Anytone Anytone 878 display screen

[Radioactive85]

I have bought two 878 radios for DMR 70cm use, through two different vendors. The issue I’m having with this radio is the screen is slightly raised to the left. It is not raised enough to cover any texts or cut off any words. I’m particular enough about my electronics, that I notice it very well. At first the feedback I was getting from other customers, was this is not normal you must have a bad radio return it. Well, I did that and the second radio from another vendor is doing the same thing. Can anybody comment on this, is this a factory issue maybe the software is the issue and it just doesn’t have everything lined up correctly? I just want to know that I’m not going crazy over here. As this radio seems to be a hot sale right now, and the one to get. If this is posted in the wrong area I apologize, please move it to the right area of the forum. Thanks for any feedback.

 

[alcahuete]

Yes, mine is that way too. Never noticed until you mentioned it. Not a big deal at all.

 

[Radioactive85]

Well, it’s good to know that I’m not the only one seeing it. However, now this being my second radio. I have noticed that the analog receive on this particular radio is horrible. On VHF, I can hardly make out some of the things that local Public Safety are saying when I tune in sometimes just to listen. There’s a constant crackling and noise on the frequency. Some guides have described an issue being with the GPS being active while on VHF, I turned it off and that did not help.

 

[alcahuete]

I definitely do not have that issue. Have no receive issues on mine.

 

[Radioactive85]

I really want to like this radio, it seems to be a hot seller. This is my second one and I just keep having issues, might just be a bad batch that went out recently. If anyone else has any info they would be great thanks again.

 

[TassieJay]

On VHF, I can hardly make out some of the things that local Public Safety are saying when I tune in sometimes just to listen. There’s a constant crackling and noise on the frequency.

I'm keen to trace the source of this particular complaint. Both my 868 & 878 don't exhibit this issue; at worst the 868 had just the slightest bit of noise on VHF when the screen was on. You seem to be more descriptive than most when it comes to this problem, just about everyone else won't elaborate past "it doesn't work as well as my XXX radio."
Hope you can answer some questions?

• Does the same issue occur on UHF FM too?
• Does the noise masking the signal reduce or completely disappear when the screen turns off?
• And if you have one, does the noise improve if you use something like a mobile magnetic whip eg: placing some physical distance between the antenna and the radio?

 

[nd5y]

Maybe those AnyTone models are susceptible to this problem:

Baofeng - Baofeng picket fencing when ... stationary or moving?

I'm not sure if this is an issue with my Baofeng HT but here's the rub: I'm about equidistant to two 2m repeaters that are linked, but I suspect the linking has no relevance other than I could use either repeater to listen to the same content. Well maybe I lied, one is slightly farther...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[Radioactive85]

So besides listening and talking on 2m FM. I sometimes would listen to local VHF public safety frequency’s. When I got this Anytone 878 I noticed it sounded horrible on FM, and this was in comparison to my Wouxun KG-UV6D. Which still had some background noise, but not as bad as the Anytone 878. So I took both radios with me to work. Which I know usually doesn’t sound good on my 6D anyway. Yet again, the 6D sounded better then the 878. I know both of these radios are using a direct conversion chip, but at the end of the day I would expect a $200 (878) radio to sound better than $100 radio (6D). Of course the 878 is a DMR first and analog second radio so maybe that’s where I underestimated. At this point I think I’m better off returning the 878, and just picking up a cheaper DMR radio. Especially, if there is no firmware type fix for this and it’s all hardware issues. All the nets etc are all done on FM in my area anyway. I don’t have a mag whip or other means of testing this issue. Other than comparing it to my other HT. Seems I read also this radio might have poor RF shielding, which causes the bad VHF recieve. I will say it’s worse on around 155 MHz frequency’s I listen to. NOAA weather radio frequency’s for example did not sound as bad. Thanks for the comments.

 

[TassieJay]

So you can't do the other testing eg:

• does reception become better when the screen turns off?
• does it also happen on UHF too?

