External MW antenna advantage! Tecsun PL-368 and Qodosen DX-286 with plugged-in loop
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- There are very few mid-range radios (which I define as radios that cost less than $100) that have inputs for external MW antennas. The Qodosen DX286 and SR286 are two, but I sometimes forget that the Tecsun PL-368 (and also the PL-360 and PL-365, and the CountyComm GP-5 and GP-7) have inputs for external MW antennas. These radios ship with small external ferrite antennas that you plug in, but you can actually plug in any MW antenna.
This video is a comparison between the Tecsun PL-368 and the Qodosen DX-286 on Medium Wave, using the Tecsun AN-200 loop as antenna. I plugged the loop into the Qodosen and the Tecsun, and compared reception on some distant signals, from 350 km to 1600 km away. The loop is much easier to operate when plugged in, in my opinion. I think you can be certain that you get the best possible reception, as opposed to when you pair the loop passively (the most common way on other radios), which can be a bit of a touch and go method.
You can hear a nice Radio Lesotho ID right at the start of the video, and an ID and jingle from Emissor Provincial de Manica right at the end.
The Qodosen DX-286 still trumps the Tecsun PL-368, but the Tecsun actually performed really well when using the plugged-in loop. This was just after sunset my local time (18:00), 16:00 UTC. So, quite early for MW DXing, but I still picked up some good signals when using the loop.
00:00 Qodosen DX-286 vs Tecsun PL-368
01:08 Radio Lesotho 639 kHz
03:00 Emissor Provincial do Niassa (Mozambique) 1260 kHz
04:04 Radio Botswana 531 kHz
06:04 Emissor Provincial de Manica (Mozambique) 1206 kHz - Zábava
I spent all yesterday afternoon playing with my new DX-286 (it arrived in the mail around noon yesterday!). One thing I did was hook up my AN-200 and was very pleased with the results. The antenna is very quiet, even from inside the house, so I can do a bit of casual DXing from inside on a very hot, humid day.
Hi William, that's really good to hear! For me it is the same, I can plug in the AN-200 while indoors and it works really well. Pulls in all kinds of signals, and nulls out noise.
The mighty Q just seems to have so many useful features!
Indeed. But the PL-368 is a really nice radio as well! The MW antenna jack makes a big difference.
I’ve just done a modification to my Sony ICF-2001D to make it more sensitive. Just by plugging in a short wire of 3m now increases the signal strength by no LEDs to 4-5 LEDs, it now beats the Qodosen in sensitivity on MW and LW it’s crazy good. Even stronger than with the AN200, the loop doesn’t come close.
That sounds really great Matt! I'd love to see a video of the Sony. I see there are no more videos on your channel, except one? What happened to everything else?
You are really lucky with wires for MW, unfortunately I don't have the same luck here in my suburban area. I have tried many times, but the wires just pick up too much noise on MW. For me the AN-200 loop is the only antenna that actually improves MW reception when compared to the internal ferrite antennas. I guess it would be different if I were able to listen far away from inverters and solar panels and electric fences and all the other noise I have around me. Oddly, though, my long wire does work very well for SW, I don't quite understand why that is the case.
@@swlistening
Yes the Sony mod makes it super sensitive especially with the external antenna. I was stunned by it. Comparing the Q with the same length external wire and the Sony beat it. In a way the Sony behaves like the Q now with short antennas.
The Tecsun PL-330 is also able to use the external antenna plug for MW and LW.
You can do this by pressing and holding the number 3 button to switch between CH-5 for the external antenna plug and CH-A for the internal antenna. CH-A or CH-5 is displayed on the screen.
That is the same on the PL-368 as well. But the difference with the PL-368 is you can actually plug in a dedicated external MW antenna. So you keep it on CH-A for internal antenna and plug in any length of wire or a loop (like I did) or any other antenna. I don't really know many radios where you can do that. The CCrane radios, and some more expensive radios like the PL-990 come to mind. And, of course, the Qodosen.
@@swlistening On my PL-330 documentation it says "Toggle internal ferrite and external whip antenna or antenna socket." So no difference I guess.
BTW for the PL-368, do you need to switch if you want to use the included AM antenna thingy, that must be plugged into the antenna socket?
@@hammockdweller That's very interesting, so on the PL-330 when you switch to CH-5 you can also use the antenna socket for MW listening. That's actually a great feature on the PL-330, I did not know that!
