Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
for my SDR, I just take the Tecsun to the beach and through the years I own it, I’ve logged plenty of true DX (JA, VK/ZL or WWVH on a regular basis) with it there, just using the telescopic whip. So… it was time to disassemble the D-808, and find out why its loopstick was such a superior performer. It seems like it is an issue with leakage or improper shielding/bypassing from the digital switching circuits. 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. Oddly, the published bandwidth for the AM filters seem to be “audio bandwidth” (or “per sideband”) figures rather than IF-bandwidths, so they equate to classic IF filters with 2/3,6/4/5/6/8 and 12 kHz bandwidth.
But while it lacks the new spacing, it absolutely has the selectivity for it – the AM filters are all available on the air band as well and even the widest one is still good enough to separate adjacent channels sufficiently. Portable SW radios might be a highly niche product now but given the technology available and how long Sangean has been making radios, there’s no excuse for some of their choices or the missing “wow” factor I got as I scanned through the SW bands. The D-808 is at least as sensitive as my Alinco DJ-X11 scanner and skunks the rather deaf Tecsun in this band. For example, in November 2016 I heard France Inter on 162 kHz here in San Antonio, TX, using just my Sony 7600GR and the PK loop. I suppose the D-808 is equipped with a protection circuit and self regulates the charging via USB, as the user manual would not advise against charging the battery internally.I have tried Epoch Batteries 18650 3500mAh 10A as well as Orbtronic 3500 mAh 10A 18650 battery and this radio simply will not run them. In what could be the final models from Tecsun, we saw the PL-330, PL-990x and H-501x all of which bring impressive features and capabilities to the game. This entry was posted in AM, Antennas, DX, Field Radio, FM, Guest Posts, Mediumwave, News, Portable Radio, Radios, Reviews, Shortwave Radio, Shortwave Radio Reviews, Ultralight DX and tagged C. This is not the same as the Tecsuns which actually enable you to re-calibrate, and with adjustment that remains set for both USB and LSB.
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. Backlight control is fundamentally different tho: You can turn off the automatic backlight on the PL-660 but you can’t turn it permanently on, the D-808’s light button toggles between “permanently on” and off but you can’t turn off the automatic.The SSB mode operates very similar to that of the Skywave SSB in providing a quick check of carrier strength on weak AM band targets– the LSB mode can be set to +55, and the radio tuned to different frequencies to check fringe station carrier strength. I think these AM bandwidths should cover all requirements that might come up, on top of those you can try ECSS reception with the SSB filters. It’s doubtful that XHDATA or some other manufacturer will consider competing directly with Tecsun and Sangean. At the beach it exhibited very faint intermodulation even at propagation conditions that were just “not quite as crappy as the current record low” when the Tecsun did not.
In construction very similar to that of the CC Skywave, the D-808 separates into two main circuit boards, connected together by a plug-in ribbon cable. Both receivers have some “thin plastic” feel to me, but while my PL-660 has some slightly rattly and wiggly buttons and knobs rubbing against the casing, the D-808 has none of those and feels a tad more solid. When conditions were good, I’ve witnessed occasional overloading even with just the whip antenna on the PL-660 there.I find it hard to tell whether the D-808 is really noisier than the PL-660, or just lacking this permanent noise reduction. The chuffing sounds different and the background noise sounds wider with more hiss, then after a while (this can take several seconds) the filter pops back in with the regular puff from the AGC. Unfortunately it developed a fault where even when it was turned off, would emit a hiss from the speaker and then kept draining its batteries. Another issue is an occasional effect that sounds and feels like the filter drops out when you tune through the band.
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