--- product_id: 1132489 title: "PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver" brand: "tecsun" price: "COP 1230150" currency: COP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 category: "Tecsun" url: https://www.desertcart.co/products/1132489-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave store_origin: CO region: Colombia --- # Full spectrum AM/FM/LW/SW/SSB coverage Rechargeable 18650 battery, USB-C charging Dual conversion PLL tuner with 10Hz step PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver **Brand:** tecsun **Price:** COP 1230150 **Availability:** βœ… In Stock ## Summary > πŸ“» Elevate your radio game β€” never miss a signal, never miss a moment! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver by tecsun - **How much does it cost?** COP 1230150 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co](https://www.desertcart.co/products/1132489-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave) ## Best For - tecsun enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted tecsun brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - β€’ **Powerful Hi-Fi Audio:** Enjoy room-filling sound from a tuned 3W speaker that rivals desktop radios, perfect for immersive listening. - β€’ **Portable & Ready to Go:** Lightweight design with rechargeable battery and USB-C charging keeps you connected anywhere, anytime. - β€’ **Precision Digital Tuning:** Experience razor-sharp 10 Hz step tuning with dual conversion PLL for crystal-clear reception. - β€’ **Unrivaled Frequency Range:** Seamlessly tune AM, FM, Longwave, Shortwave & Single Side Band for global radio adventures. - β€’ **Customizable Bandwidth Filters:** Dial in 4 & 5 selectable bandwidth filters on AM and SSB to isolate your favorite signals flawlessly. ## Overview The Tecsun PL880 is a premium portable digital radio featuring full AM/FM, Longwave, Shortwave, and Single Side Band reception with a high-sensitivity dual conversion PLL tuner. It offers precise 10 Hz tuning steps, multiple bandwidth filters, and a powerful 3W speaker delivering exceptional audio quality. Designed for serious DXers and casual listeners alike, it includes a rechargeable 18650 battery with USB-C charging, ergonomic controls, and extensive memory storage, making it the ultimate companion for global radio exploration. ## Description Specifications: -Firmware version: 8820 -Frequency Range: FM: 64-108 MHz SW: 1711-29999 KHz AM: 520-1710 KHz LW: 100-519 KHz -Sensitivity FM 35 dB AM / LW > 40 dB SW > 40 dB -S/N Ratio: FM> 65dB AM/LW > 40dB SW > 45dB -Output Power > 450 mW -Speaker: Diameter 40mm / Impedance 4 Ohm / Power 3W -Earphone Jack: Diameter 3.5mm -Power supply: -Battery -External adaptor: USB jack, DC 5V, Current >300mA -Dimensions: approx. 7 Β½ (W) X 4 Β½ (H) X 1 ΒΌ (D) -Weight: 1 lb 3 oz(battery not included) Accessories: External shortwave antenna Stereo earphones Carrying pouch Quick reference guide User manual Review: Terrific radio ! Excellent reception and audio quality ! - TLDR: Outstanding Audio Quality, Excellent Top-Notch Performance (sensitivity/selectivity-but with a controversial ssb/sync issue), Ease of Use, Rechargeable Battery Operation, Extreme Performance to Price Ratio, The Best Quality Control of desertcart Offerings. I have been into DXing since I was a kid cuz my dad had also been into radio when he was a kid, building crystal radios, etc. The original single store Radio Shack was in the city where I grew up and a weekend outing with my father to The Radio Shack was always an adventure. As a teen I had a Hallicrafters as a bedside radio. Skip to 1990's. Lived in a high rise with a balcony where I could set up an awesome antenna. Discovered E&B Electronics (now closed), a 20 minute drive from my home that sold top shelf SW,Ham Transceivers, UHF Scanners, but I eventually had to move to a condo with no balcony and had generally lost interest. In my storage closet are a Drake R8, an Icom IC-R7100 (unblocked), an AOR 3000A(unblocked), and an iconic Sony ICF-SW77. For the past 10 years my bedside radio has been a small portable 5 station preset Sony ICF-M410V that I paid $60 for. (It's still available on desertcart but the link is like a paragraph long). It served me well and had good sound from its 3" speaker. It's tuning knob now only goes in one direction so I decided to replace it. I have been studying the top battery operatable AM/FM/SW radios on desertcart for over a month. I must have watched at least 50 comparative videos on YouTube and concluded that the PL880 could not be beat performance wise and sound quality was important to me. (The