--- product_id: 1165642 title: "PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM Longwave Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception" brand: "tecsun" price: "SAR 1043" currency: SAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 category: "Tecsun" url: https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/1165642-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave store_origin: SA region: Saudi Arabia --- # 5-band full spectrum coverage Long-lasting rechargeable 18650 battery Precision 10 Hz fine tuning with SSB PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM Longwave Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception **Brand:** tecsun **Price:** SAR 1043 **Availability:** βœ… In Stock ## Summary > 🌍 Tune In, Stand Out β€” The World’s Airwaves in Your Palm! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM Longwave Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception by tecsun - **How much does it cost?** SAR 1043 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.sa](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/1165642-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave) ## Best For - tecsun enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted tecsun brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - β€’ **Memory & Convenience:** Store 3050 stations across 25 pages with backlit LCD, alarm, sleep timer, and line-out for recording or stereo. - β€’ **Power Your Adventures:** Rechargeable 18650 battery with USB-C charging ensures up to 15 days of uninterrupted listening. - β€’ **Audiophile-Grade Sound:** Experience crystal-clear, distortion-free audio with a 3W mylar speaker and ultra-dynamic amplifier. - β€’ **Global Frequency Mastery:** Seamlessly tune AM, FM, Longwave, Shortwave & SSB bands for worldwide broadcast access. - β€’ **Precision Tuning Control:** Dual knobs and 10 Hz fine tuning let you lock in elusive signals and decode ham radio transmissions flawlessly. ## Overview The Tecsun PL880 is a premium portable digital PLL dual conversion radio offering unparalleled sensitivity and selectivity across AM, FM, Longwave, Shortwave, and Single Side Band (SSB) reception. Featuring a rechargeable 18650 battery with USB-C charging, a high-fidelity 3W speaker, 3050 station memory, and precision 10 Hz fine tuning, it’s engineered for serious radio enthusiasts and professionals seeking global broadcast access with crystal-clear sound and advanced tuning control. ## Description The PL880 is a world band receiver with a comprehensive frequency coverage including AM/FM, long wave, shortwave, and single side band (SSB). Replacing the Tecsun PL660 as top of the line model, it features an ultra dynamic audio amplifier with full range speaker for full rich & distortion-free sound, the PL880 offers not only excellent sensitivity and selectivity for picking up radio stations, but also exceptional, distortion-free and ear-delicious sound quality. It includes many useful feature such as LCD backlight, 3050 stations storage over 25 memory pages. Firmware Version: 8820 Review: Fantastic radio - Immediate note: My 880 purchased in July 2024 has a USB-C charging port. Not sure if that's in the description, but many old models were miniUSB. Pleasantly surprised. It's not high speed charging, but at least it can charge with any cable I have laying around. So far I'm really loving it! I haven't had a radio around the house for maybe ten years. Decided I wanted one that was a good radio first and foremost. Second, one that's shortwave capable just to try out shortwave listening. I'm in the suburban San Francisco Bay area living in a third floor, north facing apartment. Straight away, the speaker is excellent. I can easily pick up every FM radio station I know of in the bay area. And the sound is crystal clear. I've enjoyed just plopping it down in my home office to listen while I work and the speaker is very enjoyable and clear if you don't fully blast it. AM reception is also excellent, with adjustable bandwidth. For shortwave, wow! This is my first SW radio, but I've really enjoyed sitting on my balcony tuning around. In the evening I can easily pick up Radio New Zealand International on 17675 kHz! I've also caught broadcasts from China, Japan, Miami, Maine, and others. On my second night I also picked out and tuned in a ham transmission and dialed it in on upper sideband mode. Loud and clear, coming from West Calgary! The included wire antenna I find helps me detect faint signals but also all noise. Not unexpected. Usually I have the best luck finding a broadcast with the wire then switching to the whip/telescoping antenna and moving to get the best signal with minimum noise. The rechargeable 18650 Li-ion is also awesome. Can easily replace with standard cells if needed, but also a long life rechargeable. Buttons and knobs are all very well thought