Back when I was a early teenage radio listener, my radio of opportunity had 5 vacuum tubes, a scarcely calibrated dial, illuminated by incandescence, audio with the warmth of a winter glove and the ability to ascertain an accurate frequency commensurate with the times – which is to say: Not at all precise!

In the early 1970’s one developed a certain muscle memory with their radio. For instance, Radio Netherlands via Bonaire in the sunny Caribbean held court on 6165 Khz. HCJB in Quito, Ecuador appeared nightly, reliable as gravity, on 9560 Khz. The Northern Service of CBC Radio was on 9625 Khz and others.
A crafty and somewhat nerdy youngster like me quickly created a reference list of where everyone was on the dial, locking down the frequency purely by station identification and keying it into my muscle memory. If anything, these were the best of times. Like any new hobby, the technical prowess was low and the excitement of discovery was high.

By mid-decade, for me, tubes were replaced with transistors and the occasional analog integrated circuit. Digital read-out and frequency synthesis was still a few years away.

Fast forward 4 decades and we now have ultra-light portables like the XHDATA D-808.
At 310 grams with battery and dimensions of 14.5 × 8.7 × 2.7 cm (just fitting in my manly-man palm…) this is a high performance product that could discretely fit any sized carry-on bag, pack-sack, or shoulder-holster camera bag.

Let’s glance at the coverage:

Frequency range

• FM: 87.5 – 108 (64-108) MHz
• LW: 150 – 450 kHz
• MW: 522 – 1620 kHz (9k Step) 520 – 1710 kHz (10k step)
• SW: 1711 – 29999 kHz
• AIR: 118 – 137 MHz

This is comprehensive – and while results may vary by country visited, I’d likely not advertise the fact that it can tune in aircraft as an overly zealous border guard may see this as “suspicious”. Err on the side of caution and refer to it as an AM-FM radio.
In addition to solid AM(LW) and FM performance, the Shortwave capability is impressive – and it includes SSB (single sideband) functionality for ham radio, high frequency air band-aero weather, marine activities, more code and other neat things.

And while the XHDATA D-808 does not feature a dedicated Synchronous Detection (Sync) mode. Instead, it uses Single Sideband (SSB) with selectable Upper Side Band (USB) and Lower Side Band (LSB) to achieve the same result (if you know what you are doing…)

The XHDATA D-808 has 500 “memories” — referred to as “pages” in the manual and user reviews. One can populate the memories manually or with an ATS system. The ATS is useful for capturing all your local FM stations and nesting them accordingly. Using ATS for evening AM or LW reception: maybe not so practical. You either love it or you don’t.

The XHDATA D-808 has an internal rechargeable battery – charged by virtually any USB capable wall-wart… so, it can get a top up just about anywhere!

Hands on…

Moving between shortwave or “HF” meter bands is pretty streamlined: Press SW to move to the last visited SW meter band and then SW button repetitively to shutter between specific SW bands by increasing frequency.

For the “medium-wave” enthusiasts among us, the XHDATA D-808 has an internal ferrite rod antenna – great for sniffing out weak signals, useful for direction finding and easily coupled to larger loop or active antennas.

The XHDATA D-808 has an 1/8” antenna jack that works well with all active and passive wire antennas – balanced or unbalanced… ultimately extending the range of the radio in many ways. And by the way, if I use any terminology that is not immediately clear, by all means hit me with an e-mail for a more detailed explanation!

Display matrix – some folks complain about the display, its real estate and the overall layout with focus placed on the amount of pixels dedicated to frequency. The frequency display gets around one quadrant of the overall display — that is 1/4. Fine for me. Mileage will vary by how sharp your eyes are. The top left of the display is dedicated to frequency. The upper right is a 4-mode display function; Time, alarm time, air temperature and signal strength in dbu and s/n ratio… super nerdy and useful! What for you ask? Being able to interpret the signal level is useful in evaluating signal strength station to station, tuning up or testing an antenna… direction finding and so on.