 

[alcahuete]

Honestly, send it back. My 878 does not perform in any way in the manner you are describing. We don't have a whole lot of public service here on VHF outside of Calfire (151 and 159 MHz for the most part), but I have no issues with VHF at all.

I will say that one thing I noticed is that the sound on the 878 is much more treble heavy than say my 7550e. This does lead to static being heard slightly more, but nothing overly drammatic.

"All hardware issues." What hardware issues are you referring to?

My 878 absolutely runs circles around every other CCR I've ever tried, and is often my go-to radio instead of my Moto gear, which is single band. I don't know...maybe you just got a bad unit? No idea.

 

[Radioactive85]

So after messing around with this thing, I came across something interesting. The symptoms seem to occur when you’re in memory mode/channel mode. When your in VFO mode it sounds like it should, but in memory mode it has that crackling noise that just makes the signal unbearable to listen to on analog. I did notice that the display going off after one second of receiving did not change the outcome, and UHF is showing the same symptoms as well just not as noticeably bad. I’ve attempted to look at a few menu options to see if maybe there’s something that could be causing this, but at this point I’m just kind of surprised that the different modes are causing that big of a difference. A amazon return is looking good right about now, but I would like there to be a fix for this. I’ve never had any of this happen to my other radios it shouldn’t matter that it’s in memory mode.

 

[TassieJay]

Ah good, starting to zero in on the problem now. I'm suspecting coding, in the area that initialises the AT1846S chip. I'll consult with the other beta testers to see if we can all replicate this problem. What firmware version are you using? And can you give an exact frequency that you're using where the problem is particularly noticeable... I'll dial it up on the test gear and check under controlled conditions.

 

[Radioactive85]

I am using firmware 1.18 which is the most up-to-date one as of yesterday. I was tuned to 155.31000mhz, with transmit set to prohibited. I further have looked at other threads in this forum regarding the AT1846S chip. Seems to point to other people with Baofengs experiencing this crackling noise that are using that chip. Is there a way to change the title of a thread? Because we’re definitely not talking about just display screens anymore, maybe we can make it ”Anytone 878 Issues” lol. I definitely will keep this radio as long as I can, before I get close to my return window ending. In case there is possibly a software fix for this, since were dealing with chip issue possibly.

 

[TassieJay]

Not sure if there's a way to change the thread title.
The 'crackle' associated with Baofengs et al using the AT1846S is going to be a slightly different issue. That particular observation is an issue where even strong, full quieting signals, have a Geiger counter like clicking on the audio, caused by the chip switching attenuation to keep the level constant for the DSP core to sample. That issue is most easily demonstrated by tuning to a very strong, unmodulated FM carrier on UHF, and moving the receiving radio around to introduce some Raleigh dips... the full quieting signal begins to 'click'.
The AnyTone radios do suffer from that, but to a much lower degree than most others using the AT1846S... seems like AnyTone have hit upon a combination of initialisation parameters for the AT1846 that minimises this clicking.

Just a few more questions to make sure I'm going to (as far as possible) replicate your circumstances - can you check to make sure your memory channel and VFO for 155.310 MHz are both set to the same bandwidth, and let me know what bandwidth you're using? And are you using any DCS or CTCSS or tone signalling on that frequency?

The AT1846S is a very complex beast, it has literally hundreds of parameters that need to be set up / initialised before it can begin to receive something. My guess is one of those parameters is being set incorrectly when in memory mode. That's something a firmware tweak could fix, if this theory proves to be correct. The good news is AnyTone are really responsive with firmware updates, once a problem is positively identified and is reproducible by their techs, they then know what to look for and what to tweak.

 

[Skypilot007]

You mentioned the audio sounded better in VFO mode as opposed to memory channel mode. I just tested my 878 on several frequencies, VHF and UHF and observed no difference in audio quality. I'm pretty nutty about audio quality. I've owned quite a number of professional grade portable radios (Motorola, Kenwood, Etc), and honestly this 878 is right up at the top of my favorites when it comes to analog FM audio quality.

