The SWL DXing news report (episode 11): Future of Tecsun PL-680, PL-660 confirmed, AWR rumours

[@Protocallireland]

Thanks Andre for another entertaining video. I was lucky to have ordered the Pl660 after your previous reports in these radios. It's a radio i wanted for awhile and it doesn't disappoint. Manually tuning is amazing and ssb is great on it.

[@swlistening]

Thanks for your comment Garrech! You are lucky, I think you got one of the very last PL-660's. I think both the PL-660 and PL-680 are really great radios, I am also very happy with my PL-680. Like you, I think the SSB is really great. The difference between these two is really minimal. Reviewers seem to agree that MW is marginally better on the PL-660 and SW is marginally better on the PL-680, but overall they are pretty much the same. Good old analogue technology!

[@Protocallireland]

​@@swlisteningI didn't realise how great the analogue would be. Even today I was tuning the lw band and with the signal meter I could find 3 different ndb signals, without the chuffing that is normal on the likes of the pl330 I feel much more inclined to manual tune rather than just rely on etm scans. Lucky us!!

[@swlistening]

@@Protocallireland This is so true. One doesn't realise the difference between analogue and DSP until you actually start using a good analogue radio. It makes such a difference, being able to hear everything while you are tuning. Right now, as I am typing this, I just received Morse code from a Russian military base in Kaliningrad. Just by tuning slowly, hearing something come up, fine-tuning, and there it is!

[@Protocallireland]

​@@swlisteningamazing v cool catch!

[@swlistening]

@@Protocallireland Thanks Garech!

[@Buzzygirl63]

Thanks as always, Andre, for this service. It's quite valuable! 73.

[@swlistening]

My pleasure, glad you enjoy it!

[@anthonyfranz8317]

Thank you for the show, lots of good information.

[@swlistening]

My pleasure Anthony, glad you enjoyed it.

[@Kw1161]

Thanks Andre for the DX information from the southern hemisphere and the update on the PL 660/680. Happy Spring for you, temperatures in Tucson, Arizona is still in the 100F + so it doesn’t seem like Fall here. 73! Have a great day!

[@swlistening]

We had a massive snow storm a week ago, in spring ❄️ Not here in Johannesburg, but on the Drakensberg mountains to the east. We just got the cold here. Now it does feel like spring, nice and warm. Hopefully your fall will arrive soon!

[@ArnieDXer]

Thanks André for another essential update for us, shortwave radio lovers! ♥️ As I listen, I'm happy to see Tecsun did manage to find that circuit supplier for the PL-680, at least this one, I understand they had to make a choice there. BTW what about the 880 and 990x, which are hybrid models? No disruption to those? Regarding AWR, "rumors about the end of AWR SW transmissions are untrue" -- well, this may be true indeed 🙂 but... They didn't say they won't remove some transmissions or entire services 🕵️‍♂️ See, KSDA only covers Asia, and although I think it should have enough capacity to absorb most of what they're currently transmitting out of Tashkent, Dushanbe, Trincomalee and maybe some Madagascar. BUT the thing is, KSDA can only cover Asia, unless they're going to risk multi-hop, long-range beaming through half od the world towards Africa. However, I'm more inclined to think they'll eliminate ALL of their broadcasts to Africa. These all come not only from Moosbrunn, but also from Nauen and Madagascar. Heck, Nauen even has a weekly hour-long programme in Italian, half of which is taken by a DX programme which, I was told, is really popular among Italian hams and it is promoted on local ham fests as well. So losing that one would be really sad for the community 😢 And congratulations for Alex & Ayush for their reports :) as indicated, MW is still alive in Middle East and in Romania 😉 As for propagation, 10m is BIG!!!!!! What a shame 11m broadcast is hardly ever used 🥸 MW was good the past few nights & mornings as I was able to hear some US stations on an interesting KiwiSDR in Wales, but yesterday when I finally got around to reestablish my own Asian SuperLoop, the K-index rose to 3, and there was no Asia whatsoever. And today morning, the only DX I got on that Wales SDR was Radio Monumental from Quito, Ecuador on 1510, an indicator of conditiins going south -- quite literally 😆 Oh and I think it failed to get posted but I FINALLY ordered the Qodosen DX-286! 🔥🔥🔥 It actually appeared on Aliexpress, selling with 2 batteries - on an OFFICIAL STORE of Qodosen! Same offer on Amazon US too, about $90 + shipping.

