WLN KD-C1

I received a nice little radio in the post this week in the form of the WLN KD-C1. I saw these on eBay for about £15 and thought I'd pick one up to see what it's like. It is a 16 channel UHF radio with a range of 400-470MHz and is just analogue.

I like the white styling on the radio and it resembles the Hytera PD365 family of radios but without the display, even down to the UHF marking on the small antenna.

The radio has smiliar features and specs to that of the Baofeng BF-888S family of radios:

Frequency Range	400-470MHz
Operation Voltage	DC3.7V
Channel Capacity	16
Antenna	Integrated antenna
Antenna Impedance	50
Dimension	96*55*22mm
Transmitter|
Output power	2W
The maximum deviation	≤±5KHz
Residual radiation	<60dB
Current	≤1000mA
Receiver
Sensitivity	<0.16μV(12dB SINAD)
Squelch Sensitivity	<0.2μV
Intermodulation	50dB
Audio Power	≥300mW
Current	≤100mA
Squelch current	20mA

I opened the small box it came in and was pleasently surprised by the quality of the radio inside. It is very solid and well made and looks like it'd survive a bit of knocking about.

The box contained the following:

1 x WLN KD-C1
1 x Li-ion Battery
1 x Belt Clip
1 x User Manual
1 x Desktop Charger
1 x AC Adapter

The manual is writted in decent english although the radio is so basic I didn't even read it properly. The antenna on the radio is not removable and is very short and stubby but it does work well.
The battery is a small mobile phone type battery that slots into the back of the radio. The charging base fits the radio and a spare battery (not included) and is very small and doesn't take up much space which is nice compared to the bulky chargers most Baofeng radios come with.

The little back plate clips onto the back of the radio to cover the battery compartment. Although the radio is solid and well made, I think the back plate would come off if it was dropped. The knob on the top is purely for powering on and off and changing the volume and doesn't change the channel. There are buttons on the side for changing up or down.

I particularly like the orange accents to the radio. The PTT, channel up and down buttons and the speaker mic and USB port covers are orange rubber and are easy to grip when using the radio. The belt clip for the radio is more of a holster that clips onto your belt allowing the radio to be dropped in. There is no belt clip on the radio itself.

I plugged my standard Baofeng style programming cable into the side of the radio and after downloading the fee programming software from off the internet, I programmed some repeaters and simplex channels into the radio in a flash. The software is so easy to use and completely bug free. Usually when these sorts of radios are released they are a nightmare to programme due to incompatible programming cables, dodgy software and other driver issues. This radio was so easy to programme.

I tested out some repeaters and managed to open repeater 20 miles away from inside the house on that tiny antenna! The audio is loud and clear on both TX and RX too. All in all I'm really pleased with this radio, the slim design, white body and ease of use makes it a nice back pocket radio for monitoring and the odd QSO. 

I'll be testing this from a hilltop very soon so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading,
73 for now.
Lewis, M3HHY