Good evening, Andre. Long Time No See. Heartiest Congratulations on your recent acquisition. PL-680 is in my wish list for years. Wanted to acquire one but got to know from your podcast and later from Anna from Anon-Co that the production halted all of a sudden due to outage of this and 660's ICs altogether. But Anna at that time also quoted that the same could resume soon if Tecsun is able to find another seller who holds a stockpile of these last remaining ICs as they are now totally out of production. Glad Tecsun kept its word, and the production cranked up again. For how long, that only time would tell. But for now, this Radio could be a great addition as a Christmas Gift. 73! 🙏 [Oh btw, you tuned another Bollywood Hit Song called Aye Mere Hamsafar Ek Zara Intezaar (My Fellow Traveller Just Wait for Some time) from a cult classic Bollywood Movie of Amir Khan, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (From Apocylapse to Apocylapse) at 12:35] Cheers! Happy Holidays! 🎄
Hi there Harshit, nice to hear from you again! Thank you for identifying the Bollywood hit in my recording :-) The PL-680 is back in stock now, the price is higher though. It is $118 on the anon-co website. Still a great buy, in my opinion. I would suggest that you don't wait too long, because Tecsun found stock of the ICs, but we don't know how long the supply of ICs will last for...
@@swlistening Greetings of the day Andre. You are very apt with your words up there. I just hope Tecsun never stops manufacturing these two legendary radios from their arsenal. I will surely proceed with my purchase soon and will update my experience to you here. 73! 🙏
@@swlistening André, unfortunately, PL-660 is nowhere to be found in Anon Co. I think it's discontinued now. Hopeful for PL-680. IMO, every die hard SW Listener should owe this Beauty. I am glad you did the same. 73! 🙏
@@swlistening I was tuning the MW band last night on my Toshiba RP-S8 and it feels natural to here a signal fade in and out instead of choppy tuning. It also helps you center on the carrier.
@@theshortwavearchive35 Very much! I have been doing some SSB listening and I get lots of good signals - Volmet from Russia and Thailand, Indian air traffic control from Mumbai, a numbers station from Poland. None of these are new catches, I have caught them before on my Kenwood R1000, but it is great to get such good SSB reception on a portable radio. Low noise floor also, so weak signals are much easier to hear than on some of my other radios. It really is a good receiver.
Welcome to the PL-680 club, Andre! It's still better late than never! 📻😍 Your firmware should be version 6622 and it's similar to the PL-660 from 2021 onwards. Apparently sales of the PL-660/PL-680 had significantly slowed down for my regular XHDATA dealer. They're not selling either model anymore unless there is a special one off request from repeat customers (like me, ahem.) 😌 That means I've been fed conflicting information from the XHDATA customer service rep. Now they're saying that the Tecsun company is still making these models but probably in fewer quantities than before. 😐 Happy DX'ing with your PL-680 bru! 📻👍🏼
Thank you! It took me a while as I really needed to save up for this one. With the extremely high import duties we pay here on goods above 500 rand (about $28), this is quite a significant financial outlay for me. $101 for the radio, $30 for shipping, $75 for duties and VAT... But I am very happy I finally got it. My firmware is, indeed 6622. I confirmed again with Anna from anon-co today, production has ended. Not necessarily forever, but Tecsun needs some internal components that are not available right now. There are still some radios available from various sellers, so it is still possible to find them.
@@swlistening Sorry to hear about those awful import duties, but I learned that AliExpress slapped me with the 10% Malaysian low value goods duties when I ordered a DX-286! 😡 Thank you Andre, for the Tecsun updates and also for verifying your firmware version. For some reason, you'll find owners of the PL-660 comparing their firmware version, but no on else with a PL-680 bothered to state their firmware number. Not even the great "Official Shortwave Channel" guy himself did so, after I had once politely asked what his PL-680's firmware was! 🙄 Perhaps the latest news on the PL-6xx series would make it to the next "Radio Andre International" podcast? 😀 📻🌍
@@StratmanII These import duties are really horrible, and then I have to pay VAT on top of that! My podcast is a bit late this week, but it is on the way 😀
@@swlistening No worries, take your time bru. I think I discovered something new the last time I used my PL-660. Will take out the PL-680 to see if that undocumented feature can also be used. 😀 As I said to you before, this will be your second shortwave receiver with a digital frequency readout that doesn't chuff between frequencies. Your first one is the mighty R1000! 📻🙂
I have one. Even thought of picking up a spare one before they stop production. I have several Tecsun radios, so it's difficult to justify picking up another one, especially a redundant one. I also have the bug to pick up a new S-2200 to pair with my S-2000. It's not like I have a lot of money lying around, but the thought does pop into my mind from time to time.
One can never have enough radios! I do think the PL-680 seems to be very sturdy and well-built, I hope mine will last for a very long time. That S-2200 looks like an interesting radio, but it is quite costly. It's not on the radar for me right now, it is just too expensive.
@@ditto1958 Production on both the PL-680 and PL-660 has ended, hopefully only temporarily. Tecsun is trying to source some necessary internal components. So the PL-680 has become hard to find. If you can still find the PL-660 from a reputable dealer like anon-co it might be a good second choice. Some sellers on Ali Express still have the PL-680.
@@swlisteningI looked around a bit and no, the PL-680 is not easy to find new. I ended up ordering a PL-660 from Anon-co, and it is supposed to show up tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing how it compared to your PL-680.
Congratulations on this wonderful purchase. It would be exciting to see how it performs in comparison to XHDATA D-808 and Qodosen DX-286. Looking forward to this wonderful comparison
Thank you Ali! I am also looking forward to various comparisons, it should be very interesting. Particularly with the Qodosen DX-286, but also with the D-808 indeed.
You are going to like this one. I’ve had mine for about 4 1/2 years. [ I actually have a second one as a spare.]. Somehow I don’t see them actually ending the production of these [ 660, and 680]. They are still selling fairly well. They tend to run production of radios in batches. When they run out , they ramp up production again. They also tend to produce a model until it’s no longer profitable. ( Last check, they were currently selling 42 various models.). 📻🙂
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comment! They are not planning to end production completely, but they have an issue at the moment with sourcing some internal components. Therefore production has indeed stopped, until they can get the necessary components again. Anna from anon-co said Tecsun is currently looking for new supplier. But with the move towards DSP-based radios, some components needed for the PL-660 and PL-680 have become harder to source.
Congratulation on your new radio, André. I'm sure you already love this one. I have the PL-660 that is very similar but with a different form factor (which I like less than the PL-680's) and these are the best radios for SSB DXing IMO. They have paged memory which isn't the greatest invention, but that's about my only small gripe. You've certainly already noticed how better they sound than DSP-based radios. Much more natural sound, fuller. The soft tuning with no mute is a blast when browsing the bands too. You'll find out that there are some tricky button pushes for some functions e.g. NiMH battery charging and setting their capacity. Lots of goodies in there, did you really get TWO wire antennas with it? My PL-660 came with a much more basic black soft plastic protection sleeve.
Thank you Alain, I already love this radio. It has been a dream for a very long time, glad I finally got it. I think the PL-660 and PL-680 are pretty similar indeed, just the form factor, as you say. One of the main reasons why I got mine was for SSB DXing, I am looking forward to really trying mine out over the coming weekend for some SSB listening when I can stay awake until very late at night! I also don't like the page memory system so much, but, in all honesty, I very rarely use the memory function on any of my radios. You mention the sound. It is just such a huge difference. So much more natural and fuller, exactly as you say. That is really a major advantage of these two radios. The no mute is great!