PL 600 was right up there at the top of the performance scale, but my major use of the radio will be for FM listening and sound quality was of great importance to me.) Along with performance, the single factor that made me ulitamately zero in on this Tecsun PL880 was quality and quality control. Yeah, I'd like to have a Grundig 750 cuz it looks so cool, or a Sangean 909x cuz of it's display (but sub par performance without an outside antennae), or a CC Crane, but looking at all the reviews for those there were just too many peeps who received dead on arrivals or short-lived radios. The Tecsun has almost none that I saw. So when I saw the PL880 being offered for same day delivery yesterday I impulsively pulled the trigger and I am happy I did. This radio excudes the feel of quality. It's audio quality is nothing short of amazing. I keep a Grundig S3250DL on my desk. The Grundig is known for its excellent sound. If you were not doing a side by side comparison, unless you are tone deaf, you would have to admit that the audio quality from the PL880 is outstanding both for voice and music. It also can pump it out at room filling volumes. Side by side, while I can hear a subtle overall difference, the audio that the PL880 puts out is hard to distinguish from that of the Grundig. Kudos to Tecsun! While I am not yet fully familiar with the operation of the 880, 5 minutes after the battery was installed and fully charged I did a scan on the FM/AM/SW bands; 1.) FM Band - I was stunned at the number of stations that I had been missing with my Sony and the excellent radio I have in my car. All crystall clear; 2.) AM was ok but much better than expected.In the building where I live the way it is configured and the materials used to construct it AM is hardly worth the effort, yet the 880 pulled in quite a few stations well that I did not know existed; 3.) SW - Then I said what the hay and attached the included antenna, ran it across a window inside and did a SW scan. I expected nothing, but got 39 hits :-) Some were very strong and clear, but as they were all foreign speaking except one, I have no idea where they were broadcasting from. Looks like my DXng days have been revived. I do agree with those who say that the final top extension of the antenna is extremely thin and fragile. I wil not be extending the antenna its full length because of this . Also, having lived with this radio for a few days now, I find accessing stored channels somewhat cumbersome and anti-intuitive, but I gues that's the price you pay for having THREE THOUSAND storage channels :-) If you can spare the bucks and are looking for an outstanding sounding, battery operated, easily portable, handome looking radio (with the added benefits of SW/LW/Emergency Info. abilities), buy yourself a PL880 -You'll love it. The way I look at it, at my age if I can buy myself a thrill for $169 bucks it's a great deal :-) Review: Lives up to Online reviews...surpasses expectations - What a great DX'r! It does what it was built to do! The Tecsun PL-880 is now my No. 1 go to tuner. The radio controls are ergonomic and intuitive. The sound is impressive with its larger speaker. There are more features on this radio than most comparable radios. Tecsun just makes good radios. Period. I will put them up against any other brand. The tuner seems very sensitive to input from the controls. Day time channel surfing is impressive, and night time is incredible. I live in a deaf area in the rural southwest. I have an extensive radio collection and this one beats them all. I'm sorry I waited so long to pull the trigger. From features like the easily replaceable single 18650 Li-on battery, to the dial back lighting switch, to the stereo switching capability, the bandwidth selector, to the now current Type C charging port. The feature list is extensive and I only name a few here. The antenna gain switch is a nice touch. So far, I haven't needed an external antenna for much. Using a clip-on adapter to the telescoping antenna does help FM reception during the afternoon and early evening hours. But it is not entirely necessary and the signal strength meter says so. There is not much S/W radio out here. But I did pick up a station out of the Miami area the first night. The AM is so strong, adding a secondary inductive coupling antenna only increases the gain to an uncomfortable hissing level on some stations. I don't use head phones, but I did connect the "line out" jack to my home stereo receiver Aux input for fun. The sound was as good as it gets. There aren't many FM stations here to choose from but the 'stereo" is there