out and intuitive. Even has a line out jack if you wanna use a stereo or record. The hidden features (do a Google search) only add extra value. Overall, I love it! Money well spent! Very impressive handheld radio, great quality, excellent results. Review: Great Value and Feature Rich - This very sensitive and selective radio receives AM, FM, Long Wave, and Shortwave broadcasts. Although it is easy to operate, it has a huge array of features. The Tecsun PL-880 is easily the best and most expensive of the small Tecsun radios. See Picture of Tecsun Radios. SOUND By using a better 450mW audio amplifier (thanks, Dan) and an improved 3 watt mylar speaker, the PL-880 has the best sound of these radios. High frequencies are crisp and clear, low frequencies are audible, and the midrange is exceptionally clear. FM Stereo is available through the headphone jack. POWER The unit is powered by a 5V USB port or a rechargeable, replaceable 18650 lithium battery. This is a huge deal. With heavy use and the back-light on, the factory-supplied 2000mAh battery lasts me about 15 days. When it does discharge, I can just recharge it in the radio, or swap it out with another inexpensive, long lasting 18650 battery. I just swapped out my 2000mAh 18650 with a 5000mAh 18650. Note that this is better than using AA batteries to get 4.8 volts, because the amperage isn't cumulative. If you use 4 AA batteries that are rated at 1600 mAh at 1.2v to get the required 4.8 volts, you still only have 1600 mAh, just at 4.8 volts. BACK-LIGHTING Because of the long-lasting battery, the back-light of the display can be turned on indefinitely. Alternatively, you can choose to have it only stay on for a few seconds (after you touch a knob or button), or just turn it completely off. A long press on "5" when the radio is off, toggles the light's behavior. Likewise, you can use a switch on the side. TUNING Tuning for all bands is easily accomplished with separate main tuning and fine tuning knobs. This is a great arrangement, far better than the auto switching tuning speed of the PL-660. Frequencies can be directly entered through the key pad. In addition, you can scan to the next/previous station with a long press to the SCAN button. Direction of scan depends on whether you were last manually tuning up or down. MEMORIES There are 100-250 memories per page per band (FM, AM, LW, SW, SSB), and there are 25 pages (0-24). Since many stations are only available for a limited time, I use each page (0-23) to group broadcasts available at that hour. An auto sort function will sort memories by band and frequencies, eliminating duplicates. Auto Tuning Storage (ATS) will automatically find and remember all stations available for a single band, or search all bands. OTHER FEATURES Many other convenience features include a sleep timer, an alarm clock, 8 band widths, direct keypad entry, simple tone control, line-out for recording, a headphone jack, an internal ferrite bar AM antenna, and an external antenna jack. In addition to the many features listed in the "Operation Manual", techies are delighted to find many more hidden features like Synchronous Detection, Dynamic Noise Reduction, Muting Threshold, Line Output Level, Calibration of SSB, Antenna Source, Firmware Version Display and date, "up" time, and charge time. Accessories include an Operation Manual, a lithium rechargeable battery, a long wire external antenna, a wall charger, and a very nice leatherette case. The knobs turn very smoothly with a nice damped motion and ergonomic placement. INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST BANDS If you follow the reception hints below, you'll find interesting stations like Austria, Australia, Cameroon, Deutsche Vella, Greece, Japan, Radio Marti, Quebec, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Tirana, Vietnam, etc. You can find these broadcasts in the vicinity of 2300-2495, 3200-3400, 3900-4000, 4750-5060, 5900-6200, 7200-7450, 9400-9900, 11600-12100, 13570-13870, 15100-15800, 17480-17900, 21450-21850 and 25600-26100. When you key in any of these frequencies, the PL-880 will tell you the meter band. AM You can use this radio for DX (distant) reception of AM stations that will surprise you. Get outside. You might even try an external AM antenna like the Kaito AN-200 Tunable Passive AM Antenna for AM radio, Any Brands, Like Kaito,Sony,Eton,Panasonic,Tecsun,Grundig Etc. . Inexpensive and great fun. SINGLE SIDE BAND Single Side Band (SSB) is where the ham broadcaster uses only half (lower or upper) the channel that he would otherwise use. This allows more broadcasters in the same vicinity but sounds garbled without the proper decoder. This radio will allow you to understand them by choosing either the upper or lower side band (USB/LSB). You can then fine tune the broadcast with the fine tuning knob and reduce noise by choosing the best of 5 alternative band widths (4, 3, 2.3, 1.2 and 0.5 kHz) especially chosen for SSB mode. Most digital radios (including this one) are callibrated to the nearest khz. However the PL-880 will display hundreths of a khz on SSB, and you can easily calibrate it so the that ham band SSB transmissions are dead on. Say that most transmissions sound clearest at 0.15 above the khz, for example 7060.15 on LSB. All you have to do is fine-tune it for the clearest sound and hold down the "Snooze" button for a few seconds. The .15 will turn to .00 and your radio will be calibrated to the "zero beat" for virtually all LSB stations. You can repeat for the USB and your SSB stations will be easily tuned and clear. Typically, the Lower Side Band is used below 10MHz and the Upper Side Band is used above 10MHz. Ham Radio is very popular. You can find these amateur broadcasts in the vicinity of 1843-2000, 3790-3800, 3885, 7290 and 14286 kHz. RECEPTION HINTS Just tuning randomly may not be rewarding. o Get a phone app for Short Wave Listening like SWBC, or use your browser to find Shortwave Listening guides. o Search for particular stations on their own frequencies and recommended times. o Get away from electrical interference like your computer or USB charger. o Try the long-wire antenna outside. Better still, make a simple dipole antenna by stretching some 18 AWG wire in opposite directions and connect one end to the Left terminal of a 3.5mm connector, connect the other wire to the GND connector. A solderless connector makes it easy. BCP 5pcs 3.5mm (1/8inches) Stereo Audio Male to AV 3-Screw Terminal Female Connector See picture, below. o Reception is better in the evening and at night. However, if you have a good antenna, you'll find good things all day long. o Find the best bandwidth for your broadcast. RECORDING You may want to record the marvelous stories from Slovakia and Romania of things only found there. In the last photo, I show how I record from the "line out" output to the "mic in" of the voice recorder by using a headphone volume control like Stellar Labs 35-4180 In Line Headphone Volume Control . The volume control reduces the line level of the radio, making it suitable for the microphone-level input of a voice recorder like ALS Portable Rechargeable 8gb Hd/vox/sto Stereo Professional Digital Voice Recorder with Double-mode of WAV and Mp3 . DRAWBACKS o Ideally, you would have a variable RF gain control to adjust radio sensitivity to the strength of the station. Instead, this radio has 3 position switch for Local, Normal, or DX reception. o The sync detector is poor, hardly ever improving the reception. o You must send the radio to Kaito to get a free firmware update; you cannot do it yourself. o The frequencies and mode are memorized, but you cannot add text. o FM sounds great in mono or stereo, but there is no RDS (Radio Data Service), or HD radio. o The display back-lighting is great, but does not illuminate the keys. o Unlike more expensive radios, you cannot control this radio with your computer. o All but the most recent samples with firmware version 8820 have the minor, but annoying "Fine Tuning Bug". Within a khz, the fine tuning will tune (but not display) backwards while tuning SSB. Just because the radio has version 8820 of the firmware, doesn't mean this bug is fixed. Check with the vendor or Kaito if you are concerned. My radio does not have this bug. FOR THE SAME MONEY If you listen to distant AM stations or Shortwave, the PL880 is well worth the money, currently rated 4.6/5 by desertcart buyers. Another good radio in the same price range is the Eton Satellit Eton NGWSATB Satellit AM/FM with RDS and Shortwave Radio, Black , rated 3.9. A slightly less expensive contender is the Sony ICF-SW7600GR Sony ICF-SW7600GR AM/FM Shortwave World Band Receiver with Single Side Band Reception , rated 4.1. If you can afford to spend more, you might also check out the Sangean ATS-909X Sangean ATS-909X BK AM/FM/LW/SW World Band Receiver - Black , rated 4.0. Each of these competitors excel the PL880 in some ways (RDS, sync, display size), and may not equal the PL880 in other ways (battery, audio fidelity, back-lighting, band-width choices). You may find a trade-off that you prefer among them. MORE INFO These reviews contain great information. Check out Yahoo's Tecsun PL-880 group. Read the 23 great reviews at eham. (Google: "eham tecsun pl-880") ## Features - Best reception, full range coverage including AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave with Single Side Band - PLL synthesized digital dual conversion receiver with unparallelled sensitivity & selectivity - 4 & 5 selectable bandwidth filters on AM and SSB respectively plus single Side Band receiver with 10 Hz tuning step - Alarm clock plus sleep timer from 0-120 minutes - 1 Year USA warranty. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | B00GJ51NVA | | Additional Features | Portable | | Antenna Location | Indoor/Outdoor | | Best Sellers Rank | #29,849 in Electronics ( See Top 100 in Electronics ) #60 in Portable Shortwave Radios | | Brand | TECSUN | | Color | Black & Gray | | Compatible Devices | Earphone | | Connectivity Technology | USB | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,503) | | Display Technology | LCD | | Display Type | LCD | | Enclosure Material | Plastic | | Frequency | 108 MHz | | Hardware Interface | 3.5mm Audio, USB | | Item Dimensions L x W x H | 7.5"L x 1.25"W x 4.5"H | | Item Weight | 520 g | | Manufacturer | Tecsun | | Mfr Part Number | PL880 | | Model Number | PL880 | | Number of Batteries | 1 AA batteries required. | | Number of Items | 1 | | Power Source | Battery Powered | | Radio Bands Supported | 5-Band | | Speaker Maximum Output Power | 3 watts | | Style Name | Modern | | Tuner Type | AM/FM | | UPC | 851567004525 | | Voltage | 3.7 volts | ## Product Details - **Brand:** TECSUN - **Color:** Black & Gray - **Connectivity Technology:** USB - **Power Source:** Battery Powered - **Product Dimensions:** 7.5"L x 1.25"W x 4.5"H - **Radio Bands Supported:** 5-Band - **Recommended Uses For Product:** Indoor/Outdoor - **Special Feature:** Portable - **Style:** Modern - **Tuner Technology:** AM/FM ## Images ![PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM Longwave Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ODlewBolS.jpg) ## Questions & Answers **Q: Does this radio have the updated firmware? Is there a way to tell by the serial number? The update is not listed in the description.** A: The seller will have to tell you the version number and yes there is an easy way to read it. 1.) With the radio turned off, simply press and hold the "AM BW" button and the full display panel will turn on.2.) Then press and hold the "AM BW" again and your 880β€²s firmware version will display (a four digit number).You need version 8820 or higher which fixes a few of the problems but not all. **Q: Can a generic, lithium-ion 3.6/4.2 volt 18650 with a 2600 - 3400 mAh rating be used in this radio? Would it fit and not overload the circuitry?** A: The only companies that make 18650 batteries are LG, Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung. The ones with other names are just rewrapped with another brand name on them. It's best to buy batteries labeled directly from one of those 4 manufacturers so you know what you are getting because the it's common to see other brands exaggerate the mah rating. **Q: Has anyone purchased from Elextronnix and can confirm the firmware is the most recent 8820? thank you** A: Firmware 8820 does not guarantee that it is free from the fine-tuning bug. Some 8820 firmware will still tune backwards within a kilohertz during SSB fine tuning. A small but annoying bug. Check with Electronnix before buying. **Q: I live in an apartment and have little access to attach an external antenna to anything outside. Can an external antenna work inside an apartment?** A: Re sun also sell the AM booster loop, the AN-200 tunable medium wave loop antenna. I have found this no-battery solution to give a great signal boost for all bands except FM. I rest the Tecsun radio inside the loop and it works! ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fantastic radio *by T***M on August 2, 2024* Immediate note: My 880 purchased in July 2024 has a USB-C charging port. Not sure if that's in the description, but many old models were miniUSB. Pleasantly surprised. It's not high speed charging, but at least it can charge with any cable I have laying around. So far I'm really loving it! I haven't had a radio around the house for maybe ten years. Decided I wanted one that was a good radio first and foremost. Second, one that's shortwave capable just to try out shortwave listening. I'm in the suburban San Francisco Bay area living in a third floor, north facing apartment. Straight away, the speaker is excellent. I can easily pick up every FM radio station I know of in the bay area. And the sound is crystal clear. I've enjoyed just plopping it down in my home office to listen while I work and the speaker is very enjoyable and clear if you don't fully blast it. AM reception is also excellent, with adjustable bandwidth. For shortwave, wow! This is my first SW radio, but I've really enjoyed sitting on my balcony tuning around. In the evening I can easily pick up Radio New Zealand International on 17675 kHz! I've also caught broadcasts from China, Japan, Miami, Maine, and others. On my second night I also picked out and tuned in a ham transmission and dialed it in on upper sideband mode. Loud and clear, coming from West Calgary! The included wire antenna I find helps me detect faint signals but also all noise. Not unexpected. Usually I have the best luck finding a broadcast with the wire then switching to the whip/telescoping antenna and moving to get the best signal with minimum noise. The rechargeable 18650 Li-ion is also awesome. Can easily replace with standard cells if needed, but also a long life rechargeable. Buttons and knobs are all very well thought out and intuitive. Even has a line out jack if you wanna use a stereo or record. The hidden features (do a Google search) only add extra value. Overall, I love it! Money well spent! Very impressive handheld radio, great quality, excellent results. