In a post here on my blog, during the early Winter of 2022, I mentioned that I was thinking about possibly purchasing a new Shortwave radio. I had looked for a backup mini-boombox style SW radio for my Grundig G2. As I've also written here, my Grundig G2 is sort of my "go to" radio for Shortwave, because it's handy, sounds good on headphones, it's easy to tune the SW bands with it (it tunes channel by channel, in 5 kHz steps), and works really well on Shortwave just off the whip antenna.
Looking over the offerings online, I saw the Tecsun PL-398MP, a small, black, mini-boombox style AM-FM-SW-LW radio with MP3 capability -- with small stereo speakers and several interesting features. It was quite similar to the Grundig G2 in many ways.
I ended up buying it, as it was on sale for around $70 US. The sale price made me happy, as I am not loaded with money. The radio arrived on December 12th, 2022 (two days after my late father's birthday). Since then, I've had plenty of experience with the radio. That said, I am pleased with the purchase.
Although the radio is officially the PL-398MP, I will mostly refer to it as the PL-398 here.
The '398' in the PL-398 model number is ironic, in that one of the best Sangean made portables was the Radio Shack DX-398. Although the two radios are completely unrelated in design and maker, this Tecsun pretty much lives up to the Realistic DX-398's abilities, at least on FM and SW, and it's close enough on MW to be a DX radio.
The Tecsun PL-398MP the night I got it, Dec. 12th, 2022. The LED lighting works nicely, although I switched it off to save on batteries. It even lights up the keys. Pretty cool. It's tuned in this picture to the local FM alt-rock station KNDD 107.7, which was famous during the grunge era in the 1990's.
THE TECSUN PL-398 -- THE BASICS
First off, the Tecsun PL-398, designed in the very early 2010's, is not one of the more popular Tecsun radios. There was little info online about it. Most of the information I saw on it that wasn't in the Amazon description was in the Amazon reviews. Most SWLs seem to prefer the other Tecsun models, the PL-600, PL660, Pl-880 etc.
There were a couple short article / reviews here and there, but none of them went into much detail about the PL-398, or how it feels to actually DX or SWL with it.
That, of course, didn't stop me from trying out the PL-398. It was a mini-boombox, had AM-FM-SW-LW, and MP3 capability. The price was right. Tecsun has a good rep, after all. So I bought it. I was pleasantly surprised.
First off, the radio seems very well put together. It's a little bigger, and thicker than my Grundig G2 -- about 7-8 inches long, 3 inches tall, and maybe 3/4 of an inch thick (19 cm by 9 cm by maybe 2-3 cm).
This radio has some features I hadn't seen before. The radio has a built-in thermometer, which gives you readings in either Fahrenheit degrees or degrees Centigrade (Celsius). On my PL-398, the thermometer appears to be reasonably accurate, at least when compared to two of my other three thermometers (my porch thermometer seems to have started to buy the farm, it's about 4C / 10F off, reading lower than the real temp).
The PL-398's thermometer actually is a helpful addition, but you buy a radio for the radio -- right?
The PL-398MP has a signal strength meter which gives you the readings in dBu and dB. I'm still trying to figure out the significance of the readings, but it's a cool feature. So far it seems that dBu is the total signal (background static and noise plus broadcast signal); while the dB is mainly the strength of just the broadcast signal alone.
The PL-398 has several ways to tune the bands, including automatic tuning and automatic memory storage (where the radio scans a band after you hit a button, and then it stores the frequencies of the stations that it finds into memory slots) -- something I probably will never personally use, but it's still cool that it has that.
The PL-398 operates off of 3 AA batteries, which is nice. But it also will charge rechargeable AA's, too. To do this you have to plug the wall adapter into the side of the radio, using a provided USB cable, and set the radio (by pressing a button) to charge rechargeables. I haven't used rechargeable AA's in years. I might try using them now that I have a radio that will use them and even charge them.
It's a handy feature, which could save some money. But, also -- the PL-398MP seems to be light on batteries, especially if, like me, you use headphones for most of your DXing and listening. One set of 3 AA's should last you a while. My radio -- as of February, 2024, is still on its second set, and I got this radio in December of 2022. Granted, I haven't used the Tecsun nightly. But you get the idea.
Most of these features I've just described here -- the capability to recharge certain batteries, the thermometer, the signal meter in dBvu/dBu -- have been included in Tecsuns since the early 2010s, but this is the first time I've had a radio with all those particular features.
The PL-398MP has an audio LINE IN, in case you want to play external sound files using the radio's two speakers, and an Antenna IN Jack (3 mm mini jack).
For MW and LW, it has what appears to be a 120mm X 9mm loopstick inside, at least from what I can ascertain from the few online photos of the radio with its back off. Being that the MW performance on the PL-398MP is very good, the loopstick seems to work well, and it does null out stations on MW quite well. LW comes in well just off the loopstick also (more on this below).
