Scanners & Radios

Scanners & Radios · Volume 8

Tecsun PL-880

Premium shortwave portable receiver with SSB, RDS, and hidden firmware features

Contents

SectionTopic
1About this volume
2Hardware tour
3Operating modes
4Programming workflow
5Codeplug backups
6Field use
7Tips and tricks
8Resources

1. About this volume

The Tecsun PL-880 is the flagship shortwave portable from Tecsun (the dominant Chinese receiver manufacturer through the 2010s and into the 2020s), released in late 2013 and continuously refined through silent firmware revisions since. It earns the bench slot as the dedicated SWL receiver — the bench-drawer companion you reach for when the goal is to listen, not to operate. BBC World Service on 9.410 MHz, Radio France International on 17.620 MHz, Radio Habana Cuba on 6.000 MHz, the WWV time-pip on 5/10/15 MHz, CHU Canada on 3.330/7.850/14.670 MHz, the 41 m and 31 m shortwave broadcast bands packed with international religious and propaganda outlets, amateur 40 m and 20 m SSB in the late evening — all heard cleanly on stock telescopic, much better on an external longwire. As of mid-2026, the radio sells for $160-200 USD depending on US retailer (Anon-Co’s official price runs $189; eBay and Amazon resellers float between $155 and $210).

Why the PL-880 over its cheaper siblings (PL-310ET, PL-330, PL-368, PL-660, PL-680): better SSB with proper carrier reinsertion and a usable fine-tune knob, larger LCD, better front-end filtering against AM-broadcast-band overload, wider IF bandwidth selection (1/1.6/2/2.3/2.5/3/4/6 kHz AM; 0.5/1.2/2.2/3/4 kHz SSB), more memory presets (~3050), and a hidden firmware menu exposing calibration, AGC threshold, and audio shaping not in the printed manual. The PL-660 was the previous flagship and is still capable; the PL-880 is the one to buy new in 2026 if budget allows.

Why this over the Xiegu X6100 (Vol 6) for SWL: the X6100 has a spectrum waterfall and wider RX, but it’s a 1.5 kg transceiver tied to a desk, tuner, and power supply. The PL-880 is 478 g, runs all night on AA NiMH, and gives up almost nothing on a clean broadcast signal. The X6100 wins on weak-signal HF SSB and visual spectrum; the PL-880 wins on portability, battery life, and speaker. Complements, not substitutes. The PL-880 is receive-only by design — no TX path, no microphone, no PTT. RX of broadcast SW is unregulated everywhere; RX of amateur HF SSB is legal everywhere; the ECPA carve-outs from Vol 1 §4 don’t apply because nothing the PL-880 tunes is restricted.

2. Hardware tour

The PL-880 is a horizontally-oriented handheld at approximately 191 × 117 × 32 mm (7.5 × 4.6 × 1.25 in), weighing 478 g without batteries, 580 g with four NiMH cells installed. The form factor is the classic Tecsun-flagship layout — speaker grille on the left third of the front face, LCD top-right, keypad mid-right, two rotary knobs on the right edge.

Front panel (left to right):

  • Speaker grille — covers a 50 mm full-range driver. Unusually good for the size; cabinet resonance well-damped; bass rolls off around 250 Hz but voice content is articulate.
  • LCD — monochrome STN with switchable green-amber backlight, ~60 × 40 mm. Shows frequency (1 Hz in SSB, 1 kHz in AM/SW), mode, bandwidth, signal-strength bargraph, an unusual numeric S/N estimate in dB during AM/SSB, battery state, AGC mode, RDS data on FM, clock and alarm.
  • Numeric keypad — 0-9, decimal, [Freq] entry trigger, mode/band select, ATS (auto tuning storage), ETM (easy tuning mode — sweeps a band into a temporary preset bank), [VF] firmware-version display via long-press, page selectors, time/alarm/sleep timers.

Right edge — the two knobs. The main tuning knob is a detented rotary encoder; step size depends on band/mode (AM/SW coarse 1/5/9/10 kHz selectable, SSB 1 kHz coarse). The fine-tune knob below it is the killer feature for SSB — 10 Hz steps independent of the main frequency, acting as a clarifier so you park the main knob on the nominal channel and dial in pitch with the fine-tune. Generic-portable SSB without this knob is painful; the PL-880’s implementation alone justifies a chunk of the price premium.

