This radio receives AM (522-1620 khz with 9 khz steps, or 520-1710 khz with 10 khz steps), FM (76 - 108 mhz), and shortwave (1711 - 29999 khz). Although the auction currently omits this, the Chinese specs for the PL-450 also lists longwave (100 - 519 khz). If you look at a high-resolution image of the radio, you can see FM, MW, LW, and SW labels below the band switch buttons. The auction specifies dual conversion reception for AM; I'm unsure if this includes shortwave. The PL-350 model was a single-conversion receiver.
Like the PL-350 that preceded it, the PL-450 takes three AA batteries. Three batteries is inconvenient, especially if one decides to buy higher-quality rechargeable batteries to replace the factory rechargeables. What to do with the fourth battery? I like the tuning knob on the side of the radio as opposed to a flat tuning dial recessed into the enclosure as found on other pocket-sized receivers.
I like this oddly-translated phrase from the auction: "The sleepy function allows you to sleep more before getting up!"
Tecsun's website also shows a PL-600 radio, which probably replaces the PL-550. Anyone have any theories why Tecsun added longwave reception to the PL-450 and PL-600?
2 comments:
during sleepy-time, longwave beacon promotes restful theta-wave sleep
last time i was in europe i noticed voice broadcasts on longwave.. pretty trivial to add, so why not?
the 600 has SSB silkscreened on the front of it. the spec sheets for 450 and 600 are identical except for speaker size and power-draw, and neither mentions SSB.
im really tempted to pick up one of these, as i never listen to SSB (for Ham listening, i find 2 meter most exciting, since its actual chat and tech talk instead of just QSLing)
are there actual broadcasters using SSB?
also theres a few other small radios in the pipeline. Anjan DTS-09 or something like that, and Kchibo 7600.
id proably have pulled the trigger on this one if you didnt mention the 'hiss' problem. my old Sangean/Realistic which has CPU issues also had a lot of hiss, and id prefer something with less internal noise (though i guess we're a long way from the days of tubes)
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