Радиоприемник Tecsun PL-310ET — 228 отзывов, плюсы и минусы
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Tecsun PL-310ET?
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4-19-2019: I’ve made a video comparison between the PL-310 and the much more expensive PL-880 which should emphasize the poorer sound quality of the 310 on AM. The 310 is set at 6khz and the 880 at 5khz which is as close as they can get. The video was taken with an iPhone 7+ using its normal settings.
My favorite features of this radio:
* The digital display is nice and large, giving supporting information such as a signal strength meter or UTC clock.
* Browsing function...this has the be one of the coolest features I've see yet. You have this for normal searching plus surfing your presets.
* 550 presets...Do I ask for more?
* Bandwidth control on the MW and SW. 6,4,3,2, and 1Khz spacing.
* Always on option for the LCD's side light.
* Ability to charge your NiMH batteries in the radio.
* FM reception is top notch! FM Stereo with headphones is amazing.
* AM reception is close to top notch!
* External antenna jack for FM/SW.
* Price!
What I didn't like about this radio:
* It suffers with noise from the DSP while using the AM band. When you key press options it makes a digital type interference noise.
* Build quality could be a bit better, the buttons are hard to press and feel a little cheap. The LCD cover on mine is a little loose on one side.
If you have just entered the hobby or a collector of different radios, don't hesitate to punch that add to cart button. Its so worth it!
There was one little problem, though, the tuner knob would fall off easily, it wasn't snug. Not a problem though, I used a little DiClo (dichloromethane, a relatively common solvent that welds many plastics), and it is stuck on for good now.
It surprised me how this is a fully digital radio. There are no analog controls. The tuner dial, as well as the volume dial, are both rotary encoders, no variable caps or pots... You can spin the dial or punch in the frequency you want. Tons of presets available. Reception is pretty good. I haven't tuned much SW radio but the FM reception is very good. Battery life is good. The clock and temperature readout are accurate. I kinda wish it was a bit more hackable, I mean, it runs on a little microcontroller inside (you can read the current firmware version by holding down the "fm st" button), it has a USB port on the side, it would be fun if the firmware was moddable. One can dream...
- Battery life is amazing, over two months with Amazon Basic alkaline. Doesn't even justify buying rechargeables and the charger
- More SW testing - excellent sensitivity and ability to bring stations in a very noisy environment
- Durability - tested by my kitten who tried his growing teeth on the telescoping antenna - no damage, and later dropped the radio on the floor - no damage, no scuff marks.
The only minor issue is volume control. At a low volume the control is too coarse: while listening in a quiet environment, I use settings 8 or below, and between 5 and 7 the volume changes too much. This is a minor issue, will not be noticeable on AM or SW or in a noisier environment.
Overall: the best radio for under $50 I've ever had
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Original review
I tried several other radios before ordering Tecsun PL-310ET. I watched numerous videos and read many reviews, and finally decided to give it a try. This radio did not disappoint, but rather impressed me. As a point of reference, I am an electrical engineer with 30 years of experience, so I am writing this not just from a consumer's point of view.
I read some reviews here, and I am not sure where the most of negative reviews come from. One reviewer is complaining about not receiving anything on LW - sure, the LW broadcast has been discontinued in North America decades ago, and this type of waves don't propagate far enough to receive them from another continent. Not sure why there are complaints about distortions while receiving high-power stations - I live in SF Bay area with many high power stations nearby, the closest in 3 miles, and I've never noticed any distortions. Not sure where "cheaply made" comes from. The only one complaint I could agree - the manual is not written clearly, and since the controls are not 100% straightforward, less technically literate consumers may have some difficulties.
Another complaint I've seen in several reviews is that the radio mutes for a split second while tuning manually. I agree, it makes browsing though the SW bands more difficult. But this has nothing to do with this specific radio. This radio as well as many others are based on Silicon Labs receiver ICs with DSP, and this is the way these chips work. If this is something you cannot live with, get a traditional radio.
I experimented with the radio a little, and the results exceeded my expectations:
- I am receiving all MW and FM stations equally well, even weak ones, in the room where I have a desktop PC, laptop PC, cable modem, Wi-Fi router, two NAS, and LED lights with dimmers. The DSP is dealing with all interference beautifully. For a comparison, I have analog dual-conversion Tecsun R9710 radio (which is not a bad radio to begin with), and it simply cannot deal this so much interference, while PL-310ET can.
- SW reception is great. As soon as I take the radio onto a backyard, I am receiving about 20 stations. This was tested at 8pm with Kaito 23' antenna. My backyard is pretty small, and all neighbors houses have similar interference-causing equipment. Yet the radio is fully capable of filtering most of the noise.
- Battery life is excellent. I've been using this radio for several hours every day for a week, and the display still shows two out of three bars. I am using low-cost Amazon Basic batteries.