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great Value and Feature Rich *by D***Y on April 18, 2016* This very sensitive and selective radio receives AM, FM, Long Wave, and Shortwave broadcasts. Although it is easy to operate, it has a huge array of features. The Tecsun PL-880 is easily the best and most expensive of the small Tecsun radios. See Picture of Tecsun Radios. SOUND By using a better 450mW audio amplifier (thanks, Dan) and an improved 3 watt mylar speaker, the PL-880 has the best sound of these radios. High frequencies are crisp and clear, low frequencies are audible, and the midrange is exceptionally clear. FM Stereo is available through the headphone jack. POWER The unit is powered by a 5V USB port or a rechargeable, replaceable 18650 lithium battery. This is a huge deal. With heavy use and the back-light on, the factory-supplied 2000mAh battery lasts me about 15 days. When it does discharge, I can just recharge it in the radio, or swap it out with another inexpensive, long lasting 18650 battery. I just swapped out my 2000mAh 18650 with a 5000mAh 18650. Note that this is better than using AA batteries to get 4.8 volts, because the amperage isn't cumulative. If you use 4 AA batteries that are rated at 1600 mAh at 1.2v to get the required 4.8 volts, you still only have 1600 mAh, just at 4.8 volts. BACK-LIGHTING Because of the long-lasting battery, the back-light of the display can be turned on indefinitely. Alternatively, you can choose to have it only stay on for a few seconds (after you touch a knob or button), or just turn it completely off. A long press on "5" when the radio is off, toggles the light's behavior. Likewise, you can use a switch on the side. TUNING Tuning for all bands is easily accomplished with separate main tuning and fine tuning knobs. This is a great arrangement, far better than the auto switching tuning speed of the PL-660. Frequencies can be directly entered through the key pad. In addition, you can scan to the next/previous station with a long press to the SCAN button. Direction of scan depends on whether you were last manually tuning up or down. MEMORIES There are 100-250 memories per page per band (FM, AM, LW, SW, SSB), and there are 25 pages (0-24). Since many stations are only available for a limited time, I use each page (0-23) to group broadcasts available at that hour. An auto sort function will sort memories by band and frequencies, eliminating duplicates. Auto Tuning Storage (ATS) will automatically find and remember all stations available for a single band, or search all bands. OTHER FEATURES Many other convenience features include a sleep timer, an alarm clock, 8 band widths, direct keypad entry, simple tone control, line-out for recording, a headphone jack, an internal ferrite bar AM antenna, and an external antenna jack. In addition to the many features listed in the "Operation Manual", techies are delighted to find many more hidden features like Synchronous Detection, Dynamic Noise Reduction, Muting Threshold, Line Output Level, Calibration of SSB, Antenna Source, Firmware Version Display and date, "up" time, and charge time. Accessories include an Operation Manual, a lithium rechargeable battery, a long wire external antenna, a wall charger, and a very nice leatherette case. The knobs turn very smoothly with a nice damped motion and ergonomic placement. INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST BANDS If you follow the reception hints below, you'll find interesting stations like Austria, Australia, Cameroon, Deutsche Vella, Greece, Japan, Radio Marti, Quebec, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Tirana, Vietnam, etc. You can find these broadcasts in the vicinity of 2300-2495, 3200-3400, 3900-4000, 4750-5060, 5900-6200, 7200-7450, 9400-9900, 11600-12100, 13570-13870, 15100-15800, 17480-17900, 21450-21850 and 25600-26100. When you key in any of these frequencies, the PL-880 will tell you the meter band. AM You can use this radio for DX (distant) reception of AM stations that will surprise you. Get outside. You might even try an external AM antenna like the Kaito AN-200 Tunable Passive AM Antenna for AM radio, Any Brands, Like Kaito,Sony,Eton,Panasonic,Tecsun,Grundig Etc. . Inexpensive and great fun. SINGLE SIDE BAND Single Side Band (SSB) is where the ham broadcaster uses only half (lower or upper) the channel that he would otherwise use. This allows more broadcasters in the same vicinity but sounds garbled without