if you want it. There was no low-level hissing and the Stereo separation was quite good. The "tone" selector switch seems more like a high pass filter, and I just leave it on "treble" The sound really is awesome for a radio with a single speaker. Tecsun knocked it out of the park on this one feature alone. When I am looking to pull in more distant FM stations, I turn the stereo selector to "mono" and the reception gets better. The extendable antenna is very long. Reception is strong. The digital tuner does cut out DX lower power stations. That's just a fact. But it does so in a way that favors the stronger stations and makes them more listenable. To be honest, most distant stations here aren't listenable at all. I don't like listening to noise. This radio pulls in stations and makes them clearer if you set it up right. Read ALL the instructions. If I want those weaker stations, I have other older analog radios to do the job. The ATS tuning is nice, and there are more memory locations than I know what to do with. I manually save the clearer S/W channels, and will never utilize all of the memory on this radio. The bandwidth selector helps dial in weaker radio signals. The USB and LSB are there if you need them. The radio has a nice plastic case and the tuning knobs are metal. There is a nice weight to the radio. All the controls are in the perfect position for operating it while holding it in your hands. There is a kickstand on the back which lays the radio back a little. I use a radio stand when I am not hands on with it. The clock feature is 24 hours only unless I havent yet figured out how to change it. Features like alarms on receivers seem gimmicky. I never use them. But it is there if you need it. There are no flashlights, solar panels, or sirens on this radio, and there should not be. The signal meter, and signal to noise ratio meter is nice. You can switch to the current alarm time status, or ambient air temp. This is a serious radio for DX'ing. No gimmicks are necessary. The Tecsun PL-880 doesn't need them, and I applaud the manufacturer for resisting any urge to add them. The included rechargeable 18650 button top battery is at the lower end. It still does last a long while. I left the radio on for a full afternoon and an into the evening session, and it still had some charge the next day. It is easy to change out and the choice of replacements with more amp hours is unlimited. You can almost double the playtime with the "right" battery... I know that there are more Tecsun radios with stereo speakers, like the PL-990x and the H501, but they do not get the sound quality that this radio enjoys with its large and "tuned" Hi-Fi speaker. The fidelity really is amazing! I watched quite a few reviews before purchasing this radio, and I think that I made the right choice. The brown leather (look) storage case is a nice touch. There are other nice accessories available from Tecsun as well. A plastic foam lined case is on my list of them as is a long wire antenna, and a second rechargeable battery. The 18650 is nice, and easy to upgrade to a higher milliamp battery, but I would like to see a BL-5c battery here and maybe an on-board storage compartment for the extra battery. I would also like to see Tescun produce a larger "table" radio with these features. Something bigger like the C.Crane CC3. A radio that I could leave in the kitchen or on the fireplace mantle. This is a nice portable radio that can double duty as a kitchen table top radio. The reception and sound are simply amazing and I have nothing but positive things to say. I don't regret my purchase and neither will you! I can't wait to travel to other cities and see what my radio will do! ## Features - Full range coverage including AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave with Single Side Band - PLL synthesized digital dual conversion receiver with unparallelled sensitivity & selectivity - 4 & 5 selectable bandwidth filters on AM and SSB respectively plus single Side Band receiver with 10 Hz tuning step - 24 hour alarm clock plus sleep timer from 0-120 minutes - 1 Year USA warranty. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | B00IDM4N5K | | Additional Features | Portable | | Antenna Location | Music, News | | Audio Output Mode | Stereo | | Best Sellers Rank | #91,804 in Electronics ( See Top 100 in Electronics ) #173 in Portable Shortwave Radios | | Brand | TECSUN | | Built-In Media | Owner's Manual | | Color | Silver | | Compatible Devices | Earphone | | Connectivity Technology | USB | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 671 Reviews | | Display Technology | LCD | | Display Type | LCD | | EU Spare Part Availability Duration | 1 years | | Enclosure Material | Plastic | | Frequency | 108 MHz | | Global Trade Identification Number | 06920487518802 | | Hardware Interface | 3.5mm Audio, USB | | Item Dimensions L x W x H | 7.5"L x 1.25"W x 4.5"H | | Item Weight | 520 g | | Manufacturer | Tecsun | | Mfr Part Number | PL-880 | | Model Number | PL-880 | | Number of Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) | | Number of Items | 1 | | Number of Packs | 1 | | Power Source | Battery Powered | | Product Dimensions | 7.5"L x 1.25"W x 4.5"H | | Radio Bands Supported | AM, FM | | Speaker Maximum Output Power | 3 watts | | Special Feature | Portable | | Style Name | Modern | | Tuner Technology | AM , FM, SSB | | Tuner Type | AM, FM, SSB | | Unit Count | 1 Count | | Voltage | 240 volts | ## Product Details - **Brand:** TECSUN - **Color:** Silver - **Connectivity Technology:** USB - **Included Components:** Owner's Manual - **Power Source:** Battery Powered - **Product Dimensions:** 7.5"L x 1.25"W x 4.5"H - **Radio Bands Supported:** AM, FM - **Special Feature:** Portable - **Style:** Modern - **Tuner Technology:** AM, FM, SSB ## Images ![PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91MAiIclt4L.jpg) ## Questions & Answers **Q: Put 880 in its case>case top presses keys>light remains on all the time 880 is in case draining battery. Key lock does not fix this.** A: One of the hidden features turns the light off. Pressing the 5 with the radio off toggles between off and normal (auto) for the light. There are quite a few hidden settings for this radio. An internet search for PL880 Hidden Features will give you more information. I have not used this setting. **Q: How do you charge the battery?** A: The radio automatically goes into charge mode when the radio is on off and you plug in the 5.1 charger supply (Not included). However, old cell phone plug in the wall chargers work as long as it's 5.1 volts with the appropriate jack to plug into the radio. You can also charge the radio off of any USB output plug. It not only charges the PL880 but it also puts a timer on the display which shows how long it has been charges and shows the stop time when it is fully charged. If you have the appropriate charger, you can also remove the battery and charge it but the radio does a great job on charging the battery. I get about 14 to 16 hours of use off the battery per charge. **Q: Why won’t my battery charge?** A: It only charges the battery when it's off. Using a USB voltage and current meter, the pl-880 draws 1 ma @5v on with or without the battery. When off, it draws 37ma @ 5v, when the battery is in the radio. **Q: What is the firmware version?** A: Do not know, but it works well. There is no frequency drift or bleeding. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Terrific radio ! Excellent reception and audio quality ! *by H***E on January 29, 2016* TLDR: Outstanding Audio Quality, Excellent Top-Notch Performance (sensitivity/selectivity-but with a controversial ssb/sync issue), Ease of Use, Rechargeable Battery Operation, Extreme Performance to Price Ratio, The Best Quality Control of Amazon Offerings. I have been into DXing since I was a kid cuz my dad had also been into radio when he was a kid, building crystal radios, etc. The original single store Radio Shack was in the city where I grew up and a weekend outing with my father to The Radio Shack was always an adventure. As a teen I had a Hallicrafters as a bedside radio. Skip to 1990's. Lived in a high rise with a balcony where I could set up an awesome antenna. Discovered E&B Electronics (now closed), a 20 minute drive from my home that sold top shelf SW,Ham Transceivers, UHF Scanners, but I eventually had to move to a condo with no balcony and had generally lost interest. In my storage closet are a Drake R8, an Icom IC-R7100 (unblocked), an AOR 3000A(unblocked), and an iconic Sony ICF-SW77. For the past 10 years my bedside radio has been a small portable 5 station preset Sony ICF-M410V that I paid $60 for. (It's still available on Amazon but the link is like a paragraph long). It served me well and had good sound from its 3" speaker. It's tuning knob now only goes in one direction so I decided to replace it. I have been studying the top battery operatable AM/FM/SW radios on Amazon for over a month. I must have watched at least 50 comparative videos on YouTube and concluded that the PL880 could not be beat performance wise and sound quality was important to me. (The PL 600 was right up there at the top of the performance scale, but my major