I took delivery of an XHDATA D-808 portable today.
Initial tests yielded relatively poor FM performance when using the default (short) whip antenna. My Tecsun PL-390 easily outshone it; for example, 88.0 MHz Nimmitabel was clearly received on the 390 while the XHDATA got nothing! Upon performing an antenna transplant using the 1 m whip previously attached to the Tecsun, reception markedly improved. The performance was now roughly equal to a Sangean PR-D15 on FM. RDS from Canberra stations Hit 104.7, Mix 106.3, and 2XX was obtained and there was a good period of aircraft scatter from 107.1 and 107.9 Coonabarabran.
I briefly tried AM; performance was good with notably low noise reception, resulting in clean crisp audio despite the small speaker size.
The XHDATA suffers from processor noise on some FM frequencies which can mask weaker signals. Overall, itās a handy performer considering its compact size, RDS capability, and rotary tuning (100 kHz steps). I give it 3.5/5.
Can you actually listen to am radio? I am not sure of the aerial arrangements to be portable enough to carry in laptop bag, I do have a DAB radio USB stick.
I would imagine that it can tune into frequencies between 25MHz and 1.7GHz and interpret them as AM signals, but the stick canāt tune into the āmedium waveā AM that most broadcasters use. You might be able to pick up shortwave radio broadcasts at the top of the shortwave band (the SW band is 2.3MHz - 26.1MHz).
The wide range of the receiver makes me wonder what the quality would be like. Isnāt it that the wider the band, the lower the quality or has that ended with digital receivers? Love to hear from tech people and engineers, @RFBurns et al.
Iām not sure about the receiver itself, but I would imagine that the antenna being used would certainly be a limiting factor, as simple antennas only really work optimally in a certain band.
Generally in the old days, a narrow band receiver would be best, so as to block out the nearby frequencies from interfering, & this could be done using a physical component band pass filter.
With something like this being digital, & with software doing all the processing, a wide-band ātunerā is possible with little problems, you could build a bandpass filter into the software, that would change itās frequency & bandwidth depending upon what was being tuned.
e.g. You could program a narrow band pass filter that would only pass say 400kHz for an FM station being tuned, but the bandpass filter could be wider to pass 5 - 7MHz should a DAB+ station be tuned.
As you change stations, the passing frequencies though the filter would change, if you scanned a band or 2, the filter could be turned off completely, to allow passing & scanning of all band frequencies, the physical tuner can pass.
In this case Iād imaging AM or MW frequencies were left out, because of the physical antenna length that would need to be used for reliable reception, & even if they could make a ferrite core antenna that could just plug in, itād still be bigger than the USB stick itself.
*Give A Little Bit - Supertramp
*While You See A Chance - Steve Winwood
*My Life - Billy Joel
*Simply Irresistible - Robert Palmer
*Solid Rock - Goanna
*Sister Golden Hair - America
Iāve decided to start a Twitter campaign to get WS FM to play Chilliwackās āMy Girl (Gone Gone Gone)ā. It was a minor hit back in its day (1981) and was occasionally played on 2CC and 2XL.
The WS FM Twitter page is here for anyone who wants to enlist!
I remember getting a similar thing in a showbag from the Easter Show (headphones with an integrated AM/FM radio).
The audio quality was terrible, but to be fair it wasnāt an actual pair of ear muffs. I would expect that power tool brands would make their own which are of decent quality, like this DeWalt brand one:
in 2003 I worked as a producer for a local radio breakfast shift on a community station. Around september i was pulled into a room and told i would be terminated at the end of the year.
I had no qualms - thats radio for you. I ended up treating each show as a potential resume as i never knew who was listening and put out the best show i could. Did i get a new job? nope. but i believe those 2 months of shows we did after i was told i was gone were some of the best we put out.
one member of that breakfast team has moved onto bigger and better things and is still in radio today and hosting a week day shift on the ABC and i like to think i had some part in that
Whatās your top 3 music stations you listen to at home. (Not internet radio) at your location.
SWR FM 99.9 I enjoy the mix of 70s to now. Some great shows too like awesome 80s on weekend. The organ show is great too. The breakfast show is great radio in my view suits my mood in the morning. I also discover some new music. Pop and Rock. Like C91.3 when it first launched.
HHH FM 100.1 FM Has some great evening shows, they had a rare live rock show. The chart show. Some 60s , 70s and 80s show. You can hear more 60s music in FM stereo.
Triple m during the day. At my work I can sometimes listen a bit of radio using my dabby stick. I canāt get the community stations in the office.
