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Tecsun PL365 radio receiver Readers may recall we included two new Tecsun portable radios in the “Product Showcase” section of the December 2015 issue. Due to space constraints, there were limited details but overall, both impressed us. We were contacted by a reader who liked the smaller of the new Tecsuns so much he bought one. Here’s his report. W ant to listen in to the HF bands and also sample bands, to pick up local stations when travelling. Coverage some of the local radio stations when travelling is from 150 to 29999kHz while the FM band starts a little overseas? I was looking for an ultra-portable ra- lower than the Australian band, covering 76 to 108MHz. MW tuning can be set to either 9 or 10kHz increments, dio receiver with AM, FM, shortwave and hopefully single sideband (SSB) that would not take much room in my all handy features if travelling overseas. Either way, it certainly was quick to thumb the “ETM” button and lock airline luggage. The smallest radio I could find which fit the bill was the in all the strong FM stations in a moment. FM Stereo is pocket-sized Tecsun PL-365, which is about 50mm wide available through headphones and a display on the LCD by 159mm high and 25mm deep. It’s the latest release from screen indicates this. The LCD screen can provide a good deal of information, Tecsun, replacing the PL360 which was almost identical including the time, local temperature, memory functions in appearance but lacks SSB. This little radio looks a bit like an old FM “walkie-talk- as well as signal strength and signal-to-noise, displayed in ie”, and does have a handy belt clip provided on the back dB. When any button is pressed the screen illuminates for of the case. It apparently uses the same Si4735 processor a few seconds with a backlit orange glow which is quite as its big brother, the PL-880 (costing nearly three times useful in low light. The PL-365 comes with several accessories: a soft pouch, the price) and the performance of this little radio is quite a pair of ‘bud’ style earphones, a four metre wire antenna pleasing for something so small! The radio fits comfortably in the hand or even the shirt which clips to the whip to improve shortwave reception pocket and if you are right handed the two thumbwheels and a ‘high sensitivity AM antenna’ which is a bar antenna for volume and tuning are ergonomically positioned in fitted with a small phono jack. This inserts in the top of just the right spot. Most of the other menu controls are on the radio next to the headphone socket. I found the local reception on AM to be perfectly adthe front of the radio, just under the orange backlit screen positioned at the top of the receiver. The lower part of the equate without the bar antenna – but it did boost the signal by several dB when I plugged it in. In practice, I could case houses the three “AA” batteries required. Tuning is via the thumbwheel or by using the “Easy Tun- only “see” the signal had become stronger on the meter – I ing Mode” (ETM) which seeks out the strongest stations didn’t notice any change in the audio, but that was on a and locks them into memory (there’s enough memory for local station anyway. In my area the AM band is fairly 550 stations). crowded and I have not used the bar I found this easy to use and it will be by Andrew Mason antenna. This high sensitivity antenna quite handy on the MW and VHF (FM) 70  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au A close-up of the display and pushbutton controls. Both are excellent. Accessories include a soft case, ear buds, long wire antenna and a directional AM antenna (top centre), shown in situ in the photo below. I noted extra strength on the meter but to be honest, didn’t notice much difference to the ear. would be much more useful for DX stations and could also be used to enhance selectivity by twisting it to receive one station over another. Of course you could also use the socket to connect a different AM antenna, so long as you fitted it with the appropriate 3.5mm plug. The main reason I purchased this radio was that it had continuous SW reception and included SSB. Pressing the SSB button selects the upper sideband, pressing it again selects the lower. I tried the receiver on the 20 metre band in the afternoon when it was opening and was pleased to hear an Italian amateur station coming through strongly. The inbuilt telescopic whip antenna works well for both FM and SW but adding the extra 10m wire antenna did improve reception further on SW. Moving around or trying to run the wire in different directions can have an effect so it may be worthwhile to play around here. On SW the frequency is displayed in kHz at the bottom of screen. In SSB mode pressing the ‘display’ button cycles through various options for additional information including showing signal strength for a few seconds before returning to side-band setting. A beat frequency oscillator (BFO) is provided to tweak the sideband. I found most times this was unnecessary but it is very useful to have and I did use it a couple of times to improve readability of some stations (to near perfect tone). Pressing the BFO button causes the feature to flash on the screen and turning the tuning thumbwheel adjusts the setting. The method is the same for any of the menu buttons. The wire antenna is fitted with a clip designed to attach to the telescopic antenna, while a spring-loaded plastic clip is provided at ‘the high end’ to attach to some suitably lofty point. Because the radio itself is so small and siliconchip.com.au light, the antenna wire can pull it over, through its own weight or in the merest breeze. This is not a problem if you’re holding the radio but is something to be aware of if you place the receiver down on a table. On the side of the radio is a miniUSB port which can accept 5V power from a PC or one of those ubiquitous USB chargers (not supplied). The radio uses three AA batteries and if you’re using rechargeable Ni-MH batteries you can charge them in the radio by using the USB input and holding the charge button until ‘CHR ON’ displays. I use alkaline batteries as I find they have longer shelf life than rechargeable batteries while I’m travelling. The battery cover did seem a bit flimsy and the small lugs, or notches in the plastic which hold it in place did not fill me with confidence that they would stand much abuse so changing batteries should be done with care. Perhaps rechargeables would be better in that way, in that you would have to open the back less often if you charge them in-situ. I compared the PL-365 with another Tecsun portable I have, the larger PL-600. The tone of the larger radio is obviously far superior because it has a much bigger speaker than the PL-365, which is necessarily small in such a compact radio. That said, the sound from the 40mm speaker is not too harsh and is perfectly audible. While the PL-600 has a slightly longer telescopic antenna I found the little PL-365 to be fairly comparable in reception when using both radios with just their inbuilt antennas alone. While the PL600 has a local/DX and wide/narrow settings which the smaller radio doesn’t have, I found the little PL-365 to have pretty good sensitivity and selectivity and this might be down to the design (which includes the Si4737 DSP chip from Silicon Labs in the USA). The published specs state that selectivity is better than 60dB across all the bands and sensitivity on SSB is less than 3µV. For what it is, the PL-365 is a pleasing little receiver; it has good coverage and useful functions in a very small and lightweight package. It’s perfect for travelling when you can’t take a bigger rig with you and retailing for under $90, it promises to fill a gap for the shortwave enthusiast who likes to travel by plane. The Tecsun PL-365 is available from Tecsun Radios Australia, www.tecsunradios.com.au and retails for $88.00. SC June 2016  71