A pic of the back of the Tecsun PL-398, showing the battery compartment and the MP3 / Radio switch and MP3 controls. The radio will play MP3's off an SD card, but won't record. The SD card slot is underneath the stand. The PL-398MP will also play audio via a 3mm LINE IN jack on the side of the radio.
Putting a small plastic shim on top of (or shoved beneath) the exposed battery is HIGHLY advisable, as it will keep the radio from switching itself off when being jostled. A battery-sized piece of plastic cut out from a plastic bottle will do fine. That's all mine is. After I cut the piece of plastic and shimmed it on top of the AA battery you see in this pic, I've had zero problems with the radio cutting off when being handled or moved around.
You can place the shim between the battery and the battery compartment door, or shove it beneath the exposed battery, securing it in its 'pocket' better. It just has to keep that battery (and the others it is pressed against) from shifting a bit when the radio is moved, jostled, or placed on its back.
What the TECSUN PL-398MP Doesn't Have:
The PL-398MP doesn't have record capability, like the Grundig G2 has, although the headphone jack obviously could feed another recorder. The PL-398MP also doesn't have tone controls. There is no way to directly alter the tone, which is no big deal, as many radios don't have tone controls. My Grundig G2 doesn't... Neither do my Sangean PR-D5, Sangean PR-D18 or Sangean PR-D14.
There is a workaround for a Tone Control when listening to AM/MW and SW, though -- the bandwidth control acts similar to a tone control, with 6 and 4 kHz being higher fidelity and 3, 2, and 1 kHz cutting the highs, and letting more bass frequencies dominate.
Also, one thing I've noticed is that a lot of the differences in fidelity will be in your headphones. One of my sets of headphones is a decent, but inexpensive pair of dollar store headphones. They have less bass than my old, favorite set of DXing headphones that broke. I have since bought a pair of $25 Sonys that really sound great. So, if you're using headphones, and the radio sounds too muddy or shrill, and you have another set of headphones, try that other set.
THE CIRCUITRY AND BANDWIDTHS
So what is the PL-398? It's a small, mini-boombox style radio with AM (MW), FM, SW, and LW. The radio is DSP chip operated, and the chip is a SiLabs Si4734, one of the popular SiLab chips out there. The radio has multiple bandwidths on SW and MW, and the FM can tune down into the OIRT, Eastern European channels (64-108 MHZ). It will also tune the 76-108 MHz band that Brazil and Japan use. You can switch from 9 Khz to 10 Khz channel spacing on MW, but being that the radio tunes the band in 1 Khz increments by default (and actual tuning by 9 or 10 Khz increments seems to be non-existent), going from 9 to 10 Khz doesn't really make much of a difference, except it changes the thermometer reading from degrees C to F!
Whether the 9 kHz or 10 kHz settings give you different memory locations is a good question, My guess is that you get just one set of memories for the AM band, regardless of channel spacing. But I am not certain of that.
The difference between 9 kHz and 10 kHz channel tuning probably is much more important if/when you use the PL-398's Automatic Tuning Feature, where you tell the radio to scan and store the stations it finds. If you are just manually tuning -- by using the tuner knob, or by directly entering the stations' frequencies -- the difference between 9 and 10 kHz channel spacing won't be noticed.
On MW and SW you have a choice of several bandwidths available -- 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 Khz. The actual, working, audio bandwidth appears to be a little wider. For example, when I have my PL-398 set to 3 Khz, I can hear MW stations' broadcasts about 3 Khz each side of the center carrier frequency (6 kHz total), as opposed to 1.5 kHz to each side, which is what one would logically expect. The 6 Khz setting is almost hi-fi sounding on MW. The 3 Khz and 2 Khz positions seem to give the best tradeoff between fidelity and performance. On MW, 2 Khz seems to reduce adjacent channel splatter considerably and it still sounds good otherwise. It also seems to increase the sensitivity a bit.
The 1 kHz bandwidth setting is a little bassy, but sometimes it makes a very weak SW station stronger and a little more readable. It's not muddy or ringy midrange like some very narrow filters. It's actually usable when necessary. The 1 kHz bandwidth also helps in tuning an external loop with the PL-398 on MW (which I shall describe a bit later).
AGC Tighter with the Narrower Bandwidths
The PL-398 has decent AGC. The AGC, which seems to vary by bandwidth, doesn't seem to pump, unless you have the radio switched to 2 kHz and 1 kHz bandwidths, where some of the tightness of the AGC is detectable. The pumping isn't tedious, however.
At 3 kHz and 4 kHz bandwidths (the widest ones I use while DXing or MW listening) there isn't any detectable pumping -- so it seems that the AGC is tighter with the narrower bandwidths, and looser with the more high fidelity, 3 and 4 kHz ones.
