At Home (and Work) With the Tecsun PL-600

Last week I received a Tecsun PL-600 radio from Amazon.  Unfortunately, It was just hours before I went out of state for a few days, and I had to leave it at home.  I like to take a radio with me when I travel, but this trip was to visit friends and I knew I wouldn't have time to use it. Also, I have to admit, I wasn't that keen on bringing it because I generally don't like small radios.

I've never had much luck with small portables, and regardless of price I'd put them in the 'Adequate at best' category.  Granted, the last one I bought was a Radio Shack DX-375, about 12 years ago. It made me sad on all bands, and was the radio that finally burned my bridge to the small portables.  To its credit though, the DX-375 is still going strong.  Although deaf and dumb, it's been pulling duty on my desk at work, getting 3 FM stations and 0 AM stations. 

Over the last few months I'd been reading some good things about the Tecsun line of small portables and I figured technology has had to improve in the last decade, so I decided to pull the trigger on the reasonably priced Tecsun PL-600.

The things that attracted me to the 600 at first were SSB, size, weight ( 7.5 x 1.2 x 4.8 inches ; 15.7 ounces) and the reviews I'd read.  It seemed like a great little package. It came with 4 rechargeable AA's, power supply, earbuds, longwire antenna, and carrying case.

When I first opened the box and began unpacking it my first reaction was, "Hey, this isn't the cheap Chinese crap I half expected".  Throwing the instruction manual aside (I did read it later!) I put in my own Alkalines and turned it on.  If you've used a radio before and you're used to multifunction buttons, you'll have no problems with this radio, I didn't.  The buttons also feel really nice and press easily.  The next thing I noticed was the display.  It's crisp, clear, and well lit. My out of box experience was definitely not disappointing.


Over the next week, I compared it to my CCRadio-SW at home, and used it on my desk at work.  It would be unfair to say I compared it to the Radio Shack DX-375 at work, as that would be like having the 1985 Chicago Bears scrimmage a PeeWee League team. 

At Home

FM reception was about the same as my CCRadio-SW, and really just about any radio that I've got. I didn't notice anything missing and I had no bleed over from close stations.  It worked as I'd expect any radio to work, so no negatives there.

AM wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but that wasn't surprising. At best I'd call it fair to middling.  There are two stations I use as a test on all radios, 780 KOH out of Reno, NV and 810 from San Francisco, CA. Both are far away, over mountains, and out of state.  They're also two powerhouses that come in on any radio with good AM reception.  A few stations seemed a bit muddy sounding, and I don't know that I'd enjoy listening to AM on this radio through the speaker for very long.  Since I use earbuds 99% of the time, that's not a big deal to me.

SW was pretty decent.  Not as good as the CCRadio-SW when I hooked it up to the same antenna, but it did pick up about 90% of what the CC did.  It also seemed to have a bit less noise in some situations, but definitely not all.  I never found anything to try out the SSB on, so I'll leave that out.

At Work

I work in a 100 year old 9 story concrete warehouse that was converted to an office building about 20 years ago.  To give you an idea of what I'm up against, the outside walls are 18" concrete, and while there are huge (almost floor to ceiling) multi-paned windows all over the building, there's also 3'x3' concrete columns gridded out about ever 15'.  This place was built to hold heavy cargo with no thought to radio reception.  Hell, radio was almost Buck Rogers sci-fi when it was built!  So, you can see the challenges of decent reception.  I imagine AM waves shooting around randomly like a pinball with all those pillars, and FM probably not unlike getting reception in a bunker.

Most coworkers that have just a cheap analog drug store radio get one FM and no AM. I thought I was pretty styling with the 3 FMs and no AM with the DX-375.  The PL-600 blew those all away, relatively speaking.

FM reception was surprisingly really good.  I'm able to clearly receive 10 FM stations.  On the AM side, I'm able to get six AM stations clearly.  Not six I'd ever listen to, but six all the same.

So far, no shortwave there, but I'm not too surprised about that.  I won't hold that against it.

The Rest of the Story

The PL-600's a good little radio.  It's easy enough to use, designed well, and while I wouldn't call it rugged, I definitely wouldn't call it cheap feeling either.

In my situation, the Gain selections are worthless.  It works best all around on the DX setting, so there it stays.  The Tone control is neither too bassy or too tinny, both settings are 'just right'.  I was surprised by that.  Again, in my experience with small portables it's either too much or too little.  The Narrow/Wide band setting seems about right too, and put them at a little less sensitive than the CCRadio-SW.

A common thread I've read in a lot of the reviews is that the PL-600 has a poor sounding speaker, especially on AM.  I honestly can't say, since most of my use has been with earbuds. Honestly, the radio wouldn't even have to have a speaker on it.

The analog volume knob on the side is great.  It's nice and stiff, which allows for slight adjustments. I'm not a fan of loose ones that tend to go from 0-60 with a slight nudge.  The tuning knob is a different story.  I like a large, easy to turn tuning knob.  This is a small, easy to turn one, and I feel like I'm working twice as hard to get where I want to go when using it.  Luckily, between the scan and memory options, I don't have to use it that much.  Don't get me wrong, it works well -- it's just a personal preference.  I never really got to use SSB, so I can't speak for the BFO tuning knob. It does seem well built, and I don't find it suspect in any way.

Overall I'm very pleased with this radio and would recommend it. For being an under $100 radio, it performs better than I'd expected, is built better than I'd expected, and has some decent accessories shipped with it. 

I don't use the AC adapter, so I don't use the rechargable AA's that came with it.  My battery of choice are the Walgreen's Ultra Alkalines, about $7 on sale for a pack of 20.  So far they've lasted about 45 hours on a fresh set of 4.

Due to its great performance at the office, the Tecsun PL-600 has found a permanent place on my work desk.