By Robert Gulley
I admit to being hesitant to evaluation this radio when XHDATA contacted me, as our personal armchair transportable radio guru, Jock, had written a wonderful evaluation of the radio again in June of this yr, and since the radio has been out for a while (6 or 7 years, I consider). After a time, I made a decision my tackle the radio, like some other, can be simply one other side in contemplating its place within the radio world at giant, or probably in your radio shelf, and therefore this evaluation.
Light-weight and a Sturdy Antenna
As Jock talked about in relation to different light-weight DX machines, this radio is certainly gentle, but sturdy, and really simply transportable. Not like many small radios, care has been taken to make the antenna strong and tall. This implies it will possibly pull in a variety of alerts safely (until, like me, you might be evaluating it side-by-side with three different radios and end up having antenna sword fights as you progress radios round, however I digress. Luckily, nothing dangerous occurred to any of the radios!). When sitting on a desk, the built-in stand is secure, and permits urgent buttons solidly with one hand – the radio doesn’t slide round or threaten to be knocked over within the course of. Which may look like a minor factor, however many stands are lower than dependable on this regard.
Working the Radio
Whereas I would like a barely bigger offset to the buttons from the floor of the radio, this didn’t trigger a lot of a problem whether or not hand-held or on its stand. There have been a number of instances once I thought I had pressed a button sufficiently however no response, however a second, more durable press labored, so I simply wanted to take that into consideration when tuning in frequencies utilizing the keypad, or when altering modes, and so on.
The radio has a variety of features, clearly labeled, together with operations carried out when the radio is off, labeled in orange. Different orange labels point out secondary or sub features when the radio is on, such because the “Meter” perform which, when in SW mode, cycles via the shortwave bands.
A small however helpful function I actually respect associated to that is the meter identification displayed together with the frequency as you cycle via the shortwave bands. For some purpose I’ve a tough time remembering which set of frequencies is represented by which SW meter band. Maybe with this radio I can lastly get them firmly entrenched into my outdated mind!
The Fantastic Tune dial works particularly nicely with a broad vary of adjustment relying on the mode.
One other working function that I discovered very helpful is the Fantastic Tuning dial on the facet of the radio. This works as one would count on in Shortwave and SSB mode, permitting for slight changes to usher in a voice or CW sign within the newbie bands, but in addition permits one to off-tune from the usual obtain frequency when a sign is being interfered with or selecting up static and so on.
That is nothing notably new, however what’s spectacular to me is that it really works for MW alerts as nicely. With the ability to go from 700 kHz to 701 or 702 kHz, for instance, generally permits for a extra intelligible sign, notably at night time when there could be a number of stations coming in on the identical frequency.
On a couple of event this was helpful, particularly since this implies one doesn’t have to alter the tuning price to make an adjustment. Your predominant tuning stays on the 9 or 10k you could have set, and while you transfer the principle tuning dial, it jumps to the subsequent correct frequency. On this instance, 701kHz turns into 800kHz with the subsequent flip of the principle tuning dial or up arrow,
Listening
The audio is nice for its dimension as a result of giant speaker, and the multitude of filter choices within the radio for each mode (besides FM) will let you tailor the audio to what you favor, or what is going to will let you largely, or completely, remove interference from robust close by stations. For many who prefer to take heed to newbie radio bands, the filter functionality is much more helpful, notably because it goes all the way down to 500 Hz, nice for listening to Morse code!
The variety of filters is superb given the worth level of this radio, and it begs the query, if XHDATA can do that, why can’t different corporations do that too? It is a huge promoting level for the radio in my e book.
As I discussed earlier, I in contrast three different radios to the D-808, a Sony 7600GR, a Sangean 909X2, and a C.Crane Skywave. The outcomes have been each predictable and shocking. Predictable in that the Sangean with the bigger speaker had higher audio, the Sony with SSB sync that really works (in contrast to many fashions that attempt to fail!) was a bit clearer more often than not on SSB, and the Skywave was weaker in energy due partly, at the least, to the smaller antenna, and lesser audio as a result of smaller speaker.
What was unpredictable was when the D-808 pulled in stations higher than the Sangean or Sony – not usually, however some instances. Equally, the D-808 would generally hear two MW broadcast stations when the opposite three would solely hear one. All three have been used at instances with a Tecsun AM loop antenna to spice up MW alerts, in addition to with their naked ferrite antennas. More often than not the MW alerts have been fairly even, however generally the D-808 received out.