When I'm listening to a MW station for music or for its talk programming, I usually have my PL-398 set to 3 or 4 kHz bandwidth, which brings out a little more fidelity and it's actually pleasant listening. The wider bandwidths also help in DXing the US 'graveyard' channels, 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, 1490 and the like -- where there are literally hundreds of stations on the channel. The higher fidelity helps in IDing stations.
The sound you get with the wider bandwidths works better on speaker than through my headphones. On my $25 Sony headphones, for example, the 6 kHz setting is a bit trebly on MW and SW. But through the speakers, it sounds great. Others' headphones may be different. The PL-398MP comes with earbuds, and they seem to be really good sounding earbuds.
As with most AM-FM-SW radios, the PL-398 probably has a total of three or four chips that make it work: the microprocessor, which is the 'brain' of the radio (it reads the keyboard and tuner control, and then tells the DSP chip what to do); the DSP chip itself, which acquires, filters, amplifies and processes the radio signals; and the audio chip, which sends the audio to the speakers or headphones. There probably is also a fourth chip to run the MP3 player, and maybe a fifth chip to run the battery recharger (not having taken the back off, this is just a guess).
GOOD, SOLID AUDIO -- NO SOFT MUTING
The PL-398's audio chip seems to be fairly robust, and the headphone volume is very good. I mention this because some modern radios, for some reason, have low headphone volume (they use dropdown resistors on the headphone jack). Although this reduced output on the headphone jack won't be noticed if you use lower impedance headphones (like the famous $100 Sony MDR7506's and other less expensive, but still high quality Sony headphones, like the $25 USD set I currently use), if you use higher impedance headphones you'll notice the lower audio output, especially on low volume, DX channels.
My Sangean PR-D18 is a classic example of this. On that radio, there really isn't enough headphone volume for DXing sparse or very quiet channels with many of the higher-impedance, budget headsets or earbuds I have. Lower impedance headphones, like my Sonys, work a lot better with the PR-D18. My Grundig G2 is fine, though, through most headphones, and similarly, in the case of the Tecsun PL-398, there is plenty of headphone volume for DXing, regardless of headphones. But the better ones will make the radio sound better, of course. :-)
The FM performance is good. It sounds rich through headphones -- a definite plus.
The Tecsun PL-398 comes with a set of earbuds that seem to have reasonably large diaphragms -- they sound good and seem to have a low enough impedance to work with my Sangeans. I generally am not a fan of earbuds, but the Tecsun ones that come with the PL-398 are winners.
There is no soft muting on this radio. I only have one DSP chip radio with soft muting: my Radio Shack Pocket Radio. My other DSP radios do not have that feature, and this PL-398 is no exception. With many DSP radios, sometimes you'll hear the chip attempt to capture the signal and make it readable -- some guys seem to confuse that with soft muting, where anything lower than a certain DB level is muted.
There is some muting when you tune from channel to channel, but that is standard issue in most digitally-tuned radios, and has been since the first Sony 2001 came out in the 1980s. And, frankly, channel to channel muting in a radio (some call it "chuffing") has never bothered me.
As for comparing the overall sound and fidelity through headphones with other radios, sometimes my G2 sounds better, other times my PL-398MP sounds better. Through the speakers you get an OK sound on the PL-398. The two, two-inch (4 cm) speakers are adequate for listening, but headphones is where you can hear a richer sound.
MW IS VERY GOOD, SW IS EXCELLENT!
But how about the SW performance? And the MW performance?
It is better than I expected. The PL-398MP is just as good, or better, off the whip on SW than my trusty Grundig G2. The choice of bandwidths really helps in this case, too. I noticed that switching from 6 or 4 Khz to 3 or 2 Khz bandwidth seems to bring in the weak SW stations better. 1 Khz bandwidth is a little muddy compared to the wider bandwidths -- it's probably more useful on the more crowded MW band than it is on the SW bands, which are relatively underpopulated with signals. Sometimes, however, the 1 kHz bandwidth helps in reading a very weak SW signal.
Clip a Wire To the Whip / EXT ANTENNA Jack
The PL-398MP has an External Antenna Jack. I haven't used it much, because unfortunately I do not have a wire antenna with a 3 mm Mini plug to plug into the Jack. However, the LINE IN cord that comes with the radio will plug into the EXT Antenna Jack, and you can clip a wire antenna to the tip of the second plug on the LINE IN cord, and connect a wire antenna to the EXT Antenna Jack that way.
After some experimenting between clipping my 25-30 ft. indoor wire antenna to the EXT Antenna Jack (using the LINE IN cord), and just clipping the wire antenna to the whip, I can tell no difference between the two. It may be that the EXT Jack is designed more for more 'balanced' antennas that have grounds, like a dipole or loop (which I don't have) -- something you can't do with the whip antenna being used as a connection.
I have noticed that when I clip my 25-30 ft. Indoor Wire antenna (on the second story of my place) to the whip, I do get stronger SW signals that way -- other times, not so much. It seems to boost signals on SW stations by maybe 1-2 db?