Gasp! You had done a sacrilegious thing to that nice radio at 05:22! 😨📻 OK, my PL-680 also arrived with a rather spotty looking protective film, just like yours did. On the other hand my PL-660's plastic film remained spotless for the first 9 months of its life. Eventually some dust had found its way underneath it but I usually leave the factory pasted LCD film if it's able to stay put on its own. The ones on my PL-320, 330 and 990 wouldn't stick for long and I ended up peeling them off as they obscured my view of the LCD information. 😀
Another great video, Andre. Thank you. I purchased PL660 at Hong Kong back in 2015. Love this radio. Recently I had to exchange encoder(known problem of them). Spare part costed around 7 Eur plus 1.5 Eur shipping to Europe from Hong Kong also. Works flawlessly future.
@@Danylo.M All PL-660 models come with the cheaper vinyl pouch. The PL-680 is marketed as a "luxury" version of the PL-660 and its faux leather case justifies the PL-680's slightly higher price tag. 🙂 Fun fact: Later editions of the PL-660 (starting with the 6609 firmware according to one source) have the very useful memory reindexing feature and the manual frequency calibration. 📻👍
Thanks! The PL-680 is quite a bit bigger. I don't have a PL-330, but I know it is very compact. Around the beginning of my video you can see me comparing the PL-680 to some well-known radios, it is bigger than all of them.
Reminds me of when I bought a Sony ICF-2010, what many consider a legendary radio. It appears the ICF-2010 was often used in espionage around the world. The ICF-2010 is rather large so the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is the model I use most often.
@@swlistening a radio that I have been thinking about is the Grundig Satellit 700; renowned for their audio quality. Sony's ICF-SW77 is probably their closest competitor. Like Grundig's 700 model, the Sony ICF-SW77 also included bandpass filters similar to tabletop receivers.
@@Henry-d9d Hi Henry, both these would be great to have, but I think they are hard to get now, in good working condition. Have you seen either of these for sale recently?
@@swlistening I have seen them on line a few times, but the sellers usually want 'serious' money if they are in good condition. I saw a ICF-SW77 in excellent condition for around $800 to $1,000 U.S. dollars recently. The Grundig prices were considerably lower.
@@Henry-d9d Wow, that's really a lot of money for the Sony ICF-SW77. I suppose if they are in really good, working condition people are sometimes willing to pay that for these radios. They are becoming scarce and hard to get.
Congratulations on your new radio Sir. I have had one for several years and it’s not a bad radio it’s got the best sync tuning along with the Pl 660 that tecsun currently does. It does not have good volume however on ssb , but it is adequate at a pinch. Mines is guilty of over-tuning by 1 kHz whilst tuning. Maybe your latest version has this glitch resolved. Nice video though and thanks for sharing it with us all Sir.
@@b.2221 You do know that you can manually recalibrate your PL-680, right? Frequency calibration was the first thing I did when I got my PL-660 and (later) the PL-680. The PL-660 needed calibrating out of the box, while my PL-680 was fine when i got it. Tecsun figured that it's less of a hassle and cost to allow its customers to correct off-center frequencies themselves rather than have their radios shipped back to the service center for frequency calibration.
Thank you for your comment! Yes, many of these radios were off by about 1 kHz, also the PL-660, as Stratman has pointed out here. But you can calibrate it yourself. Mine seems to be OK. I have noticed that the SSB volume is a bit low.
Thank you for the video, you made my day, I definitely need a PLL, will review what left in this world of dsp domination. I love DSP also, but soft mute...
That sounded like true fun on shortwave. Reminds me of my enjoyment in the 1960's, 70's and 80's! When I came back to it after marriage, children and life events etc. so much had changed with technology. The tuning experience had changed to today's pause and hope.
Hi Terry, this is so true! I felt the enjoyment as I was tuning the bands last night, it was like the old days. The signals becoming stronger slowly until you tune right in, then fading away again as you tune away. Great fun, this is something that the DSP radios cannot offer.
@@KekmanForTheRestOfTheWorld I suspect so. I haven't really investigated the bandwidth for FM, but the only BW button I see is the one for AM signals, wide and narrow only.
@@swlistening ok so the qodosen probably going to win on fm really sad my pll Degen De1103 stopped working with batteries. had great fun taking it outside to do some fm dxing. i was almost exclusively using the narrow bw filter btw: do you know of any retailer for the Qodosen in Europe? Or do i really need to buy it from Amazon US?
@@KekmanForTheRestOfTheWorld Very sorry to hear about your Degen and the battery operation. It's a great radio, that one! Unfortunately I don't know of any retailer in Europe, so I think you would have to get the Qodosen from Amazon in the US. Seems to be the only option right now.
The best among the last available and affordable PLLs-bought in a timely manner before they sold out completely. 👏 Also, the Tecsun R-9710 is the cheapest and simplest dual-conversion full-analog radio-truly the last of its kind.
I agree, anyone who wants one of these should get it now before they are all sold out. The R-9170 also looks like a very nice dual-conversion analogue radio, and also the R-9700DX. They are among the very few dual-conversion analogue radios that one can still get.
@@swlistening True, it's also available yet, and looks beautiful. I haven't considered it for myself because of (1) price; (2) no obvious benefits in reception; (3) whistles/mirroring may occur on SW, it seems to require additional fine-tuning on the internals. Thus, R-9710 seems to be a safer bet.
@@swlistening Andre, how do you feel about radio with a frequency pointer that is about minus 11-13 kHz off from the carrier frequency on the SW bands? From the perspective of a keen shortwave enthusiast, do you feel that's an acceptable margin of error for a brand new analogue receiver? 🙂
@@StratmanII Are you talking about an analogue needle here? Or a digital display? For portable radios with analogue needles this would be OK for me, very few of them are actually bang on the frequencies. I usually compensate in my mind for deviations like this. My older radios all have issues with the frequency displays not being 100% correct.
@@swlistening Sorry,Andre, I should have gotten directly to the point. I received the Tecsun R-9700DX two days ago and took me a minute just to locate 89.9 MHz (Business FM radio) on the dial. That's just the FM band! 😡 On shortwave, I had to rely on a second receiver with a digital readout (either my D-808 or ATS-25 Amp) to verify the indicated frequency on the R-9700DX. It's generally off by 12 kHz on the average and on the frequency dial the horizontal indicator bar is about 8mm above where it really should be. 😞 The R-9700DX is supposed to be Tecsun's _premium_ analogue shortwave receiver model and the factory can't even get the frequency calibration right. Even my "cheap" XHDATA D-219's frequency pointer is pretty much spot on by comparison! There are other issues like warbling sounds when the tuning wheel is moved, some kind of overloading sort of effects, but once the R-9700DX is properly locked to a station, it's well behaved. No signs of frequency drift like my former Tecsun R-909. However the mechanical tuning wheel really stiff to my thumb. I presume Tecsun purposely did this so that the frequency oscillator doesn't stray easily, so they made the wheel physically hard to turn. I hate to having to say this, but I've long been doubtful about quality control when it comes to all-analogue shortwave receivers from Tecsun. It's like a car's speedometer that's indicating 30 km/h slower than the car's true speed.😑 Anyway, I have 28 days to decide if this R-9700DX is a keeper or whether to return it to the seller for a refund.
One of the best radios out there. A true work horse that keeps performing at a high level. You can buy a more expensive radio like the eton elite executive ssb. It eats up batteries but you can get the same quality with the Tecsun 680. Eton has a lot of features that are nice but price wise the Tecsun pl 680 is a better buy plus it’s analog .
