Posted on 06/16/2012 10:16:42 AM PDT by mylife
This is a pretty neat little radio.
The first thing I did was peel off the goofy ETM sticker in the lower left face of the thing, but this ETM is awesome.
It scans the entire SW band and puts all active stations into memory.
Then you just spin the tuning knob and it wheels through the memory.
It needs CW and SSB but this thing is pretty neat, especially for folks that don't want to futz around searching the bands.
Stereo speakers,SW LW MW FM, Recharges via USB, 2 alarms, thermometer, line input and 5 IF filter settings.
The PL 398 is the same price and has MP3
Thats what makes ETM so cool
Do you know what other differences between 390 and 398?
As near as I can tell the pl 398 has the MP3 option but doesn’t use the thermometer option.
They are based on the same silicon labs DSP chip
Awesome.
Uh, breaker 1-9..... You got a copy on me pigpen?
Looks like you need about a 2.5 ton A/C just to keep that room cool and comfy.
That Sony ICF-SW1 is a sweet little radio. I’ve heard good things about the PL-390 and plan on getting one.
Yep, thats it.
I really like the unit when we take the motor home up to the remote high country. Patch it into the RV stereo system late at night and get all kinds of reception, the AM/FM sound it pulls in is hard to beat too.
Nope, just 15kBTU for summer and a pellet stove for winter. 57 inch Mitsu diamond and kegerator for entertainment. My old man cave. :)
Happy Fathers Day Everyone!
BUT I really want to find a good deal on a FT-817 and build a travel kit around that (only because I can't justify the expense of an Elecraft KX-3)!
Our local Skywarn group uses some acreage at the nearby Boy Scout camp, plenty of room for antennas! I bring out the ol' desert rat loaded with copper & aluminum and build on the spot. Last year it was so hot (114F) we mostly put up smaller ready made antennas. This year I'm hoping for cooler weather!
The PL 600 is fantastic and its my main go to general coverage portable.
I just thought the ETM on the 390 was cool and it is cool.
Degen 1103 (also branded Kaito 1103)
The signal strength meter is also accurate over about an 80 dB range +- 1 dB (compared with the attenuator/signal from an HP 8640B sig gen) ... for anybody making FS (field strength) measurements, and with a little work, an antenna factor could be worked up and the radio would then be a portable FS meter ...
While this is a great little radio, I managed to break the tuning dial on it.
No big deal since I can still use direct entry tuning of ETMS
I can not find a replacement knob.
I know I can fix it with a little know how.
At any rate, I have been carrying the PL 600 daily for years now and it is by far, the best ,most robust little radio I have ever owned.
It is Larger which is its only drawback, but it is superior in sound and has SSB.
I give it 5 Stars.
I have the silver version of the PL-390. For anyone who may have experienced freezing problems, below is a review I wrote on Amazon.
I was really digging the PL-390 radio until I also encountered freezing problems. I played with the different settings trying to see if anything could be causing the freezing. Finally success came with turning off the “charging function” of the radio (with the radio power turned off, press and hold the “M” button until can see “CHR OFF” on the lcd screen display). Overall this has pretty much eliminated the freezing of this radio. I did experience freezing once so far when I powered on the radio, but once I pressed the power button to turn off the radio, then pressed the power button again it successfully turned on the radio without having to remove the batteries. At this time I am still experimenting with this solution, but want to pass this information on to everyone.
UPDATE: (Oct. 11, 2013) Usually when my radio is left overnight, it would freeze in the morning, and would need to have it’s batteries removed and reinserted again before it will work again. This is the first morning it did not freeze and it works perfectly. As mentioned earlier about my experience with my radio freezing the one time after changing the “charge function” to off, it may have been due to an internal switching from “on” to “off” that initially caused a glitch. Once it made the switch, I did not experience any more freezing with my radio. Since I use rechargeable batteries, the downside is now the “battery indicator” meter will not accurately tell me the state of the batteries. So I just ignore the battery meter and my radio is working just fine.
UPDATE: (Oct. 12, 2013) So far so good, have experienced no more freezing. The PL-390 is the main radio I listen to in FM. It receives the stations with no problems, and I also use an external wire antenna (I use a wire antenna from another radio, but this one comes with one). The sounds from the two speakers are nice and easy to listen to, but there is no tone control switch on the radio. It is not a boom box, I keep the volumes between 8-12 (the volume dial is rotated in increments and a volume number is displayed on the lcd screen) which is equivalent to modest to medium levels (don’t want the risk of blowing out these nice small speakers). The two speakers “stereo effects” for what it is works in a small way, but it is pleasing. The sounds from the speakers is fine for the bedroom or smaller spaces. To tune into stations, I just use the keypad, I do not use the memory settings. The battery compartment can accomodate larger sized AA batteries (the other radios I have that have tight fitting battery compartments, I use the Sanyo AA batteries, they are the right size and works great).
Thanks for the tech tips.
All of the digitally controlled radios loose their mind from time to time.
They should just have a reset microprocessor button that is recessed.
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