[@swlistening]

Hey Arnie, really great news about the Qodosen. I hope you will share your impressions with me when you get it. I hope you are as pleased by it as I have been! The whole AWR thing still seems to be a bit of a mystery. I haven't seen any updates or new information on either the WOR group or in any other place. I think we will probably only know when the B24 schedules come out. I am quite curious to see what will happen with Voice of Hope Africa from Lusaka. They don't list any official affiliation with AWR on their website, but they do broadcast AWR Wavescan every week, so I am wondering if Voice of Hope maybe has some kind of link with AWR. Which could, of course, mean that AWR could use the Lusaka transmitter for some of their African-language transmissions. There is a message on the Voice of Hope website that says "Discussions and planning IS currently underway to expand our Voice of Hope broadcast reach further into North Africa and Asia. More to announce soon!" I asked Anna about the PL-880 and PL-990x, I will let you know what she says.

[@ArnieDXer]

@@swlistening will do 😃 I plan to use it for portable FM & MW DX, maybe some antenna experiments. I'm curious of its ability to pick up LW/MW just on a telescoping whip :) Wavescan might be an AWR programme but they outsourced its production to WRMI. And Dr Adrian Peterson's historic features are read by Ray Robinson of now deceased KVOH, which was a North American version of Voice of Hope, hence the broadcasts on Voice of Hope Africa. But then, Wavescan is also carried by IRRS SW on 1323 MW out of Italy... and I don't know what kind of agreement there is in force.

[@swlistening]

@@ArnieDXer I'm also quite curious to hear about your LW experience with the Qodosen. No luck on my side yet. I won't be entirely surprised if we do start hearing some AWR from Lusaka in future. Waiting with anticipation for the B24 schedules!

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Great report. Thanks!

[@swlistening]

My pleasure, thanks David!

[@davidportch8837]

Thanks for all the info Andre, especially the reception reports... very useful...

[@swlistening]

My pleasure David, glad you enjoyed it!

[@threepistols7]

Great to know I have another chance to get the PL 680.

[@swlistening]

Indeed! But the price will will be a bit higher, unfortunately.

[@NSNorfolk]

Referred by the SWL blog. Been SWL for over 50 years... In the days when the 90 and 60 MB would be full of Africans afternoons till about 2300 / 0000. Ed Shaw wrote an article about this entitled "The Wonderful 60 Meter Band." I wish he would also include the listener's country as well as the Zulu time of the loggings.

[@swlistening]

I am so happy to see that you came here from the SWL blog! There are still some stations using the 60 metre band, lucky for us. But not nearly as many as before. Just as an aside, in my more recent podcasts I do mention the Zulu time for the reception reports. All the new episodes will have the time. The location is always mentioned, at the start of the reception reports. I hope you will enjoy the videos on my channel.

[@jerseyjeeper1575]

Good news!

[@swlistening]

It sure is!

[@frankfoduw-ci8rr]

Thank you for infos about TECSUN

[@swlistening]

My pleasure Frank!

[@jjhendo]

Whoa! Glad I got a 660!!

[@swlistening]

Indeed!

[@KekmanForTheRestOfTheWorld]

nice episode once again! cool to see how you found another format that just works! anyways the entire tecsun situation was just a marketing scheme, wasn't it? ;)

[@swlistening]

Thank you! I think many people enjoy the podcast format. It makes it possible to just listen and not miss anything, you still get the full story. Fun for me to make also! I'm actually not so sure if the Tecsun situation was a marketing scheme. Maybe... But initial reports and rumours about the parts shortage did not come from Tecsun or Anna. I contacted them to find out what was going on only after I started hearing the rumours, which they then confirmed.

[@theshortwavearchive35]

I can't believe that transmitter from Austria is closing down! This was such a great one. O wonder if this would also mean the end of ORF on shortwave and a loss of a few jobs.

[@swlistening]

It is sad news indeed. Another one down... I think ORS will probably focus on other transmission modes, like digital. Maybe ORF will move their shortwave programmes to another transmitter, maybe Bulgaria or Germany? Who knows...

[@theshortwavearchive35]

​@@swlisteningThe only way will find out is when the site is closed which I don't want to see happen.

[@ArnieDXer]

AFAIK, ORF was relayed on 6155 kHz on voluntary basis only by ORS engineers themselves. ORF did introduce some additional broadcasts on SW at the beginning of war in Ukraine, but I think they were gone very quickly, possibly even quicker than the BBC silenced their own specials 🤡 and I've never gotten around to even checking them out 😆 In fact, ORF/ORS had even cut the morning relay on 6155 since then, to run 35 minutes instead of 70-80. So I think they will disappear completely with Moosbrunn's closure.

