XHDATA D-808 Portable Digital Radio FM stereo/SW/MW/LW SSB RDS Air Band Multi Band Radio Speaker with LCD Display Alarm Clock External Antenna

Product Information

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. 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. Do not submit a product review critiquing another review or reviewer. Reviewers should be able to share their product opinion without being publicly criticized. Na dlouhé anténě (cca 25 metrů) se XH DATA během dne chová dobře. Vnočních hodinách má sklony se zahltit, což není nic překvapivého. When saving a station to a preset whilst holding down a button yes this interference is noticeable on weaker AM stations (its not an issue at all on FM).

Here was a small, well-designed DSP radio that burst upon the scene with outstanding capabilities and which even today is prized among those who own it. Need I repeat? SEVEN bandwidths in AM mode, and MW, and SIX in SSB and LW. When switching to SSB a “loading bar” shows up first, the entire process between hitting the “SSB” button and getting reception again takes 5 seconds. Actually, these radios basically consist of a “radio-on-a-chip” and a microcontroller so it really might be a loading bar we see there. This controller seems to be not exactly fast in the D-808 anyway, so even using the tuning knob comes with occasional hesitations – I advance the main tuning encoder one indention and the frequency changes only 1-2 seconds later. Changing bands is not exactly fast either but at least toggling between USB and LSB works instantaneously. One of my best DX catches at that time was Radio Rwanda on 6,055 kHz just before it’s sign off in the late afternoon eastern timed. Using a Panasonic RF-B65 which had NO bandwidth options, I was able to hear and record a full sign off and ID. To set it all up i first tuned the PA into a 50 ohm load and then inserted an SWR bridge between that and the parallel tuned circuit/series tuned link and adjusted the two capacitors to get 1:1 SWR.i wouldn’t call this an “unexpected chip” .. if i was looking for an FM transceiver i would look for a chip like this

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.

SSB Reception

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. 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. 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.