I couldn't agree more Shawn! I am so happy that I eventually bought one of these, it is my daily workhorse now. Great for SW and SSB listening. I don't use it for MW though, the Qodosen DX-286 beats everything on MW. But the PL-680, for the price, is one of the best radios out there without a shadow of a doubt! And the fact that it is analogue makes it even better.
@@shawnj6279 Hi Shawn, I have a Tecsun ICR-110, I think it uses the same speaker system as the 880, a passive radiator speaker. Amazing sound, some of the best I have heard on a portable.
I came upon your utube channel which reignited my interest in shortwave radio. I have 2 radios: Grundig Satelit 500 and Grundig Yacht Boy 400. I found some websites that have station information and will enjoy getting back into a fascinating hobby. are there any hardcopy publications anymore (I mourn the passing quite a while ago of Passport to Worldband Radio) thanks. I'm subscribed and will follow your posts.
The World Radio and Television Handbook is still available, but I don’t know how much it is. Last I heard, the had planned to go digital only, but a lot of people stepped up, and they decided to print - at least for now. 📻🙂
The World Radio and Television Handbook is still available, but I don’t know how much it is. Last I heard, the had planned to go digital only, but a lot of people stepped up, and they decided to print - at least for now. By the way , you have 2 good radios. 📻🙂
Thanks for subscribing and welcome to my channel! As Jeff said also, the WRTH is still available. There are print editions, and an online version. I bought the online version, it was about $25. The great thing about the online version is that it is constantly updated. It is certainly the best resource to find the most up-to-date information about radio stations and frequencies for all bands, FM, DAB, SW, MW, LW. The book and the web app are available here: shop.radiodatacenter.net/rdc-shop/
The PL-680 and 660 are 2 of the best portable radios you can still buy new today. I would buy another tomorrow if my 680 failed. The PL-660/680 offer the best sounding SSB and as a result ECSS sounds wonderful unlike any DSP radio ! he PL-660/680 and a good receiving antenna such as the Bonito MA 305 FT , mounted outdoors with H155 coax and a good ground and you will have one of the best receiving stations you can get with always wonderful analogue audio. Forget DSP radios, they are mostly junk !
Hi Mark, long time no hear! You're the only person I know of who uses the words "ECSS", "SSB" and "Bonito MA-305" in the same comment! 📻😊 I'm getting pretty good mileage out of my ATS-25 Amp. It's the first Si-4735 powered radio I've experienced with an SSB performance as good as, if not better than my PL-680/660 twins. That thing not only lets me tune down to 10 Hz, it also has an additional BFO that fine tunes up to the nearest 1 Hz. I have a choice between clarifying the voice by using the BFO control or by fine tuning the main frequency. Doesn't distort voice transmissions either, unlike my DSP based Tecsuns. The guys behind the Harduino project are amazing for what they do! 😀
@o00scorpion00o Thank you so much for your inspiring comment and tips! I am certainly very excited to try out this radio and see what it can do. The difference in sound and tuning between the PL-680 and the DSP-based radios is immediately noticeable. The PL-680 seems like a really great radio.
@@swlistening Yes I love the 680 for SWL and ECSS performance and sound quality is amazing and it really pulls in the DX, the selectivity is fantastic compared to DSP radio with just filters alone which are often not narrow enough to filter out noise or a stronger station etc where as ECSS eliminates entirely one side of the carrier giving it amazing performance for weeding out the weakest signals. The sound quality is just stunning vs DSP radio with so called SYNC or ECSS. Enjoy the radio !
@@StratmanII Well hello there pal, got a new toy then ? enjoy ! I saw videos of the ATS-25 AMP and it has exactly the same distortion on SSB but not only this like every silicon labs DSP chip there is a big cut off of bass frequencies on SSB of around 300hz which makes the audio quite thin, The AMP does have some filtering which should help with overloading, so good to see it still being developed. Unfortunately Silicon Labs have no intertest in fixing SSB audio quality so I don't ever expect a DSP radio to sound as good on SSB. Yes , I do talk about ECSS a lot because, in my opinion of course, there is no better way to filter out QRM or reduce the effects of fading signals than using SSB on commercial SW stations giving the PL-680 superb selectivity and audio quality no Silicon labs DSP chip can provide. Maybe if manufacturers move to SDR but how likely is this ? By the way if you haven't already check out this site below for firmware for the ATS radios, he might have one for the AMP, in fact he does, I checked, it costs a small fee and then you can update via wifi all future updates. harduino.ru/index.php/en/download
@@o00scorpion00o I'm sorry that there is nothing Skyworks (which has since acquired Silicon Labs' radio DSP business) can do to make you happy mate, but I'm actually more impressed with the ATS-25 AMP vs the Tecsun PL-990, which cost me about four times as much. At least the 4 kHz AM filter works as it should and it's not a placebo. The PL-990 doesn't have a BFO to fine tune into a conversation on single sideband - with the ATS-25 Amp I get both a BFO that's good to 1 Hz resolution and also the PL-990's ability to fine tune to the nearest 10 Hz. With other receivers, I get the choice between a BFO clarifier or fine tuning on SSB. The ATS-25 Amp gives me both. I mean, how cool is that?🙂 The ATS-25 Amp is not really a new toy of mine either - I got mine nearly a year ago and have undergone two firmware updates to the present 4.2 Beta. My unit was already pre-registered by the seller, so I didn't need to purchase the license. The initial firmware update from 4.16 to 4.17 was done manually while the update to 4.2 Beta was an OTA update over WiFi. I was pleasantly surprised that the wireless firmware update actually worked flawlessly. Bernard Binns and his team mates definitely deserve more credit for their excellent work! Mark, I recall that you have the ATS-25X1 and ATS-120 receivers yourself - do you still keep them or have you already sold them off? Not all of us can afford one of those fancy ICOM IC-705 transceivers just to listen to Radio Ifriyka FM or the regional hams chatting with one another on 40 meters. Cheers to you, mate! 🍻😀
I have a PL-660 which I really like. The same case as the 680, the kickstand is weak so I keep mine on an external stand. I always think as I tune the shortwave bands, how poor at languages I am.
Hi Glen, thanks for your comment! I enjoy trying to identify languages, but sometimes it is really hard :-) There are so many relatively unknown languages on shortwave these days, especially from AWR and other religious broadcasters who target very specific communities in Asia and Africa.
BTW since you talk about component shortage for PL-660 & 680, what about availability of PL-880 and PL-990x? These are hybrid radios, they use PLL for tuning and DSP for IF stage. Are they compromised too?
I own a pl-660. I have had it for years. Unfortunately, when I use the narrow filter, the frequencies are about 5khz off. The wide filter is spot on. This version of the radio cannot be calibrated. Love the radio but I am a little disappointed. I also own an Icom IC-R75. You post really great videos. All the best.
Hi Mike, thank you for your comment! I have, indeed, heard that the frequencies are sometimes off on the PL-660, and also on some versions of the PL-680. I think the PL-680 can be recalibrated, but mine seems to be OK, looks like I won't need to do it. It is inconvenient when this happens, but, in the end, I think they are both very good radios.
Hi, if switching to Narrow band mode causes the station to be off-center, you have to recalibrate your PL-660. When this procedure is done correctly, your radio should be dead center on the carrier frequency, regardless of the bandwidth setting. 🙂
@@mikele5756 I didn't know. What firmware version is yours, do you have any idea? The PL-660 was already out in the market by the time I bought mine in 2021. 🙂 By any chance, does your radio have the memory sorting feature? It's represented by a reddish-orange rectangular block printed just beneath the AM/BW button. I find this function very useful as it reindexes the frequencies, deletes duplicate memory entries and erases memory slots that I've previously deleted.
