Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been a Short Wave Listener for over 60 years now. I have, or have had, a number of portable SW receivers including the Sony ICF-2010, and the Eton and G6 and G8. My "home" receiver is the Kenwood R-5000, so I have quite a bit of experience with different models. After reading the review of the Tecsun PL-380 in the 2011 WORLD RADIO & TELEVISION HANDBOOK, I decided to get one and try it out. It's well worth the price. One failing that a lot of small portables have is "overloading" when connected to an external antenna; the Eton G6 and G8 suffer from this tendency. The PL-380 doesn't. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in a small, relatively inexpensive AM/FM/Shortwave receiver. The Shortwave Broadcast bands have not been very good recently due to propagation conditions, but they are starting to improve and in a year or two I expect that reception will be a lot better. Unfortunately, many SW Broadcasters, such as the BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle have been dropping their transmitters as they believe the rebroadcasts of their programming on local FM stations (Public Radio, in the US, mainly) fulfill the public's need for them. That's fine, if you don't mind getting up in the middle of the night to listen to them but I much preferred to receive them direct on SW, "back in the good old days".