Tecsun PL-360 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black

Just received my PL-360 today. Here are the first impressions after 10 hours of ownership.Build Quality - I've seen reviews criticizing the build quality of the unit. I don't see it. The unit feels substantial, the buttons have a very quality feel to them. The unit isheavy, but not uncomfortably so. The printed graphics on the unit are straight and quite legible. The volume and tuning dials do not feel cheap and give positive feedback when used. The headphone and antenna jacks are tight. The antenna is substantial and moves easily. In total, the unit seems to be well built and seems as though it will be durable.Reception and Sound - In use, I'm quite impressed with the reception and sound quality. I live in the high desert area of California and, while the bands are crowded, we are quite a distance from the cities and reception tends to be a very spotty affair. We also are on the eastern side of mountains so shortwave reception tends to be horrible. This unit is performing better than any small radio I have owned, and better than a lot of larger and much more expensive units I've seen. My other small radio (a Chinese made Grundig) receives, on a good night, 3 stations on shortwave. Without an additional antenna this unit is picking up over 25. I am getting 25 clear AM stations and 15 FM stations. I am clearly receiving AM from San Francisco and Radio Havana, two stations I've never managed to even get a hit on with previous radios. The external AM antenna makes a tremendous difference in AM reception.The ETM function (Tecsun's proprietary "Easy Tune Mode") works extremely well. It scans the band and pulls out the frequencies where it finds stations and allows one to scan through without manually hitting all the frequencies. A very nice feature.The speaker sounds fine, I agree with other reviews that it is a bit tinny for music but is fine for AM talk radio and shortwave, which are the two primary uses I will have for it.What's In The Box? - The unit comes with an external clip style antenna, a set of ear buds and a nice padded case.A couple of caveats - After spending some time with the unit I must say that the one weak point seems to be the connection point for the external AM antenna. I believe that any solid blow or one drop could very easily cause either the female connector to break within the unit or the male connector to shear off. Something to be aware of, and careful about. The other fault is with the belt clip, which is a nice feature but seems flimsy and poorly made in comparison with the rest of the unit. I don't trust it and have removed it from the unit completely. A small issue, but one which is inexcusable in such an otherwise well-made product. This is compensated by the case, which has a nice two way belt loop. Would be nice if the case had a storage area for the MW antenna and external SW antenna, but that is just nitpicking.I purchased the PL-360 to use at my job. I work in a very solid building with quite a bit of steel in the construction and a lot of fluorescent lighting. My previous small radio had massive amounts of interference from the lights. I am very eager to try the Tecsun and see how well it performs. I will post an update when I've given it a thorough test.Other than the small issues above I am very happy with the PL-360 and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.UPDATE: Wanted to add in some other thoughts after a few more days with the PL-360. This thing isn't just easy on batteries, this thing SIPS batteries! I've had the same three standard alkaline batteries in this radio through over 40 hours of listening and the battery display JUST dropped by 1/4. Amazing. And having now used it several nights at my job I am very impressed with the AM reception. Only in the very center of the building do I have an issue with reception, but even there it's still listenable, just a bit noisy. BUY IT!!!

I had some goals in mind when I purchased the Tecsun PL-360: I was looking for an easy to use, very portable, AM/FM/Shortwave radio for under a hundred dollars, that was not demanding on batteries and provided decent reception.So, here is what I found when the PL-360 went to work:The first thing I did with it, out of the box, was to scan the SW band with ETM. The Easy Tuning Mode button locates audible stations and then lets you flip through them with the tuning dial. This feature can be run at any time to update your location or add to the list with antenna changes. The Tecsun scanned the SW band indoors with just the whip antenna and locked onto 38 stations. 2300-21950khz continuous. Later, with the addition of an outdoor antenna, the PL-360 (during evening hours) using ETM, scanned and locked on to over 135 shortwave stations. Not bad and I felt that met my expectations for SW. I am not real fond of the clip-on antenna rigging. But, it will add to the ETM station count. ( Note: I got to my outdoor antenna by soldering a alligator clip to the bitter end of the supplied clip-on antenna wire. I am sure you are on your own when you do this since it is outside the design and not in the user guide.)When the PL-360 locks on it is discriminating and holds the station well. Little to no bleed over or fade beyond the nature of the band.AM/FM radio and features: Just fine & handy too. Stereo radio sound is surprisingly decent with my Skull Candy headphones. I also tried three other types of headsets; over ear and soft inserts with differing results. Basically, better phones improve sound. You get about what you would expect from the small onboard speaker.Features are easy to access. Faceplate buttons are small but snappy and clean with room to disallow "fat finger." There is not so much clutter that it is confusing. Noted in one review was the tuning knob as being crisp and solid with good indexing. I agree with that. The buttons support a "short press," and "long press" action to manipulate features.The little AM antenna that fixes to the body and makes it look like a TNT igniter is okay. In fact, it is directional. There is a signal strength indicator on the LCD and that responds clearly to movement of the bar antenna.Holding the radio in the left hand allows my wrap around fingers access to the tuning knob and volume knob. In the right hand the thumb is in charge. LCD Display and button markings are easy to read at arms reach as if holding a book. The LCD screen lights when buttons or knobs are moved and turns down with inactivity.Scan and memory features are handy. Very briefly: You scan using the VF button and the radio holds a station for a few seconds then moves on. You can use the tuning knob to stop the scan and fine tune. Also, there is an up and down button feature in the four button Band selector and Auto Tuning Storage section that makes gross moves from band to band while the LCD provides a quick band reference as you troll. The band you are on flashes for about two seconds. (It took me a while to catch this indication. Two seconds is kind of quick. So, you have to be looking for this.) So, if you like 31m, you just push the up or down button until 31m shows in the upper right corner of the LCD. You can then scroll through the band. A press of the memory button drives a station you like to one of the memory sets for later use by the VM button as a preset.The Alarm (wake up) mode is easy to use and set. The auto off timer has a surprisingly large selection of time choices. A blinking sleep icon flashes in the upper left corner of the LCD when setting this feature. Also, the LCD shows ambient temperature. This is listed in Fahrenheit when North American step settings are selected for AM.I did purchase NMH rechargeable batteries to use in the radio. The PL-360 needs to be told it has NMH batteries installed. I found the setup for this easy and the Intelligent Charging Feature handy. So far, the radio does not appear to be a power consumption hog.Overall, the PL-360 is a nice surprise. I feel the radio met all the goals I had in mind and provided some very nice extras that made it well worth the price paid. Also, the learning curve is not too bad and even the user guide is compact as well as straight forward.