The Tecsun PL600 SSB Receiver
Tecsun PL600 SSB Receiver
Opening
Shortwave radio broadcasts still abound in the shortwave bands despite the growing use of the internet and internet related content sources such as YouTube. The Tecsun PL600 allows you to explore radio beyond the AM and FM bands.
Let’s start with a couple of concepts before we take a look at the Tecsun PL 600 portable shortwave radio receiver.
Radio Bands
One of the terms you are familiar with is the band in which a radio frequency lies. What you may be less familiar with is that there are a lot more bands than just the AM and FM bands on your car’s radio.
A portable shortwave radio has circuitry that allows you to tune in stations operating on those bands that are less familiar to many people.
The bands covered with the Tecsun 600 include low frequency, medium frequency, high frequency and very high frequency signals.
You’ll find most of the stations you’ll want to listen to within these bands. For example, normal AM broadcast stations are in the medium frequency band, shortwave broadcasts are in the high frequency bands, and FM radio stations are in the Very High Frequency bands as are air traffic control and air navigation transmitters.
Within these labels, the term band and frequency are inversely related. For example, a high frequency signal has a relatively short wave length, thus the high frequency band is where you find short wave stations.
Low frequency bands have long wave stations.
The Tecsun PL600 allows you to access 14 international shortwave broadcast bands in addition to normal AM and FM bands. As described in the instructions, shortwave bands have better propagation at different times of the day according to properties of the ionosphere and their transmission frequencies.
Another term you’ll see is single side band or SSB. A station transmitting a single side band signal. Basically, with an AM signal, that is amplitude modulation, the signal is made up of three parts. Part one is the carrier. Parts two and three are the upper and lower edges of the carrier.
Single side band transmitters are able to place the information in the AM signal into either the upper or lower sideband thus narrowing the bandwidth of the signal and making it more efficient. This requires more complex transmitters and receivers and makes tuning the frequency a bit more difficult as the receiver only needs to receive a much smaller portion of the signals bandwidth as compared to an AM signal. Many small portable shortwave radios don’t include this tuning circuitry.
The Tecsun PL600 does include this tuning circuitry, though. An SSB signal is tuned by tuning the frequency on the main display and then using the SSB tuning know to shift the received frequency either up or down a bit until the signal comes through clearly. This becomes an important feature if you plan on listening to ham radio conversations which are often broadcast in either upper or lower sideband depending on the frequency being used.
So with some key concepts addressed, why bother with shortwave listening?
Using the PL600 for Short Wave Listening
The folks who spend a lot of time listening to and for shortwave broadcasts do so for many reasons. Among the most popular is that they can hear for themselves both news and cultural programming from around the world to better understand people from other countries. Short of visiting the countries in person, spending time listening to broadcasts from both government and commercial sources can provide insights into how others see the world and the events that occur.
Other shortwave listeners are focused on understanding the science of radio propagation. By keeping track of what countries they are hearing, on what frequency bands they are hearing them and when those contacts occur, they can draw conclusions about what is happening in our atmosphere and our little corner of the solar system.
Still others enjoy searching for stations from parts of the world they have yet to hear from. Often referred to DXing, for distance listening, these listeners keep track of each contact and strive to listen to stations from various areas of the world.
So with these concepts explained, let’s take a look at the Tecsun PL 600 to see how this portable shortwave receiver might meet your needs – whatever they are.
I’ve found the Tecsun 600 does a great job at pulling in AM broadcast stations and local FM stations. In fact, it does a great job as a table radio for your desk or study.
PL600 Listening
You need to be aware of a couple of things about the HF bands right now, however. We’re in the tail end of a low sunspot cycle so radio propagation has been negatively affected for a couple of years. Solar activity impacts ionization in the atmosphere and that impact how well radio waves travel around the globe. Ham radio operators have complained that it takes a bit more effort to gather contacts from long distances. The Tecsun’s collapsing antenna doesn’t do a very good job in the HF bands in this sunspot environment.
The included long wire antenna does much better, but contacts can still be hard to come by. I use a smart phone app that displays scheduled HF broadcasts by time of day and from where they originate. I’ve been able to catch a few of them. I’ve also been able to listen in on some Ham Radio conversations and what hams call nets. Nets are scheduled radio rendezvous on a particular frequency to just chat or discuss a subject of common interest.
You also need to be aware that you may or may not be able to receive a scheduled broadcast if the broadcaster has directed the signal toward a certain geographical area. If you’re not within that targeted area, you may not be able to get good reception.
I’ve got an upcoming review planned on an external loop antenna that is supposed to be able to pull in more distant stations and is well within the budget of even casual listeners. I’m anxious to give that a try.
PL600 Upgrades
There are a number of online reviews comparing the Tecsun PL 600 with the Tecsun PL660. In looking at the primary differences, it seemed to me the primary one was the inclusion of the air traffic control frequencies. If you have an interest in aviation and live near an airport, that extra feature might be worth the additional cost.
Additionally, the extra $50 dollars or so might not be a big deal to you. In that case, the PL 660 is a good choice, too.
On the other hand, if you are just getting your feet wet in the shortwave listening hobby and aren’t sure how deeply you’ll get into it, the PL 600 looks like a very good entry level receiver for a reasonable price.