Top edge. Telescoping whip (~95 cm extended, 7 sections, swivel base) serves SW, MW (as inductive coupling to the internal ferrite-rod MW antenna), FM, and air. Internal ferrite-rod antenna handles MW/LW; rotating the chassis rotates the null and is the primary technique for picking apart MW stations.

Left edge. 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack (also drives line-level for recording). Fixed-level line-out on most production runs. 3.5 mm mono external antenna jack — wired for SW/AM only; FM/air stays on the whip. Internal switching auto-disconnects the whip when something is plugged in. USB charging port is Type-C on units shipped after ~2022, mini-USB on earlier units; charges internal AA NiMH when batteries are loaded but does not power the radio standalone.

Back panel. Battery compartment accepts 4 × AA — NiMH (1.2 V × 4 = 4.8 V) which the radio recharges internally via USB, or alkalines (1.5 V × 4 = 6.0 V) which it doesn’t recharge. Eneloops recommended. Folding kickstand, rear-ported speaker grille.

Construction: ABS plastic chassis, matte black finish (silver on some early units), rubberized side grips. Solid for the price — proper knob detents, firm keypad, metal antenna swivel. Not ruggedized; case can crack at the antenna hinge under a hard impact onto concrete.

Battery life: ~30-40 hours from 4 × 2000 mAh NiMH AAs at moderate volume on internal speaker; ~50-60 hours on headphones; backlight-off extends life further. The unit goes to sleep when idle (configurable via a hidden-feature flag) which extends standby weeks.

3. Operating modes

The PL-880 covers receive-only across the broadcast and amateur HF spectrum, plus FM broadcast with RDS and AM aircraft. The detailed band breakdown:

3.1 LW (Long Wave)

Coverage: 100-519 kHz, AM modulation only. LW broadcast is largely dead in North America but remains active in Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia (RTÉ Ireland on 252 kHz, BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz which finally shut down in 2024-25, Algerian state radio on 252 kHz, various European broadcasters in the 153-279 kHz band). LW also includes the time-station outputs — DCF77 (77.5 kHz German time), MSF (60 kHz UK), WWVB (60 kHz Colorado, drives radio-controlled clocks across the US). The PL-880’s LW sensitivity is adequate but not exceptional; for serious LW DX, an external loop or beverage outperforms the internal antennas substantially.

3.2 MW (Medium Wave / AM Broadcast)

Coverage: 522-1620 kHz (1710 kHz on some units depending on region setting; the upper limit is set by the AM broadcast band’s regional plan — ITU Region 2 / Americas runs to 1700 kHz). Tuning steps: 9 kHz (Europe/Asia/Africa) or 10 kHz (Americas/Pacific), selectable. The PL-880 uses an internal ferrite-rod antenna for MW; rotating the radio’s chassis rotates the antenna’s null and is the primary technique for nulling out a strong local station to hear a weaker one underneath. AM sensitivity is good; selectivity is excellent with the narrow bandwidth filters (1 or 1.6 kHz) engaged for tight channel separation in crowded bands.

3.3 SW (Short Wave)

Coverage: 1.711-29.999 MHz, AM and SSB modulation. This is the radio’s headline band. Covers all 14 international shortwave broadcast bands (120 m / 90 m / 75 m / 60 m / 49 m / 41 m / 31 m / 25 m / 22 m / 19 m / 16 m / 15 m / 13 m / 11 m) plus all amateur HF allocations (160/80/40/30/20/17/15/12/10 m). For amateur SSB monitoring, switch the mode to USB (for 30/20/17/15/12/10 m per convention) or LSB (for 160/80/40 m per convention), engage the fine-tune for clarifier control, and tune by the main knob.

The SW front end is fairly broad — the radio doesn’t have selectable preselectors per band like a tabletop receiver, but the bandwidth filters in the IF give enough selectivity for crowded conditions. Image rejection is good (mostly an issue with cheap single-conversion portables; the PL-880 uses a dual-conversion architecture).

Sensitivity is competitive with high-end portables: approximately 0.8 µV for 10 dB S/N at the antenna terminal across most of HF, degrading slightly above 22 MHz where the front end’s tracking starts to drift. The internal whip captures enough signal for casual broadcast listening anywhere outside a heavy-RFI urban environment; for serious DX or any amateur HF weak-signal work, an external longwire is mandatory.