use of the radio will be for FM listening and sound quality was of great importance to me.) Along with performance, the single factor that made me ulitamately zero in on this Tecsun PL880 was quality and quality control. Yeah, I'd like to have a Grundig 750 cuz it looks so cool, or a Sangean 909x cuz of it's display (but sub par performance without an outside antennae), or a CC Crane, but looking at all the reviews for those there were just too many peeps who received dead on arrivals or short-lived radios. The Tecsun has almost none that I saw. So when I saw the PL880 being offered for same day delivery yesterday I impulsively pulled the trigger and I am happy I did. This radio excudes the feel of quality. It's audio quality is nothing short of amazing. I keep a Grundig S3250DL on my desk. The Grundig is known for its excellent sound. If you were not doing a side by side comparison, unless you are tone deaf, you would have to admit that the audio quality from the PL880 is outstanding both for voice and music. It also can pump it out at room filling volumes. Side by side, while I can hear a subtle overall difference, the audio that the PL880 puts out is hard to distinguish from that of the Grundig. Kudos to Tecsun! While I am not yet fully familiar with the operation of the 880, 5 minutes after the battery was installed and fully charged I did a scan on the FM/AM/SW bands; 1.) FM Band - I was stunned at the number of stations that I had been missing with my Sony and the excellent radio I have in my car. All crystall clear; 2.) AM was ok but much better than expected.In the building where I live the way it is configured and the materials used to construct it AM is hardly worth the effort, yet the 880 pulled in quite a few stations well that I did not know existed; 3.) SW - Then I said what the hay and attached the included antenna, ran it across a window inside and did a SW scan. I expected nothing, but got 39 hits :-) Some were very strong and clear, but as they were all foreign speaking except one, I have no idea where they were broadcasting from. Looks like my DXng days have been revived. I do agree with those who say that the final top extension of the antenna is extremely thin and fragile. I wil not be extending the antenna its full length because of this . Also, having lived with this radio for a few days now, I find accessing stored channels somewhat cumbersome and anti-intuitive, but I gues that's the price you pay for having THREE THOUSAND storage channels :-) If you can spare the bucks and are looking for an outstanding sounding, battery operated, easily portable, handome looking radio (with the added benefits of SW/LW/Emergency Info. abilities), buy yourself a PL880 -You'll love it. The way I look at it, at my age if I can buy myself a thrill for $169 bucks it's a great deal :-) ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Lives up to Online reviews...surpasses expectations *by S***Y on April 4, 2024* What a great DX'r! It does what it was built to do! The Tecsun PL-880 is now my No. 1 go to tuner. The radio controls are ergonomic and intuitive. The sound is impressive with its larger speaker. There are more features on this radio than most comparable radios. Tecsun just makes good radios. Period. I will put them up against any other brand. The tuner seems very sensitive to input from the controls. Day time channel surfing is impressive, and night time is incredible. I live in a deaf area in the rural southwest. I have an extensive radio collection and this one beats them all. I'm sorry I waited so long to pull the trigger. From features like the easily replaceable single 18650 Li-on battery, to the dial back lighting switch, to the stereo switching capability, the bandwidth selector, to the now current Type C charging port. The feature list is extensive and I only name a few here. The antenna gain switch is a nice touch. So far, I haven't needed an external antenna for much. Using a clip-on adapter to the telescoping antenna does help FM reception during the afternoon and early evening hours. But it is not entirely necessary and the signal strength meter says so. There is not much S/W radio out here. But I did pick up a station out of the Miami area the first night. The AM is so strong, adding a secondary inductive coupling antenna only increases the gain to an uncomfortable hissing level on some stations. I don't use head phones, but I did connect the "line out" jack to my home stereo receiver Aux input for fun. The sound was as good as it gets. There aren't many FM stations here to choose from but the 'stereo" is there if you