There’s been quite a stir with questions on social media about a new radio model from Tecsun, the PL-520. At first glance, it looks like a PL-330 with rounder corners, gray instead of black.
Closer examination discloses a kickstand on the back and a new heart-shaped label on a button with the word “[FAVOURITE]” above, placed where the PL-330 “AM BW” was. AM bandwidth is been moved to where the former USB button resided. On the PL-520 instead of separate buttons for LSB and USB, there is a single LSB/USB button. So, the button count is the same as for the PL-330.
The AliExpress product photo suggests the manual is in Chinese. My original PL-330 manual was in Chinese too.
According to Tom Stiles (Tom’s Radio Room on YouTube) Anna of Anon-co has told him that that there are additional bandwidth selections: 5 kHz on LW/MW and 6 kHz on SW.
Why not buy?
One thing is that firmware on new Tecsun radios often changes and early adopters get left out for some later goodies. [Update: the firmware version is 5202.] Also the lack of an English language manual is a bummer. It would cost $80, and I’d never use it — I barely use the PL-330, deferring to the PL-990 or the DX-286 for most things.
So one more for you guys to buy.
From a YouTube video on it, it soft mutes or “chuffs” while tuning. And on FM there is no RDS. No reason for either of those! I’ll pass…
The same as the PL-330.
The current version is for the Chinese domestic market. Anna told me there will be a later international version, presumably with an English manual.
Maybe a PL-520X?
Tecsun added an “X” for the PL-990 international version, but they don’t seem to do that for lower-end models. IIRC, the PL-990 and PL-990X have (small) functional differences, while the lower-end models differ only in the text printed on the radio and the language in the accompanying manuals.