Tecsun H501 Digital Shortwave AM/FM Radio with SSB Reception, Dual Speakers and MP3 Player - Matte Black

I bought this radio because I was interested in a modern portable AM/FM/SW receiver and had been looking at the Tecsun PL-990 for about a year. In fact, the PL-990 is still in my Save for Later area in my Shopping Cart, and you just know I'll end up with one soon enough. I became aware of the H-501 just recently and decided to go on ahead and purchase this model because it has two speakers and a feature concerning the external antenna connection that I preferred over the PL-990. (No switch on the H-501) Listening to the radio is quite pleasant because of the two speakers, and with Treble and Bass controls is easily adjusted to your liking. One thing I think is kind of neat is that this radio comes with two batteries, and while you can install them both in the radio together, it operates on only one at a time. There is a switch on the back of the radio to select which battery to use and/or charge. I chose to order a few spare batteries and a separate charger to keep charged batteries available for the radio and just charge them with the separate charger. If one battery expires on you just operate the switch to the other battery, remove the expired battery and put in a fresh one in its place and then maybe later when you get home charge the expired battery. Some of the downsides to this radio are not that big of a deal but you might wish to consider before buying follow. Having two speakers makes for great audio but will use more power from the batteries. Be ready for that. The batteries last a good bit longer with headphones of course. This radio is bit on the big side to be easily or conveniently "portable" depending on your idea of portable. It's 11 inches wide and 6.5 inches tall. A PL-990 is only 7.8 inches wide and 4.72 inches tall. For me, portable meant just around the house from one listening location to another. For you it may mean putting a radio in a backpack for taking a train on a trip through Europe. A smaller radio would definitely be better for you. I've had this radio for about two weeks. It has met or exceeded my expectations and I am pleased with it. I use it solely as a radio although I could insert an HD card into it and listen to pre-recorded music or even connect it to my computer to use a speaker. I'm sure it would work quite well in that role as it does as a simple radio receiver.

I recently discovered Tecsun radios, adding a PL-990 and then an H-501 to my collection. Do note that this is the H-501 and not the H-501X. There is not much difference but you may need to adjust some settings. Speaking of settings, be sure to research the hidden settings if you purchase this. The radio DOES have bluetooth, in fact so does the PL-990, but it is a hidden feature. I found this radio works best with an external antenna if using indoors. I would prefer it have a switch to select the internal vs external antenna like the PL-990. There are several useful features on this radio, however I find the memory storage somewhat complicated and don't use it. The only other issue is one of the batteries failed in just a few days. I've reached out to Tecsun so perhaps they will correct the problem. Sadly, there are not many entertaining SW stations in the US anymore but there are several overseas. I listen to a digital station in New Zeland almost every evening and morning for about an hour, and I have picked up stations all over the globe with the right conditions. Overall I strongly suggest this radio, especially if you only intend to own one (good luck with that). In fact, I would suggest almost any Tecsun radio.

Out the box, an excellent radio. Using an outdoor random wire antenna, I am getting decent signals from many long distance stations. From southern U.S., my first night I was hearing Radio Habana, Cuba. After adjusting the antenna, I was hearing France and Germany, the Vatican radio, and someone reading the Qur'an from Algeria. I've added Bolivia, Honduras, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Also so many Christian broadcasts, loud and strong from Florida, Tennesse, South Carolina, Pennsylvania,and California. The radio has 2 rechargeable batteries. The radio uses one at a time with a battery "A" or "B" switch. When battery A runs low, you can switch to battery B. Tecsun recommends not to use the radio when you are charging due to excessive noise from being plugged in. I wanted spare batteries for hurricane preparedness. The 18650 battery has an issue with different versions of the same battery. Flattop, or Button top? Not a Tecsun problem with the industry variance in the battery, but it made a simple battery addition difficult. I bought 2 additional batteries and a charger. Select your station with manual tuning, direct input, or auto scan. Auto tune has a auto storage option or a delay and continue option, where you can manually store the signal while the scan is paused. The radio has more features that I don't use, alarms, LW, and the mp3 player. I highly recommend. I deducted 1 star because it's too expensive.

Great Radio. Very happy with it.

I own several Tecsun radio's. And I enjoy them. The Tecsun H501 is a nice radio. However there are several things that annoyed me about it when actually using it. These annoyances, didn't validate the cost delta (and size) of the radio vs what I already owned. I have a pl-990x. and their 330? The little one. I upgraded to the H501 when I saw a decent price on it. I didn't keep it for the following reasons. -Driving two speakers with a single 4v source is underwhelming. Low volume is fine. But it's already fine on the pl-990x. -The sensitivity of the H501 vs the pl-990x are similar in reality. IE not worth the money. -I thought I would enjoy having more audio tone control. In practice it mattered little. -It always requires two hands to use the H501. Volume is located on the left, tuning is on the right. I mess with both a lot. pl-990x and 330 volume and tuning is on the right. One handed operation for the most part. -filters are a step backwards compared to pl-990x there is just one button that cycles through them. Vs discrete up and down buttons. Even the 330 lets you drive up or down using the volume control for filter selection...... -some functions like using internal vs external antenna are key combinations. The pl-990x is a switch. In the end, I was underwhelmed. The listening adventures in FM were not far improved for me given that it can't crank music and honestly it would be in and out of stereo often. In the end purchasing the H501 just really made me appreciate the pl-990x more. So I sent back the H501. The pl-990 really is an enjoyable radio. A few quirks, but overall, it made me a huge tecsun fan. Both these radio's actually can do a decent job of managing your mp3 collection as well. With tuning going to the next/previous songs, and fine tuning navigating to the next/previous folders. That's thoughtful! Both have quirks for the audio types, but as long as everything is playable, mp3 stuff is actually also really functional and has utility on these devices. purists don't care about that, but I think it's worth mentioning. Bluetooth speaker inputs work as well, but I rarely find a use for that. Neither can record, which is a bummer.