@@StratmanII I purchased my pl-660 in January 2013. I think the firmware is, 6215. I do not have the memory sorting feature. I appreciate your interest but, there is nothing that can be done to fix it. At least it still works. Thank you for trying.
Thank you for your comment! This radio was never made as a DSP radio, it is PLL synthesised. It is made in China, by Tecsun. It is very easy when listening to the radio and when tuning to see that it is not DSP.
@@remopkr198 Does Ali Express ship to your country? There are many sellers on Ali Express who sell this radio, but the price is higher than the anon-co price.
My 680 will be a year old in January. I should have bought the 990 instead. I replaced the batteries this summer with higher capacity rechargeable ones and installed the green Tecsun ones in my blood pressure monitor. By the way I received a Taiwan station this afternoon. The radio is in my kitchen and the wire is strung along the tops of the windows. I once tried the medium wave band with my loop antenna. It sucked. Waste of time. My loop works best with my old Onkyo stereo receiver. Just last week out of seer boredom I explored the LW band. Nothing heard. I switched back and I noticed that the first fifteen memory channels were replaced by medium wave ones. Pissed me off. Lucky me I wrote down my channel memories. THERE IS NO SD CARD SLOT TO BACK THEM UP. Should have bought the 990 instead. Richard K. Pennsylvania USA.
Hi Richard, thank you for your comment. I think the 990 is certainly a very good radio, from what I have heard, but it is also about double the price of the 680. I really like my 680, I think it is very sensitive on shortwave, and the analogue tuning is great. But I also don't hear anything on LW, I don't hear anything on LW (except some beacons) on any of my radios, even the Qodosen DX-286, which is said to be among the best for LW listening. I think I am just too far away from the few remaining LW stations in the world. I haven't actually tried my AN-200 loop on the 990 for MW, I mostly use my Qodosen for MW. But I will do some tests on the 680 with my loop, I am curious to see now, after hearing about your experience.
Thanks for your comment Tinus. I haven't tried the battery charging function yet, but I think there is a setting inside that needs to be adjusted for charging the batteries? I haven't looked into this yet.
@@swlistening Been there, done that, but it didn't work. :-( My radio was delivered without batteries. The batteries that I then bought do not charge. (Ni-MH) These should actually be the correct batteries.... Does it work on yours?
@@tinus.8764 I will let you know as soon as I need to charge mine. You are right, any Ni-MH batteries should charge. I will see what happens on mine and get back to you.
@@tinus.8764 Hi Tinus, I checked mine now, it does charge the batteries. I did not change any settings, my manual says it just needs to say Ni-MH Battery on the screen, then it will charge. And it does. I guess you already changed this, but if you haven't, you press and hold the "battery" button, to switch between rechargeable batteries or regular batteries. But I think you've done this already, so maybe your unit has a fault with the charging.
The PL-680 has a bassier sound compared to the PL-660 and its LCD display has a gold tint background. The PL-660 tends to be higher on the treble side and has a slightly brighter illumination, thanks to its LCD's silver background. Some quarters claim that the PL-660 is slightly more sensitive on MW while the PL-680 is slightly better at SW. I can't get decent MW stations where I live, so I can't vouch those claims. On shortwave both models seem to be about the same. However I can attest that the PL-680's buttons appear to be made from a lower quality plastic but they are much easier to press than the PL-660. The PL-680 was introduced a few years after the PL-660 and Tecsun made both models concurrently. The boxy shaped PL-680 is actually a nod to Tecsun's earlier and successful PL-600, which had SSB, but doesn't include the VHF AM Air Band. The PL-660's design is unique as it's the only model that has that kind of curvy profile. 😀
@@StratmanII Ok, thanks for the details ! The pl660 is a keeper. I like the continuous tuning without any blanking. LW performance is very good. MW and SW are working very well. And SSB is working fine. Sound is good but lacks indeed in the basses.
I think in terms of performance they seem to be very similar, based on many reviews I have read, with the PL-660 being slightly better on MW and the PL-680 being slightly better on SW. But these differences are marginal, I think if you already have on, you don't need the other one.
I have the same radio. The only flaw I can find is that on SSB the volume is very low. If I take it outside, I have to turn it up all the way to hear it period if you use headphones while you're connected to ssb, it works perfectly
Thanks for sharing Anthony. I actually noticed the low SSB volume during my first test, it is quite low. But when I turn it up, it is a bit more audible. Does seem like one of the only flaws that I have found so far also.
I've lost all patience with unboxing videos. I don't care about the cardboard and packing material. I'm only interested in the product, preferably being used.
Thanks for your comment Joe! I understand this, that's why I give you both, the unpacking, and the product being used. You can watch the part you like 😀
Good evening, Andre. Long Time No See. Heartiest Congratulations on your recent acquisition. PL-680 is in my wish list for years. Wanted to acquire one but got to know from your podcast and later from Anna from Anon-Co that the production halted all of a sudden due to outage of this and 660's ICs altogether. But Anna at that time also quoted that the same could resume soon if Tecsun is able to find another seller who holds a stockpile of these last remaining ICs as they are now totally out of production.
Glad Tecsun kept its word, and the production cranked up again. For how long, that only time would tell. But for now, this Radio could be a great addition as a Christmas Gift. 73! 🙏
[Oh btw, you tuned another Bollywood Hit Song called Aye Mere Hamsafar Ek Zara Intezaar (My Fellow Traveller Just Wait for Some time) from a cult classic Bollywood Movie of Amir Khan, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (From Apocylapse to Apocylapse) at 12:35] Cheers! Happy Holidays! 🎄
Hi there Harshit, nice to hear from you again! Thank you for identifying the Bollywood hit in my recording :-)
The PL-680 is back in stock now, the price is higher though. It is $118 on the anon-co website. Still a great buy, in my opinion. I would suggest that you don't wait too long, because Tecsun found stock of the ICs, but we don't know how long the supply of ICs will last for...
@@swlistening Greetings of the day Andre. You are very apt with your words up there. I just hope Tecsun never stops manufacturing these two legendary radios from their arsenal. I will surely proceed with my purchase soon and will update my experience to you here. 73! 🙏
@@h.joshi_ The PL-660 will stop, but the PL-680 will continue.
@@swlistening André, unfortunately, PL-660 is nowhere to be found in Anon Co. I think it's discontinued now. Hopeful for PL-680. IMO, every die hard SW Listener should owe this Beauty. I am glad you did the same. 73! 🙏
@@h.joshi_ I think the PL-660 is out of stock now. It is no longer being produced. But the PL-680 should remain available for some time.
I have purchase the Tecsun PL990X and PL680 they arriving next week. Thanks for the video.
Very good choices Ricardo, I think you will enjoy both these radios!
Very nice grab Andre! Looks and sounds beautiful. Nothing like an analog radio when tuning past shortwave signals!
So true Liam! It's just a different experience.
@@swlistening I was tuning the MW band last night on my Toshiba RP-S8 and it feels natural to here a signal fade in and out instead of choppy tuning. It also helps you center on the carrier.
@@theshortwavearchive35 It really does feel more natural!
@@swlistening Are you enjoying your Tecsun?
@@theshortwavearchive35 Very much! I have been doing some SSB listening and I get lots of good signals - Volmet from Russia and Thailand, Indian air traffic control from Mumbai, a numbers station from Poland. None of these are new catches, I have caught them before on my Kenwood R1000, but it is great to get such good SSB reception on a portable radio. Low noise floor also, so weak signals are much easier to hear than on some of my other radios. It really is a good receiver.
