As this was not an exhaustive retro review of the D-808, I have not gone into the various negatives that every D-808 owner knows to exist. I have the XHdata D-808 and find it a good radio for the money, I have no issues with battery life and have left it for weeks without use and still plenty of battery life. What we can glean from all this? It is apparent that XHDATA has been evolving the D-808 over the past few years which seems to be very common today…many radio models undergo internal changes, some of which change performance in ways good or bad. Usually these are cost-saving measures or they may reflect changing parts availability. For whatever reasons, the D-808 has been modified at least twice since its introduction in 2018. It is interesting to note that the interim 2022 version which still had those adjustable coils had a slight volume reduction on AM but it also had that residual hiss, while the newest 2023 version gets rid of this hiss at the expense of another slight reduction in reserve gain. Yet on SW there is a ton of reserve volume which makes me wonder if an internal programming adjustment might be able to increase the gain on AM to match that on SW. If they can do that everyone will be happy, but for the type of listening I do the D-808 remains a great radio for the price and I still recommend it. Refer to the photo below. Using the previous procedure to install shrink tubing (which is described in the PL-380 transplant article) install a 2.5” (63mm) length of shrink tubing over the two Litz wire ends, and shift the shrink tubing into the position shown in the photo. After this is done cut the two Litz wire leads to the lengths shown in the photo (NOTE: make sure that the ends of both Litz wires are cleanly cut, not frayed and at the minimum diameter before attempting to insert them into the shrink tubing. The process is much easier when the Litz wires pass smoothly through the shrink tubing).

Solution 1: Use a battery operated headphone amp. Keeping the volume on radio to moderate/high use the volume on headphone amp to reach desired level. This will completely eliminate the noise. This works because the audio signal to noise ratio increases so much with moderate volume that when you reduce the audio through the amp the noise levels become absolutely inaudible. I use FiiO Q1 amp which has a digitally stepping volume control which eliminates any stereo channel imbalance at low volume. This imbalance issue is also there in d808 because it has analog potentiometer vol. control. That even regular good signals outside the filter passband can trigger unwanted AGC action might be more or less common with most of those DSP radios. The massive worldwide contest activity on March 24/25 was a nice opportunity to test that. Even though I fled to the less crowded upper region of the 20m-band and it was an hour after sunset so the band was closing, I noticed the AGC was pumping a lot while listening to a contester with a moderate signal. It could be the the ceramic filters (which are said to have better out-of-band rejection) or just the way my Tecsun’s AGC works (or malfunctions) differently, however this effect is much less pronounced on the PL-660. Frequency stability, accuracy, birdies, quirksRefer to the photo above. Pull the Litz wires up out of the previous position, and place a clean rag underneath them (on top of the circuit board) to completely protect the circuit board from any solder which might accidentally drop down during the tinning process. Using your hot 25w soldering iron melt a generous amount of solder on its tip, and work the soldering iron tip slowly and patiently around the circumference of each Litz wire end until there is a bright, shiny solder length of at least 1/4” (6mm) in a cylindrical pattern at the end of each Litz wire. When doing this, take great care not to allow any solder to drip down onto the circuit board below (i.e., make sure that your rag completely covers the circuit board). The final appearance of your Litz wire lead ends should resemble those in the photo. FM stereo / MW / LW/ SW SSB and Air Band radio with high sensitivity, good selectivity, and user-operation friendly The XHDATA D-808 has a nice display which can show Time & Frequency together which is very convenient, along with additional options of Signal Strength/Signal to Noise Ratio, Temp (Fahrenheit or Centigrade), Alarm Set Time and Time which the radio defaults to when turned on. The signal readings are relative and can’t be directly related to typical S-Meter readings but nevertheless they provide interesting info about what you’re tuned to and can be a definite advantage while tuning or antenna aiming. Display Illumination is automatic or the Light Button will turn it on permanently if desired…another nice feature. Now since yesterday I own such a radio, and I’ve noticed it has aspects that are superbly resolved, but I miss a complete Instruction Manual. The pdf you have there (the same as the printed one that came with my radio) isn’t describing some matters, I will highlight just those I’ve confronted:

Li-Ion battery. Not all may agree, but I like this style of battery. The D-808’s internal circuit shuts off when the battery is fully charged, or after 10 hours of charging. The radio comes with a 18650 battery and a USB cable; the owner supplies a common 5V USB charger. Audio. I find the D-808’s audio quality to be slightly more mellow or warmer…I like that, especially on FM! Audio on the MW and SW bands still has a crispness that aids in DXing on those bands, however.When I really get to dreaming, I think of XHDATA or some other maker designing a portable like the 808 – why not call it the 1000 Super DSP – that actually has continuously adjustable bandwidth control. This will never happen. Comparing the BFO frequency accuracy (using RWM on 4996 and 9996 kHz) brought up some slight offsets across the coverage range, with different curves for LSB and USB: Absolutely amazing! Thank you for taking the time to put this procedure together and describing the process in such fine detail, Gary! Hats off to you! So, in SSB on on the D-808 you have: 4.0 kHz, 3.0 kHz, 2.2 kHz, 1.2 kHz, 1.0 kHz, and an amazing .5 kHz ! Imagine that: .5 kHz The answer? Build yourself a Long Wave induction antenna as shown in the second video [below]. I made one some time ago, as I grew frustrated at how poor the Tecsun radios were on this part of the band & that there were no LW induction antennas available to buy. I tried a signal on 207 kHz which is RÚV Rás 2 from Iceland. Either a radio with a very good internal antenna or a good external antenna is needed to receive this station at my QTH in southern England.

Due to product quality problems within 3-12 months of receiving the product,we can repair it for free, but the customer pays for the logistics costs incurred. For anyone interested making a LW induction antenna as shown above, here is a link to a video that has basic instructions & further results. It may be a very simple build & finish what I did, but for me the most important thing is that it works.

I must admit, the front panel of the radio looks familiar, but perhaps only because most other DSP portables have a similar layout. Please comment if you know of an identical portable. NOTE: The Litz wire connection points on the circuit board are surrounded by other important components. It is important to avoid solder drips on these components, or solder bridges to their leads. Solder the Litz wire leads down at an angle to avoid these surrounding components, and use the minimum amount of heat and solder to ensure good electrical connections)