Greetings from Lanzarote, one of Las Islas Canarias! On this trip I brought my recently-purchased XHDATA D-808 portable radio to see how it performs and to try to get some decent DX.

I haven’t been let down: A few days ago I was able to easily pull in Radio Habana Cuba and Radio Rebelde as their signals bounced across the Atlantic. My only (relatively minor) problem was that in most cases the signal was quite noisy. I put that down to the fact I was in an urban area, surrounded by air-conditioning units, pool heaters, and so on. I didn’t do anything special with the antenna: I used the plug-in antenna supplied with the D-808 and simply strung it up across the backs of a couple of chairs.

Here are some of the more interesting broadcasts I pulled in.

Date and UTC kHz Station SINPO
09/11/21 11:49 9635 RTV de Mali 35222
18/11/21 21:02 3955 KBS World Radio 33152
18/11/21 21:06 5940 Radio Algerienne 32142
18/11/21 21:12 5995 RTV de Mali 44233
18/11/21 21:19 6195 Voice of America 44333
18/11/21 21:33 7240 PBS Xizang 44344
18/11/21 21:58 7520 Radio Free Asia 44344
18/11/21 22:00 7600 Afghanistan Intl TV 33222
18/11/21 22:01 9330 WBCQ World’s Last Chance 33222

I enjoy bringing a radio on holiday with me: it’s cool to listen to some local stations, but it also provides some new DXing opportunities.