Conclusions…

Compared to where I came from, historically, this would be a dream radio in any decade beyond the 1950’s until present. As mentioned, my 1965 radio contained 6 to 8 transistors and a very coarse analog display — and yet I could hear stations over 1000 miles away at night. The XHDATA D-808 is no different. No less sensitive. Full featured and a heck of a lot of fun for the dollar. Some people say, “But Colin, the shortwave dial is dead — and no one is on AM radio anymore!” Even if you live on the West Coast of North America, often considered the “fringe area” of HF/SW radio reception, most mornings around sunrise can be spectacular with stations from South, Central and East Asia clogging the dials with neat music and languages. The XHDATA D-808 is maximum bang for the buck. It is very discrete and readily tossed into an overnight bag or carry on. You needn’t ever be without local or regional news!
The XHDATA D-808 is a must have for any radio enthusiast. It also has a home in every emergency kit. I cannot stress this enough: Keep a battery powered radio in your emergency pack along with a first aid kit, water and food stuffs, etc. The XHDATA D-808 radio is the perfect radio to always have within arms reach! Stay safe, listen in, have fun…

It has been said many many ways before: You don’t really need something until you don’t have it – and in this world of ultra-connectedness, this could not be more true than the absence of a simple radio during a crisis.

And in this drama filled planet, where we depend on our cell phones, personal planner brains and other assorted cloud based/cell tower dependent gadgets, the battery powered radio has never been more important.

But the average person does not get this concept – for one reason or another – like they have never been in the middle of an earthquake zone, or a country with some unexpected civil unrest or the unpleasant aftermath of some conflagration or another.
And it is during moments like that where panic and bewilderment can set in extra quick when one is 100% in the dark.

Solution: Stay connected. Be connected. Be prepared.
How? With a radio.

And XHDATA was kind enough to send me a radio to play with and evaluate for our technical/non-technical audience.
Let’s dig in: The XHDATA D-221 weighs in at 171g with a standard 9V battery.
It measures 12cm long, by 7cm wide by 3cm thick – meaning it sits in the palm of your (girl or boy) hands just fine.

Usage: If, like me, you grew up in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s, you know the look and feel of the standard transistor radio – whether it be a handheld portable, discretely pocketable, or something larger for the kitchen counter – or something even larger that you might balance on your shoulders… radios and their usage comes pretty much naturally.

The XHDATA D-221 is no different. It is the model of simplicity: Volume control (with integrated power switch) and tuning control on the right (as it faces you) and band selection switch on the left. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Step by step: Power on. Extend antenna. Select band of interest. Adjust volume and tuning dials.

If you were expecting more bells or whistles, worry not. There are no bells. There are no whistles.
The XHDATA D-221 works very well on AM and FM. During the day, the AM dial picks up all the familiar stations you expect to hear and at night the XHDATA D-221 comes alive with long distance signals from 700 to 1000 km away or more. Not surprising. Any decent AM portable is going to hear distant stations. Our local FM dial is chock-a-block with signals – and all of those signals were present on the D-221 with perfect clarity via the internal speaker or through headphones via the stereo headphone jack.
The Weather-band network of marine stations were all crystal clear at my location near the Southern tip of Vancouver Island.

If I have one criticism, it was, for me, the Shortwave portion of the dial. While I live in something of a shortwave fringe area up here in the Northwest, I am also not really in a high intensity AM zone – but I do have a lot of powerful FM transmitters not too far away. Consequently, the SW dial of the D-221 was a wash of images (or birdies as they are often called) and no evidence of shortwave reception. This could be a bug of this particular sample or a byproduct of my listening environment. Either way, it was not an issue that would stop me from having one in my travel or emergency kit.

The XHDATA D-221 comes in at around $20 – via Amazon, or XHDATA direct or where ever you get your gizmo’s.
Pick one up. Better yet. Buy three and have one in your car, your home tote and send one to a friend. You never know, it might save their life or yours.