- The sound is very good. It is not a Hi-Fi tuner but every measure, but it is not intended to be either. For a subcompact radio it is more than sufficient. The variable lowpass filter is a great help. On FM I often connect the radio to an amplified stereo speaker, and it sounds sufficiently good to listen to music while working.
- The build is reasonably good. Not sure that the radio would take any excessively rough handling, but I wouldn't expect any special ruggedness from a $50 radio, considering its all features. With reasonable handling the radio will likely last for a very long time.
In conclusion, I can recommend this radio for someone who wants an all-band consumer-grade subcompact radio and a casual listener. For DXing, the muting between frequency steps and the lack of sensitivity control could be the showstoppers. For someone who wants everything in a radio, get an AOR receiver or similar instead.
(EDIT) After using the radio I discovered that when using headphones AM reception is normal. Nobody can explain what could cause this. But there`s another issue...when I tune to the exact frequency of a strong AM station the volume pumps in a very irritating way that makes listening impossible. Others with working radios say it does this when listening using the speaker too. This is either caused by DSP soft muting or a terrible AGC (automatic gain control).
I found a way to solve the horrible pumping of the audio that affects AM severely and sometimes shortwave. When listening to WBAP 820 AM from Dallas, for example, tune down 1kz from 820 to 819. This not only stops the pumping but disables soft mute on weaker stations allowing you to actually use the radio properly on the AM band. But tuning down 1kz causes the volume to drop considerably so I use headphones when doing this. Thank God I discovered this. I can now use the AM band on my radio!
Shortwave works great on this radio and it has some great search features that I won`t go into here that quickly store active frequencies that you can tune through. See the instructions. Keep them handy because you`ll need them when things go wrong until you learn how to use the radio.
FM works great and both FM and shortwave offer great reception.
The speaker sounds very tinny when listening to FM music but the volume can be turned up pretty loud. Tecsun needs to put a better audio circuit in this radio or at least add a control so the user can add some bass or tone to the audio.
When using shortwave and AM there are filters you can use that help reduce the treble. These filters can be set at 6, 4, 3. 2.5 and 1. A setting of 2.5 or 3 is best.
I bought the power adapter so I can charge three rechargeable batteries inside the radio. The adapter can`t be used to power the radio because it causes horrible static on the AM and shortwave bands and when using it while listening to FM I hear distortion.
If you plan to use portable radios a lot to listen to AM and shortwave get rechargeable batteries. That way you simply don`t have to worry about dead batteries and it will save you a LOT of money! I have a lot of radios and I use them in all of mine. Get a big package of normal batteries for extended power outages or camping trips.
I primarily listen to FM and AM for talk or news, with a bit of music thrown in. I'm not a shortwave listener, but that is a neat bonus for me to play around with when I have time. Being that I live in the suburbs of a major city, I get plenty of stations on FM and AM. Near and sometimes far.
The sound is good for a little low power radio with a small speaker. It's not as high pitched as other small radios, which means it's easier on my ears for longer periods of time.
My favorite feature is the ETM search mode. Of course, I can switch it back to manual tune mode, but just rolling the tuning wheel notch-by-notch to the next ETM saved station sure is a time saver. I do also like the direct station entry when I know exactly where I want to tune to.
I like the size and feel of the side tuning knob, which makes me wish the volume knob was the same. Like other's have mentioned, the side tuning knob will slide off with little effort. So, I used a tiny bit of super glue to attach that knob to the tuning control shaft. An easy fix.
Another point is that I've found the on board temperature read out to be accurate as long as the radio isn't on, in my hands, or in the sun. If the radio is on, the temp is about 2 degrees high. If I hold the radio for a length of time, the temp will try to match my hand temperature.
It seems that the PL-310ET is a well designed and a well built miniature radio. I sure like the size and all the electronic gadgetry it has within. All in all, this Texan likes this Tecsun.
Update June 2, 2018:
I found some older rechargeable AA batteries and a old style USB cable at my home to charge the PL-310ET from my laptop. It works great, but the rechargeable batteries don't have the endurance of new AA batteries. It's still worth the effort to keep my battery purchases down, but you do need to follow the recharge instructions from the PL-310ET operators manual. Thumbs up for this little feature.
Also, I ordered and received a Tecsun AN-06 plug in wire antenna for the heck of it. The wire antenna gives solid signal strength increases to shortwave stations. From the upstairs in my house, the channels received went from 19 shortwave on the telescopic antenna to 31 shortwave on the plug in wire antenna. I also used the wire antenna for FM reception, but it had much less effect than it did on short wave. 68 FM stations on the telescopic antenna versus 70 FM stations on the wire antenna. No effect on AM/MW as that uses the internal antenna, of course. It's kind of fun to have the plug in antenna, but it's not really necessary in my situation.