3.4 SSB (USB / LSB)

USB (upper sideband) and LSB (lower sideband) modes are manually selectable across the entire 1.711-29.999 MHz SW range plus the lower edge of the LW range. The carrier insertion is implemented in DSP after the AM envelope detector; the fine-tune knob shifts the BFO offset in 10 Hz steps, giving voice-pitch adjustment from approximately ±2.5 kHz around the nominal channel. This is the equivalent of a clarifier on a proper transceiver, and it’s the feature that makes amateur HF SSB monitoring genuinely pleasant on the PL-880 rather than a chore.

SSB bandwidth options: 0.5, 1.2, 2.2, 3, 4 kHz. The 2.2 kHz setting matches a standard amateur SSB transmission bandwidth and is the default for voice; 1.2 kHz tightens the audio for crowded conditions; 4 kHz opens it up for AM-equivalent quality when listening to an AM ham on 75/40 m. The 0.5 kHz mode is for CW reception with the radio in SSB mode (offset the BFO by 600-700 Hz to pitch the CW tone into the audible range).

3.5 FM (Broadcast) with RDS

Coverage: 87-108 MHz (76-108 MHz in Japan/Asia mode, selectable). Stereo demodulation through headphones; the internal speaker is mono. RDS (Radio Data System) decodes the station name (PS), program type (PTY), and traffic announcements (TA) inline on the LCD. RDS works on US stations that broadcast it (still a minority; Europe is much more widely deployed). The FM front end is sensitive enough to pull in fringe-area stations with a whip; for serious FM DX, the radio benefits from an external dipole or yagi at the headphone-jack-compatible “Wide FM” antenna position (some accessories exist for this).

3.6 AM Aircraft (Air Band)

Coverage: 118-137 MHz, AM modulation. The civil air-traffic-control voice band — tower, ground, approach, en-route center frequencies. The PL-880 covers this band on the FM/airband whip, not the SW antenna. AM modulation is selected automatically when air band is tuned. Sensitivity is adequate for monitoring controllers within ~50 km line-of-sight; for serious airband monitoring, the dedicated scanners (Vol 10 Uniden SDS100 / Vol 11 SDS200) far outperform with selectivity and squelch. The PL-880’s airband is a “while I’m holding it anyway” feature, not a primary airband receiver.

3.7 Memory presets

Approximately 3050 memory channels, organized into pages by band. Each memory stores frequency, mode, bandwidth, AGC setting, fine-tune offset. Memories are accessed by page-and-number lookup; the ATS (Auto Tuning Storage) function scans a selected band and stores all active stations into a memory page automatically — useful for filling MW or FM presets at a new location in seconds. The ETM (Easy Tuning Mode) is a transient version: ATS-style scanning that writes into a temporary memory list which doesn’t survive a power cycle, useful for “what’s on tonight on 49 m” sweeps without polluting permanent memories.

Permanent memory page layout is roughly: 100 pages × 30 channels per page, with some pages locked to specific bands (e.g. ETM pages for SW broadcast band sub-allocations).

4. Programming workflow

The PL-880 has no official PC programming software and no documented serial interface for memory management. All channel programming is done on-radio via the front panel. The workflow is:

  1. Tune to the desired frequency via numeric keypad direct entry (press [Freq], type 9410, press [Freq] to confirm = 9.410 MHz) or rotary tune.
  2. Select mode (AM/USB/LSB), bandwidth, AGC if non-default.
  3. Long-press the memory-store key, select target memory page and number, confirm.

Repeat for each channel. There is no batch upload. This is the radio’s biggest workflow limitation versus a transceiver or a scanner — building a hundred presets by hand is a 30-45 minute task. The ATS / ETM functions partially compensate by auto-populating presets during a band scan, but the auto-stored channels have generic labels (just frequency, no station name) and the mode/bandwidth defaults are AM/wide which often needs per-channel tweaking afterward.

Community-developed PC tools: A handful of third-party projects have reverse-engineered the PL-880’s internal serial protocol (accessed via the USB charging port, which carries diagnostic UART traffic at 9600 baud on certain firmware revisions) and produced experimental tools for memory backup/restore. These are not officially supported, have variable compatibility across firmware versions, and are not recommended for non-tinkerer use. TBD — verify with Jeff whether any specific tool (PL880Manager, TecsunCommander, or similar) is being used; as of writing, the recommendation is to treat the PL-880’s memory as on-radio-only and accept manual entry as the cost of doing business.

