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Review Of The Tecsun PL-600 Radio
-With Comparisons To The Kaito 1103
-And a slant towards medium wave reception
-by Radio-Timetraveller
Purchased From: www.amazon.com
US Distributer: Kaito Electronics
Price: $79.99 + shipping
Overall Size: 7-3/8" x 4-1/2" x 1-1/4"
Serial #: 20090220
ARRIVAL
My new radio arrived from the Kaito
distributer in California after a one week
UPS trek across country. The PL-600 and
accessories themselves were in a box of
their own inside the shipping box which was
stuffed with Chinese newspapers - I had no
doubt that this Tecsun had come straight out of China! Adequate it seems, as everything arrived in good
shape. Lots of Chinese writing all over the radio box, English as well, this ought to be interesting!
The PL-600 is available in three colors - a medium grey, silver, and black. Kaito sent me a grey one, though
the Amazon ad depicted a black unit. Good enough.
ACCESSORIES
The PL-600 comes with a nice accessory package. Inside was an extremely nice foldover velcro travel case,
external antenna wire wound on a spool (including mini connector and curtain clip), earbuds, 4 NiMH
batteries (1000mAH), a 6 volt wall-wart AC adaptor (for 110V), and manuals.
MANUALS
Yes, manuals. Both English and Chinese manuals were included. The Chinese manual has many graphics
depicting the use of the controls, and even some of the textual balloons are in English, though 99.9% of the
manual is Chinese of course. The English manual is mostly a textual explanation of radio operations with a
few pertinent graphics on pages 3 and 4. The Chinese manual contains a lot of numerical specifications that
are not presented in the English manual.
SETUP
The radio requires 4 AA batteries. Battery level is displayed on the screen, and is accurate for either NiMH
batteries (~1.2 volts) or standard alkalines (~1.5 volts). When you set up the radio, you tell it through a
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8/9/2009 7:53 AM
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Summary of Contents for Tecsun PL-600
- Page 1 Lots of Chinese writing all over the radio box, English as well, this ought to be interesting! The PL-600 is available in three colors - a medium grey, silver, and black. Kaito sent me a grey one, though the Amazon ad depicted a black unit. Good enough.
- Page 2 (used for tuning SSB). The BFO has a center detent, a nice feature. On the back of the radio is a flip stand for elevating the PL-600 if set on a flat surface. The PL-600 also comes with a handstrap. THE LCD DISPLAY...
- Page 3 Two timers are available which can activate the radio for up to 90 minutes. The PL-600 also has a nice 5-section signal strength bar, with 5 hash marks per section. I find it reads a little high, but it is an admirable effort at showing signal strength. It does catch your attention, much more so than the tiny Kaito 1103 signal strength bar.
- Page 4 PL-600 on MW becomes a moot point if combined with a signal enhancing agent like a Q-Stick or even a small tunable passive loop. On FM, the PL-600 is about the same sensitivity as the 1103. A cursory check was done on several weak stations, and strength was identical in all cases.
- Page 5 The narrow filter is very close in performance to the 1103's. Adjacent channel slop is minimal on strong stations and about the same as the 1103. In an additional bonus, I found the narrow filter on the PL-600 to be lengths ahead in audio intelligibility as opposed to the 1103's.
- Page 6 SUMMATION I find the Tecsun PL-600 to be a marvelous radio for the price, and one I will keep. It is a strong contender against the Kaito 1103 in performance/price range, stronger than any other I know at this time, and definitely worth the $79.99 asking price.
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