the proper decoder. This radio will allow you to understand them by choosing either the upper or lower side band (USB/LSB). You can then fine tune the broadcast with the fine tuning knob and reduce noise by choosing the best of 5 alternative band widths (4, 3, 2.3, 1.2 and 0.5 kHz) especially chosen for SSB mode. Most digital radios (including this one) are callibrated to the nearest khz. However the PL-880 will display hundreths of a khz on SSB, and you can easily calibrate it so the that ham band SSB transmissions are dead on. Say that most transmissions sound clearest at 0.15 above the khz, for example 7060.15 on LSB. All you have to do is fine-tune it for the clearest sound and hold down the "Snooze" button for a few seconds. The .15 will turn to .00 and your radio will be calibrated to the "zero beat" for virtually all LSB stations. You can repeat for the USB and your SSB stations will be easily tuned and clear. Typically, the Lower Side Band is used below 10MHz and the Upper Side Band is used above 10MHz. Ham Radio is very popular. You can find these amateur broadcasts in the vicinity of 1843-2000, 3790-3800, 3885, 7290 and 14286 kHz. RECEPTION HINTS Just tuning randomly may not be rewarding. o Get a phone app for Short Wave Listening like SWBC, or use your browser to find Shortwave Listening guides. o Search for particular stations on their own frequencies and recommended times. o Get away from electrical interference like your computer or USB charger. o Try the long-wire antenna outside. Better still, make a simple dipole antenna by stretching some 18 AWG wire in opposite directions and connect one end to the Left terminal of a 3.5mm connector, connect the other wire to the GND connector. A solderless connector makes it easy. BCP 5pcs 3.5mm (1/8inches) Stereo Audio Male to AV 3-Screw Terminal Female Connector See picture, below. o Reception is better in the evening and at night. However, if you have a good antenna, you'll find good things all day long. o Find the best bandwidth for your broadcast. RECORDING You may want to record the marvelous stories from Slovakia and Romania of things only found there. In the last photo, I show how I record from the "line out" output to the "mic in" of the voice recorder by using a headphone volume control like Stellar Labs 35-4180 In Line Headphone Volume Control . The volume control reduces the line level of the radio, making it suitable for the microphone-level input of a voice recorder like ALS Portable Rechargeable 8gb Hd/vox/sto Stereo Professional Digital Voice Recorder with Double-mode of WAV and Mp3 . DRAWBACKS o Ideally, you would have a variable RF gain control to adjust radio sensitivity to the strength of the station. Instead, this radio has 3 position switch for Local, Normal, or DX reception. o The sync detector is poor, hardly ever improving the reception. o You must send the radio to Kaito to get a free firmware update; you cannot do it yourself. o The frequencies and mode are memorized, but you cannot add text. o FM sounds great in mono or stereo, but there is no RDS (Radio Data Service), or HD radio. o The display back-lighting is great, but does not illuminate the keys. o Unlike more expensive radios, you cannot control this radio with your computer. o All but the most recent samples with firmware version 8820 have the minor, but annoying "Fine Tuning Bug". Within a khz, the fine tuning will tune (but not display) backwards while tuning SSB. Just because the radio has version 8820 of the firmware, doesn't mean this bug is fixed. Check with the vendor or Kaito if you are concerned. My radio does not have this bug. FOR THE SAME MONEY If you listen to distant AM stations or Shortwave, the PL880 is well worth the money, currently rated 4.6/5 by Amazon buyers. Another good radio in the same price range is the Eton Satellit Eton NGWSATB Satellit AM/FM with RDS and Shortwave Radio, Black , rated 3.9. A slightly less expensive contender is the Sony ICF-SW7600GR Sony ICF-SW7600GR AM/FM Shortwave World Band Receiver with Single Side Band Reception , rated 4.1. If you can afford to spend more, you might also check out the Sangean ATS-909X Sangean ATS-909X BK AM/FM/LW/SW World Band Receiver - Black , rated 4.0. Each of these competitors excel the PL880 in some ways (RDS, sync, display size), and may not equal the PL880 in other ways (battery, audio fidelity, back-lighting, band-width choices). You may find a trade-off that you prefer among them. MORE INFO These reviews contain great information. Check out Yahoo's Tecsun PL-880 group. Read the 23 great reviews at eham. (Google: "eham tecsun pl-880") ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Love this radio!! *by V***R on February 1, 2015* I received my Tecsun PL-880 just a week ago, and I have to say that from my perspective, it's the *almost* perfect portable shortwave radio! I came close to purchasing a Grundig