Joined in 2023 
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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. 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.
CCrane Skywave (the original - no ssb) - Good for FM & Weather Alerts. Bounces between the car console and the house. 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. More Info: https://xhdata.com.cn/collections/xhdata-hot-selling/products/d-808-radio?variant=43660713558334 You will likely get significantly better range by using some ism band dedicated transceiver chip (like cc1101 from TI) than kludging a FM broadcast band transceiver to do it.I encourage other new owners of XHDATA’s D-808 to leave their comments below. Where does this portable rate among other radios you may own? Obviously if Silicon Labs do not allow user programmability of the chip that is off the agenda at least for now.
Lets start with a baseline reference; for me its the GP5-SSB for two reasons. Firstly, the price and secondly the size. Ive seen comparisons with the Tecsun PL660 but I dont think this is an apples-for-apples comparison. Zatímco všechny jmenované přijímače byly superhety, XH DATA je rádio čistě počítačové, tedy přesněji SDR. Rozdílu si všimnete na první poslech. Šum mezi užitečnými signály je jakoby zaprskaný, zatímco superhet má šum hladký. Druhým znakem všech levnějších SDR přijímačů jsou nepatrné pauzy mezi jednotlivými ladicími kroky. Počítač uvnitř se zkrátka musí přepnout zkanálu na kanál. Působí to zvláštně, nás to trochu štvalo, ale zvyknete si. Tento drobný nekomfort vám vynahradí velmi dobrá citlivost rádia.
Inside the Digitech AR-1780
Unfortunately, memories don’t keep the mode on SW–only the frequency and selectivity. After calling a memory, you will have to choose between AM, USB and LSB. I acquired the D808. The original battery or XHDATA 2000ma battery was at two bar mark instead of three bar full charge level. Recharged it. After using the radio.for a few hours for around two days the battery level has gone to two bar level. It is more than a week it remains at that level . I measured the current consumption when the radio is at sleep mode. On the 20ma range it showed 0.12ma. Quite a reasonable consumption. Even after seven nights, it is at two bar level. Not completely drained as experienced by some of our users.
Tecsun started providing this on small receivers years ago, and in the PL-880, the excellent though flawed portable that also took the listening world by storm, and in the recent 330, 990x and 501x. Thank you for sharing this technical overview of the XHDATA D-808, Gary! I’m looking forward to the antenna mods you’ll no doubt make to this compact DX machine!Listening to AM BC is unproblematic and different bandwidth settings are available. SSB reception is possible. The receiver can be fine tuned and there are also different filters, till down to 500 Hz for CW. It really works !
The S-8800 is good on LW, MW and very good on SW. A nice radio, but the distortion on SSB at the beginning of a transmission is very annoying. I find most of the DSP radios noisier with a harsher sound than the PL-660. XHDATA D-808 – (68.99) I briefly owned this one of these portable radios. Zero LW reception, zero Air band, SW & SSB were virtually non existent, battery even aftter a full charge didn’t last long. FM & MW ok. Direct frequency input needs to be initated with the “Freq” button though, and in some cases (shortwave frequency <10,000kHz) you need to hit it again to enter the frequency. The D-808 has up/down buttons in addition to the main tuning knob, they are stepping through the bands in the “Fast” step width so you can pretty much always leave the tuning knob on “Slow” . Pressing these buttons longer than 3s starts the band scan. Holding each of the left side band buttons starts the “ATS” scan-and-save-to-memory automatic. Shortwave Single Side Band (SSB) minimum step is 1kHz, Upper Side Band (USB) and Lower Side Band (LSB) reception independent
D-808 Manual
Searching round, there have been quite a few reports of this fault on the web and it looks like its a design flaw. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be the support in place to get the radio fixed so when it goes wrong, it is cheaper to post it direct to the nearest landfill. 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. 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.
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