Mini SSB Receiver TECSUN PL-330⚡️Hidden Features⚡️

The TECSUN PL-330 (firmware 3306) is wideband LongWave , MiddleWave and ShortWave pocket receiver + FM Broadcast band.
In this video I will show you how to turn the hidden features on. In the second part of the video you can see and hear how this nice little radio receives on different bands and modulations.

Tecsun PL-330 Radio FM/LW/SW/MW - SSB all-band radio:

Here you can download the english guide:

Yenkee tripod used to support the radio:

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Thank you for watching, 73!

#tecsun #PL330 #hiddenFeatures

[oscorpiono]

I can forgive the imperfections in the PL-330 due to it's cheap price and also it's tiny size but I can't forgive the PL-880 ( cost at the time of release ) the S-8800 or the PL-990x and especially Tecsun's ( flagship ) H501x due to the poor audio quality on SSB, the distortion and the fact much of the bass frequencies have been cut making the audio very thin sounding. There's plenty of space in the 501x for an improved analogue design with analogue components but these engineers think that a Radio-on-a-chip is fantastic because it minimises component count and cost but the real cost is to the consumer due to the awful sounding SSB audio quality. These engineers have no idea how a radio is supposed to sound especially on SSB and the sad thing is that many People will never have had an Analogue radio with no DSP and might think this poor audio quality is "normal" !

What's really remarkable about the PL-330 is how well it handles strong signals with external antenna, it does have it's limitations and there's no attenuator but if you compare the PL-310et with the 330 especially at night with external antenna, the PL-310et falls to pieces with strong signals, the 330 can handle much stronger signals.

For long term use the 330 tuning muting would drive me insane especially for listening to radio Hams, the auto tune function does work well though and the neat thing about the auto tune is that it remembers the time of day you do a scan so when you recall in the afternoon it recalls the stations that were scanned in the day and when you do a night scan when you recall the stations in the night it will pull in the stations it scanned whatever night you scanned them.

When doing auto tune/scan "ETM" the bandwidth determined the sensitivity of the scan, for example, if you have the bandwidth set at 1 Khz that's the most sensitive, 6 khz would be least sensitive and pull in only the stongest stations.

The Belka is a really good receiver and it's incredibly small with none of the distortion or bass cut off in the audio, the only real negatives I would give it is that the audio filters are limited to 4 Khz even on AM which is a shame but ECSS really does sound good on the Belka.

Another thing with the Belka is the tiny design means less buttons and more multi function buttons but it's understandable due to it's tiny size.

The best sounding would be the Malahit DSP 2, the DSP 3 is available to oder now, the Malahit is really amazing but it really needs an external antenna. It's an amazing radio though, I just wish someone would make a similar radio in a big box with big forward facing speakers, knobs and buttons.

One of my favorite radios is the Tecsun PL-680, due to it's pure analogue design, the audio is as you would expect, "pure" free from bass cut-off on SSB and free from distortion, there is no way I would recommend a DSP radio over a PL-680 because the PL-680 allows proper SYNC detector and ECSS works amazingly well, ECSS on DSP radios sounds awful and for the serious DX'ew and SWL enthusiast ECSS is essential. The Pl-680 and a good external antenna like the Bonito MA305 will make an excellent DX SWL radio that sounds great.

On a positive note, the 330, 990x and H501x work well with external antennas on LW/MW once you enable the function in the hidden menu. The 680 has no connectivity to external antenna on LW/MW.

[mcdeadsquirrel]

More: I like your slow and concise way of speaking. Easy to understand. Thank you, again.

[CarlosFelipeRequiao]

Thanks for your helpful video. I think I found two other 'Hidden Functions': When the radio is ON, pressing the number 7 on the keyboard activates a type of RF Gain that can be set from 30 up to 63. Additionally, when in SW and ETM modes on the screen, pressing and holding key 6 for about 5 seconds enables a sensitivity scale from 1 to 4 for the ETM scan.

[tomcruiser]

All Tecsuns are pretty much the same. But this one has a really cool size. Thanks for the great video.

[Michel-rm]

Just ordered one and probably be amazed on how small it is.

Fun little radio 😀

[amercalifa]

Thank you so much! My TECSUN PL-330 (firmware 3306) with tipe-C and 1200ma battery. Very good works. I just soldered a 4F and 5.5V supercapacitor in parallel to the battery. This way the battery lasts longer.. I also have a Retekess TR-110, but it’s a very dull sensitive baby, a toy and not a radio.

[pyswl]

Great video. Thanks for sharing with us. I would like to ask if you could make a new video, showing us how to use the SW, LSB/USB, SYNC, ATS and Step functions. Thank you very much. 73 from Brazil. 🇧🇷

[robinj.]

The radios do very well with an external antenna. Even a simple length of wire will help. I use from 30 feet, up to 75 feet or so, for my "Long Wire" antenna. The socket on the left side seems best.

[SangiTariq]

I also have this radio. But I do not use it in detail. Your video increased my interest in this radio. I will usually use it. Thanks for the informative video

[walter]

Reminds me of the old Sony silver receiver radios of about 20+ years ago

[wasylbakowsky]

This is one of the best videos on the PL-330 that I've seen, I learned so many of the finer nuances to this radio. However, I must say, you still need to peel off that damn sticker covering the bottom left of the speaker, lol!

[UnderTheBigOak]

I love my PL-330. I have looked at review after review on the more expensive models, and except for the muted tuning the 330 does with the VFO, the receive and features are so good (especially on my outdoor antenna). I would easily buy another rather than 'upgrade' to a more expensive one.

[sherlock]

This was very informative. My Tecsun PL330 arrives tomorrow. Cheers!

[johnm]

Excellent radio for the price £37 just received mine and has 3307 firmware, type C charging input and the step, ETM buttons are now raised 😊 👍

[exodus]

More power to you sir paul, i like the way you explained things, your new subscriber from the philippines..

[Rossful]

muted tuning can be overlooked the tecsun pl-330 is an excellent receiver and beats out many other radios

[gamlemann]

Hallo Paul! I have this radio, and your video helped me a lot! Thank's for that. It shoud be fun if you made a video trying the difrence between the internal antenna, and your magnet loop antenna. I tryed this with mine Tecsun 330, and it a huge difrence! (I used a longwire). The best from LB1NH. 🙂

[larrybragg]

Thank you for this demonstration! I have one and enjoy it very much. I've learned alot with the hidden features. I just wish the AM filters were available for SSB

[lew]

Excellent tutorial sir, the best review I have seen of this radio.
New subscriber, best regards from Scotland
Thanks

[clickerbootsmoir]

So cute that I'm going to do a broadway tap dance ❤