Baofeng UV-7XD - Going Viral?

It seems our 'new' Baofeng is going viral. One person has taken it to another level!

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Baofeng UV-7XD - I've Heard It All!

Browsing the web I came across the Baofeng UV-7XD in most good seller's online stores April 1st I should imagine. Great Photoshop skills there but you can't fool me!

Chinese DMR Radios

There are more and more digital standards popping up and with that, more and more radios but the Motorola and Hytera radios can be expensive for someone wanting to just dabble in DMR. So what alternatives are there? I've done some browsing on eBay to see what the Chinese manufacturers are offering someone who wants to try DMR.

Top 5:

The following 5 radios look to be the best of what the Chinese manufacturers have to offer at the moment. I've listed them below for comparison. More info can be found by looking on Google or eBay for these. Prices are correct as of 24th March 2015.

Beifeng TD-501

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible and also analogue and is approximately £190 shipped.

Frequency rRange: 400-470 MHz
Channels: 160
Zones: 50

1 x Beifeng TD-501 Digital DMR Radio
1 x 2000mAh Li-ion Battery Pack
1 x Antenna 136/430MHz
1 x Belt Clip
1 x Hand Strap
1 x User Manual
1 x Adapter
1 x Desktop Charger ( 100V ~ 240V ) 
1 x Free programming cable

Connect Systems CS700

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible and is approximately £170-£200 shipped.

Frequency Range: 400-470 MHz

Channels: 1000

Zones: 50

Channels Per Zone: 16

BFDX BF-TD503

Unlike the TD-501 this radio has a CTCSS board and GPS built in as well as being MOTOTRBO compatible. It costs around £200 shipped.

Freqency Range: 

136-174 MHz

350-390 MHz

400-470 MHz

450-520 MHz

Channels: 160

Zones: 50

Quantun QP2100

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible. The sellers claim they are made by Hytera but Quantun have their own website for these so I doubt this is true. They cost around £170-£190 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-470 MHz UHF / 136-174 MHz VHF

Channels: 1000

KiriSun DP770

One of the earlier manufacturers of Chinese DMR radios, Kirisun has received some great reviews about this radio. It comes with GPS and is MOTOTRBO compatible. It costs around £260 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-470 MHz

Channels: 1024

Bargain Basement:

If you want to try DMR at its lowest price then the following radios are probably the lowest priced units around. I don't know how well they work so Google search for more info.

QYT D-68

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible and costs around £99 delivered. A great radio to try if you're just testing the water with DMR.

Frequency Range: 400-480 MHz

Channels: 32

PR-77DMR

This radio seems almost identical to the one above. It costs around £100 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-480 MHz
Channels: 32

TYT MD-280

Again, almost identical to the one above this Tytera has some pretty good reviews for the price. It costs around £125 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-480 MHz
Channels: 32

I hope you found the information above of some use when deciding what DMR radio to try.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

TYT TC-3000A 10W

I scout eBay regularly looking for new radios appearing from the far east for all the weird and wonderful creations that keep popping up. I came across the TYT (Tytera) TC-3000A tonight and it looks like a nice little radio. It claims to boast 10w output power on UHF among other features:

Features:

3600mAh polymer Li-ion Battery.
260 hours ultra long standby time.
CTCSS/DCS.
High/Low power.
English/Chinese Voice prompt.
VOX.
10W/5W power switch with side-key operation.
10 Watt ultra-high output power.
Computer programmable.
COMP/Scrambler.
Voice companding function.
Bandwidth select (12.5/25kHz).
Battery save function.
1750Hz tone.
Squelch adjustment function.
End-tone elimination.
Receiving alarm.
Time-out-timer(TOT).
Side-key assignment.
Low-battery alert.
Busy channel lock.
Scan.

Specification:

Total Length: Approx: 1m (I hope not??).
Weight: 40g (Again, hope not!).

Package contents:

1x Portable Radio.
2x Antenna (High gain antenna and common antenna).
1x Polymer Li-ion Battery Pack.
1x Charger.
1x Belt Clip.
1x User´s Manual.
1x USB Programming Cable.
1x CD.

They look like good little radios, I'll wait to see some reviews or YouTube videos before I spend £45-£50 though!

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Baofeng UV-5RA

I've always liked the look of the Baofeng UV-5R cosmetic variants such as the UV-5RA, UV-5RB, UV-5RV2+, UV-5RE, UV-5RAX+, UV-5R PLUS etc. So I decided to get a UV-5RA in yellow. The yellow looks really good and reminds me of those marine radios that come in the same colour.

