So far I couldn’t find birdies anywhere on the D-808. The PL-660 is pretty clean on shortwave too, but it has hefty birdies around 100, 200 and 970kHz, despite the efforts Tecsun has put into shielding and clean PCB design. Tecsun started providing this on small receivers years ago, and in the PL-880, the excellent though flawed portable that also took the listening world by storm, and in the recent 330, 990x and 501x.

Who knows? Perhaps we’ll sort it all out later this year. I hope so, because I get questions about D-808 availability almost daily. The D-808 is at least as sensitive as my Alinco DJ-X11 scanner and skunks the rather deaf Tecsun in this band. Unlike the PL-660 and most other small receivers covering that band it has a squelch, which is by the way active on all bands.The port is a Micro USB, fortunately. In the photo it does look like a Mini instead of a Micro, but I can confirm it’s the more common Micro. More recently (2023?) the internal circuit of the of the radio was radically changed and users are reporting that the new version isn’t as loud. This version can be identified by rubber feet on the bottom and a USB-C charging connector (the prior version has a USB Micro). Others are speculating about poorer performance. I’ll post an update when I know more. Mine is this latest version. You can read more about the update on the Ultralight User Group. Operation Both receivers are generally very stable and don’t exhibit a noticeable warm-up drift. Just to see what happens, I took the D-808 from a very warm apartment into cold (-5°C/28F) and stormy weather outside. The internal (and very slow changing) thermometer of the D-808 indicated an internal temperature drop of 12°C within 10 minutes and if there was a drift at all, it drifted less than 10Hz.

Jim, thank you for your suggestions. I had Degen1103 but sold it – it had encoder problems. I wish I knew it is that good on LW. Sangean is way to much expensive. I’ll try to find 7600GR then. 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. Also, perhaps a retailer and manufacturer like Eton Corp might take the D-808 and transform it into an Eton portable?Other than that, it seems to abide <10m/30ft of wire just fine and it gets along with my ML-200 active loop, currently indoors with a rigid 80cm aluminum loop, unless the RRI transmitters populate 49 and/or 41m after midnight. That station occasionally hits the 9+60 mark on my SDR with a dipole and when they’re on, the D-808 has to be tuned far away from these bands or disconnected from the loop to stop the pumping, desensitizing and intermodulation products. Interestingly, strong signals often make the filter drop out (as described under “SSB reception”) as well. A theory could be that this happens when an off-band signal (and/or the AGC causing “clipping”) makes an AD-converter run out of bits.

It does use the thin Li-ion rechargeable battery. Like you, I’m not a big fan. I see advantages in terms of weight and recharge-ability, but I much prefer AA batteries. I have recently bought the xhdata D808. It has significant hiss at zero volume through headphones. Fortunately the hiss is constant and does not increase with volume. 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! I) Amidon 7.5” x .5” ferrite rod, part no. R61-050-750 (MW model) OR part no. R33-050-750 (LW Model), available at http://www.amidoncorp.com/rods-and-tiles/ Sensitivity in LW is very low, like all chinese radios. I made the antenna mod in the PL-380 and I wonder if it wouldn’t be possible to do a similar mod in this radio (but chances are that there is not enough place in it …).I tested my D-808 with the low impedance AKG K240. There is low dB hiss even if you turn the volume all the way down. When you turn the volume up to 5%, you can still hear the hissing. In FM mode, this low noise is more noticeable. However, this hiss is not heard above 10% of the sound. 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. There is no tone control, nor a Local/DX switch. The display is smaller than I would prefer. I want the frequency to be front and center on the display, but it’s no larger than other information and it’s not in the center. I do like that both the frequency and the time can be on the display at the same time (the Sangean can’t do that). Documentation