So don't be afraid to clip a wire antenna to the whip -- using an alligator clip -- if you need a small boost in SW signal, or -- like me -- you don't have a plug-in external antenna.
If your radio overloads using the whip, a small resistor (200-500 ohms or less) clipped between the wire antenna and the whip would probably reduce the signals to eliminate or reduce overloading. They do so with my other SW portables (my Radio Shack 200629 being an example). Or you could just switch to the whip antenna alone, as the radio works very well on SW off the whip.
For most cases, the whip antenna on the PL-398 works very well all by itself, so an external antenna probably isn't needed much. The last time I clipped my indoor wire antenna to the PL-398's whip, I heard maybe 1db boost in signal -- it helped, but wasn't completely necessary to hear the great pop music being played on Radio Romania International (their Romanian service to the Eastern US and Canada).
MEDIUM WAVE = VERY GOOD!
As for MW, which is my main DXing band, I was surprised. The PL-398 works well off of its internal, 120mm loopstick antenna. It's a bit better than my Sangean PR-D18 -- a decent DXer, but an external loop really helps if you want to hear everything that's on the band.
I, of course, live in a 'hole', in a narrow valley, in a relatively low signals area. That's why I almost always use an external loop antenna for MW DXing. In other areas, the PL-398 probably works fine on its own.
It does have better MW performance off its internal loopstick than my Grundig G2 does. It's not quite as hot on MW as my Panasonic RF-B45, which is probably my best overall MW DX radio. But the PL-398 is better than my Sangean PR-D18, and, sometimes seems close enough to my PR-D14. So it's a good performer on MW.
The internal loopstick is very directional. Moreso than a lot of my other MW radios. It may be easier to use the PL-398 without an external loop in many cases, as it's much easier to turn the radio to 'null out' some stations so you can hear or ID others.
Just the same, to get the best out of it -- and ANY MW radio -- you'll want to use an external loop to boost signals.
Here is an old pic of a radio with an external loop, for those readers who are not aware of what an external loop is for MW.:
This is a 2011 pic of my little ol' Realistic DX-350A sitting inside a Crate Loop I made in 2011 when I got back into MW DXing. 110 ft of wire (about 30 meters or so), an old tuner capacitor, some tape, some zip ties, and a plastic milk crate does the job. There are factory made loops you can get, the Eton AN200 being a popular one, that does the same job. As for this Crate Loop? I use it every night on MW.
The PL-398's internal loopstick appears to be about 110 mm long and perhaps 9 mm thick. This is from a photograph another PL-398 user posted elsewhere on the internet (a reviewer on Amazon), where he took the back off and you can see the loopstick as well as the back of the main PCB.
The PL-398 is no slouch on MW by itself. Using an external loop with it is a little tricky, but it works.
And for MW listening and DXing, the switchable bandwidths are a plus!
Comparing the PL-398 to my old Realistic DX-398, which I just 'fixed' (it had some corrosion on the positive battery terminal), the DX-398 is a bit hotter in reception, which would be expected for a radio with a bigger loopstick and several stages of gain.
But having it a bit further from the loop when tuning it seems to make it easier to 'peak' the signal.
USING AN EXTERNAL LOOP ON MEDIUM WAVE
The PL-398 works very well with an external loop. I have an Eton AN200 loop, a Select-A-Tenna, and a 1.5 ft. milk crate loop (pictured above), and the PL-398 works well with them. As is the case with most DSP radios, when using an external loop you have to listen to the boost in the station's audio, as opposed to an increase in the signal's volume like you get with analog chip radios.
Sometimes you notice the boost in audio more than other times. I have found that the PL-398 seems to work best with an external loop when it is placed 3-5 inches away from the loop (8-13 cm or so). This seems to work the best for peaking the loop. Then when I place the radio closer, it seems to had a tiny bit to the reception.
It is more difficult to use the PL-398 with an external loop than it is with my Grundig G2, or my analog IF chip radios. I don't know why this is. The signals definitely boost, which is good. But finding the actual 'peak' is tricky. This is probably because the Si4734 'tunes' to the antenna it 'sees' each time the radio is tuned to another channel.
But there is a way to use an external loop without spending 5 minutes trying to "peak" it: 1) Switch the PL-398 to 1 kHz bandwidth. 2) place the PL-398 about 5 inches / 12 cm from the loop antenna. 3) Tune the external loop. When the external loop is 'ON' frequency, you will hear the signal sound clearer and stronger. 3) Then switch to your preferred bandwidth for DXing or listening. My preferred bandwidth is 2 kHz for regular DXing and listening, and sometimes I switch to 3 kHz for 'graveyard' MW channels where I want the extra treble to catch an ID. Sometimes I switch to 1 kHz because it seems to add a little more signal. 2 kHz is the best overall for me, though.