Whereas I’ve but to personal the right radio, and I’ve owned so much of radios, this radio does what it guarantees, and does it nicely. As I notice beneath, there are execs and cons and quirks to each radio, and what could also be a quirk or a con to me is probably not to others.
PROs, CONs, and Quirks
PROs
- Glorious sensitivity on FM (good telescopic antenna) and AM (inner ferrite antenna glorious given the dimensions of the radio)
- Contains the AIR band, SSB with USB and LSB, and LW
- 6 filters for SW, 7 for MW/LW, and 6 for Air (WOW!)
- Fantastic Tuning Dial works in all modes to assist reception
- Tuning Dial could be adjusted for Quick or Gradual tuning steps, and could be set to STOP to lock in a station in order that if the dial is accidently nudged, the station is not going to get modified.
- Direct Keypad entry of frequencies
- Function wealthy for an (virtually) ultralight radio
- Exterior antenna jack
- Lengthy-lasting battery
- Reset Button to return to sq. one if wanted
CONs
- Whereas I don’t thoughts tender muting, this radio does make a “chuffing” sound in sure modes when tuning manually (however not when discovering stations with ATS). That’s not a deal-breaker for me, however it will likely be to some, I do know. That is possible as a result of AGC “attacking” the audio because it returns from the tender muting.
- Minor Nit: Whereas the battery life is nice with the rechargeable battery included, I at all times want AA-sized batteries for his or her virtually common availability.
- Reminiscence entry is proscribed, not by the variety of reminiscences, however by a straightforward technique to tune via them. Reminiscence Pages ought to hyperlink seamlessly for scanning functions, however this isn’t an unusual CON with many different radios.
Quirks
- Setting the Sleep Timer to “On” really turns it off. Actually.
- Typically if the Clock adjustment is ready to Auto, an FM radio station that broadcasts RDS time and date information may reset the time to one thing completely different, corresponding to when listening to a station from a special time zone. I want to set the clock manually to my native time (or extra possible, to UTC time) simply to maintain it constant, and that possibility is out there for this radio.
- I’ve observed when one other radio is close to, when altering the frequency manually, along with the chuffing noise of the D-808, the opposite radio will make a popping sound with every change. This isn’t more likely to be a problem in regular operation, but when evaluating two radios, or listening to 2 completely different radios on the similar time, you’ll possible hear it.
- The alarm time set reveals on the principle show when the radio is turned off, no matter whether or not the alarm is ready to go off or not. This was very complicated to me at first, as I anticipated the show to go off when the alarm was not set to go off.
Wrap-up
It is a neat little radio that, as they are saying, punches above its weight class. It may possibly slot in a jacket pocket simply, it’s light-weight, it has options which not many different portables have, or have as totally, and the audio is sort of good for its dimension.
That is certainly an armchair receiver, however with the addition of a MW loop antenna, or a longwire plugged in for shortwave/newbie or LW/MW bands, there are numerous extra alternatives for bagging distant stations.
There are sufficient options to make it fairly usable for travelling, however not so many bells and whistles that operation turns into cumbersome. And with keypad entry for while you need rapid gratification, there’s no lengthy minutes or hours of tuning manually to get to the frequencies you need.
I consider the radio is available in at a very good value level, ticks most containers a consumer would need for a radio on this class, and has a observe document of excellent reliability after a variety of years in the marketplace.
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As with the D-220 promotion particularly for SWLing readers, beneath are hyperlinks and codes to save lots of a little bit of inexperienced (or is that plastic now?!).
Low cost Info (from XHDATA)
Concerning the pricing particulars for the XHDATA D808 radio, the unique value of the D808 is $108. Presently, it’s a part of Amazon’s Black Friday promotion, providing a 20% low cost.
Moreover, we’d prefer to give you a stackable 5% low cost code, making the ultimate value roughly $5 decrease than the particular Black Friday value.
(ed. Be aware: contains free supply within the states when bought via Amazon U.S.)
Listed below are the unique low cost codes:
- Grey D808: 05dealforSWL
- Black D808: 06dealforSWL
- Efficient time: From 2024-11-27 08:00 PST To 2024-12-3 23:59 PST (Pacific Commonplace Time)
Product hyperlinks:
I examined the above hyperlinks and codes, and as of this writing each have been working correctly at Amazon U.S.
73, Robert K4PKM
