Tecsun PL-680 Portable World Band Receiver with AM/FM/SSB Modes and VHF Airband

Impressive piece of kit. Can use recharageable or non recharageable batteries, dependent on switch setting. Lots of presets. Excellent value.

The Tecsun PL-680 is surprisingly good for it's price. On short wave it has a very low noise pre amplifier and low noise when tuning. It has a high impedance antenna input, but it benefits from an earth connection, which may be wired to the sleeve of the antenna or the ear phone connector. It has a good AM synchrounus demodulator with a wide capture range of 2 kHz in bad signal conditions. It has a narrow band / wide band selector which works fine, but in wide position the center frequency is not in the middle of the band. The antenna connector puts out voltage, probably designed for an active antenna. Use a capacitor for isolation if you are connecting a home brew antenna. The SW receiver has few birdies and great performance. Even the SSB is useful, i have listened to DX amateurs on 80, 40 and 20 meters with it. for its price I believe it is the best you can get

Pros + Air band (I live in Athens and I can easily listen to the Athens arrivals/departures) + An indoors antenna (you don't need to buy an extra) + A leather purse comes with radio. Cons - Not very good MW receiver (I do not receive all international stations I receive with my old National) - Not very good for listening to 80 m ham band (maybe this has to do with the antenna)

This radio works well, the agc could be a bit slower for ssb, a 3.5 mm Jack with coax would be good for an aerial tuner, and attenuator. For the urban UK environment you will need a good DSP to reduce the very high noise level from VDSL Broadband, an outdoor aerial is a must otherwise it will pickup noise from other sources, such as lighting, and most other equipment, a loop aerial could improve things with regard to the above.

Five Star Product. I've used it almost everyday since purchase - on a wide range of frequencies. Not tried it yet with an external antenna as I'm in a good reception area for most of the bands I listen to. I use two sets of high capacity rechargeable batteries (2000mAh). One set is charged ready to swap when the other set in the radio needs changing. The battery sets last a long time between charges.

Great radio but the microphone socket doesn't work properly.

Well made feels a quality product, the case is nice and padded , one of the best radios I have bought to date over the past 50 years , including grundig , hacker, Roberts, and zenith, has plenty of features to replace my old Sony digital radio bought in 1985, the reception and sound quality is superior to the Sony which is about the same size and appearance

Every so often I take it out of its box and try it again, only to rediscover what an awful radio this is. I hardly dare think what might is inside the box. It must be extremely cheap. A scam. It does seem to work on FM, but that's about it.