The internal MW loopstick is very directional. It nulls stations well, and the null seems to be very tight. Oftentimes, you may just want to DX with the radio alone. I have found this to be a good option, especially when I want to 'null out' some stations.
Sometimes the DSP will then compensate and you'll start to hear more of the station in its null as the DSP chip 'retunes' the radio to the antenna -- but it still indicates that the loopstick is high quality, and that stations can be nulled to hear DX.
TUNER KNOB SPEED CURIOSITY; Easy to Deal With, Though
In fact, there is only one drawback to the PL-398 offhand -- tuning up and down the bands, and going from channel to channel is a bit clunky compared to other radios. For example, if I want to tune the 31 Meter Band channel by channel, it's in 1 KHZ increments. If I speed up movement of the tuner control, it will go up or down the band in what seems to be 4-6 kHz increments. With my G2 and other radios, it's in 5 Khz increments by default on SW. It's a bit of a bear to deal with the PL-398's tuning idiosyncrasy at first, but there is a workaround, which I will get into later.
In this case, the PL-398 is similar to the old Realistic DX-440, which would go up and down by 1 kHz increments, and when you sped up the tuner knob it would jump up or down the band by anywhere from 5 to 10 or 15 kHz, or more.
It takes some getting used to, but it's not a deal breaker for me, as I tune up and down the bands slowly, so I don't miss anything. And even the 3 kHz bandwidth is wide enough to where you do not miss stations while tuning up and down the SW bands.
Sometimes I will widen the bandwidth to 4 kHz, and then I tune upwards, and if I speed up, the extra bandwidth will help me hear stations within an 8 or 12 kHz range as I'm tuning across the band -- so I don't pass a station and miss it.
Then I narrow the bandwidth where needed.
THE TALE OF THE TWO 398'S
Tecsun PL-398 in front, Realistic (Radio Shack) DX-398 in back. I was listening to both during a nighttime DX session in October of last year. I don't remember which Shortwave station I was hearing, but it probably was Radio Romania International, which used 9730 after 0100 UTC at the time -- according to my DX-398's clock it was 1807 pm local / 0107 UTC when I took this pic. If I remember, it was Radio Romania's service to Western Europe or North America. Radio Romania always plays the coolest music, and I find their language fascinating.
OVER 500 MEMORIES -- VERY HANDY AND EASY TO USE
But Will You Really Use All Of Them?
The PL-398's manual says it has over 500 memories, but it doesn't say how they are split up between the different bands (AM, FM, SW, and LW).
Still, that means there are probably more memories than you'll ever use, regardless of wave band. My Grundig G2 has 50 memories on SW alone. I filled them all in 2014-2015. Nowadays, I can scroll through all of them and hear nothing but static, except for the two Radio Nikkei frequencies (6055 and 6115 kHz), and Radio Rebelde on 5025 kHz, which has been a bit hit-and-miss recently after a hurricane.
That is how little value a ton of memories counts on SW these days.
The memories on SW are still quite handy, though. I use them as 'scratch' memories -- if I have a station that seems interesting and I may want to come back to it later in the DX session, I'll save it to memory. 9 to 10 SW memories are more than enough for a SW DXing session, or a MW DXing session, for that matter.
To set a station in memory, it's easy. You press the "M" button on the front of the radio and hold it for a little bit. The M button is at the lower left corner of the numeral buttons. The memory location will flash and you'll hear a 'beep'. That's it.
To access the memories, you press the little button on the upper right part of the panel that says "VM" which apparently means 'Variable tuning of Memories'. After pressing VM, you can scroll through the memories using the tuner knob on the right hand side of the radio.
To get back to manually tuning through the SW, MW, FM, or LW band, you hit the "VF" button which is right next to the "VM" button.
In this pic I've circled the Lock / Display switch, and the Alarm icon window that's on the PL-398's LCD readout screen. When using the Lock button to lock the buttons on the front of the radio -- to keep it from turning on if it gets jostled when you have it in the case (like with travelling) -- press and HOLD until you hear the beep. If you don't press the button long enough, it will turn on the alarm circuit, and you may find your radio turning itself on at 7 a.m., like happened to me once. :-)
LONGWAVE, AND THE 9-10 KHZ SWITCH:
Longwave
To tune Longwave on the PL-398, you first have to switch the LW capability on. The default setting is no LW. But turning on the Longwave is easy, and after to turn it on, it's always available.
Here is how you switch on the Longwave: First, make sure the radio is OFF. Press the "AM" button in and hold it until it beeps. Then you will see a small "LW" in the lower left corner of the LCD screen, and in the middle of the screen it will say "ON". Let go of the button.
Now, whenever you turn on your PL-398, it will be Longwave capable.
So -- how to you actually tune the Longwave band then?