[@ArnieDXer]

BTW there's a quite lengthy transmission from VMC on 8176 USB, so long that the warnings given (lots of geocoordinates!) was seemingly interrupted abruptly for a schedule announcement! Very weak here, maybe 12365 is better? Off now @ 2021z but to resume at 2030z, like every BOH. Something to check out :)

[@ArnieDXer]

Another odd tip, just fresh off the press :) CNR1 DIDN'T sign-on at 2025z as they would normally do on Mondays only! Instead, 1377 kHz (600kW there, also supposed to have those 1805-2025z breaks) was already running a programme at 2021z, while 4800 didn't start modulating (mid-programme) until 2025z, as scheduled. Yes, it is still Monday UTC 😵

[@arcticradio]

I think my station may have to venture on SW too next year. As if I haven’t got enough to do 🤣

[@swlistening]

Very good idea Matt! It will keep you busy 😉

[@Protocallireland]

Andre what is "sinpo" you mention in the report.? I assume it is something to do with signal? Thanks 😊

[@swlistening]

Hi Garech, yes, it has to do with signal quality. It is a scale that ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 being worse, 5 being best. S is signal, I is interference, N is noise, P is propagation and O is overall.

[@Protocallireland]

Cool, thanks Andre.

[@Hiram8866]

I have a PL-660 which I really like. But I have been wondering about getting a 680.

[@swlistening]

Glen, I think if you already have the PL-660 you probably don't need the PL-680. From what I've read they seem to be very similar. There are some marginal differences in terms of sensitivity, with the PL-680, apparently, being slightly more sensitive on SW and the PL-660 slightly more sensitive on MW. But the difference, apparently, is really small.

[@Hiram8866]

@@swlistening I'm just getting that urge to buy another radio. Maybe a PL-330 would an option. I have a PL-600 which is starting to show its age so I could do with replacing it.

[@swlistening]

@@Hiram8866 Well, now that you put it this way... Why not 😁

[@paul.steckler]

Reports of the PL-680's death have been greatly exaggerated (with apologies to Mark Twain).

[@swlistening]

😀 Paul, I think it is very good news in the end that Tecsun did manage to get the parts they need to continue making this radio. I really enjoy the PL-680.

[@ditto1958]

Hmmm…. I wonder how much new PL-680’s will cost?

[@swlistening]

The new price will be $118.

[@ditto1958]

@@swlistening There are still a few PL-660’s around for less than $100. In your opinion is a $118 PL-680 with it over a PL-660?

[@swlistening]

@@ditto1958 I don't have a PL-660, so I can only answer based on what I know and what I have read. It sounds to me as if these two radios are almost exactly the same, with the PL-680 marginally better on SW and the PL-660 marginally better on MW. They appear to be basically the same for SSB listening. All features are the same. In my experience the PL-680 is a really great radio, so if the PL-660 is basically the same, as others have said, then, by all means, get the PL-660 at the lower price.

[@ditto1958]

Upon further review, the PL - 660 radios that were available for less than $100 just a couple of weeks ago now seem to be gone. They can still be found, but for prices. So it looks like a new PL 680 when they come out again will actually be a pretty decent deal, if not a really good one.

[@swlistening]

@@ditto1958 Yes, if the PL-660 is sold out, I think $118 for the PL-680 is not a bad price. You get a very good, real analogue radio for your money. Recommended without hesitation from my side.

[@rexflex3388]

My tecsun broke. It's stuck showing me low battery. Can't fix it.

[@swlistening]

I'm very sorry to hear that. Is it a new radio? What happens when you charge it?

[@pennyc7064]

​@@swlisteningI seem to have a similar issue with my PL660. Even charging it for many hours it indicates low battery after an hour use therefore I keep the charger plugged while listening to the radio. I don't know if it's an issue with the battery or charger. Rather than spend money on new batteries or charger...I'm considering purchasing the Tecsun PL880. Any thoughts on what the issue may be?

[@swlistening]

@@pennyc7064 Unfortunately I don't know what the issue might be. Is your battery quite old? It might just be that the battery has reached the end of its life, maybe a new battery may work better? These batteries are not too expensive, I would suggest that you try a new battery first, before buying another radio.

[@pennyc7064]

​@@swlisteningThank you for your reply Andre! I'll try with new batteries!

[@swlistening]

@@pennyc7064 Sure!

[@anthonyiocca5683]

I have a PL880

[@swlistening]

It sounds like a great radio!