TYT TH-9800 Plus vs Wouxun KG-UV950P

[CopperWhopper67]

Hello, All!

I am looking for a good, sub 500 dollar, quad-band mobile radio for my car and was wondering if anyone had experience with either two of these models. The TYT is half the price and ships from the US, and the Wouxun is more expensive and ships from mainland China. Is the Wouxun that much better than the TYT that it would justify the increased price and shipping delay. I read somewhere that the Wouxun can be configured to operate on CB; this is something that I would be interested in. Does the TYT do this too?

Also, I have heard the 950P was replaced by the 980P, which is much cheaper. How does the 980P compare to the other two?

Thank you for the help!

 

[alcahuete]

My friend has the TYT and seems to like it. It's basically the Chinese clone of the Yaesu 8900, and works well. He hasn't had any issues. The few times I have used it, it seems damn near identical to the 8900 I used to own. It also programs with CHIRP, which is a plus. I have no personal experience with the Wouxun.

As far as CB is concerned, I believe they both cover the CB band (or are at least capable, with modifications), but a couple things:

1) It is illegal to use these radios on CB, due to the power level, amongst other things.
2) These are FM radios. CB uses AM and SSB in this country.

Can you be illegal and talk to your friends using FM on the CB bands? Sure. But don't think you're going to tune to the CB band and be able to talk to other people, because it doesn't work that way.

 

[ladn]

I have a TYT-9800 as a portable base/field day radio. I've never used it on 6M or 10M, but it works well on 2M and 440. I use both CHIRP and RT Systems software for programing.

As @alcahuete pointed out, there's no AM/SSB mode, so any semblance of legal CB operation here in the USA is out.

 

[jonwienke]

Go to wouxun.us and you'll see why your only shipping option is from China...

 

[twotoejoe]

Use my TYT as a base unit and love it.

 

[jonwienke]

TYT and AnyTone are the top tier of the Chinese radios IMO. Build quality and performance are much better than Baofeng, but of course they cost more.