One thing I have noticed with the Anytone 878 is if a transmitting station has really hot audio, either wide or narrow FM, the received audio on the 878 clips out pretty bad. Anything close to 5 KHz on wide or 2.5 KHz on narrow and the 878 audio is toast. This could be my radio's specific tune but I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[Radioactive85]

Not sure if there's a way to change the thread title.
The 'crackle' associated with Baofengs et al using the AT1846S is going to be a slightly different issue. That particular observation is an issue where even strong, full quieting signals, have a Geiger counter like clicking on the audio, caused by the chip switching attenuation to keep the level constant for the DSP core to sample. That issue is most easily demonstrated by tuning to a very strong, unmodulated FM carrier on UHF, and moving the receiving radio around to introduce some Raleigh dips... the full quieting signal begins to 'click'.
The AnyTone radios do suffer from that, but to a much lower degree than most others using the AT1846S... seems like AnyTone have hit upon a combination of initialisation parameters for the AT1846 that minimises this clicking.

Just a few more questions to make sure I'm going to (as far as possible) replicate your circumstances - can you check to make sure your memory channel and VFO for 155.310 MHz are both set to the same bandwidth, and let me know what bandwidth you're using? And are you using any DCS or CTCSS or tone signalling on that frequency?

The AT1846S is a very complex beast, it has literally hundreds of parameters that need to be set up / initialised before it can begin to receive something. My guess is one of those parameters is being set incorrectly when in memory mode. That's something a firmware tweak could fix, if this theory proves to be correct. The good news is AnyTone are really responsive with firmware updates, once a problem is positively identified and is reproducible by their techs, they then know what to look for and what to tweak.

So I played around some more. It actually appears now that VFO mode or memory mode is not the direct culprit. When set to wide band on public service frequency that I monitor. It sounded better, but putting it back into narrow band mode replicated my symptoms. This being public safety band they were mandated to 12.5khz. So I wouldn’t suspect it’s their equipment, as it is happening on other frequencies as well. On my Wouxun KG-UV6D I cannot notice a difference between wide band or narrow band on the receiving end. Of course, this issue is annoying as well. You need to be able to have it set to narrow band without sacrificing receive quality.

 

[nd5y]

On my Wouxun KG-UV6D I cannot notice a difference between wide band or narrow band on the receiving end.

Because the wide/narrow setting on that radio only changes the transmit deviation. It has only one receive bandwidth.

 

[Radioactive85]

Because the wide/narrow setting on that radio only changes the transmit deviation. It has only one receive bandwidth.

That makes sense. What does not make sense, is why changing that particular setting on this radio would cause the receiver to be better or worse. Maybe someone with more expertise can figure this out, otherwise this is probably on its way back to the vendor. I’ll just pick up one with a superhet instead.

 

[TassieJay]

You need to be able to have it set to narrow band without sacrificing receive quality.

Physics says that's impossible. Otherwise we'd all be running around with radios that only need 1 Hz of RF bandwidth, to achieve optimal spectrum efficiency.
My guess is the AT1846S narrow mode is just slightly too narrow for your target signal. Not much that can be done about that, as the bandwidth is fixed by the DSP core within the device. Maybe the successor to the AT1846 will have more bandwidth selections available?

 

[Radioactive85]

You will have to excuse my lack of knowledge in this area. I’m fairly new to amateur radio in general. So you’re saying that a firmware update could not fix this issue. If it’s hard coded I get what you’re saying, otherwise it seems like it’s just another parameter that can be adjusted like everything else. I wish I had a spectrum analyzer. It would be interesting to see if maybe it is the public safety equipment that they’re using, it could be all over the place. Still a bummer not to be able to adjust some parameters of that chip in order to relieve the noise issue. It also seems like there could be some quality issues going on at factory. Assuming that the public safety agency I’m monitoring does not have any equipment issues. It seems like this radio should be operating better than what it is, if it matches the same bandwidth their using. I feel more inclined to believe that, because other people have commented and said they’re not having any receive issues.