The sound is not so good. Music sounds "thin" but that's probably the contribute I have to pay for the size of the speaker. Volume control is "analog", which is a big advantage over many of those controls working with digitized steps. The fixation of the telescope antenna is a bit fragile. Rotate it carefully, it's held with just one small screw ending in a piece of plastic. It will be interesting to see how it holds up to a few years use as my Sony ICF-SW1 has (although recently it has had its old capacitors replaced). The PL-660 has 2 (I think unspecified) ceramic IF filters for SW, which are doing a good job serving 90% of all typical purposes for such a radio. The D-808 on the other hand utlizes the DSP for IF filtering and offers whopping 11 different bandwidths (6 on AM and 6 for SSB), this is even more than the PL-880! This sold the D-808 to me the most, for example I like to improve my very poor CW listening skills every so often, and always having an even narrower filter up the sleeve can save otherwise hopeless DX reception in the ham and broadcast bands. But are they any good? A lot of ICs offer two mixers, and a quadrature oscillator of some sort, but can you easily shift the frequency down to more useful frequencies?

To “It’s doubtful that XHDATA or some other manufacturer will consider competing directly with Tecsun and Sangean”: My Sony 7600GR is one of the best portable analog dual conversion radio receivers. I think there are more then one thousand components in the housing. Because of this low level of integration the radios of different brands were different. My ATS-20 has less then one hundred components – and I assume that the other Si47xx radios have the same number of components. Because of this there is no much difference between a no-name D-808 and a Tecsun if both use a Si47xx.Shortly afterwards G3RIK and I were operating /P in Scotland using an ex military B44 ( 5W out ) and a 4×4 yagi.

The 808 was and still is compared to the CCrane Skywave SSB, a much smaller and compact receiver. Unfortunately, in my experience both suffer from soft muting. 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. It’s doubtful that XHDATA or some other manufacturer will consider competing directly with Tecsun and Sangean. But the D-808 carved out a place for itself in the small portable category, at an extremely competitive price point.

The manual claims that the D-808 can’t be charged when it’s on but I found that’s not quite true–it sure takes much more time but I could top off a slightly discharged battery just fine. I use RDS CT to synchronize the time, yet my time is always and constantly -3 hours off. I use only strong stations, different stations, already reset the radio. Přijímač XH DATA je pocitově velmi dobrý výrobek. Pokud vezmete na milost jeho strohý design, bude se vám líbit. Rádio skvěle padne do ruky. Je menší než recenzovaný Tecsun PL-660, což rozhodně není na závadu, spíš naopak. XH DATA bychom se nebáli nazvat kapesním rádiem. Using the D-808 again after a few years reminded me that this little China-made receiver offers no less than SEVEN bandwidths, in AM mode. Let me say that again: SEVEN (7) bandwidths. Perhaps it is worth writing an article about the currently manufactured portable global receivers, as it was in this article.

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. While I really, really loved the look and feel of the radio along with the outstanding FM performance, I kept thinking that the X2 really didn’t live up to being a radio worthy of its current pricing in 2021. Oddly, the published bandwidth for the AM filters seem to be “audio bandwidth” (or “per sideband”) figures rather than IF-bandwidths, so they equate to classic IF filters with 2/3,6/4/5/6/8 and 12 kHz bandwidth. The only overlap is 4 kHz, hence I say it’s 11 different bandwidths, not 10. I think these AM bandwidths should cover all requirements that might come up, on top of those you can try ECSS reception with the SSB filters. SSB Reception I remember about 20 years ago, I was on the mailing list for one IC company and there was a string of intriguing cellphone ICs. Wait, it was Maxim, and they offered samples. I kept looking at those, knowing they had a lot of what was needed for “SDR’, but it was never clear from the bits they sent out whether they were too sculpted to cellphone applications or they could be shifted to “useful” frequencies.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. 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, quirks Last week, I posted a few photos of the new XHDATA D-808 and Digitech AR-1780–two of the hottest portable shortwave radios to hit the market in recent months.

Charging it from a USB charger or laptop USB port introduces some additional noise on AM/SW of course, trying a cheap power bank worked out much better in this regard. The Xhdata D-808 has a large LCD display that shows the station frequency, time, battery level, and other settings. It has several tuning modes, including manual, automatic, and memory presets. The radio can store up to 500 stations in its memory, which can be categorized by language, genre, or location. It also has a digital signal processing (DSP) chip that enhances the sound quality and reduces noise and distortion.Zatímco všechny jmenované přijímače byly superhety, XH DATA je rádio čistě počítačové, tedy přesněji SDR. Rozdílu si všimnete na první poslech. Šum mezi užitečnými signály je jakoby zaprskaný, zatímco superhet má šum hladký. Druhým znakem všech levnějších SDR přijímačů jsou nepatrné pauzy mezi jednotlivými ladicími kroky. Počítač uvnitř se zkrátka musí přepnout zkanálu na kanál. Působí to zvláštně, nás to trochu štvalo, ale zvyknete si. Tento drobný nekomfort vám vynahradí velmi dobrá citlivost rádia. 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 In short, this is an amazing receiver for its price. Where the Sangean falls short with no variable selectivity in SSB, the XHDATA kills -- multiple bandwidths in SSB and fairly stable SSB fine tuning as well, which is, in fact, more stable and without any "warbling" than the Tecsun sets. Yes, there is a bit of chuffing when using the main encoder knob, and a bit of soft muting. But compared to some other portables with these issues, notably the Eton Exec, it's not that bad. Sensitivity on SW is excellent, the speaker is excellent, and this has quite good AIR band reception. However in the transceiver chip if it could generate multimode between 64 and 108 MHz it would be easy to have a HF add on with only a mixer and a 50 MHz LPF. With today's hit or miss quality control, I've learn to wait awhile when a new radio comes out. In the case of the D-808, I almost missed out entirely. I bought a new D-808 in 2023, and wasn't greatly impressed. After learning that XHData had altered the original RF front end on the D-808 to cut costs, I returned the new radio and bought a slightly-used 2022 model with the original circuit design. I'm glad I did.