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Thank you for your question, Sorin. I’m letting a friend borrow my D-808 so, unfortunately, don’t have it handy to confirm this for you. My hope is that an SWLing Post reader can help. The XHDATA D-808 has multiple display functions, which can be toggled by the indicated key. The first option is the temperature in either Centigrade or Fahrenheit (depending on your pre-set preference), while the second option is the alarm time. The third option is the current time (which you need to set according whether you prefer UTC or local time), while the fourth option is the received signal strength in both dBu and dB.
You don’t find that kind of selectivity capability even in a Drake R8B. After that, you’re getting into continuously variable bandwidth control found in premium DSP receivers. 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. I tried to remake the input circuit, but there were difficulties with the exact matching of the tuning frequencies and everything was returned to the factory state. 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 kHzNote: The very similar Digitech AR-1780 runs on AA cells rather than the XHDADA’s internal Li-ion cell and is available from Jaycar.com or in other areas Google “Jaycar” or “Digitech”. The buttons are barely raised beyond the surface of the radio, and operating the radio by touch is difficult. I was impressed with the sensitivity of the 808, large speaker, and inclusion of AIR band, though I noticed some digital artifacts and agree with negatives such as slight soft muting and chuffing, and slowness of the processor.
Below are four videos showing the D-808’s reception of three weaker daytime medium wave stations from indoors at my suburban Seattle-Tacoma (WA) home, plus one video of a shortwave reception in the 41 meter band. The XHDATA D-808 is compared to C. Crane’s newest Skywave radio, the SSB model, and the Eton Executive Satellit. Although brief, these tests show how the new XHDATA portable is a welcome competitor to the field of modern, compact SSB-capable radios: 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.Even after all of these years, my Sony 7600GR continues to hang tough and when connected to an external antenna, was performing almost as well as the X2 despite what should have been a run away in terms of all the benefits that come with a DSP based receiver. Redsun, who worked with C. Crane in designing their one-of-a-kind CC Skywave and Skywave SSB models, has no control over other manufacturers who are seemingly free to copy parts of those designs, and to modify them any way they want to. This is also the reason that manufacturers no longer provide schematics and service manuals for their products which used to be standard practice which is a sad state of affairs. It is interesting to note that although many radios use the same Silicon labs Si4735 series DSP Chips, these chips offer many features which may not all be available in any one radio, as well as many settings the manufacturer can adjust to customize many details of operation. Add to this the fact that every radio will have its own ferrite rod AM antenna, SW/FM/Air whip antenna and speaker which will affect reception and sound quality and you can see that two radios can use the same DSP chip and yet be quite different in many ways. There are also, of course, many areas where performance will be identical…my own experience suggests that SW/FM/Air reception tends to be similar when the whip antennas are similar while AM reception will be different depending on the size of the built-in ferrite rod AM antenna. NOTE: The Litz wire connection points on the circuit board are surrounded by other important components. It is important to avoid solder drips on these components, or solder bridges to their leads. Solder the Litz wire leads down at an angle to avoid these surrounding components, and use the minimum amount of heat and solder to ensure good electrical connections)
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. SW AM listening was very good; good audio, great selectivity. I suspect that the bandwidths given are AF bandwidths as even the most selective were not too much muffled. If it was IF selectivity, the AF bandwidths would have been half the values and much muffled. Solution 1: Use a battery operated headphone amp. Keeping the volume on radio to moderate/high use the volume on headphone amp to reach desired level. This will completely eliminate the noise. This works because the audio signal to noise ratio increases so much with moderate volume that when you reduce the audio through the amp the noise levels become absolutely inaudible. I use FiiO Q1 amp which has a digitally stepping volume control which eliminates any stereo channel imbalance at low volume. This imbalance issue is also there in d808 because it has analog potentiometer vol. control.It’s not the best manual but it will get you through most of what you need to learn. I found a few errors but there may be more. Some of these seem to be caused by the fact that the same DSP chip is usually programmed a bit differently in other radios. Unlike many past instances that we’ve seen, I don’t think the “new” SIHUADON D-808 is an instance where a company has copied someone else’s design, I think this is a company that simply is putting out the same radio under different branding.
The XHDATA D-808’s AM performance ranks *** in the AM Mega Shootout list which places it at the top for this size class of radio. On AM it outperforms well-known, larger radios like the Tecsun PL-660/680/880, Sony ICF-7600G/GR or even the much more deluxe Sangean ATS-909X using built in antennas, hearing faint signals which are nothing but hiss on those sets. ( Update: The newer Sangean ATS-909X2 now also ranks *** on AM). The only medium to small size radios that match is AM sensitivity are the slightly larger Eton Satellit, the original Degen DE-1103 (not the later DSP version) and the discontinued Eton/Grundig E5/G5 twins. For its size it is one hot little AM radio.Radiwow claims the performance is better than that of the venerable Tecsun PL-310ET. This, I will have to test because the PL-310ET is certainly a workhorse Ultralight radio. And the R-108 includes air band? Sounds like a CC Skywave without weather radio. That could be quite appealing if the price is competitive. So far, the list is short! As a sacrifice to style, the manufacturer has kept all front panel buttons almost flush with the case. The effect looks great, but they are almost too low and close to the front panel. Those with larger fingers may find operation awkward or frustrating. Also, entering a shortwave frequency with less than five digits (i.e., below 10,000 kHz) requires a trailing push of the Frequency (FREQ) button. To “a newer and faster DSP chip to speed up mode changes”: The D-808 is a Si4734/Si4735/Si4732 chip receiver. Other radios of this type are the very cheap chinese ATS-20 and ATS-25 or the well known brands radios Tecsun PL-310ET, PL-365, PL-360, PL-380, PL-880, Degen DE1103 DSP, DE1123, DE1126, Sangean ATS-909X, C Crane CC Skywave and Radiwow R-108.
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