TECSUNPL-360 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black

I ordered this radio so I could have a good emergency radio. The characteristics I was looking for were: Compact, lightweight, coverage of FM/AM/Shortwave, and easy to use.I'll touch first on what you want a radio to do, which is be a radio. My favorite feature of this radio, especially on shortwave is the ETM button. The ETM feature allows you to scan the whole band (or multiple bands on SW) for stations that are coming through. This is especially useful for shortwave since the content you can receive varies greatly based on time of day, and solar conditions. So before I sit down to start listening I just perform an ETM scan of the shortwave band (give it about 2 minutes to complete the scan, you can watch what freq it's on with the display), and then I can just dial through the handful of stations I am receiving instead of tuning around endlessly looking for something. this feature isn't as needed for FM and AM since the stations you listen to in your area are pretty much always there. Great for travel, though.It seems sensitive enough. I like the fact that it actually displays the signal strength and signal to noise ratio on the screen so you can adjust the position of the radio, or your antenna as needed to really lock in to the signal. Also, having a digital display is a huge advantage in SW so you know exactly where you are in the band instead of guessing more or less.The included external AM antenna works great, but generally I can pick the signal up by just rotating the radio around a bit until it sounds clear. But since AM reception is highly directional having the external antenna on in the headphone style jack is nice so you can just twist that around instead of your whole radio.I was also pleasantly surprised to see that hitting the display button rotated through several options including the temperature, which as near as I can tell is accurate.As other reviewers have stated, it's about the size of a TV remote which makes it very easy to stow away in a small compartment in any of my backpacks, or a magazine pouch on a vest. It's not heavy, but it's not so light that it feels flimsy. I haven't tried throwing it against any walls, but it doesn't feel like it's going to come apart in my hands.On the note of its physical build, there's one thing about it that I really like that I hadn't thought of before ordering it. The expandable whip antenna is housed inside the radio. So if you have the antenna pushed all the way in to the unit, it's not going to catch on things and get torqued off while stowed away with other gear. One downside to this is that it doesn't rotate but I haven't really found the need to gripe about that in practical application.I've had the radio for a little over a week now, and I'm still on the same 3 AA rechargeable batteries that I put it in when it arrived, and the battery gauge is still showing full. I use it for a couple of hours daily.The only two cons I can come up with are: It uses 3 batteries, which makes it odd for using batteries that you recharge in pairs or fours since you don't want to mix weak batteries with full batteries, and you can't directly enter a frequency. This is only slightly painful on shortwave, but you can use the band up and down buttons to get you within thumbwheel scrolling distance. I also wish it had SSB receive capability, but for its size and price I couldn't expect it.All in all, this is a great radio that does everything I want it to do! You'll get to hear plenty of distant shortwave stations with the included clip on antenna, or you can do yourself a favor and get an alligator clip and a spool of magnet wire to run outside (but not too much, or you'll overload it.) Have fun!

I bought this Tecsun PL-360 radio back in 2013 from Amazon as an impulse buy. I liked the compact size, scanner configuration, shortwave coverage, and the neat little AM loopstick antenna, and I still do.This radio receives AM, FM and SW broadcasts remarkably well considering its size and cost. AM is the radio's strong point, I think. I've gotten AM broadcasts at over 1,000 miles from the transmitter using the optional plug-in loopstick that comes with the radio. One other useful attribute of that plug-in loopstick: when attached to the PL-360, you can use the radio on AM band to locate EMI noise in your houseOn shortwave and FM, you are limited to using the whip antenna, either by itself or in conjunction with the included clip-on wire antenna, since there is no SW or FM external antenna jack. Despite this, I was still able to hear SW broadcasts from Europe at night. Newer radios such as the XHData D-808 clearly beat out the PL-360 on both SW and AM reception, but it's not a deaf receiver by any means, and clearly superior to all the Degen/Kaito radios I have tried. Those who complain the PL-360's reception is inferior to their $200 lunchbox-size portable are being a bit ridiculous IMHO.As to reliability, mine's functioned flawlessly for ten years. Modern mass production quality is very hit-or-miss, so I don't discount the one-star reviews from folks who received a radio with poorly soldered joints or broken wires. So I'll just say that if you get one that has been properly assembled, the PL-360 is a very reliable radio.

The media could not be loaded. Useful for on the road or while hiking. Nice ETM function. Useful instructions in a small pamphlet. Comes with an mw/lw external antenna, telescoping fm antenna, and an external fm/sw antenna, and very basic headphones. Suggest buying a SW antenna with this radio. I bought the Sangean ANT-60. Can be held and operated with one hand. Eats through batteries because clock and temperature monitor are always on. Has a DC 5V jack on the side.I'm happy with this purchase. Good reception on all bands.