Cross-reference to Vol 21 (Programming Software Landscape): the PL-880 is the gap in that landscape — every other RF device in the lineup (Yaesu VX-8DR via CHIRP, Baofeng F8HP via CHIRP, AnyTone D878UVII via vendor CPS, Uniden scanners via ProScan/Sentinel, hotspots via web UI) has a documented programming path. The PL-880 sits alone in the “front-panel only” column.

5. Codeplug backups

There is no codeplug. Memory presets live in the radio’s internal NVRAM (a small EEPROM section of the DSP chip’s memory map). Tecsun publishes no backup format and no export tool.

Backup strategy:

  1. Photograph the screen at each preset page after population. Five pages = five photos = recoverable in 30 minutes after a factory reset.
  2. Transcribe to a text file kept under version control. The format is trivial — page, slot, frequency, mode, bandwidth. Maintain at programs/tecsun-pl880/preset-list.md (TBD — Jeff to maintain manually; the file is a hand-edited Markdown table, not generated). One row per preset, sorted by page-and-slot, with optional notes (station name, schedule, language) for context.
  3. Avoid factory resets unless absolutely necessary. Hold [POWER] for 10+ seconds to trigger a soft reset (preserves memories); factory reset (a separate hidden combination, see §7) wipes everything.

Recovery from a wipe: re-enter every preset by hand from the photo or text-file backup. There is no faster path. This is the primary reason to keep the preset count manageable — three pages of 30 well-chosen presets is more recoverable than fifteen pages of half-remembered band-scan artifacts.

6. Field use

Posture: The PL-880 is the lineup’s premier travel radio. It fits in a backpack side pocket, the included nylon carrying case adds a soft layer of protection, and the AA-cell battery format means you can re-stock anywhere on the planet without proprietary chargers. The classic deployment is hotel-room SWL on international travel — set up on the nightstand, telescopic extended toward the window, fall asleep to the BBC.

Indoor RFI: The PL-880’s biggest enemy is modern indoor electrical noise. Switching power supplies (laptop chargers, LED bulbs, cellphone chargers, USB-C PD bricks), powerline networking gear (HomePlug AV/AV2), poor-quality LED-strip drivers, modern furnaces and HVAC controllers — every one of these dumps broadband noise across HF, often raising the noise floor by 20-30 dB. In a typical 2026 suburban home interior the noise floor between 5 MHz and 15 MHz sits at S5-S7 on the PL-880’s meter even with everything off in the room. To listen meaningfully, you either move to a quieter location (the kitchen at 2 AM is dramatically quieter than the living room with the TV on) or you raise signal by using a better antenna.

6.1 Antenna pairing

The stock telescopic is fine for casual broadcast SWL. For anything serious — DX, weak signals, amateur HF SSB monitoring — an external antenna via the 3.5 mm mono jack on the left edge gives 10-20 dB of S/N improvement in typical conditions.

Practical external-antenna options for the PL-880:

AntennaCost (mid-2026 USD)What it givesCross-link
Random-wire 30-100 ft thrown out a window$5-15 (just wire)Strongest signal capture; most prone to local-RFI pickup; needs a 9:1 UNUN for impedance match into the PL-880’s high-Z whip-equivalent input[Antennas Vol 10](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol10.md)
End-fed half-wave (EFHW) for 40/20/15/10 m$80-150 (commercial), $30-50 (DIY)Resonant on the ham bands; quieter than a random wire because it’s tuned; needs a 49:1 UNUN[Antennas Vol 10](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol10.md)
Active receive loop (YouLoop, MLA-30+, K9AY)$40-300Indoor-friendly; rejects local noise via the magnetic-loop directional null; the indoor-DX antenna of choice when no outdoor option exists[Antennas Vol 15](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol15.md)
PA0RDT mini-whip on a balcony rail$30-60Active vertical whip; small physical footprint; works well for general SWL in apartments[Antennas Vol 15](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol15.md)
Tecsun AN-200 / AN-100 medium-wave loop$30-50Tuned ferrite-loop specifically for the MW broadcast band; dramatically improves AM DX(vendor accessory)

The cheapest meaningful upgrade is a 30-50 ft length of insulated stranded wire thrown out a second-floor window, fed through a 9:1 UNUN ([Antennas Vol 16](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol16.md)) into the 3.5 mm jack via a short coax pigtail. Total cost: ~$30 of parts. SWL transformation: dramatic. The biggest single improvement you can make to a PL-880 deployment.