want it. There was no low-level hissing and the Stereo separation was quite good. The "tone" selector switch seems more like a high pass filter, and I just leave it on "treble" The sound really is awesome for a radio with a single speaker. Tecsun knocked it out of the park on this one feature alone. When I am looking to pull in more distant FM stations, I turn the stereo selector to "mono" and the reception gets better. The extendable antenna is very long. Reception is strong. The digital tuner does cut out DX lower power stations. That's just a fact. But it does so in a way that favors the stronger stations and makes them more listenable. To be honest, most distant stations here aren't listenable at all. I don't like listening to noise. This radio pulls in stations and makes them clearer if you set it up right. Read ALL the instructions. If I want those weaker stations, I have other older analog radios to do the job. The ATS tuning is nice, and there are more memory locations than I know what to do with. I manually save the clearer S/W channels, and will never utilize all of the memory on this radio. The bandwidth selector helps dial in weaker radio signals. The USB and LSB are there if you need them. The radio has a nice plastic case and the tuning knobs are metal. There is a nice weight to the radio. All the controls are in the perfect position for operating it while holding it in your hands. There is a kickstand on the back which lays the radio back a little. I use a radio stand when I am not hands on with it. The clock feature is 24 hours only unless I havent yet figured out how to change it. Features like alarms on receivers seem gimmicky. I never use them. But it is there if you need it. There are no flashlights, solar panels, or sirens on this radio, and there should not be. The signal meter, and signal to noise ratio meter is nice. You can switch to the current alarm time status, or ambient air temp. This is a serious radio for DX'ing. No gimmicks are necessary. The Tecsun PL-880 doesn't need them, and I applaud the manufacturer for resisting any urge to add them. The included rechargeable 18650 button top battery is at the lower end. It still does last a long while. I left the radio on for a full afternoon and an into the evening session, and it still had some charge the next day. It is easy to change out and the choice of replacements with more amp hours is unlimited. You can almost double the playtime with the "right" battery... I know that there are more Tecsun radios with stereo speakers, like the PL-990x and the H501, but they do not get the sound quality that this radio enjoys with its large and "tuned" Hi-Fi speaker. The fidelity really is amazing! I watched quite a few reviews before purchasing this radio, and I think that I made the right choice. The brown leather (look) storage case is a nice touch. There are other nice accessories available from Tecsun as well. A plastic foam lined case is on my list of them as is a long wire antenna, and a second rechargeable battery. The 18650 is nice, and easy to upgrade to a higher milliamp battery, but I would like to see a BL-5c battery here and maybe an on-board storage compartment for the extra battery. I would also like to see Tescun produce a larger "table" radio with these features. Something bigger like the C.Crane CC3. A radio that I could leave in the kitchen or on the fireplace mantle. This is a nice portable radio that can double duty as a kitchen table top radio. The reception and sound are simply amazing and I have nothing but positive things to say. I don't regret my purchase and neither will you! I can't wait to travel to other cities and see what my radio will do! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent Portable SW Receiver - Use External Long Wire Antenna for Best Performance *by J***N on June 6, 2022* I've had the radio for about a week now. It's excellent in its class, having been an Extra Class Amateur Radio operator for 38 years, originally licensed in 1967, with a 21 year career in the US Army Signal Corps. I've used numerous HF (aka SW) receivers, military and civilian, some quite high end. My original "portable" receiver is a 1977 Sony DR-22 (aka RF-2200). It's showing its age with dirty switch contacts, dirty contacts in the rotary controls (potentiometers for volume, RF Gain, etc.) and undoubtedly aging circuit capacitors going leaky. Worked extremely well for its era and class. I consider this one similar in overall performance thus far. The decision was narrowed down to the similarly priced Eton Elite Executive. Aircraft band wasn't important to