On the PL-368 it should be on CH-A for the rotating antenna that they supply, or for plugging in any other antenna. And it should be on CH-5 when I want to use the whip as a MW antenna. I have tried it on the whip, and I also added a wire to the whip. It worked, but it was noisy. I found that when I plug in the loop, there is less noise and it becomes very sensitive.
@@swlistening Correct, than it is different. With the PL-330 I need to switch to CH-5 if I want to plug in the MLA-30+ for MW and LW and with the PL368 I can just plug it in. In both cases I have a better reception, but probably not as good as with the AN-100. I don't know if an AN-100 would work here, because I have a lot of interference in the house.
@@hammockdweller Ah, so I already have a reply to the question I was asking myself above, thanks. So the PL-330 can do this too. I need to check the manual to see how to do this exactly.
EDIT: not in the manual, but found elsewhere: press and hold the [3] button on the numeric keypad, and switch to the wanted "channel" using the volume wheel. Good to know.
Tecsun 365 was my first Tec ❤
My first Tecsun was the R-808, hard to find now, but a great little full analogue radio.
Thanks Andre , that’s one thing I like about Radios with a built-in external jacks or my Belka (All mode 2022) model which has a built-in BNC jack. My main external antenna is a Pixel Pro 1B Magnetic Loop (now DX Engineering). I have it mounted in a TV antenna rotator to change direction, but unfortunately, my neighbor has a machine shop which has many RF noisy machines so I usually have the loop nulling out most of the noise, which limits my DXing especially on LW and MW. Better than no DX at all. I wish I had room to put up a Beverage antenna that would really help out, because my long wire really picks up my neighbor, better than low signal DX. Here in the States, we call it “Murphy’s Law” ie; if something can go wrong it will happen at the worst possible moment. Like me my neighbor is a night owl who chooses to indulge in our hobby…😢…😂!
73! Have a great day!
I wish we could choose our neighbours 😂! I sometimes get phone interference from my neighbour, because we share a wall. I always switch my phone to airplane mode when I am recording videos, but i still sometimes hear the mobile phone interference when I listen back...
Your antenna set-up sounds really good, it is a good solution to null out the noise from your neighbour. But, yes, a pity that it limits you in some ways. We also talk about Murphy's Law here sometimes!
Interesting comparison, André. The "Q" does seem to have a noticeable edge in s/n ratio here, except in the last segment of your video where they really sound the same to me.
Don't know if my PL-330 can use an external MW as well. It's a close sibling to the PL-368, but since it has a built-in ferrite antenna, they might have disabled this feature. I'll give it a try soon when at a better place for night MW DXing from home...
Thanks Alain. Someone else actually commented about the PL-330. Apparently it has the same hidden feature as the PL-368, to switch between the whip and the internal ferrite for MW. On the PL-368 you press and hold the number 3 button to switch, I suppose it is the same on the PL-330. When you switch to the whip for MW and then plug in your internal antenna to the SW antenna socket, the radio will use the plugged-in antenna for MW. So, it seems to me like it will work on the PL-330 also. This again confirms to me that these two radios seems to be very similar, if not exactly the same, on the inside.
Still hoping to see your log of Australia on MW 🤭
It will come, some day. I need to travel to our east coast for this one.
@@swlistening have you seen @OfficialSWLchannel's videos on the Qodosen DX-286? He actually addressed one of the issues you had with your Qodosen, that adjusting the volume just after you punch in a frequency results in an error... You can confirm the frequency entry by pressing the AM button first :)
@@ArnieDXer I have seen some of his videos about the Qodosen DX-286, but not this one. This is a very useful tip, thank you so much. It really is something that I keep encountering, the error when changing the volume after punching in a frequency. This will help 😀
Hello! Your name is Andre Eve?
It's just Andre.
He says "André here" at the beginning of his videos, which I misunderstood as well as "Andreyev" when I started watching his videos... so I thought that he was from Eastern Europe 😄
@@F4LDT-Alain Yes, I am from Eastern Europe. Yes, the words at the beginning of the video remind me very much of the surname Andreyev. The first time I asked where the author was from. He answered that his ancestors lived in France. And for several years I have been tormented by the desire to know his surname. And it turns out that this is the word HERE:) I apologize, I do not understand all the accents and styles of speech well :)
@@F4LDT-Alain I quite like the sound of the name Andreyev 😁