to cater for the targeted group, spending money on marketing than R&D.

[@714SNF]

tecsun 990 wins YAY :D

[@arpir97]

It's time to integrate DAB+ in Hi-end Receiver's

[@davidsradioroom9678]

I guess there is no perfect portable receiver.

[@vicenteesposito6537]

sony icf-2010 and tecsun pl990x are the best sensitive receivers sangean ats 909 x is not the best

[@fjockey1]

I'm pissed off at the engineers who design these radios. They live in their own little worlds. If these same engineers designed motherboards and CPU's, one computer model would do certain functions well while freezing on others, while another model did the opposite. And then there are the obvious bugs that never get patched. Do not buy the Sangean ATX-909X2! There are all kinds of image problems and strange tones on MW, especially in the lower end of the band. All firmware versions have this problem and Sangean has done nothing to fix it. The automatic bandwidth feature is a disaster and they should eliminate it. As for the Tecsun PL-990x, there is no excuse for offering a radio like this without a larger display and FM RDS. In fact, the U.S. versions should even have HD capability on FM & MW as well. You can put a lot of data and functions into chips. Instead, they stick with their 1980's relic. It's very lazy.

[@OfficialSWLchannel]

Problem is, engineers and designers are not shortwave listeners so they do what they think looks good on paper, but real world is different

[@kandigloss6438]

I know it doesn't impact the performance at all but I will say that I'm not a fan of the aesthetic design of the Sangean, it looks like a cheap radio from the early 00s and is kind of ugly in my opinion. (before I get angry comments, I'm not saying that it IS a cheap or bad radio, I'm sure it's a perfectly fine radio, I just personally do not like it's aesthetic design choices)

[@stridermt2k]

Gilles, I consider you to be a fair tester and a experienced user and as I've said before: truly a resource 73 de N2NLQ

[@murlik1]

Great review i just got my pl990x yesterday i really like it 73 from VE3BDE