me and comparison reviews gave this one better audio from its larger speaker. The modern household is loaded with RF noise generators, from laptops to compact fluorescent and LED lamps, and the big LCD TV in the family room. The internal antennas are great for local AM and FM broadcast stations. The built-in whip antenna will pick up weaker signals, along but also all the RF noise being generated in the home. Works much better with an external long-wire antenna - especially mounted at a window. Serious SWL'ers use large outdoor antennas - along with lighting protection on them. Super if you have one, but not necessary for most SWL listening. Anyone that serious should also be looking at a much more expensive desktop communications receiver. Don't expect great performance living in cubeville inside an office building with fluorescent lights everywhere and surrounded by steel reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling. While not a Faraday Cage, some offices come close to it. In SW mode the band up and down feature (two buttons) makes large leaps up and down the HF spectrum to various SWL broadcast bands when not using USB or LSB - plus WWV's time signal frequencies. When the USB or LSB BFO is switched in, it jumps between amateur radio bands, a nice feature as that's normally the only use for the sideband BFO. Comes with nice faux leather zipper case, external long-wire antenna wound around a frame to store it with a spring clip that allows clipping the end of it somewhere convenient to hold it up, wired stereo earbuds and a 5V USB cable for charging the battery while it's inside the radio (also powers the radio)). You can use a 5V USB wall plug to run it from an AC wall outlet. I've got a half dozen or more of those laying about for charging cell phones, tablets and iPods. Downsides: The zipper case is nice, but will only hold the radio itself, not any of the accessories, which risks them being misplaced and lost, especially when traveling. The rotary knobs are on the right side and must be rotated on their sides from the front. You cannot rotate them on the end as they don't protrude far enough for that. The main tuning knob cannot be rapidly spun. For rapid frequency change across a SW band I entire a leap on the keypad and then tune from there, as the SW up and down are quite large leaps. The rechargeable lithium is very good with decent energy to power the radio for some time. Better than AA cells. It uses a 3.7V 2000 mAh 18650 Li-ion with button top, about 69.2mm in length (these vary from 65mm-70mm), so one that has internal protection circuitry and even a USB charging port should fit if it's no longer than 70mm. I strongly recommend one with internal protection. It also require a button top on the "+" end as the battery box has an inset on that end to prevent putting a battery in backward (a flat top won't work). Thus you can use a higher capacity if you wish. Note that flat tops without internal protection are made for use bundled with others in battery packs, such as those found in older laptops. Overall I give it high performance marks for a portable, especially in its size class. It can easily fit into a suitcase for travel without taking up any more space than a man's modest shaving kit (some men travel with an entire medicine cabinet of stuff; I don't). Took off one star because the accessories don't fit in its leatherette zipper case. No photos or video uploaded; wouldn't add anything to those already uploaded with other reviews. ## Frequently Bought Together - Tecsun PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception, Color Silver - Sangean ANT-60 Short Wave Antenna - XHDATA AN-80 Shortwave Reel Antenna FM SW External Antenna Whip Antenna to Improve Signal Reception Suitable for FM SW Radio --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - πŸ›’ **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** β€” Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** β€” Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - πŸ’° **No Hidden Fees** β€” All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - πŸ”„ **15-Day Free Returns** β€” Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - πŸ”’ **Secure Payments** β€” Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** β€” Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co/products/1132489-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave](https://www.desertcart.co/products/1132489-pl880-portable-digital-pll-dual-conversion-am-fm-longwave-shortwave) --- *Product available on Desertcart Colombia* *Store origin: CO* *Last updated: 2026-08-24*