Pulls in weak FM stations much much better than AM/FM only pocket radios (or my table-top ones). AM is solid, only uses internal ferrite core antenna. Gets 880 WCBS nice and clear every night though. Wish I'd bought this first instead of getting cheaper AM/FM portables. The only advantage of those is that, for giving to other people, the interface on this is too complicated (it's fine, but it's more than a volume and tuning knob).
Highly recommend it to absolutely everyone - you will have a problem-free shortwave radio that always work perfectly!
The included manual is great! Simple and easy to read - no problematic translations here. Easy to follow and look up functions. You will be up and running in no time.
For better reception: hook up an external antenna. You can get one for this model for cheap (or even make one) and it has a jack for an external antenna. Get it up as high as possible, and outdoors if possible - you WILL get better reception! A radio will simply work better with an external antenna. For local FM stations, I find the built-in whip antenna to be perfectly satisfactory, but your mileage may vary... I live in a large city area with tons of FM stations, so they are easy to nab.
For the price and ease of use, I highly recommend this small rig. You will find yourself tuning in often.
Shortwave and it picked up several stations. Likes about this radio ETM: easy tuning method, it works fairly well. It picked up a few points on the am dial that was noise instead of stations. This unit also has direct frequency entry which is good. The radio's external tuning dial is big enough to quickly tune to the next desired station. I checked the long wave frequency and picked the airports non-directional-beacon at 400 khz broadcasting it's morse code identification. This is used mostly by general aviation aircraft equipped with an ADF.
This is a DSP radio digital signal processing. The way most DSP radios are configured
Makes them more sensitive and selective compared to their analog dual conversion
Counterparts.
Excellent radio for the money with tons of features. A+ excellent rating
Update 1-10-2017. After using for 3/4 of a year I bought a Sony ICF-7600GR for listening to SSB signals and the ability to record audio clips on my DAR. The difference between the two are noticeable. The Tecsun PL-320ET is easier to operate than the Sony and I still use it very frequently. Its size and Easy Tune feature make it perfect for my go bag and its sensitivity and selectivity make it very usable on the go. I still use it when I am in the mood to listen to SW broadcasters but switch to my Sony for SSB monitoring and recording SW broadcasts. The biggest issue is that the front end is very easy to overload and the Sony AN-LP1 and Grudig AN-200 tend to overload the receiver. The noise level here is very high (lower than 20 years ago since most of the factories have closed) but still am able to receive Australia and New Zealand easily. I still like the radio and would put another one in my go bag if I make another.
Great battery life(with good rechargeables. Daily use 30min-1hr average is around 2 months)
Pretty easy to use(the manual isn't totally useless either)
Has a clever and handy USB charger port
Has a just as clever headphone and external antenna jack(get the long antenna and go play outside with shortwave, it's fun!)
Volume is adjustable on the radio side of the alarm, so you can control how loud you want to be woken up
Cons:
It's got a pretty basic speaker, it's got decent volume for the size, but if I wanted to throw out a random adjective to describe the sound, "tinny" would be a little accurate. It's not terrible, but don't go looking for deep soothing bass.
I bought this because I needed a small radio I could take along on trips and that I could use as an alarm. It's ended up replacing my regular alarm clock too.
The latter is smaller, and it does not have the same quality of sound as the former.
However, it does have a very good sound for it size. And, I purchased it as a travel radio.
I would rather pack the 310et as opposed to the 660. The alarm on the 310 via buzzer is
about useless. But,. the alarm for radio is very good. I personally like the 310et for a particular
purpose. As for as battery life, it is at the present time hard to say. It uses 3 AA. I have no interest
in charging it via usb. As I use it more, I can tell you more.
Now the cons. Forget AM as there is almost nothing. The short bands and long bands are useless for most.
The acronyms for the controls are news to me. I need the manual everytime I try to do something.
For a simple to control radio look elsewhere.
Bottom line: If you just want FM and are willing to program it often and especially everytime you change batteries then maybe go for it.
On the other hand, the radio works well on SW. Battery life is good. The radio is light enough for me to put in my pocket.
I wish the radio came with a case or a pouch.
I got this one after I lost a low-tier FM/AM/SW analogue-interfaced radio and I'm mindblown by the things you can do with a Tecsun PL-310ET. As hurricane season is approaching, you should get a radio like this, you'll be informed about things local and international.
I highly recommend this product, 10/10!
UPDATE 6/19/2019: I have two Tecsun radios. Both started having problems after about 3 years. My Pl-600 would just randomly lose the station I was listening to and go to static. This Tecsun PL-310ET has started just turning itself on. I will come home and it will be on. No alarm is set. Does it with batteries. Does it without batteries (just using usb plug). Clearly the internals on these Tecsuns are not made from premium components like my Sony and Panasonic radios that are 20+ years old and still going strong. I suppose you get what you pay for. I am a forgiving man, however, so I did buy Tecsun's top of the line PL-880. I'm hoping for the best, but if that one fails, I'm done with Tecsun.






