The 39-page 2021 Ultralight Radio Shootout review is available for download! Fully detailed reviews of the XHDATA D-808, Radiwow R-108, C. Crane Skywave (Basic and SSB), Tecsun PL-330 and the Tecsun PL-380 are included, with honest descriptions of the strong and weak points of every model. Finally, a detailed Shootout section compares each model's MW sensitivity, MW selectivity, FM sensitivity, SW sensitivity and AIR band sensitivity in fight to the finish! The Final Verdicts tell you who is still standing--- and why! https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/8y6855bnfmy45rnk46mzr7hb4pwjz8u8

Good DX to All,
Gary DeBock, N7EKX
Ultralight Radio Group Co-Founder

The 39-page 2021 Ultralight Radio Shootout review is available for download! Fully detailed reviews of the XHDATA D-808, Radiwow R-108, C. Crane Skywave (Basic and SSB), Tecsun PL-330 and the Tecsun PL-380 are included, with honest descriptions of the strong and weak points of every model. Finally, a detailed Shootout section compares each model's MW sensitivity, MW selectivity, FM sensitivity, SW sensitivity and AIR band sensitivity in fight to the finish! The Final Verdicts tell you who is still standing--- and why! https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/8y6855bnfmy45rnk46mzr7hb4pwjz8u8

Good DX to All,
Gary DeBock, N7EKX
Ultralight Radio Group Co-Founder

The 39-page 2021 Ultralight Radio Shootout review is available for download! Fully detailed reviews of the XHDATA D-808, Radiwow R-108, C. Crane Skywave (Basic and SSB), Tecsun PL-330 and the Tecsun PL-380 are included, with honest descriptions of the strong and weak points of every model. Finally, a detailed Shootout section compares each model's MW sensitivity, MW selectivity, FM sensitivity, SW sensitivity and AIR band sensitivity in fight to the finish! The Final Verdicts tell you who is still standing--- and why! https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/8y6855bnfmy45rnk46mzr7hb4pwjz8u8

Good DX to All,
Gary DeBock, N7EKX
Ultralight Radio Group Co-Founder

<<<   I'm not an advocate for the Tecsun PL-330 largely because I totally hate its soft mute function. However one can reduce its effect by off-tuning the frequency or switching to SSB even on AM (and zero beating on frequency). Sync reception is often useless but can be improved, station by station, using the frequency alignment function (done in SSB mode). Overall if one learns these tweaks, although tiresome, it can become a lot more useful radio especially when combined with an external antenna which I note ultraliters often carry around anyway (eg passive loop). Another quirk/feature is different bandwidths in SSB mode which if one zero-beats an AM station then offers better selectivity than the AM bandwidths and better reception than Sync. Finally a small piece of plastic superglued onto those bandwidth and ETM buttons makes the radio so much easier to use.
An English manual and the "hidden features" discovered by users is posted here... 
https://ultralightdx.groups.io/g/main/files/3%20Radios,%20Reviews,%20Manuals/Radio%20Manuals/Tecsun%20PL-330   >>>

Thanks Gavin,

Like you, I'm not much impressed with the PL-330 overall, mainly because I think that Tecsun could have worked out these design and construction quirks (that you describe) before marketing the radio. The radio does have some strong points (as described in the Shootout), but unless you must have SSB and don't want to pay a little more for the far superior XHDATA D-808, there isn't much point in purchasing this model.

Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)

Mike,

It's funny that you mention the Satellit 800 and E1 because they are top performers and the E1 was a breakthrough in some ways, as a portable with Sync which worked (very well) in three modes (Upper, Lower and Dual Sideband), plus Passband tuning and variable AGC timing. I have no other portables with all these features so although I wish they hadn't had the problems, when you got a good one (as most were) you have something really special. I still have my Sat 800 and two E1's and although I had to remove the sticky mess on my E1's I would never part with them.

Also consider that more often than not these problems are blown out of proportion on the internet. Think about the Sony 2010. It's an excellent radio but you can read for days about issues they were susceptible to. It is unfortunate it had these issues but the 2010 still stands as a great radio.

But to get to your point, I don't think the PL-330 is liable to be problematic because of its features which are all part of a DSP chip...these features are there to be enabled or not enabled by the designers and you could disable them and not materially affect the reliability of the radio.

Jay