The history of World Band Radios and me goes back a long time and they tended to come in two forms with their own compromises.
There were desktop communication receivers such as the Yaesu FRG7000 that with extra modules did pretty much everything but were too heavy for regular carriage and then portables that traded performance and a mass of extras for ease of carriage and battery operation.
The portables tended also to offer things such as FM radio so they could be used as a regular radio.
The first one I had bought for me was a Russian Vega Selena B212 when I was in my mid teens which while crude technologically had a beautiful wooden Cabinet.
Later on as I became unwell, struggling to use the Yaesu, I got the Éton E5 which as based as a fair number were on a Sangean design with presets and FM stereo.
That's showing some issues and the plastic case has decayed leaving it tacky and prone to deep marks.
I bought recently a new portable that has much of that sets functionality and some different features.
One the first changes between the sets is the XHDATA D808 uses a replaceable 18650 Lithium battery which is charged within the set using a regular USB charger rather than four AA cells of the Éton reflecting concern about the environmental impact of regular cells and that modern rechargeables have plenty of hours usage.
Like the Éton this does have the ability to receive CW and SSB transmissions used by Amateur Radio operators on their own groups of frequencies called "bands" as well as some commercial broadcasters.
Unlike the Éton there is switching for both Lower and Upper sideband reception which improves reception in crowded bands.
The filter on the XHDATA has a steeper curve that makes it easier to ensure the ability to reject transmissions either side of the station you want to hear is achieved improving reception.
It shares the same high capacity memory that can set in pages for frequently listened to stations.
Time and for FM RDS data is displayed on a switchable bright backlight display.
For Medium Wave colloquially and misleadingly called AM band reception, the tuning steps can be switched from the 9Khz ones used in Europe, Africa and Asia to 10Khz ones used in North America from the front.
This set uses advanced DSP (Digital signal processing) technologies to clean up long, medium and short wave reception which the Éton lacked and at one time was a "high end" receiver feature.
It shares the FM stereo coverage that covers from 64Mhz into 88.7 to 108Mhz so it will work in parts of Europe and Japan as well as the "International" radio Band II frequencies with the stereo output being available for headphones.
It loses the dedicated Line Out of the Éton but you can use the headphone jack to hook up to a separate amplifier or recorder using a 3.5mm to rca phono lead which are easy to buy.
One massive gain is the addition of the 118-138Mhz Aircraft band which saves having to have a separate dedicated portable that the Éton didn't have and the scanning function works on it.
The set comes with some accessories such as a carrying bag, an plug in external antenna for shortwave and a usb connector.
On balance I feel this is a better set of its sort for the money as much as the looks of sets such as Grundig's legendary Satellit 2100 and 3400 sets from the seventies and eighties appeal still to some at cost.
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