Picked one up just recently from Amazon. Love it!
It's a really great radio, I love mine.
I just ordered mine. It will be in Friday. Looking forward to it. Glad you like yours
@@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity Hope you will enjoy yours as well!
Welcome to the PL-680 club, Andre! It's still better late than never! 📻😍
Your firmware should be version 6622 and it's similar to the PL-660 from 2021 onwards.
Apparently sales of the PL-660/PL-680 had significantly slowed down for my regular XHDATA dealer. They're not selling either model anymore unless there is a special one off request from repeat customers (like me, ahem.) 😌
That means I've been fed conflicting information from the XHDATA customer service rep. Now they're saying that the Tecsun company is still making these models but probably in fewer quantities than before. 😐
Happy DX'ing with your PL-680 bru! 📻👍🏼
Thank you! It took me a while as I really needed to save up for this one. With the extremely high import duties we pay here on goods above 500 rand (about $28), this is quite a significant financial outlay for me. $101 for the radio, $30 for shipping, $75 for duties and VAT... But I am very happy I finally got it. My firmware is, indeed 6622.
I confirmed again with Anna from anon-co today, production has ended. Not necessarily forever, but Tecsun needs some internal components that are not available right now. There are still some radios available from various sellers, so it is still possible to find them.
@@swlistening Sorry to hear about those awful import duties, but I learned that AliExpress slapped me with the 10% Malaysian low value goods duties when I ordered a DX-286! 😡
Thank you Andre, for the Tecsun updates and also for verifying your firmware version. For some reason, you'll find owners of the PL-660 comparing their firmware version, but no on else with a PL-680 bothered to state their firmware number. Not even the great "Official Shortwave Channel" guy himself did so, after I had once politely asked what his PL-680's firmware was! 🙄
Perhaps the latest news on the PL-6xx series would make it to the next "Radio Andre International" podcast? 😀 📻🌍
@@StratmanII These import duties are really horrible, and then I have to pay VAT on top of that! My podcast is a bit late this week, but it is on the way 😀
@@swlistening No worries, take your time bru. I think I discovered something new the last time I used my PL-660. Will take out the PL-680 to see if that undocumented feature can also be used. 😀
As I said to you before, this will be your second shortwave receiver with a digital frequency readout that doesn't chuff between frequencies. Your first one is the mighty R1000! 📻🙂
@@StratmanII Let me know if that feature is available on the PL-680! I am still getting to know mine.
Congratulations Andre for a soon to classic radio…now I to see you list all 2000 memories that you will have stored….😂!
73! Have a great day!
Challenge accepted 😂
Congratulations, Andre, on purchasing your new Tecsun PL-680! The Tecsun PL-680 seems very sensitive on SW indeed!
Many thanks John!
I have one. Even thought of picking up a spare one before they stop production. I have several Tecsun radios, so it's difficult to justify picking up another one, especially a redundant one. I also have the bug to pick up a new S-2200 to pair with my S-2000. It's not like I have a lot of money lying around, but the thought does pop into my mind from time to time.
One can never have enough radios! I do think the PL-680 seems to be very sturdy and well-built, I hope mine will last for a very long time. That S-2200 looks like an interesting radio, but it is quite costly. It's not on the radar for me right now, it is just too expensive.
Wow! Real legend :) congratulation! :)
Thanks!
I sure don’t need one of these, but it sure looks cool. Tempting…. 😇 Excellent video, thank you!
Thanks for watching! You never know what you might need 😊
@@swlisteningI have looked around online, and have found new PL-660 radios still available, but not the PL-680. I wonder where I could find a 680?
@@ditto1958 Production on both the PL-680 and PL-660 has ended, hopefully only temporarily. Tecsun is trying to source some necessary internal components. So the PL-680 has become hard to find. If you can still find the PL-660 from a reputable dealer like anon-co it might be a good second choice. Some sellers on Ali Express still have the PL-680.
@@swlisteningI looked around a bit and no, the PL-680 is not easy to find new. I ended up ordering a PL-660 from Anon-co, and it is supposed to show up tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing how it compared to your PL-680.
@@swlisteningThank you. In fact I did order a new PL-660 from Anon-Co., and it arrived a couple of days ago. I’m enjoying learning how it works.
Congratulations on this wonderful purchase. It would be exciting to see how it performs in comparison to XHDATA D-808 and Qodosen DX-286. Looking forward to this wonderful comparison
Thank you Ali! I am also looking forward to various comparisons, it should be very interesting. Particularly with the Qodosen DX-286, but also with the D-808 indeed.
You are going to like this one.
I’ve had mine for about 4 1/2 years. [ I actually have a second one as a spare.].
Somehow I don’t see them actually ending the production of these [ 660, and 680]. They are still selling fairly well. They tend to run production of radios in batches. When they run out , they ramp up production again.
They also tend to produce a model until it’s no longer profitable.
( Last check, they were currently selling 42 various models.).
📻🙂
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comment! They are not planning to end production completely, but they have an issue at the moment with sourcing some internal components. Therefore production has indeed stopped, until they can get the necessary components again. Anna from anon-co said Tecsun is currently looking for new supplier. But with the move towards DSP-based radios, some components needed for the PL-660 and PL-680 have become harder to source.
Congratulation on your new radio, André. I'm sure you already love this one. I have the PL-660 that is very similar but with a different form factor (which I like less than the PL-680's) and these are the best radios for SSB DXing IMO. They have paged memory which isn't the greatest invention, but that's about my only small gripe. You've certainly already noticed how better they sound than DSP-based radios. Much more natural sound, fuller. The soft tuning with no mute is a blast when browsing the bands too.
You'll find out that there are some tricky button pushes for some functions e.g. NiMH battery charging and setting their capacity.
Lots of goodies in there, did you really get TWO wire antennas with it?
My PL-660 came with a much more basic black soft plastic protection sleeve.
Thank you Alain, I already love this radio. It has been a dream for a very long time, glad I finally got it. I think the PL-660 and PL-680 are pretty similar indeed, just the form factor, as you say. One of the main reasons why I got mine was for SSB DXing, I am looking forward to really trying mine out over the coming weekend for some SSB listening when I can stay awake until very late at night! I also don't like the page memory system so much, but, in all honesty, I very rarely use the memory function on any of my radios. You mention the sound. It is just such a huge difference. So much more natural and fuller, exactly as you say. That is really a major advantage of these two radios. The no mute is great!
Gasp! You had done a sacrilegious thing to that nice radio at 05:22! 😨📻
OK, my PL-680 also arrived with a rather spotty looking protective film, just like yours did. On the other hand my PL-660's plastic film remained spotless for the first 9 months of its life. Eventually some dust had found its way underneath it but I usually leave the factory pasted LCD film if it's able to stay put on its own. The ones on my PL-320, 330 and 990 wouldn't stick for long and I ended up peeling them off as they obscured my view of the LCD information. 😀
I don't like those plastic films, I always peel them off 😀
@@swlistening You're right bru, I think it's high time my stickers come off after all these years! 😁
Another great video, Andre. Thank you.
I purchased PL660 at Hong Kong back in 2015. Love this radio.
Recently I had to exchange encoder(known problem of them). Spare part costed around 7 Eur plus 1.5 Eur shipping to Europe from Hong Kong also. Works flawlessly future.
One more thing to add. The case on my version is soft black. The PL680 on the video has a carry cover similar to higher models
My pleasure Danylo, glad you enjoyed the video! Good to hear that spare parts seem to be easy and inexpensive to get.
@@swlistening Appreciate, Andre and looking forward for the next videos!
@@Danylo.M All PL-660 models come with the cheaper vinyl pouch.