It's simple. When the radio is ON, every second time you press the "AM" button in the upper right side of the radio, that button will toggle between MW and LW. In other words, if you press the 'AM' button from SW or FM the first time, it will go to the AM/MW band. Press it again, you'll get Longwave. Press the 'AM' button again, you get MW again.
OK, now you are tired of the radio sometimes going to Longwave when you press the "AM" button after listening to FM or SW. What do you do to change this?
This is also simple. Turn the radio OFF. Press the "AM" button until it beeps. LW will now be switched off. Every time you press the "AM" button when the radio is ON, you'll only get MW.
LONGWAVE is Dead :-(
But -- how does the PL-398 perform on Longwave? I really can't tell. There aren't many, if any, NDB RDF beacons on Longwave around here anymore, and the Canadian ones I used to hear haven't been audible lately. Lately, all I get is static on Longwave, even on my best LW radio, my Realistic DX-398 -- all of the LW memories I have programmed in my DX-398 which used to pick up aero-beacons are nothing but static now.
[Strike that! On March 17th, 2024, a couple months after posting this article, I tried Longwave again, and heard two separate NDB beacons, each one more then 200 miles away, and the PL-398 brought them in clearer than any of my other LW radios! Longwave is NOT DEAD after all! And the PL-398 seems to be pretty good on LW, too! I am writing an article on this that I'm posting soon.]
More on Longwave and the PL-398 here.:
A pic showing the location of the PL-398's 9 kHz / 10 kHz MW tuning step switch. In reality it probably only factors in if you use the Autotuning feature. If you tune manually, all tuning on MW is in 1 kHz steps. In the case of my radio, the 9/10 kHz stop switch just changes the thermometer from degrees F to degrees C. As you can see in the upper right hand corner of the LCD readout screen on the radio in the pic, you can see it was 17C on the evening I took the pic.
The 9 kHz / 10 kHz switch only switches the MW channel spacing when the radio is OFF.
9 and 10 kHz MW Channel Switching Is Easy
As most MW enthusiasts know, there are two "bandplans" for MW in the world -- the 9 kHz Medium Wave channel spacing used in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania, and the 10 kHz channel spacing used in the Americas. In other words, in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, etc. MW stations are every 10 kHz up the dial.
In the rest of the world MW stations are every 9 kHz up the dial.
With some radios, if your radio is set for 9 kHz, and you happen to travel to a 10 kHz MW country, your radio won't pick up the local MW stations well, if at all. Any station you actually DO manage to hear will sound a bit OFF.
This is why many modern radio sets have a 9 kHz / 10 kHz switch.
The default MW channel spacing setting for the PL-398 seems to be 9 kHz. That means if you are in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc., you may want to swirch the radio to 10 kHz channel spacing.
To do this, when the radio is OFF, you press the small "9/10Khz" button (actually it is the "3" numeral button -- it's a dual purpose button, with "9/10kHz" printed in red above the button) until it beeps. It will switch you from 9 to 10 kHz, or vice versa.
Switching between 9 and 10 kHz spacing really doesn't do anything if you are using the tuner knob, because the PL-398 doesn't seem to tune in 10 kHz, 9 kHz, or 5 kHz increments. Switching between 9 and 10 kHz does change the built-in thermometer between degrees F and degrees C, though.
And it undoubtedly will make a difference if you use the PL-398's "Automatic Tuning" feature -- although I don't know this for sure, as I NEVER use Automatic tuning with any of my radios.
As for 9 and 10 kHz capabilities, because the PL-398MP has a 1 kHz bandwidth available, listening to some "split" frequencies should be possible. Being that I live in a hole, the 9 kHz channels from Asia don't make it here very often -- at best I get a heterodyne or two, mainly on 1566 kHz (a powerhouse MW station from South Korea). But I am certain the narrower bandwidths on the PL-398 would help DXers hear MW stations from overseas.
BATTERY LIFE, AND EMERGENCY RADIO USES
The PL-398 has decent battery life, so far. The radio has a battery meter on the lower left side of the LCD display. It shows three bars, total.
Battery life seems to be much greater than 3-6 weeks total, using headphones, at an hour of DXing a day. I had the radio for 12 days at the time I started writing this article, and the battery meter dropped to two out of three bars total. In March the PL-398 showed one bar of battery left. So my estimate of AA battery life (using headphones only) is around a month per bar or so. Of course, it's using headphones, one hour a night -- and it's just a guess. If you're using speakers, you'll get less battery life.
The PL-398 would probably be a good emergency radio, but you'd want to keep a couple spare sets of AA's around for emergencies, especially if you plan to use the speakers. Three packages -- of four AA's each -- would give you four separate sets of batteries for the radio (it only uses 3 AA's).
SHIM THE BATTERY, IF NEEDED
Every now and then, when turning the radio on, or after had been on a while, my PL-398 shut itself off off with a Low Battery warning. It seemed to be associated with moving the radio around a bit -- lifting it up while it was on, setting it on its back momentarily, etc.