For the indoor-only case (apartment, HOA, weather), the YouLoop (Airspy’s passive magnetic loop) or W6LVP receiving loop outperforms any wire antenna for noise rejection — the loop’s magnetic-pickup geometry rejects the locally-radiated electric-field noise from indoor electronics by 20-40 dB. The PL-880 + YouLoop combination is a documented hotel-room DX setup; it’s small, foldable, packs in a checked bag, and turns a 14th-floor hotel window into a usable HF SWL setup.

6.2 Travel kit composition

A practical travel-SWL kit built around the PL-880: PL-880 in the nylon Tecsun case; 4 × spare AA NiMH Eneloops; Type-C USB cable + wall charger; wired headphones (Bluetooth introduces RFI from the radio’s audio chain); 30 ft insulated wire on a bobbin + 9:1 UNUN + 6 ft RG-58 with 3.5 mm mono at the radio end; a small log notebook; current SW broadcast schedule on phone (Eibi, Aoki). Total kit weight ~1 kg in a 1 L pouch; sets up in 5 minutes.

Receive-only across SW, FM, and air band is unregulated in every country with a functional government — listening to broadcasts is never licensed. The PL-880 travels through customs anywhere; no declarations, no carnet. The one global rule: don’t connect external antennas during a flight (airline RF restriction).

7. Tips and tricks

The PL-880 ships with a hidden firmware-feature menu unlocked by special key combinations during specific operations. The community has documented these comprehensively; the canonical reference is the Tecsun PL-880 Hidden Features PDF at 02-inputs/manuals/tecsun-pl880/Tecsun-PL-880-Hidden-Features-Firmware-8820-v1.0.pdf. TBD — verify with Jeff which specific firmware revision is installed on the bench unit; the hidden-feature key sequences vary between firmware versions, and the list below is for the v8820 revision which is common but not universal.

7.1 Display the firmware version

Power on the radio. Long-press the [VF] key (or the frequency-display key on units that don’t have a dedicated VF button). The display shows the firmware version code (e.g. 8820, 8819, 8820V2, or similar). Record this; the hidden-feature key sequences and the list of available hidden features depend on this number. Some early firmware (8820 series) lacks several of the calibration features added in later revisions; some late firmware (post-2019) added an SSB step-mode toggle not present in 8820. The PDF lists features per firmware revision; cross-check before assuming any specific hidden feature exists on your unit.

7.2 Enter the hidden-feature menu

With the radio powered off, press and hold [LSB] (or [USB] on some firmware revisions), then press [POWER]. The display shows a hidden-feature index or a number (e.g. 01, LL, SF) depending on firmware. Use the main tuning knob to scroll through hidden features; the fine-tune knob (or numeric keypad) adjusts the value. Press [POWER] to save and exit.

TBD — verify with Jeff the exact key sequence on the specific bench unit. The published lists give 10+ hidden features but the access combination varies; the safest approach is to consult the firmware-version-specific PDF before trying combinations, since some failed attempts can reset memory or trigger a configuration mode that requires a factory reset to escape.

7.3 SSB fine-tuning calibration

Hidden feature SF (Step Frequency) toggles between 10 Hz and 1 kHz steps on the fine-tune knob during SSB. The default on most firmware is 10 Hz which is the right answer for amateur HF SSB; some units ship with 1 kHz default which makes SSB fine-tuning useless. Verify after a factory reset.

A related hidden feature on later firmware: BFO calibration offset — applies a global frequency-offset correction to compensate for the master oscillator’s drift. If your USB ham contacts consistently sound 200-400 Hz off-pitch even with the fine-tune centered, this is the cure. Set the calibration offset to compensate for the observed pitch error.

7.4 AGC threshold per band

Hidden features in the AGC range adjust the AGC attack/release time constant and the threshold at which AGC begins compressing. For AM broadcast SW, the default fast AGC is right; for SSB or weak-signal AM, switching to slow AGC reduces the breathing/pumping artifacts that the default AGC creates on signals with deep fades. Different firmware revisions expose different sets of AGC options — the Hidden Features PDF lists which apply to your specific firmware.