The PL-680 is marketed as a "luxury" version of the PL-660 and its faux leather case justifies the PL-680's slightly higher price tag. 🙂
Fun fact: Later editions of the PL-660 (starting with the 6609 firmware according to one source) have the very useful memory reindexing feature and the manual frequency calibration. 📻👍
Just received a PL-330 in the mail. Love the size of it. Is the PL-680 similar in size?
Really enjoy the videos! Thanks for this upload.
Thanks! The PL-680 is quite a bit bigger. I don't have a PL-330, but I know it is very compact. Around the beginning of my video you can see me comparing the PL-680 to some well-known radios, it is bigger than all of them.
Reminds me of when I bought a Sony ICF-2010, what many consider a legendary radio. It appears the ICF-2010 was often used in espionage around the world. The ICF-2010 is rather large so the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is the model I use most often.
Hi Henry, what nice radios to have. I think you are very lucky to have both these Sony radios, they are legends for sure!
@@swlistening a radio that I have been thinking about is the Grundig Satellit 700; renowned for their audio quality. Sony's ICF-SW77 is probably their closest competitor. Like Grundig's 700 model, the Sony ICF-SW77 also included bandpass filters similar to tabletop receivers.
@@Henry-d9d Hi Henry, both these would be great to have, but I think they are hard to get now, in good working condition. Have you seen either of these for sale recently?
@@swlistening I have seen them on line a few times, but the sellers usually want 'serious' money if they are in good condition. I saw a ICF-SW77 in excellent condition for around $800 to $1,000 U.S. dollars recently. The Grundig prices were considerably lower.
@@Henry-d9d Wow, that's really a lot of money for the Sony ICF-SW77. I suppose if they are in really good, working condition people are sometimes willing to pay that for these radios. They are becoming scarce and hard to get.
Congratulations on your new radio Sir. I have had one for several years and it’s not a bad radio it’s got the best sync tuning along with the Pl 660 that tecsun currently does. It does not have good volume however on ssb , but it is adequate at a pinch. Mines is guilty of over-tuning by 1 kHz whilst tuning. Maybe your latest version has this glitch resolved. Nice video though and thanks for sharing it with us all Sir.
Over tuning by 1 kHz? Did you mean the indicated carrier frequency is higher than it really is? 🤔
@@StratmanII That’s exactly what I meant Sir thank you for pointing it out.
@@b.2221 You do know that you can manually recalibrate your PL-680, right? Frequency calibration was the first thing I did when I got my PL-660 and (later) the PL-680. The PL-660 needed calibrating out of the box, while my PL-680 was fine when i got it.
Tecsun figured that it's less of a hassle and cost to allow its customers to correct off-center frequencies themselves rather than have their radios shipped back to the service center for frequency calibration.
Thank you for your comment! Yes, many of these radios were off by about 1 kHz, also the PL-660, as Stratman has pointed out here. But you can calibrate it yourself. Mine seems to be OK. I have noticed that the SSB volume is a bit low.
Thank you for the video, you made my day, I definitely need a PLL, will review what left in this world of dsp domination. I love DSP also, but soft mute...
My pleasure Ivan, glad you enjoyed it! I agree with you, some DSP radios are great, but the soft muting is a real let-down.
Very nice Andre, I’m sure it will bring you many hours of good SW listening 🙂
Thank you Franco! I already love this radio.
Congrats! I have mine for several years now , really nice looking and SW smooth radio
Thank you Mayan. The smooth SW experience is really great.
Received yesterday my PL-680. Was in doubt to buy it because this model is out there for a long time, but I don’t regret it so far…
There is just something really special about analogue radios, the whole DXing experience is different.
That sounded like true fun on shortwave. Reminds me of my enjoyment in the 1960's, 70's and 80's! When I came back to it after marriage, children and life events etc. so much had changed with technology. The tuning experience had changed to today's pause and hope.
Hi Terry, this is so true! I felt the enjoyment as I was tuning the bands last night, it was like the old days. The signals becoming stronger slowly until you tune right in, then fading away again as you tune away. Great fun, this is something that the DSP radios cannot offer.
Wow. Congrats!! I ordered it several days ago too. Will come soon.
You will love it.
📻🙂
Thanks, hope you will enjoy it!
hope we will get a comparison between this and the qodosen soon ;) really curious this time as i am going to buy one of these two radios next week
This is definitely the plan! So far, after just a few hours of testing, I have a feeling this one will give the Qodosen some competition.
@@swlistening I'd think so too. especially curious on an fm battle! does the 680 have fixed bandwidth on fm?
@@KekmanForTheRestOfTheWorld I suspect so. I haven't really investigated the bandwidth for FM, but the only BW button I see is the one for AM signals, wide and narrow only.
@@swlistening ok so the qodosen probably going to win on fm
really sad my pll Degen De1103 stopped working with batteries. had great fun taking it outside to do some fm dxing. i was almost exclusively using the narrow bw filter
btw: do you know of any retailer for the Qodosen in Europe? Or do i really need to buy it from Amazon US?
@@KekmanForTheRestOfTheWorld Very sorry to hear about your Degen and the battery operation. It's a great radio, that one!
Unfortunately I don't know of any retailer in Europe, so I think you would have to get the Qodosen from Amazon in the US. Seems to be the only option right now.
Hello, Andre. Great video of a really fantastic radio.👍
Thanks John!
The best among the last available and affordable PLLs-bought in a timely manner before they sold out completely. 👏 Also, the Tecsun R-9710 is the cheapest and simplest dual-conversion full-analog radio-truly the last of its kind.
I agree, anyone who wants one of these should get it now before they are all sold out. The R-9170 also looks like a very nice dual-conversion analogue radio, and also the R-9700DX. They are among the very few dual-conversion analogue radios that one can still get.
@@swlistening True, it's also available yet, and looks beautiful. I haven't considered it for myself because of (1) price; (2) no obvious benefits in reception; (3) whistles/mirroring may occur on SW, it seems to require additional fine-tuning on the internals. Thus, R-9710 seems to be a safer bet.
@@swlistening Andre, how do you feel about radio with a frequency pointer that is about minus 11-13 kHz off from the carrier frequency on the SW bands? From the perspective of a keen shortwave enthusiast, do you feel that's an acceptable margin of error for a brand new analogue receiver? 🙂
@@StratmanII Are you talking about an analogue needle here? Or a digital display? For portable radios with analogue needles this would be OK for me, very few of them are actually bang on the frequencies. I usually compensate in my mind for deviations like this. My older radios all have issues with the frequency displays not being 100% correct.
@@swlistening Sorry,Andre, I should have gotten directly to the point.
I received the Tecsun R-9700DX two days ago and took me a minute just to locate 89.9 MHz (Business FM radio) on the dial. That's just the FM band! 😡
On shortwave, I had to rely on a second receiver with a digital readout (either my D-808 or ATS-25 Amp) to verify the indicated frequency on the R-9700DX. It's generally off by 12 kHz on the average and on the frequency dial the horizontal indicator bar is about 8mm above where it really should be. 😞
The R-9700DX is supposed to be Tecsun's _premium_ analogue shortwave receiver model and the factory can't even get the frequency calibration right. Even my "cheap" XHDATA D-219's frequency pointer is pretty much spot on by comparison! There are other issues like warbling sounds when the tuning wheel is moved, some kind of overloading sort of effects, but once the R-9700DX is properly locked to a station, it's well behaved. No signs of frequency drift like my former Tecsun R-909. However the mechanical tuning wheel really stiff to my thumb. I presume Tecsun purposely did this so that the frequency oscillator doesn't stray easily, so they made the wheel physically hard to turn.