Turning the radio back on -- after the switch-off -- returned it to normal operation, with regular battery strength showing on the meter. The last time it happened, I felt the batteries move inside the battery compartment, so I determined it was a battery moving around just enough inside the compartment to cut off juice to the radio momentarily.
Cutting a small shim from a plastic bottle got rid of the problem. I cut a piece from a large, square plastic bottle (from some deluxe mixed nuts I bought earlier at the supermarket) and the shim worked. Placing it between the battery and the compartment door worked well, and then placing it underneath the exposed battery worked even better -- solving the problem.
I had to do a similar thing with my Sangean PR-D5 -- after experiencing issues with crackles from the batteries shifting around when the radio was moved. I did a "mod" for that which you can read about here. As with the PL-398's battery issue, a plastic shim is all you need to keep jostling batteries from making noise or cutting power when the radio is moved around (while DXing, or otherwise):
Here is a pic of the shims I used to quiet down my PR-D5. The PL-398 only needs a smaller, single plastic shim to do the trick.:
This is a pic from the above-linked article on putting shims in the Sangean PR-D5's battery compartment to keep the batteries moving around and causing crackling when you move the radio. All you need is a large plastic bottle or plastic container cap, and a thick pair of scissors. With the PL-398, much thinner plastic will work. As mentioned previously, you can put the shim between the exposed battery and the compartment door, or push it underneath the exposed AA battery. Either should work OK.
ALARM FUNCTION
The PL-398 has two types of alarm, one where it will turn on the radio at a pre-set time, and another type where there is a buzzer of some sort. I have never used alarms on my radios (except just once, in the 1990s, with my Realistic DX-370), so to me it's an extra, unused function. But the alarms are easy to switch on and off. There are two buttons down by the side of the number-buttons, one that turns the alarm/radio function on and off, and the other button turns the alarm/buzzer on and off.
Be careful that you don't turn one of them on by accident, or you'll hear noises from your room at night that you don't expect, when the radio turns itself on (because you hit the alarm button by accident). This happened to me. I was wondering why there were voices coming from my darkened bedroom (I live alone). It was my PL-398, which turned itself on because I apparently hit the alarm button by accident.
Also, if you don't press the LOCK BUTTON long enough, it switches on the alarm. I found this out by accident, when I heard my Tecsun blaring away inside its case inside my bedroom (where I often use it) for no reason, on two separate mornings.
I never had switched on the alarm. A couple weeks later I noticed that if you press the LOCK BUTTON quickly, it will toggle on the alarm function! So, when LOCKING the keyboard when you put the radio in its case, make sure you press it long enough to see the LOCK icon on the screen, and you hear a good 'beep'.
A pic taken Christmas Eve, 2022, when I was SW listening and listening to a station on 11720 (probably CNR-1, out of China). The red arrow shows where the light switch is located -- it's on the top of the radio. It switches on the radio even if the radio is turned off -- so you can see the clock. The switch won't work if you have all the buttons 'locked', though, so you don't have to worry about the light switch turning on when you are transporting the radio.
Switch the Light OFF For Longer Battery Life
Although it seems that the PL-398 is easy on batteries (especially if you use headphones), you can extend the battery life if you turn off the backlight 'smart light' function.
The PL-398's backlight has three options: the light being lit for 3 seconds after tuning or button activity (the apparent default); being lit whenever the radio is on; and light always OFF.
I kept my PL-398 at the 3 second default until the battery meter hit one bar (the battery meter is three bars total). Then I switched the light off, because I wanted to see how long I could extend the battery life.
To change the operation of the backlight, you press the small button at the top right side of the front of the radio. The button doubles as the STEREO button for FM. But when you have the radio tuned to the AM or SW, it changes the way the backlight works. Pressing the button toggles through the three settings: 3 seconds; always on when the radio's on; and always OFF.
With the LIGHT function OFF, you still have the light available when needed: there is a long button on the top of the radio, on the right side, which you can press to turn the light on, and turn it back off -- basically, it is the radio's lightswitch.
Obviously, during a disaster or long emergency when battery life needed to be conserved, turning the light OFF would help extend battery life. There are LED flashlights which operate off D-Cells that last a long time, which could be used to see the LCD display at night or during periods of relative darkness, and would be handy during extensive blackouts.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST -- Playing MP3's, Making It a Real Mini-Boombox...
As I mentioned earlier in the article, the PL-398MP plays MP3's (the "MP" in the model number refers to this MP3 playing feature -- apparently there is also a Tecsun PL-398BT with Bluetooth capability). One way to play your MP3's is by inserting an SD card in the slot on the back of the radio, and using the "Radio / MP3" switch to switch between MP3 and Radio functions, before you turn the radio on.
