Tecsun H501 Shortwave Radio

Dan Dunay

February 19, 2025

Great radio. Love it!

Hits:

Bandwidths: LW/MW: 2.3, 3.5, 5.0 and 9.0kHz. SW: 2.3, 3.5, 5.0 and 6.0kHz. SSB: 0.5, 1.2, 2.3, 3.0 and 4.0kHz.

Batteries: 2 x 18650. Long lasting & selectable. A single 9 amp 18650 can power the radio for a week. Then, slide the battery selector to the other battery.

Bluetooth & MP3 card player built in.

Display: 3.5" wide, brightly backlit. Light can stay on.

Documentation: Clear 32 page user manual.

Memory: Automatic search and storage (ATS), 3150 in 25 pages. Easy to use.

Numeric keypad on front supports direct entry of frequencies.

Ports: Front: headphones, line In, & line Out. Side: 2 USB ports and separate antenna ports for AM & FM.

Reception: Great on all bands. Long (>43") whip antenna. Sensitive and selective.

Sound: 11" wide radio gives good stereo separation with two speakers. Each speaker has a passive bass radiator. Bass&Treble control. Decent bass for a table radio. Don't compare it to a large bluetooth speaker.

SSB works well for the Ham frequencies.Easy to calibrate zero-beat.

Sync Detector cleans up AM/SW signals that have rapid fading. This does not help weak or noisy signals.

USB Host: Radio's microSD card mounts like an external drive by using the left-hand USB port. MP3's can be managed from your computer. Both USB ports can be used simultaneously with right-hand USB port supplying power. Excellent!

Misses:

Buttons: Radio buttons are NOT illuminated.

Ergonomics: Volume and Tuning knobs are on opposite side of the radio. Attempting to operate with 1 hand is difficult, you are constantly moving your hand side to side. Tuning knobs are small, but easy to use.

Handle: None. Radio requires 2 hands to lift. I added a cabinet pull.

Memory: channels do NOT support alpha-numeric labels.

Hints:

You can scan either memory channels or freq bands using the VF/VM button. Direction is set up/down according to your last movement of the tuning dial.

Charge the battery while listening to FM or when radio is off for best reception.

Summary:

Operation is similar to the Tecsun PL-880 but subtly improved:

Better battery, sensitivity, dial feedback, port positions, stereo sound, bigger display.

S. Ingersoll

June 16, 2024

Batteries, Charging not working

I'm not sure if the radios not charging or the batteries are bad. Tried charging on A and B, neither battery would charge . Sending back for refund.

The tecsun h501 radio

An impressive addition to the ham shack. I love the dual speakers and dual batteries. I listen to Ham operators all the time.

its a weather channel unit

half of the speakers are dummy speakers, this radio is misleading

Faulty unit, returned

Package was damaged upon receipt (see photo) but unit inside appeared to be well protected; nevertheless, the device is faulty, as it would never charge according to instructions.

Charging the Battery

Connect a DC 5V/1A charger to the "CHARGE" socket on the right side of the device using a micro-USB type-B charging cable. While charging, the charging time is shown and the charging indicator "Charge" flashes on the display. The charging indicator "Charge" stops flashing once charging is complete.

After installing the Li-ion batteries with correct polarity according to the instructions & plugging in the 5V/1A charger, the device never charged after several hours as indicated by the instructions, nor did a “Charge” indicator ever appear on the display. However, was able to set the time on the display as indicated by the instructions.