I hate to having to say this, but I've long been doubtful about quality control when it comes to all-analogue shortwave receivers from Tecsun. It's like a car's speedometer that's indicating 30 km/h slower than the car's true speed.😑
Anyway, I have 28 days to decide if this R-9700DX is a keeper or whether to return it to the seller for a refund.
One of the best radios out there. A true work horse that keeps performing at a high level. You can buy a more expensive radio like the eton elite executive ssb. It eats up batteries but you can get the same quality with the Tecsun 680. Eton has a lot of features that are nice but price wise the Tecsun pl 680 is a better buy plus it’s analog .
I couldn't agree more Shawn! I am so happy that I eventually bought one of these, it is my daily workhorse now. Great for SW and SSB listening. I don't use it for MW though, the Qodosen DX-286 beats everything on MW. But the PL-680, for the price, is one of the best radios out there without a shadow of a doubt! And the fact that it is analogue makes it even better.
The Tecsun 880 is nice too. If you pick up one for a good price . The sound is amazing and decent fm
@@shawnj6279 Hi Shawn, I have a Tecsun ICR-110, I think it uses the same speaker system as the 880, a passive radiator speaker. Amazing sound, some of the best I have heard on a portable.
I came upon your utube channel which reignited my interest in shortwave radio. I have 2 radios: Grundig Satelit 500 and Grundig Yacht Boy 400. I found some websites that have station information and will enjoy getting back into a fascinating hobby. are there any hardcopy publications anymore (I mourn the passing quite a while ago of Passport to Worldband Radio) thanks. I'm subscribed and will follow your posts.
The World Radio and Television Handbook is still available, but I don’t know how much it is. Last I heard, the had planned to go digital only, but a lot of people stepped up, and they decided to print - at least for now.
📻🙂
The World Radio and Television Handbook is still available, but I don’t know how much it is. Last I heard, the had planned to go digital only, but a lot of people stepped up, and they decided to print - at least for now.
By the way , you have 2 good radios.
📻🙂
Thanks for subscribing and welcome to my channel! As Jeff said also, the WRTH is still available. There are print editions, and an online version. I bought the online version, it was about $25. The great thing about the online version is that it is constantly updated. It is certainly the best resource to find the most up-to-date information about radio stations and frequencies for all bands, FM, DAB, SW, MW, LW. The book and the web app are available here: shop.radiodatacenter.net/rdc-shop/
5:25 as I was told, peeling that protective foil out of a screen decreases the value of the device by 33% 😂
Oh dear, I have just lost almost $70 (calculated on the final price I pad, including duties) 😂
It's sacrilege to peel off protective film unless it's peeling excessively from much use. Just saying. 😐
Nice grab on that receiver Andre! I may need to get my hands on one! Non-DSP, nothing like it…
Absolutely, John! What a pleasure to tune with no soft muting!
@@swlistening Agreed!
Very nice radio. I bought the USB charger so I can utilize phone chargers and battery packs.
Thanks Chris, that sounds like a good idea.
Can you send the link please I would like to purchase either. Thanks
I own the same rado here in UK and think its great
Good to hear that! I think I will really enjoy this radio.
Great looking and sounding radio. I have been thinking of picking up a good analog short wave radio 📻.
Thanks Chris! I am very impressed so far.
The PL-680 and 660 are 2 of the best portable radios you can still buy new today. I would buy another tomorrow if my 680 failed.
The PL-660/680 offer the best sounding SSB and as a result ECSS sounds wonderful unlike any DSP radio !
he PL-660/680 and a good receiving antenna such as the Bonito MA 305 FT , mounted outdoors with H155 coax and a good ground and you will have one of the best receiving stations you can get with always wonderful analogue audio.
Forget DSP radios, they are mostly junk !
Hi Mark, long time no hear! You're the only person I know of who uses the words "ECSS", "SSB" and "Bonito MA-305" in the same comment! 📻😊
I'm getting pretty good mileage out of my ATS-25 Amp. It's the first Si-4735 powered radio I've experienced with an SSB performance as good as, if not better than my PL-680/660 twins. That thing not only lets me tune down to 10 Hz, it also has an additional BFO that fine tunes up to the nearest 1 Hz. I have a choice between clarifying the voice by using the BFO control or by fine tuning the main frequency.
Doesn't distort voice transmissions either, unlike my DSP based Tecsuns. The guys behind the Harduino project are amazing for what they do! 😀
@o00scorpion00o Thank you so much for your inspiring comment and tips! I am certainly very excited to try out this radio and see what it can do. The difference in sound and tuning between the PL-680 and the DSP-based radios is immediately noticeable. The PL-680 seems like a really great radio.
@@swlistening Yes I love the 680 for SWL and ECSS performance and sound quality is amazing and it really pulls in the DX, the selectivity is fantastic compared to DSP radio with just filters alone which are often not narrow enough to filter out noise or a stronger station etc where as ECSS eliminates entirely one side of the carrier giving it amazing performance for weeding out the weakest signals. The sound quality is just stunning vs DSP radio with so called SYNC or ECSS.
Enjoy the radio !
@@StratmanII Well hello there pal, got a new toy then ? enjoy !
I saw videos of the ATS-25 AMP and it has exactly the same distortion on SSB but not only this like every silicon labs DSP chip there is a big cut off of bass frequencies on SSB of around 300hz which makes the audio quite thin,
The AMP does have some filtering which should help with overloading, so good to see it still being developed.
Unfortunately Silicon Labs have no intertest in fixing SSB audio quality so I don't ever expect a DSP radio to sound as good on SSB.
Yes , I do talk about ECSS a lot because, in my opinion of course, there is no better way to filter out QRM or reduce the effects of fading signals than using SSB on commercial SW stations giving the PL-680 superb selectivity and audio quality no Silicon labs DSP chip can provide.
Maybe if manufacturers move to SDR but how likely is this ?
By the way if you haven't already check out this site below for firmware for the ATS radios, he might have one for the AMP, in fact he does, I checked, it costs a small fee and then you can update via wifi all future updates.
harduino.ru/index.php/en/download
@@o00scorpion00o I'm sorry that there is nothing Skyworks (which has since acquired Silicon Labs' radio DSP business) can do to make you happy mate, but I'm actually more impressed with the ATS-25 AMP vs the Tecsun PL-990, which cost me about four times as much. At least the 4 kHz AM filter works as it should and it's not a placebo. The PL-990 doesn't have a BFO to fine tune into a conversation on single sideband - with the ATS-25 Amp I get both a BFO that's good to 1 Hz resolution and also the PL-990's ability to fine tune to the nearest 10 Hz.
With other receivers, I get the choice between a BFO clarifier or fine tuning on SSB. The ATS-25 Amp gives me both. I mean, how cool is that?🙂
The ATS-25 Amp is not really a new toy of mine either - I got mine nearly a year ago and have undergone two firmware updates to the present 4.2 Beta. My unit was already pre-registered by the seller, so I didn't need to purchase the license. The initial firmware update from 4.16 to 4.17 was done manually while the update to 4.2 Beta was an OTA update over WiFi. I was pleasantly surprised that the wireless firmware update actually worked flawlessly. Bernard Binns and his team mates definitely deserve more credit for their excellent work!
Mark, I recall that you have the ATS-25X1 and ATS-120 receivers yourself - do you still keep them or have you already sold them off?
Not all of us can afford one of those fancy ICOM IC-705 transceivers just to listen to Radio Ifriyka FM or the regional hams chatting with one another on 40 meters.