There's not much to report on this radio really, it is just a UV-5R inside but looks much better. The original UV-5R is a great radio and so it this UV-5RA. It features the second generation board, flash light and high power is around 4w but at £22 delivered it's a bargain.

Basic features are as follows:

• Frequency Range: 136-174 / 400-520MHz
• Dual-Band Display, Dual-Standby
• Output Power: 4 /1Watts
• 128 Channels 
• 50 CTCSS and 104 CDCSS
• Built-in VOX Function
• 1750Hz Burst Tone
• FM Radio (65.0MHz-108.0MHz)
• LED Flashlight
• Large LCD Display
• Emergency Alert
• Battery Saver
• Time-out Timer
• Keypad Lock
• Channel Step: 2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/25KHz.

Back to basics for me on this radio but I forgot just how good the Baofeng UV-5R is for the money it costs!

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Baofeng UV-5X: UV-5R Re-Clothed?

I've been looking into Baofengs latest release, the UV-5X and seeing if it's really worth getting. It is nicely styled and meant to be an updated version of the UV-5R. After reading the specs I can't help but think this is just a UV-5R or GT-3 in a new case yet again.

It doesn't appear to have any new features whatsoever on the technical side. Dual watch feature seems to be heavily advertised but the GT-3 has it. The shell is different and I'm not sure I like the VFO/MR and A/B buttons positioned sideways at all. It doesn't even seem to feature the extra higher power option of 8 watts.

Specifications:

General:
- Frequency Range: VHF 136-174 MHz (Rx/Tx). UHF 400-520MHz (Rx/Tx). 
- FM Radio: 65MHz ~ 108MHz (Only commercial FM radio reception)
- Memory channels: Up to 128 channels
- Frequency stability: 2.5ppm
- Frequency step: 2.5KHz/5KHz/6.25KHz/10KHz/12.5KHz/25KHz
- Antenna impedance: 50Ω
- Operating temperature: -20°C to +60°C
- Supply voltage: Rechargeable Lithium-ion 7.4V/1800mAh
- Consumption in standby: ≤ 75mA
- Consumption in reception: 380mA
- Consumption in transmission: ≤ 1.4A
- Mode of Operation: Simple or semi-duplex
- Duty cycle: 03/03/54 min (Rx/Tx/Standby)
- Dimension: 110x58x33 mm
- Weight: 222g (included battery+ antenna)

Transmitter:
- RF power: 4W/1W
- Type of modulation: FM
- Emission class: 16kΦF3E / 11kΦF3E (W/N)
- Maximum deviation: ≤ ±5kHz / ≤ ±2.5kHz(W/N)
- Spurious emissions: <-60dB

Receiver:
- Receiver sensitivity: 0.2uV(at 12dB SINAD)
- Intermodulation: 60dB
- Audio Output: 1000mW
- Adjacent channel selectivity: 65/60dB

Power Adapter:
- Input: AC100-240V, 50-60Hz; Output: DC10V/500mA. Plug Type: US

Package contents:
1x BAOFENG UV-5X FM Two-Way Radio Body (One 7.4V/1800mAh Battery included)
1x Antenna
1x Power Adapter
1x Belt Clip
1x Battery Charger
1x Earpiece
1x Hand Strap
1x User Manual

Another new 'feature' is the suggestion that the radio is waterproof. Let me assure you this is not the case at all. Water can slip between the battery and the radio and in all other gaps on the radio. It may be shower/mist proof but definitely not waterproof as you'll see another radio amateur found out in a video I'll include at the end of this post.

He completely submerses the radio in water and it dies instantly. I know there is a difference between waterproof and submersible but I can imagine it'd be easy for some people to mistake the two and try submersing their radio in water assuming it'll be ok. There is no sign of a rubber gasket to seal the radio like on some of the submersible handhelds on the market and water will get inside through the speaker, microphone and the screen.

Lastly the radio is supposed to be resistant to extreme pressure. The radio can sustain being run over by a car tyre but so can the UV-5R. This is due to being such a small product with a hard plastic casing that is filled to the rafters with components that help spread weight evenly over the radio. Secondly, most of the weight of the car is supported by the other 3 tyres so it is not surprising that it will survive being run over however I wouldn't recommend.

Video by Amateur radio on YouTube:



So all in all nothing really new here from Baofeng.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Motorola RAC Emergency Mobile Phones

Just a quick look at a couple of my vintage mobile phones.