7.5 External antenna sensitivity

The radio auto-detects when something is plugged into the 3.5 mm external antenna jack and switches the front-end gain. Counterintuitively, the internal whip can be more sensitive than an external long-wire in a high-RFI environment because the external antenna picks up more noise alongside more signal. If switching to a long-wire reduces apparent SNR in a noisy urban setting, try the experiment of unplugging it and using the whip — sometimes the whip wins. The right cure for that scenario is a noise-rejecting active loop ([Antennas Vol 15](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol15.md)) not a longer wire.

A separate hidden feature on some firmware revisions disables the front-end attenuator that engages with external antennas, restoring full gain. Use carefully — the attenuator is there to prevent overload from strong signals, and disabling it can cause front-end IMD products that show up as ghost stations across the band.

7.6 Tuning step setup per band

Defaults: MW 9 or 10 kHz, SW 1 or 5 kHz, FM 25/50/100 kHz, SSB 10 Hz (fine) or 1 kHz (coarse). The MW step must match the regional plan — 9 kHz outside the Americas, 10 kHz inside — and a unit set wrong misses every other channel. The SW step is operator preference: 1 kHz catches off-grid broadcasters, 5 kHz is faster but skips them. For amateur HF SSB, 1 kHz main + 10 Hz fine is the right combo.

7.7 Time stations and bandscanning shortcuts

WWV/WWVH (5/10/15 MHz, also 20 MHz from WWV; 2.5 MHz from WWV at lower power) broadcast time pips around the clock from US standards stations in Colorado and Hawaii. CHU (3.330 / 7.850 / 14.670 MHz) does the same in French and English from Canada. These stations are useful daily references — they confirm the radio’s calibration (the WWV/CHU carrier should be exactly on the nominal frequency when the fine-tune is centered) and verify propagation conditions (which time stations are audible at a given hour tells you which HF bands are open).

The PL-880’s ETM mode is the fastest way to find what’s active in a SW broadcast band right now. Tune to the broadcast band of interest (e.g. 9.400-9.900 MHz for 31 m), press [ETM], wait 30-60 seconds for the sweep, then scroll through the auto-stored channels. The result is a session-local list of every active signal on the band, which is more useful than a printed schedule in identifying the actual on-air state of broadcasters who shift slot timings without notice.

7.8 Recovering from a botched hidden-feature attempt

If a hidden-feature combination puts the radio into an unfamiliar state, power off, then power on with no keys held. This usually returns to normal operation. If the radio is stuck in a hidden-feature menu or shows persistent garbage on the display, try a soft reset (power off, hold [POWER] for 10 seconds). The nuclear option is a factory reset, which wipes all memories — the cure is worse than the disease unless the radio is genuinely bricked. Avoid hidden-feature experimentation when far from a backup of your memory presets.

8. Resources

8.1 Manuals (locally cached)

  • 02-inputs/manuals/tecsun-pl880/ — directory holding:
    • Tecsun PL-880 official user manual (English, v1.0)
    • Tecsun PL-880 v2 user notes (community-compiled annotations)
    • Tecsun PL-880 Hidden Features (Firmware 8820 v1.0) — the canonical reference for hidden firmware menus (Tecsun-PL-880-Hidden-Features-Firmware-8820-v1.0.pdf)

8.2 Vendors

  • Anon-Co (US distributor, the canonical retailer for Tecsun in North America; ships factory-fresh stock with US-compatible documentation): https://www.anon-co.com
  • Tecsun Radios Australia (Australian distributor with detailed product pages and support documentation): https://www.tecsunradios.com.au
  • Tecsun (manufacturer, China): limited direct-sale presence; usually through regional distributors

8.3 Community

8.4 Schedules, frequency references, and time stations

8.5 Cross-references (this project and siblings)

8.6 Antenna cross-references (sibling Hack Tools/Antennas deep dive)

  • [Antennas Vol 10 (Random-wire/EFHW)](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol10.md) — DIY wire-antenna construction for external HF receive on the PL-880
  • [Antennas Vol 15 (Receive-only loops)](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol15.md) — YouLoop, MLA-30+, K9AY, PA0RDT mini-whip — the indoor/apartment-friendly antenna options that pair best with the PL-880
  • [Antennas Vol 16 (BALUNs/UNUNs)](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol16.md) — the 9:1 UNUN for random-wire feed, the 49:1 UNUN for EFHW feed
  • [Antennas Vol 29 (Use-case Matrix)](../../../Hack Tools/Antennas/02-inputs/volume_sources/vol29.md) — per-radio antenna recommendations including the PL-880’s row