The memory and paging system is by far its biggest con, I might as well use it without any preset stations, also the frequency entering and the button press is a pain and on that the buttons don't have backlighting. which you need the most when there's chance for the best signal reception - during a blackout or when you are away from electrical noise and lights.
Concering sensitivity test. It is important : where the transmittter and the receiver situated, what is the distance between them, is there a lake/ river or forest near the receiver, what kind of antenna att the receiver, dry or wet soil, mountain or valley etc.
Hola. Sebastian, sabes si aparte de la iluminación de color naranja de la pantalla. La XHDATA actual, tiene algunas mejoras más? que la versión anterior al año 2021? Gracias, saludos desde España 🇪🇸
I returned my PL-310ET to the seller after evaluating it for several days. Mine had awful AGC pumping like in this video and it was practically painful to listen to with the radio clipping the audio on strong signals. Even worse it was also picking up harmonics and stations on frequencies where they shouldn't be in the first place! FM performance was excellent though, it was much more superior to my ears compared to my Tecsun PL-660. I don't buy Tecsun or Sihuadon radios for FM listening but specifically for shortwave, so this little radio had to go. I've read some owners had returned theirs due to the same AGC problem and exchanged them for a much better copy.
Thanks for your review.. I just got my D-808 online for USD70 yesterday.. It's auto tuning system (ATS) really sucks.. I just wish it's much easier to operate like Tecsun PL-310et you mentioned (which I also have).. Other than ATS, the D-808 works fine for me (so far).. I think for its low price but with all bands (including air band) & nice features like RDS (even Tecsun flagship PL-990x doesn't have this), permanent backlight, etc it's really a bargain & damn good SW radio.. Maybe I'll figure out how to resolve or improvise for that ATS issue..
Agreed, the D-808 has pretty decent hardware but its user interface (specifically memory preset management) confused the heck out of me. I'm used to the Tecsun UI and my PL-330 is much easier to use, especially the ETM memories. The D-808 has no memory preset management and I can't even delete individual presets, let alone sort the memory slots. If it's not for the D-808's multiple bandwidth options, SSB and VHF Air Band I would have not bought my Sihuadon D-808. 🤔
It’s 2021 as I watch this. You would think by now they could have Bluetooth for headphones. Also an option to use an outside plug-in antenna for long wave. MW (am) is pretty awesome by itself.
There's a guy on you tube praising these cheap Chinese radios. he's using a 30 meter antenna for SSB and it still sounds bad to me anyway. The aerials fall of after around a year, circuit's burn out , battery failure and glass falling of are common . I'm sure some of these you tubers are getting them free to rate them highly. I use web DSR for SSB . I think also a SDR dongle is the way to go these days nothing much on SW band's anymore. Everything is going digital.
What an ABSOLUTELY STUPID design!.. Wtf were they thinking I wonder.. :| I've always heard people complaining about the page system with this radio, but as I'm used to my Tecsun, it never occurred to me that this radio might NOT HAVE A WAY TO SCROLL THROUGH THE MEMORIZED PRESETS.. It never popped to me that there's no way to go through Frequency Tuning and scrolling through memory presets.. This is so fucking stupid.. I was thinking "meh, who needs to go to a memory preset by the page system, I can always scroll through the memory presets until I find the one I want".. Only that THERE IS NO SUCH OPTION to begin with.. ?!? WTF.. From such a radio with so many features I would've never expected not to have a simple and BASIC FEATURE as scrolling through the fucking presets.. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ This BASIC little feature just turned this in my mind from a very nice radio that I was strongly considering to add to my collection into a CHINESE GARBAGE / PIECE OF SHIT.. (I was fucking wondering why the fuck every reviewer would choose to go through the stupid page idiotic system to find a memorized station.. - Well, that's I guess why, because there iss no other fuckin' way.. ) FUCKING STUPID!.. If only this piece of shit was capable of being reflashed/upgraded with a better firmware.. Stupid.. Real STUPID. BTW.. WHY THE FUCK NO REVIEWER WOULD EVEN MENTION THIS SHIT... ?!? That is also FUCKING STUPID.. Rant done!.
