Is it better or worse or the same as the alinco DX R8
E ?
You are comparing two radios that really fit different bills. The FRG-8800 is a radio that was designed in the 1980's and last sold new over 20 years ago. The Alinco DXR8T is a new production radio designed in the 2010's and still sold today new.
The Alinco will probably be "better" in many ways related to feature set. It will have more bells and whistles on it than the FRG-8800. For example it will have more memories, it will have smaller frequency tuning steps, it may be more stable in frequency, it will output I/Q so that you can do some limited SDR like functions with it.
With regards to basic receive performance there should be only minor differences between them. The measured sensitivity of the FRG-8800 is slightly better than the advertised sensitivity of the DXR8T, however the difference is small, and that factor is not very important on HF. The filters on the DXR8T should be a little better than the FRG. Most other specifications should show minor performance differences.
More importantly, the 20+ year old used FRG-8800 should be half, or less, the price of a new DXR8T.
A 20+ year old receiver may last many more years, but it is also very likely to be at that point in its life were capacitors are starting to dry out and may need attention.
Personally I am not a fan of the DXR8T. I operationally compared it to the Icom R75 and opted for another R75 instead of the Alinco. However, that does not mean the Alinco is bad, only that I felt it was not quite as good as the R75 in my side-by-side tests. Still, for a primary or only receiver I would select the new DXR8T over the 20+ year old FRG-8800.
Oh, and I do own the FRG-8800, as well as the FRG-7700, FRG-7000, and FRG-7. But for me those are all shelf radios, not something I use every day.
T!