Tecsun PL200 radio review

Here is an more detailed review from my posting in http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3691

As zach0000

I am happy user of a PL 200 which has been repaired and enhanced by Degen /Tecsun team after a claim of nearly defunct operation in the MW band if I remember correctly (it is about 6 years ago! ). It is one of a broad series of products of Degen and Tecsun I bought the older times (2005 -2007)

This radio has been severely used the older times for several years it was used as alarm radio(!!!) till recently then again (after August 11 ) used as replacement of the 1102 and the new 600 and now is my favourite and easier to take in my pocket .The latest period it has been used more for listening the news due to highly political situation here in Greece

This is a tiny small radio cassette sized radio , though quite thicker with buttons the size of a child’s fingers which is a a little difficult to be used in relatively thick fingers as mine !I have to use my nails … Most buttons are abt 4x2 mm .

Here are several pictures from the radio:

The keyboard , including the frequency and band change. the up and down offer the sleep time as refred later in this page

Frm the left: Lock switch , tone switch (good audio with the Sony ears ), tuning knob and volume on the lower layer

Ears socket , mains pwer socket , 3 step attenuator .Dont forget as the radio has a tremendous preampifiaction to overload easily , therefore use the H setting sparingly

and a reset button on the bottom should any thing happen

and the LCd display. With the radio off , battery level is shown . two clocks ,one for ral time and the upper right for alarm

==

Here are several feature of the radio:

Power on :

-Pressing once , the radio enters in the sleep mode that can be adjusted by the up down buttons (same is used for 500 and 600 models ) with times of 15 30 45 60 90 120 minutes

-Pressing for 3 secs the radio operates continuously

Memories:

-It uses 200 Memories splitted to a base of 20 or 25 per bank . A new memory is added using the <mem & edit> button at the left bottom

-Changing memories is made with the up down buttons

Bands : bands are changed using the FM MW SW band button above the 200 logo . Changing Sw bands is made by the left button

Freq dialing:

-Using the keyboard it requires the typical old style of pressing the <enter> freq <enter>sequence

-Freq steps is 0.05 MHz in FM and 1 kHz in Am bands using the rotary knob . The up down buttons are used for fast scanning with steps of 0.1 MHz and 5 kHz respectively

-There is some mismatch to the freq and the tuned signal . I find an offset by +0.5 to +1 kHz from the tuned freq in AM and up to +0.2 mHz in FM

Band sensitivity and selectivity

-With the adjustment from Tecsun its MW reception outperforms al other radios I used so far . I kept the original 500-1700 kHz bandwidth in order to receive the Greek radio pirates . Signals from the pirates can be received with full signal (indication ) level !

-IN AM the selectivity is abt 4 kHz

-Comparing to PL 600 FM selectivity is broader in FM but in most cases it has quite good reception . Its sensitivity in FM is also quite good

Audio quality:

-In Am audio is relatively harsh Notice that I always use the best audio MDR 755 Sony ears to listen

-In FM audio is not as good as 1102 though sounds pretty well with the 929 or the SONY MDR earphones. They are more ‘bassy’ with some less treble

And a diversity /comparison test with 1102

Here is a mini test with DE 1102 . I used my older technique with the parallel listening using two out used 919 earphones , from my ear collection as shown in the picture above.

I used the same audio channel for testing and found these :

FM: Even this way there is some audio spatiality , first in between bass and trebles . It sounded still as stereo sensitivity could not be tested as all signals here are very strong

MW : First I did a made a ears ‘midpoint’ sound using same level in both earphones using at first a strong signal say from 1044 kHz then tested in all band . MY 1102 has some burn in problem on all Am bands as it requires for unknown reason about 1 hour to restore its sensitivity. For this reason I used my in –laws other copies of 1102 to make the test by using the same technique . I found that PL200 lacks some sensitivity in the lower MW band, IN higher MW band there is a higher amplification level than 1102 with nearly similar sensitivity for both .

SW: the burn in found to be more prone to the sensitivity problem . The technique with a strong signal to establish a midpoint sound was not working IN SW properly and required different settings for higher band surveys . ie spanning by at least two band zones is necessary to readjust the ‘mid point’ . Anyway I found that in several unnoticed bands PL200 has some more sensitivity than 1102 (ie signal is above radio’s threshold )