[IRCA] The Tecsun PL-390: a winner!

["Kevin S" <satya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all:

In record time (less than a week), my black Tecsun PL-390 arrived from
Joyce at Ebayer "Anon-co" today, for $75 shipped.  Quickly unwrapping it
and running it through its initial paces, I am quite pleased indeed!  I
note that it is not an Ultralight due to its size (about 2 inches longer
than the PL-310 and PL-380), but a very good radio nonetheless.

On AM, as indicated by the pictures of the longer ferrite (posted on the
Yahoo Ultralight group), it is quite a bit more sensitive than the PL-310.
 Stations that are intelligible on the 390 are but mumbles on the 310. 
All 5 DSP bandwidths are there for selectivity.  A quick series of checks
show that the sensitivity is essentially that of my Sony 7600GR!  It's
short of the sensitivity of my treasured Sony Sony S5W, but not by as much
as I thought it would be.  And yes, the PL-390 has just the touch of audio
soft-mute like the PL-380, not the 12-15 dB of the PL-310.

On FM, the whip antenna is 35" long, compared to the 22" whip on the 310. 
As a result, low-band FM is noticeably better.  Even in the upper band,
where I had to shorten the 390's whip to resonate near the proper
frequency, the 390 still has a readability edge.  With the DSP FM section,
it is probably the best FM portable on the marker right now!

On Shortwave, it's very sensitive, easily better than the PL-310, PL-380
and Sony 7600GR on the few stations I checked.

On Longwave, it's not up to the 7600GR on sensitivity, but substantially
better than the PL-310.  Plus, with the DSP guts, it doesn't have the
horrible soup of images from local MW stations to contend with, as does
the 7600GR.

Ergonomically, the two stereo speakers sound much better, as would be
expected.  The buttons have a much smoother action to them (on my 310 and
380, I have to work at it more to get the buttons to work).  Plugging my
mp3 player into the AUX IN jack, the audio is quite good: not up to my
specialized PA2V2 headphone amp, but still allows Rachmaninov's Piano
Concerto #2 to be at good volume levels on my power-hungry Grado
headpones.  The PL-390 has a big orange button for "Light/Snooze", meaning
it is much more usable as a clock/radio.  The manual is in English.  It
has a smart charger for batteries, or takes three AA cells.

In sum, this appears to be a very well-rounded radio in all aspects.  I
would definitely recommend it!
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