Cheers to you, mate! 🍻😀
I have a PL-660 which I really like. The same case as the 680, the kickstand is weak so I keep mine on an external stand.
I always think as I tune the shortwave bands, how poor at languages I am.
Hi Glen, thanks for your comment! I enjoy trying to identify languages, but sometimes it is really hard :-) There are so many relatively unknown languages on shortwave these days, especially from AWR and other religious broadcasters who target very specific communities in Asia and Africa.
I think it is easier to use then the Tecsun 330. Buttons are small and the Tecsun buttons are better and bigger
Hi Shawn, I don't have the PL-330, but my PL-368 also has tiny buttons. The PL-680 is definitely easier to use 😁
BTW since you talk about component shortage for PL-660 & 680, what about availability of PL-880 and PL-990x? These are hybrid radios, they use PLL for tuning and DSP for IF stage. Are they compromised too?
Hey Arnie, I think these radios are not affected. Anna said that the shortage is specifically in the IC circuits for analogue radios.
I own a pl-660. I have had it for years. Unfortunately, when I use the narrow filter, the frequencies are about 5khz off. The wide filter is spot on. This version of the radio cannot be calibrated. Love the radio but I am a little disappointed. I also own an Icom IC-R75. You post really great videos. All the best.
Hi Mike, thank you for your comment! I have, indeed, heard that the frequencies are sometimes off on the PL-660, and also on some versions of the PL-680. I think the PL-680 can be recalibrated, but mine seems to be OK, looks like I won't need to do it. It is inconvenient when this happens, but, in the end, I think they are both very good radios.
Hi, if switching to Narrow band mode causes the station to be off-center, you have to recalibrate your PL-660.
When this procedure is done correctly, your radio should be dead center on the carrier frequency, regardless of the bandwidth setting. 🙂
@@StratmanII My version of the pl-660 cannot be calibrated. Only later versions can. Otherwise I would have done it. Thank you though.
@@mikele5756 I didn't know. What firmware version is yours, do you have any idea? The PL-660 was already out in the market by the time I bought mine in 2021. 🙂
By any chance, does your radio have the memory sorting feature? It's represented by a reddish-orange rectangular block printed just beneath the AM/BW button.
I find this function very useful as it reindexes the frequencies, deletes duplicate memory entries and erases memory slots that I've previously deleted.
@@StratmanII I purchased my pl-660 in January 2013. I think the firmware is, 6215. I do not have the memory sorting feature. I appreciate your interest but, there is nothing that can be done to fix it. At least it still works. Thank you for trying.
I also have one!
👍👍👍
I think it's a great radio Richard!
i personally like pl660
660 can be celebrated that's is the reason for me
Hi Rafik, the PL-680 can also be calibrated. I think these two radios are very similar.
is that the Chinese version DSP digital version? You should open it and check inside because there is clones of everything now
Thank you for your comment! This radio was never made as a DSP radio, it is PLL synthesised. It is made in China, by Tecsun. It is very easy when listening to the radio and when tuning to see that it is not DSP.
share the link of the website that you buy this radio
Here is the link, but it is sold out now: www.anon-co.com/product/tecsun-pl680-ssb-radio
@@swlistening they are not accepting orders from my country
@@remopkr198 Does Ali Express ship to your country? There are many sellers on Ali Express who sell this radio, but the price is higher than the anon-co price.
My 680 will be a year old in January. I should have bought the 990 instead. I replaced the batteries this summer with higher capacity rechargeable ones and installed the green Tecsun ones in my blood pressure monitor. By the way I received a Taiwan station this afternoon. The radio is in my kitchen and the wire is strung along the tops of the windows.
I once tried the medium wave band with my loop antenna. It sucked. Waste of time. My loop works best with my old Onkyo stereo receiver.
Just last week out of seer boredom I explored the LW band. Nothing heard. I switched back and I noticed that the first fifteen memory channels were replaced by medium wave ones. Pissed me off. Lucky me I wrote down my channel memories. THERE IS NO SD CARD SLOT TO BACK THEM UP. Should have bought the 990 instead. Richard K. Pennsylvania USA.
Hi Richard, thank you for your comment. I think the 990 is certainly a very good radio, from what I have heard, but it is also about double the price of the 680.
I really like my 680, I think it is very sensitive on shortwave, and the analogue tuning is great. But I also don't hear anything on LW, I don't hear anything on LW (except some beacons) on any of my radios, even the Qodosen DX-286, which is said to be among the best for LW listening. I think I am just too far away from the few remaining LW stations in the world.
I haven't actually tried my AN-200 loop on the 990 for MW, I mostly use my Qodosen for MW. But I will do some tests on the 680 with my loop, I am curious to see now, after hearing about your experience.
Yes, one of the best radios. But the battery charging function didn't work.
Thanks for your comment Tinus. I haven't tried the battery charging function yet, but I think there is a setting inside that needs to be adjusted for charging the batteries? I haven't looked into this yet.
@@swlistening Been there, done that, but it didn't work. :-( My radio was delivered without batteries. The batteries that I then bought do not charge. (Ni-MH) These should actually be the correct batteries.... Does it work on yours?
@@tinus.8764 I will let you know as soon as I need to charge mine. You are right, any Ni-MH batteries should charge. I will see what happens on mine and get back to you.
@@swlistening Many thanks Andre, I'm looking forward to your answer
@@tinus.8764 Hi Tinus, I checked mine now, it does charge the batteries. I did not change any settings, my manual says it just needs to say Ni-MH Battery on the screen, then it will charge. And it does. I guess you already changed this, but if you haven't, you press and hold the "battery" button, to switch between rechargeable batteries or regular batteries. But I think you've done this already, so maybe your unit has a fault with the charging.
I have the pl660. What is the difference with the pl680 ?
The PL-680 has a bassier sound compared to the PL-660 and its LCD display has a gold tint background. The PL-660 tends to be higher on the treble side and has a slightly brighter illumination, thanks to its LCD's silver background.
Some quarters claim that the PL-660 is slightly more sensitive on MW while the PL-680 is slightly better at SW. I can't get decent MW stations where I live, so I can't vouch those claims. On shortwave both models seem to be about the same.
However I can attest that the PL-680's buttons appear to be made from a lower quality plastic but they are much easier to press than the PL-660.
The PL-680 was introduced a few years after the PL-660 and Tecsun made both models concurrently. The boxy shaped PL-680 is actually a nod to Tecsun's earlier and successful PL-600, which had SSB, but doesn't include the VHF AM Air Band.
The PL-660's design is unique as it's the only model that has that kind of curvy profile. 😀
@@StratmanII Ok, thanks for the details ! The pl660 is a keeper. I like the continuous tuning without any blanking. LW performance is very good. MW and SW are working very well. And SSB is working fine. Sound is good but lacks indeed in the basses.
I think in terms of performance they seem to be very similar, based on many reviews I have read, with the PL-660 being slightly better on MW and the PL-680 being slightly better on SW. But these differences are marginal, I think if you already have on, you don't need the other one.
I have the same radio. The only flaw I can find is that on SSB the volume is very low. If I take it outside, I have to turn it up all the way to hear it period if you use headphones while you're connected to ssb, it works perfectly
Thanks for sharing Anthony. I actually noticed the low SSB volume during my first test, it is quite low. But when I turn it up, it is a bit more audible. Does seem like one of the only flaws that I have found so far also.
I've lost all patience with unboxing videos. I don't care about the cardboard and packing material. I'm only interested in the product, preferably being used.
Thanks for your comment Joe! I understand this, that's why I give you both, the unpacking, and the product being used. You can watch the part you like 😀