I’m wondering if other D-808 owners reading this have anything to comment on the legibility of their LCD panels, as I’m not sure if mine was fitted with a mediocre digital display or the poor contrast is the norm. I’m thinking of requesting for an exchange within the first 30 days’ warranty period but the rest of the radio is fine. If someone of you have similar experience or knows any “remedy” for my case i would be pleased to read from you. 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.

The D-808 has no such thing and that makes it at least as vulnerable to overloading from good conditions or big antennas as the PL-660 without attenuation. At the beach it exhibited very faint intermodulation even at propagation conditions that were just “not quite as crappy as the current record low” when the Tecsun did not. They were so soft that I think this can’t be heard when the noise level is a bit higher, still a bit strange. Intermodulation products seem to show up most prominently around 7MHz, 10MHz and in the 15m ham band first. 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. Design. OK, this one’s very personal! As a graphic designer I have a real soft spot for any receiver that looks as good as it sounds, no matter what the technology or vintage. The D-808’s look really appeals to me and adds to my enjoyment while operating it. There are no unnecessary protrusions, ridges, or visual do-dads on this XHDATA model. In fact, I seem some design clues from the stylish Tecsun PL-880 in the D-808. The radio also has a quality feel to the plastic case and buttons, giving it a more “upper class” impression during use.

AM Reception

In what could be the final models from Tecsun, we saw the PL-330, PL-990x and H-501x all of which bring impressive features and capabilities to the game. Sangean finally introduced its upgraded ATS-909×2 including an early firmware upgrade that was supposed to correct some issues with this receiver. Below are four videos showing the D-808’s reception of three weaker daytime medium wave stations from indoors at my suburban Seattle-Tacoma (WA) home, plus one video of a shortwave reception in the 41 meter band. The XHDATA D-808 is compared to C. Crane’s newest Skywave radio, the SSB model, and the Eton Executive Satellit. Although brief, these tests show how the new XHDATA portable is a welcome competitor to the field of modern, compact SSB-capable radios:

batteries have a very high energy density at a very low weight, and in the D-808 they meet a radio with a very moderate power consumption. As a result, the provided 2,000mAh battery powered the radio continuously for remarkable 32 hours, 14 of them with the display light on! For comparison, the heavier (and more expensive) 2,500mAh Ni-MH batteries in my PL-660 last for 24 hours only. 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: The above situation happening only on SW. On FM, MW and Airband, D-808 is more sensitive and selective than R-108. (Exception is the LW band that both of them are not receiving anything at all). The S-8800 is good on LW, MW and very good on SW. A nice radio, but the distortion on SSB at the beginning of a transmission is very annoying. I find most of the DSP radios noisier with a harsher sound than the PL-660. Unlike many past instances that we’ve seen, I don’t think the “new” SIHUADON D-808 is an instance where a company has copied someone else’s design, I think this is a company that simply is putting out the same radio under different branding.Outsides where the noises of the digital world are gone, the D-808 presents all bands almost as filled as my dipole at home and so there’s always an interesting QSO or some overseas radio program to enjoy. To give you an idea on what I mean by “no compromises”: my companion on today’s walk was NY2PO from upstate NY (3,728mi/6,000km away) on 40m, constantly coming in with a signal allowing for convenient listening, despite the bad conditions (SFI=68 A=10).

A DW01A (IC2) & a 82015A MOSFET (IC1) do overcharge protection, while a TP4056 (U2) charges the Li-Ion battery at 400mA until it reaches 4.2V. I owned many portable radios over the years and still I like to try out some new ones. I played around with this radio for many months now and found my personal interpretation for the advantages and disadvantages. To “a newer and faster DSP chip to speed up mode changes”: The D-808 is a Si4734/Si4735/Si4732 chip receiver. Other radios of this type are the very cheap chinese ATS-20 and ATS-25 or the well known brands radios Tecsun PL-310ET, PL-365, PL-360, PL-380, PL-880, Degen DE1103 DSP, DE1123, DE1126, Sangean ATS-909X, C Crane CC Skywave and Radiwow R-108. I have both the D-808 and PL-660. I have to say my experience is contrary to some of the findings in this review. My PL-660 trounces the D-808 on LW. It’s not even close. Even at night here in the UK the D-808 struggles to get BBC Radio 4 on 198khz. Pretty much nothing else. The PL-660 pulls in all the main stations from Europe, some very strongly. On MW they’re both very similar, a slight edge to the PL-660. This amazed me because when I got the PL-660 the other day I was buying on the expectation that MW and LW were poor. A bonus! LW is poor, better than the PL-660 but still poor, Good on MW and Very good on SW. I hate the soft muting. It is a noisier radio than the PL-660 which is less fatiguing. But due to the differences in the audio/speaker sometimes the D-808 can be more intelligible on weak signals than the PL-880 or PL-660 and even the S8800.Adopts DSP (Digital Signal Processing) technique, high-frequency analog, medium-frequency circuit, various frequency conversion, highly improves the receiver sensitivity, selectivity and anti-image interference capability The XHDATA D-808 FM Stereo/LW/MW/SW-SSB AIR RDS Synthesized Receiver is supplied with a succinctOperation Guide that may not cover all the details of the radio operation behavior. However, had a D-808 existed at that time this would have been much easier because of the multiple bandwidths in both AM and SSB. I imagine a SONY ICF-SW7600GR would have done a good job as well, but it too does not have the multiple bandwidth options that a D-808 has. I guess I’ll keep tossing my 7600 in my bags when I head overseas. Was really hoping that Sangean had a radio that would allow me to retire my Sony.

On the other hand, tuning through the bands is a pain. Every tuning step mutes the receiver for some tenth of a second. This is nothing I want to see in a radio of the 21st century. Pressing a button gives a "brrp" sound in the speaker. Not very nice. Doingmanual tuning across RF bands results in muting/chuffing sounds when changing eachRF step.This seems to be a design characteristicof DSP based radios. In this model the volume drop can be reduced by seleccting the Slow tuning mode. Despite being mentioned in the Operations Guide, there is no key for that. The D-808 was designed with automatic charging and management of the installed battery. I do wonder if Tecsun have improved the PL-660 over the years. More than likely as most manufacturers make undocumented improvements over the years. The build quality is also very impressive, the buttons are as rattle free as they are on the D-808.

Sensitivity

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 What about single sideband? These four videos show reception in AM mode only, but rest assured the D-808 is very capable on the SSB modes of LSB and USB! A separate fine tuning rotary wheel on the right side of the radio’s case offers adjustment in 10 Hertz increments. The effect feels very similar to tuning CountyComm’s GP-5/SSB “walkie-talkie” style receiver. The plus or minus (+/-) offset is displayed in multiples of 10 Hz steps as “-1”, “-2”, “-3”, and so on. Telescopic antenna - Last section (with tip) detached from the rest. Also, the antenna mounting seems to be fragile, requiring great care when rotating it, as it can break the plastic support. FM stereo / MW / LW/ SW SSB and Air Band radio with high sensitivity, good selectivity, and user-operation friendly