Experiences with cheap Chinese hand held radios

[VA7DH]

I just thought that this may be a great avenue to chat about some of the new radios coming out of China. There are some bargains to be had. They generally are not of the same build quality of the Japanese radios such as Kenwood, Yaesu, and Icom brands but still they do seem to work and some have great benefits. I recently purchased a Baofeng UV-5R II radio with programming cable, drop in charger, PTT earphone (neat invention), and a 3,600 ma battery and it came to about $60 total and included free shipping. I had difficulty with the supplied driver disk for the programming cable and so got a driver off the internet:  http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Drivers.htmlI also did not like the programming software that came with the radio so ended up using Chirp software:  http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/HomeThat is really amazing free software. One of the first things I did was program the band edges of the ham bands for 2m and 70cm (440 MHz band). The radios come wide open from China 130 to about 170 MHz and similar on the UHF band. Not a healthy situatuion because you or one of your kids could inadvertently transmit out-of-band and get in trouble.One problem with newer radios like the Chinese ones and newer Japanese ones is that they have so many things to set in software. They can do a lot and there are lots of options to choose in signalling, etc. One nice thing about the newer Chinese radios over the older ones is that they can provide a voice to tell you what channel you are on with a voice and you can select Chinese, English, or none. The English voice is now what sounds like a good American female voice, nice and easy to understand. You will likely need to use the software to set the radio up. Most of us are lost trying to set it all up manually. One thing most up us have noticed is that the speaker on the Baofeng UV-5R radios is quite tinny so an earphone helps a lot. Also, the rubber duck antenna is not very good so a better antenna could be added. Another help is something called a rat tail that can be attached to the radio simply with a self adhesive Velcro and boost the signal by at least twice. A rat tail is a bit of insulated wire about 19" long connected to a small plate that capacitively couples to the back of your radio and acts like the other half of a dipole antenna. It works quite well. You can buy one or build it yourself.http://rattailantenna.com/Wouxun is another brand I have some experience with. The radios I know about are the KG-UVD1P and the KG-UV-6D. Both cover the 2m and 70cm ham bands and then a little more similar to the Baofeng described above. Many of the characteristics are the same but the Wouxuns have a little more transmit power out and the receivers seem to be built better and speaker output not so tinny. The KG-UV-6D is probably the best choice. It seems to be built best with a better speaker plus it has more ability to shed the rain. I would use the Chirp software for programming the radio and you may find that if yours comes with a programming cable you may want to go to the same web site at I listed for the Baofeng for driver software for the cable.  Regarding Chirp programming software - it covers a big range of radios unlike RT Systems software which I also like but where you have to buy a separate package for every make and model radio you need to support. With Chirp you "first" down load the load in the radio before programming. I assume that the software can tell from that what adjustments it needs to make before you get started. Anyway, I think it's quite amazing and I like the price - "0"    🙂That's it for now. I may put up a posting for setting for getting started with the Baofeng UV5R a little later. Save you some grief.

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[aranius]

Being new to HAM, I just purchased a Baofeng UV-82. So far it has been a decent radio. it feels solid, and has been relatively easy to figure out. For $33 which includes the cost of a programming cable, you can’t go wrong.

I plan on getting a better antenna as well, but so far, I am very impressed!

[Kg7hyo]

I never would have got my start in HAM without Chinese Radio’s. I now own 7 or more UV5r variants, one TYT-8900 50 Watt quad band with x-band rpt, and two QYT KT-8900 25 watt dual bands.

It seems like it has also driven Kenwood and Yaesu prices down in the few years I’ve been involved. The FTM-400XDR Yaesu mobile is an incredible digital radio, yet can be had for about $500 brand new. Kenwood 710’s were fetching $750 a couple years ago but I now see them in the $500 range frequently.

The newish TYT DMR Radio’s seem to be holding up well also although I don’t own one.

If you haven’t tried it you can effectively do many digital modes on your analog chinese radio’s by coupling them with the “AndFlmsg” app on android or the FLDigi software which converts the data into an audio signal (like a fax) and allows you to send messages or ICS forms or even pictures over analog radio’s provided the sender and receiver are both running the software.

[countrymanb]

I’m a returning Ham having purchased a UV5R (not sure if its a II). I paid £18 in the UK and also got the lead and a handheld mic. I also used Chirp too. Work great.

I remember back in the day looking at 2m only handhelds which cost 100’s. There was no eBay then, in England the only place to get a used rig was at the local Amateur Radio Rally. But they would take place once a year unless you wanted and were able to travel, so we had a long wait.

The UR5’s  do so much more than those old radios and cost a pittance. It would be great if you could use them on Echo-link etc. Btw Let me know if we can!

The question is when will the Chinese produce HF rigs?

Now I wonder how the used market would react to that.

[Author]

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