My first comparisons were between the original (2018) D-808 and the 2022 version and the biggest difference was on AM where there was a very slight reduction of reserve volume on extremely faint signals. To explain, on any listenable station there was enough volume to drive the radio to distortion, but on faint traces of signals the new model wasn’t quite as loud as the original. Interestingly, if I matched their volume levels by slightly reducing the volume of the original D-808, the actual reception…the signal to noise ratio was the same, it just couldn’t play quite as loudly. However, this was fairly subtle. Also, the original radio had a spurious whine on an extremely faint signal on 740 KHz…there was no whine on the 2022 sample. This was the only frequency where I noticed this spurious whine. In addition, the R-108 includes longwave frequencies. Something I know will please a number of our readers. I have to think that it is highly unlikely that there will be a new version of the D-808, unless someone out there has heard something in the receiver rumor mill that I have not. Perhaps the folks at XHDATA/RadioWOW will take this hint. 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. Conclusion: The XHDATA D-808 certainly reflects the state of Chinese manufacturing today in both good and bad ways.

All these radios can overload easily at night with external antenna and so the local/DX button helps a lot, unfortunately the D-808 overload with external antenna can be quite a lot with no form of attenuation.

Display/Backlight

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. 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. 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. I did only a few minutes test on LW and MW, and it seemed OK, even if I don’t have a lot of experience on these bands. 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).

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. 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!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.