It is not everyday that a radio drops into my lap for the purposes of testing and day to day use.

So it was to my delight when the good folks at XHDATA contacted me with an offer: “Let us send you a radio. You put it through its paces. See what it can do. And put a review on your DXer.ca website.”

Hey! I can do that. So here goes.

The XHDATA D-608WB radio is described more as an emergency radio than a standard counter-top or totable radio.

Its dimensions make for an item that fits comfortably in the hand – at 15 cm long, 7.5cm wide and 4 cm deep it has a place in every emergency pack.

Why should everyone have this radio in their emergency kit?
The radio covers AM, FM, Shortwave and the weather band with impressive sensitivity. I had no trouble capturing all of my regional AM stations — and after sunset, all the clear channel stations were loud and clear – many from over 1000 miles away.
The FM sensitivity was comparable to all of my larger portable.
Sound quality is great for such a small package and is pleasant enough for hours of listening.
Shortwave sensitivity and selectivity was surprisingly good for a radio that appears to try to do everything.
All of my regional weather band stations (within 70 km away) came in crystal clear.

There are hundreds of memories available on the XHDATA D-608WB for your fav stations. The XHDATA D-608WB has auto-add of stations to memory during scanning! XHDATA did not appear leave out any desired features with this radio.

The radio is powered by a rechargeable battery. It can be charged via a USB cable (supplied), via solar cells built into the radio or from a hand-crank generator also integral to the radio! The radio comes with an Tri-level LED reading light (integrated underneath the solar panel array on the top of the radio! The radio comes with a very bright emergency light (or torch as some call it…)

The radio is also a selectable Bluetooth speaker — with great audio quality. So, you can pair it with your iPhone or Android device and any PC, Mac or Linux desktop/laptop! Not only that, when it is paired with your phone you can actually accept phone calls! I tested it. It worked flawlessly!

While watching YouTube on my iPhone (and paired with the XHDATA D-608WB radio, one can fast forward and skip between videos with buttons on the XHDATA D-608WB! What a great feature.

So. Bluetooth speaker – this opens access to unlimited podcast listening.
What’s more, the XHDATA D-608WB accepts the TF card – so fill your boots with MP3 audio and Podcasts! This radio just keeps getting better!

I recently travelled to Calgary, Alberta, Canada (a one hour flight from Victoria B.C. where I live…) and the XHDATA D-608WB radio came along with me. Airport security did not bat an eyelash at the radio — to them it appeared to be just that, a travel radio.

In conclusion, the XHDATA D-608WB is for all intents and purposes, the Swiss Army knife of radios – it does almost everything anyone would want out of a travel or emergency radio. I found no fault in the radio and give two solid thumbs up for this product — and look forward to sampling and testing other XHDATA products!

I have been a fan of good pasta since I was eating solid food. My mom made me spaghetti and meat balls when I was still in the high chair and I have photos of yours truly eating this dish with my bare hands!

I have evolved a bit in the intervening years and, for me, the delight in eating tomato based pasta dishes has never waned.

We have been using the wonderful Instant Pot for almost a year now and finally got around to attempting a lasagna.
This recipe did not disappoint – and my thinking now is: Why make a huge batch that you invariably need to freeze when you can cook one up that is good for one big family meal or (in our case) enough for 2 with several servings left over.

Let’s dig in!

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
8 oz ricotta cheese
1.5 cup mozzarella cheese – divided in half
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese – divided in half –
1 egg
Italian spices – Oregano and Basil
Salt and Pepper to taste
No-boil lasagna noodles
1 jar pasta sauce
1/2 box thawed spinach

Prepare spring-form pan with tin wrapped around the outside and oil spray the inside.