The other way to play MP3's (or other sound files) is to plug one end of a 3.5mm cord into your other MP3 player or sound device, and then plug the other end of that cord into the LINE IN jack on the side of the PL-398MP. When you power on the radio, apparently the radio 'sees' the LINE IN jack is occupied and the PL-398 will act like a small stereo set.
I have never used either of these features, but they're pretty handy. I hope to load an SD card with pop music from 2012, but -- as I said previously -- I still have to find the USB stick with all that music on it....
IN SUMMARY...
I've been using my PL-398 daily since I bought it, with maybe two nights I used my Grundig G2 instead. I have found the PL-398 to be a pretty handy radio, and I really like its sound through headphones, and it performs well -- especially once you get used to tuning it, working with the bandwidths, using an external loop on MW, etc.
It's a very handy radio, and its price is really affordable for how much radio you get. With its two speakers you get a decent sound just using the radio around the house.
AND IN OTHER LIFE.....
Right now it's mid to late February, and our weather here in the Seattle region has been standard Winter weather, although some days and nights have been sort of mild, with temperatures in the 50's F (around 8C or so) -- weather which beats 40F / 4C and constant rain. Nights get towards freezing... Nothing like the 12-15 degree F weather we had in early January, though. I'm thankful for that.
Work has been slow, but I'm doing OK overall.
My cat Squeakers is holding up well. I still have to check on her and make sure she's eating. I can't let her out of the room to be with the other cats, because one of them seems to have a slight respiratory infection (sneezes a lot) and I don't want her to get it.
I had another phone/internet outage, and the tech finally fixed it well. The issue was a damaged twisted pair, somewhere in the underground cable. The tech found a good twisted pair and connected my circuit to that pair. So I have the world back at my fingertips once more. In the meantime, I took it upon myself to use my 'ingenuity' and cut a rain shield for the telephone/internet junction box on the side of my house, to ensure that no water ever makes its way inside. Internet / phone line dropouts are a nuisance, and water and phone wiring do not mix. The junction box's 'roof' looks ugly, but it gets the job done.
I have noticed I've been getting a lot of views and readers from Singapore. Hundreds of views a week. I have no idea why. I didn't know that Powersound pickups, or MW DXing was popular there, although there is a DXer in Malaysia who DXes the MW band with his XHDATA D-219 and says he hears a lot of SE Asia and China on MW.
Hello to Singapore! I've heard about your country. My boss's brother lives there, and is a pastor of a large Christian church there. Early mornings while cramming for University tests, or finishing term papers, I used to tune in SBS Singapore in the 49 Meter band. I think the station was on 6000 kHz. It was awesome to hear Singapore back then. They also had a Tamil radio service I heard a couple times early mornings (I think it was called "Oli Radio" or something similar).
SBS on Shortwave, however, is now just a memory.
SOME OLD SCHOOL R&B
I shall close this with a funky old R&B music vid. I heard the song while editing this blog post, either on KKOO 1260 or KLYC 1260, both of which play older stuff. The song is a tear-jerker by The Free Movement, an R&B group that was a one hit wonder. And this was the hit. It's very well produced, and sounds similar to the style of R&B music that was popular in the early 1970's (Spinners, Stylistics, etc.).
Here they are, in their one-hit wonder glory: The Free Movement, I Found Someone Of My Own.
Until next time my friends,
Peace.
C.C., February 1st and 24th, 2023. Some info on the battery shim, and some minor editing, March 2nd, 2024.
March 10th, 2024, I added a couple paragraphs on the AGC, which is tighter on the 2 and 1 kHz bandwidths on MW and SW, and slower and easier on the ears on 4 kHz and 3 kHz bandwidth -- something I left out when I wrote the article.
March 17th, 2024: I added a small paragraph on LONGWAVE. I actually logged two separate Longwave beacons last night, just using my PL-298 and it's internal loopstick antenna -- MOG on 405 kHz, Montague, California -- about 600 miles away, and DC, Princeton, BC, 326 kHz -- about 220 miles away. So I added that paragraph in this article, and wrote up another article on the PL-398 and Longwave that will be posted later in March. C.C.
March 20th, 2024. After further experimentation with MW DXing with the PL-398, I clarified some instructions for using an external loop with it, and I also suggested that the radio by itself may be sufficient, being that the internal loop is very good and very directional. YMMV. :-) I also added a link to my "Longwave Is Not Dead Yet" article.
April 20th, 2024:
I added a section on using an external antenna with the PL-398, including using the EXT Antenna jack. I also added a paragraph on clipping an external antenna to the whip, and maybe clipping a small resistor in between wire antenna and whip, if needed, to eliminate or reduce overload. Using an external antenna with the PL-398 this way is always YMMV. :-) Experiment! I also added the info on the 120mm MW loopstick inside the radio, which I had forgotten to include, as I had forgotten that I measured it off a photo that was posted elsewhere on the internet, of the PL-398MP with its back off. Peace. C.C.
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