A pretty good SW portable with decent sensitivity and selectivity. A big letdown is the flat and hard buttons which make the radio a bit clumsy to use.
The XHDATA 808 continues to amaze me with how well it performs for such a smaller and lower priced radio. I compare it in performance most often to my Tecsun 880!
Hi sir.rakesh from Chennai and greetings to you.i heard the radio stations of India while you scanned the tecsun pl 310ET.i just wanted to know I should have this radio set and whether station farther like stations Romania;BBC;sputnik;RFI;Japan NHK;voice of Vietnam;Australia; Singapore could be heard?please guide me.thank you
@Rekha Balu you'll need to use an external reel antenna like the Tecsun AN-05L and extend the wire as far as it goes, preferably with the wire outside your window if possible. For best results take your radio outdoors rather than listening indoors. Take note of propagation conditions (solar flux index) which greatly influences long distance shortwave reception. On some days you can pull in more distant stations than other times of the year. Finally, you have to know whether the broadcast station is transmitting towards your country and whether it has an overseas service. Radio Singapore and Australia for example no longer runs their shortwave services. Obviously you can't tune in to Singapore or Australia when they no longer broadcast internationally.
@Bubz of Steel sure, most 18650 common cells are flat tops (no nipple) and won't work in this device. a balled up bit of foil jammed in there will let it work. just don't let it charge unattended. I recycle my 18650s from old laptops and get around 2600mAh. I use an external charger though.
Mine arrived this morning. Why can't anyone design a LCD display properly? Mine has such a small field of view. "They" - the manufacturer should put a contrast adjustment on it as it is just rubbish. Secondly, AM reception is CR4P. Even worse on VHF AM Civil Airband. Placed next to my ICOM A6E which receives passing aircraft on Scottish Control, Manchester Airport Tower and Approach and I am over 40Km away! The D-808... nothing. I transmitted on 130Mhz into a Dummy load - again. Nothing, yes you can tell it is on frequency OK and see the S/N ratio is huge but demodulating is rubbish. No it's not the squelch or the Receiver IF bandwidth, I tried all settings. Its just the VHF sensitivity is Low and AM demodulation is rubbish. Good point (only 1) It picked up 5505Khz USB Shannon Volmet perfectly on its little telescopic aerial and was comparable good reception and demodulation to my other HF radio which is on a multi-band dipole. I charged the D-808 for 4 hours (as the instructions didn't say how long!) then put the D-808 through its paces. 1 hour later, the battery is nearly exhausted. It appears that this LiOn cell (standard cheap 18650) is not as good as the one I purchased on eBay for another project. I emailed Radiwow to ask for their suggestions before I send the whole thing back to Amazon. Dissapointed doesn't come into it, you get what you pay for. The only problem is, all the other radios are made by the same manufacturer so will have the same problems. Still waiting for them to reply...
I have replaced the stock battery with a 3000ma type & it will play all day with all the bars showing in the display, I never use the usb charging but charge them on a proper charger which is a lot quicker.
For those of you who have the Tecsun PL 310et you can defeat the soft mute on weak AM/Shortwave signals and strange distorted audio pumping that affects strong signals by tuning 1kz off frequency. Volume drops so use headphones. Also, when using headphones on the 1kz bandwidth setting the signals are much clearer (less muddy) than when using the speaker.
@@JUSTaCringeChannel Just press the BW button repeatedly until the display shows 1 kHz. Selecting 1 kHz as the bandwidth also helps to grab more signals when you scan using the ETM. Hope this helps..
The PL310 would be a better match for the Radiwow, and this XHData should be compared to the Tecsun PL660, and C.Crane CCSkywave-SSB. But one must work with what one has. Though I don’t have the PL-310, I do have several Tecsun radios (Incl: PL-390 / PL-600/ R7900DX / R-233 / R-818 ) I also have the XHData D-808. A fantastic little radio. 📻🙂