Brown the ground beef (salt and pepper to taste)
Combine all of the ricotta, half of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese, egg, and the spinach. Mix it together.
Take dried lasagne noodles, breaking into suitable shapes to fit bottom of spring-form — this your first layer.
Open jar of pasta sauce.
Put enough sauce to cover first layer of noodles (1/3 of jar)
Take two ladle fulls of ground beef to spread over your layer of pasta sauce.
Take 1/2 of the egg cheese mixture and place on top of the meat layer.
Repeat sequence again: Noodles, sauce, ground beef, cheese mixture.
Add last layer of noodles and pasta sauce.

Take the rest of the cheese mix left over and place on top.
Create a “hood” of aluminum foil (oil sprayed on the inside – so cheese doesn’t stick…)
Add 1 cup of water to bottom of instant pot.
Place springform pan in silicone sling.
Lower sling onto Instant Pot trivet.

Set to high pressure for 20 minutes. Natural release for 11 minutes.
Remove from instant pot – put on baking sheet – remove tin foil hat – broil for 5 minutes to brown cheese.

Serve with garlic bread and/or Caesar salad. Serves 6.

Recently one of my colleagues at the University of Victoria loaned me one of his studio tools that he was thinking of parting with – The Zoom H24 24-channel digital portable recorder.

Now for the record, way back when I first started recording multi-track style I was using a cassette tape based TASCAM 244 – 4 tracks of audio on a cassette… and that was mono tracks. Granted, the Beatles recorded some amazing music on recorders not much bigger than that… but I am not them.

Anyway. Armed with a couple of good microphones, headphones, a guitar, ukulele and a bass guitar I came up with a bunch of sample demos (warts and all…) way faster than I could have on my PC based audio work-station. Here is one. Trust me: Listen on headphones or ear buds!

Gear: APEX Floating plate microphone and Shure SM81 condensor microphone.
Cort acoustic guitar, Kala Ukulele, Godin bass – and three vocals provided by yours truly.

The Zoom H24 digital recorder is jam packed with features and to be honest, I likely utilized less than 5% of its capabilities. For instance, the R24 offers eight inputs on combo connectors that can accept either XLR or ¼” balanced or unbalanced cables.

Click on any image for the bigger view!

All inputs can handle mic/line/instrument level signals, and Input 1 can also handle low impedance signals from passive electric guitars and basses.

I took advantage of the phantom power (+24 or +48 volts) which can be applied to up to six inputs, allowing the use of professional grade condenser and floating plate microphones. I use Chinese made APEX cardioid patterned plate microphones at around 1/10th the price of a German made Neumann U-87 (which sounds utterly dreamy with the right voice!) and for my voice, it’s just fine. I use the SM81 for picking up some of the features of my acoustic guitars but plugging directly into the R24 works just as well.

The Zoom H24 can record 8 tracks at the same time and works really well if you are a band that wants good isolation for fine tuning after a recording session. I found that I could easily eat up 8 tracks with just a couple of guitars or a ukulele and some vocal harmonies. Another great feature is the ability to bounce, swap or transfer tracks around with the press of a button. Example: I have my microphones plugged into inputs 2 and 3. When I get the take that I am happy with, I “bounce” those tracks over to Channels 4 and 5 and carry on (having now left tracks 2 and 3 to record on again.)

The Zoom H24 has velocity sensitive drum pads and built in rhythms – and I never got anywhere near them. There are hundreds of effects for most electric stringed instruments and a wide variety of mastering algorithms for mix-downs that I could literally fill a page commenting on. Bottom line: If you are a singer or guitar player or podcaster who wants to produce broadcast ready materials or demo’s worthy of a listen with the pro’s, this could be the right tool for you.

In the following “sample” I used a single APEX microphone to record one lead vocal, two harmonies, 3 tracks of guitar picking or strumming, an electric bass track and a ukulele – there is at least one jarring rhythmic error in this track but you get the general idea. Singing and playing aside, it is pretty amazing what you can do quickly.

The manual is fairly helpful but you do need some background in the concepts of recording and mixing – and there are a few useful YouTube videos for getting started.