SAT 750, but when that order was delayed, I opted for this radio instead. I'm certainly glad I did! I can't imagine how the Grundig could be much better, and this radio provides a more portable option. PRO's: * Amazing sensitivity on the SW bands. No matter the time of the day, the auto-scanning function seems to always pick up 40-50 (or more!) shortwave stations. And these are stations that are easily copied. (The only antennae I'm using is the $10 Sangean 'reel'. And it just runs up a corner of my room to the ceiling.) In the limited time I've operated the radio I've already copied Radio China (came "booming" in on the 22 meter band), Radio Australia, and several far eastern stations. (I'm located in the southern United States.) BTW, if you own an iPad, you can always check the frequency with the "SWBC Sked" app to ascertain the station you're currently listening to. * Very good SSB reception on the Ham Bands ... all the way through 10 Meters! I've seen some YouTube videos of this radio providing a "muffled" SSB experience, but I've had no such issues (Firmware 8820). The only thing I can think of that could cause that is having the selectable Bandwidth set to 1.2 kHz or lower. I keep it at 3 kHz for SSB. (BW Options for SSB are 4, 3, 2.3, 1.2, and 0.5 kHz. That alone is astonishing for a portable SW radio!) When switching to SSB mode, the regular tuning knob automatically switches to "slow" tuning mode (1 kHz steps) while the "Fine" tuning knob switches to "Ultra-fine". You can literally tune in 1/100 kHz steps! Needless to say, this makes it super easy to get good quality speech from SSB signals. The only problem I've seen with SSB is a bit of "splatter" for very strong signals. In those instances, I would like to have a RF gain control. The three-position antennae-attenuator switch will do the job here, but is not as convenient. In any event, that's a very minor quibble. This is still the best SSB I've ever experienced from a portable. * Very good scanning options. You can scan just one International shortwave band, or *all* the bands. Use "Page 0" for scanning, and just the most recent scan results are stored. You can then easily step through all the stations it found by simply turning the tuning knob. Only the International SW bands are scanned; it automatically skips over all the Ham Bands. Since shortwave conditions change hourly, this makes it real easy to find the current "hot" bands. * Great sound! The speaker sounds great and can easily fill a small room without straining. It almost makes me wish a Bluetooth option were available so I could run Pandora through it via my iPhone. (Maybe the next generation, perhaps?) * AM/FM --- The "AM" band is adequate. If I were serious about AM I would opt for an external antennae optimized for AM. FM is *great*! * As mentioned earlier, this radio has incredible bandwidth options for a portable. In AM/SW mode you have 9, 5, 3.5 and 2.3 kHz options available. A strong music AM station with the 9 kHz BW option engaged sounds absolutely amazing. For most AM listening I keep it on "5". I use "3" as the default for most SW listening. The SSB bandwidth options were mentioned above. It's just *great* having all these options! * Rechargeable battery with "intelligent" charging. You don't have to tell it how long to charge like some portables require. Charging is through a mini-USB port. The cable for charging was supplied, but not the charger itself. I just use my iPhone's charger, which works great. CONS: * As mentioned above, the only real feature I miss is a variable RF gain control. I think it could really help out with the SSB "splatter" mentioned above on strong signals. Again, the three-position "Ant Gain" control can help out here; it's just not as convenient to use. As far as CONS go, that's pretty much it as far as I'm concerned! Summation: I *Love* this Radio!!! ## Frequently Bought Together - Tecsun PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM Longwave Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception - Tecsun AN-48X Indoor Active Loop AM/LW/SW Radio Antenna - Sangean ANT-60 Short Wave Antenna --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - πŸ›’ **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** β€” Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** β€” Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - πŸ’° **No Hidden Fees** β€” All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - πŸ”„ **15-Day Free Returns** β€” Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - πŸ”’ **Secure Payments** β€” Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** β€” Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/1165642-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/1165642-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave) --- *Product available on Desertcart Saudi Arabia* *Store origin: SA* *Last updated: 2026-09-02*