Personal observations of the Tecsun PL 990x VS Tecsun PL 330 in action

Here are my personal observations and many videos coming up with tests

[@computergrant1]

Very excited, I just ordered a new PL-330!

[@Sillymff7]

same dude I'm excited my first ssb radio

[@stevenemert837]

Thanks for the detail info on SSB operation, Giles!

[@jimmycollette9209]

I have the eton 750 and recently purchased the tecson 330 version 3306. It recieves as good as the bigger eton 750. I like the ssb tuning better because there's no bfo tuning just fine tuning but most signals don't require fine tuning. A perfect travel radio.

[@ronaldzuccala1889]

Hello. Thank you for your honest commentary. I to find it very odd that the sync. Function would be better on the 330 then on the 990x makes no sense to me. My tecsun pl 660 the sync works perfectly go figure. Perhaps it has something to do with the shielding of the dap chip set. Anyway thank you for your honest observations. Ron. Z. Pgh. Pa.

[@kwdavids1]

The PL-660 is an analog radio, the PL-330 is a DSP radio and the PL-990 is a hybrid. Perhaps the hybridization of an analog tuner with DSP SSB decoding is difficult.

[@bluediamondsquaresroad5871]

Thanks for all you do

[@janofjanof3246]

Hi and thanks for all your videos. I’m a little bit curious about how good is Tecsun 330 on mediumwave if you compare to Eton Satellite and XHDATA 808, thanks and 73 from Ole in Sweden

[@baneverything5580]

The 330 has the ability of using external AM antenna. AM performance as-is is acceptable for its size and similar to other receivers with smaller internal ferrite antennas. Plus it has adjustable AM bandwidth settings. You can expect AM reception on par with a large CCrane radio if you connect an AN-200 inductive loop directly to the 330 antenna port and if you build a much larger loop to connect to it you can get extreme AM reception.

[@kwdavids1]

I live in a weak MW signal area in daytime A test of the PL-330 received 12 stations compared for 18 on the XHDATA D-808 (2023 version) and 15 on the Eton Elite Executive (that used to be the Executive Satellit).

[@kwdavids1]

@@baneverything5580 I also got really good results with a 20-ft wire connected to the PL-330 external antenna jack (and the hidden feature switch to use it on MW).

[@WilliamParmley]

Hope you will check out the longwave performance with some NDBs.

[@kwdavids1]

Of course the PL-330 SSB reverse fine tuning bug was fixed in later firmware versions. The one feature that I really like on the PL-990 over the PL-330 is the separate fine tuning knob instead of the single dual function knob with a hard to push step control -- very awkward.

[@CarlosAguila]

That daggerborad belongs to what sailboat? :)

[@mjohnson77682]

Gillies - How is the 2 radio's ability to resist overload? I have some strong AM stations close by.

[@randomweirdo2701]

There's an AM radio station just a few miles away from me. Most cheap SW radios are useless because of it, but the pl-330 only has 2 places, both below 4Mhz, where that station is audible on SW so I'd say it has pretty good performance.

[@kb5elv]

So am curious. Muting between tuning steps drives me to distraction. So. PL-660 or PL-330? Which is the better performer? Audio we can fix with phones or an external speaker if necessary.

[@baneverything5580]

PL-660 is best. No muting when tuning. PLL tuning. Lower background hiss compared to the 330.

[@randomweirdo2701]

My 330 mutes when crossing Khz boundaries. It doesn't bother me but if it bothers you then the 330 probably isn't for you. I'd still like to make a case for it as an inexpensive yet highly functional travel radio. It's good for when you need a small size or when you don't want to risk your good radio.

[@kwdavids1]

Oh yes, the PL-660 is better than the PL-330. No muting, superb SSB and synchronous tuning and in my opinion more sensitive. The drawback to the PL-660 is just 2 bandwidth settings, and no ETM+ scanning.

[@vu3mes]

Any comments on the 3306 Version with English manual, I am planning to buy one from one of the Tecsun India dealers.

[@OfficialSWLchannel]

3306 is fine.. not much has changed

[@werquantum]

Do you know if they fixed the tuning bug on the 330?

[@randomweirdo2701]

It's fixed. I bought one a week ago from Amazon that doesn't have the problem. It's a solid improvement over my old tecsun pl-606 from 2013.

[@wu2u]

I have a 330 and it works perfect.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

The 990x still is the better radio, even though it is more expensive.