#808 WARFARE IN REASON PORTABLE#

Besides directly copying the SkywaveвЂ™s SSB design and controls, XHDATA also made significant improvements, including a longer loopstick (providing clearly superior AM sensitivity), a much more powerful audio amplifier (correcting a serious shortcoming in the Skywave SSB) and a much lower price (about half that of the $169.99 Skywave SSB, for models shipped outside North America). Whether this single supply source will continue to serve North American customers is currently unknown, but out of the 7 models that I have purchased from him there hasnвЂ™t been a single D-808 model with any issuesвЂ“ despite the apparent lack of any manufacturerвЂ™s warranty offered on the radio.Дespite the D-808вЂ™s rather dubious design pedigree there is no doubt that the Chinese engineers (or reverse engineers?) did a superb job in creating an awesome radio for the money. As of late August this eBay seller (harelan ecommerce) has already sold 62 of the D-808 models this way, even though he charges a premium for shipment to North America. Finally around March, an enterprising Chinese eBay seller came up with a plan to ship the model to North America through Israel, thereby skirting around XHDATAвЂ™s direct shipment prohibition.

#808 WARFARE IN REASON PORTABLE#

Of course some D-808 models did make it into North America, where it was found to be a very capable portable with astonishing value for the price. As such, the first D-808 models were sold to the rest of the world around January of 2018 at a price about half that of the Skywave SSB, while North American DXers were told that since the model couldnвЂ™t be shipped to the USA or Canada, they were out of luck. The only precaution that XHDATA took after this wholesale design appropriation was to forbid direct shipments of the D-808 from China to North America-presumably to avoid a copyright lawsuit by C.Crane. The radio was certainly вЂњinspiredвЂќ (to use a generous term) by the C.Crane Skywave SSB model, which coincidentally was manufactured in the same part of China by C.CraneвЂ™s Redsun partner-with the first units going out the door a few months before the D-808 came into existence.Д«ecause foreign intellectual property is routinely copied in China with no punishment from the government, XHDATA essentially had the chance to copy all the good points in the Skywave SSB design and improve upon its weak points as well. Supercharging the XHDATA D-808 Installation of High Performance AM and LW LoopsticksД«y Gary DeBock, Puyallup, WA, USA, September 2018 IntroductionДЄs a stock receiver the Chinese-made D-808 AM-LW-FM-SW-AIR portable is a very capable performer, with AM reception superior to that of any current Ultralight model, and impressive FM reception as well.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gary DeBock, for sharing the following guest post:

808 warfare in reason