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Mine is brand new from last month so that should be fixed. In this case I don't think it would make a difference-I'm dealing with a sensitivity problem rather than noise.
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Anytone Anytone 878 display screen
- Thread starter Radioactive85
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Mine is brand new from last month so that should be fixed. In this case I don't think it would make a difference-I'm dealing with a sensitivity problem rather than noise.
Excellent, thank you for that! I'll check out that spot frequency in the lab tomorrow. There may be a splat of internally generated wideband noise around that area, appearing to desensitise the receiver... will find out.
I previously measured my 878s every 5 MHz between 130 & 180 MHz and plotted the results.
As you can see, no hint of a problem there, 0.13uV for 12dB SINAD at 160-ish MHz with a mute threshold of 0.1uV is pretty good - and things only improve closer to the ham bands. It's the same story with another two 878s I tested too, all turning in the similar results. What puzzles me is that the HD-1 and the 878 use the very same RF receiver IC, the ubiquitous AT1846S. In theory, there should be minimal difference. In practice, the 878 ought to have the edge given its four pole varactor tuned front end filter, meaning the front end should be able to better cope when hit with strong out of band signals.
Unless there's a wideband noisy spuglie around 162 MHz, it could be that there's an issue with the varactor tuning - either component failure, or incorrectly tuned / software corruption of the tuning values. I'm wondering if repeating the test with a steady but weak signal in the ham band would give the same result?
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Well, I got the replacement radio and the receive, while still not so hot compared to other radios, is markedly better and usable. I also picked up the Alinco DJ-MD5 with gps and the receive is identical to the new 878. So I think at lest now that I have two good radios. It's not too shabby so don't get me wrong.
However, the squelch sensitivity on both units is still not so good. It needs just a little looser threshold; it mutes perfectly readable (to my veteran radio ear) signals. Most people wouldn't be bothered with it but I'm a perfectionist! Fix the squelch and I'll be happy.
However, the squelch sensitivity on both units is still not so good. It needs just a little looser threshold; it mutes perfectly readable (to my veteran radio ear) signals. Most people wouldn't be bothered with it but I'm a perfectionist! Fix the squelch and I'll be happy.
I tested one of my 878s in the lab again today, and at 162.400 MHz it returned these figures:
Wide:
Mute threshold -125.3dBm / 0.12uV
12dB SINAD: -122.5dBm / 0.168uV
Narrow:
Mute threshold -127.6dBm / 0.09uV
12dB SINAD: -125.1dBm / 0.124uV
Most respectable figures.
I guess yours just had a faulty component in the VHF BPF.
You can also play with the SQTHV value to set the threshold a bit lower. About an extra 3-4dB mute sensitivity improvement can be had doing this. I found that a value any greater than 116 on VHF or 115 on UHF didn't yield any further improvement; that may vary just a hair from radio to radio, however.
Wide:
Mute threshold -125.3dBm / 0.12uV
12dB SINAD: -122.5dBm / 0.168uV
Narrow:
Mute threshold -127.6dBm / 0.09uV
12dB SINAD: -125.1dBm / 0.124uV
Most respectable figures.
I guess yours just had a faulty component in the VHF BPF.
You can also play with the SQTHV value to set the threshold a bit lower. About an extra 3-4dB mute sensitivity improvement can be had doing this. I found that a value any greater than 116 on VHF or 115 on UHF didn't yield any further improvement; that may vary just a hair from radio to radio, however.
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Wow, I know just by ear that none of mine are anywhere near that. They are good now, but the Baofengs beat both the 878 and the Alinco. Already played with the sqthv setting but I didn't notice any effect-but I don't have test equipment access either. So at least now I know the score.
Have you ever tried the receive tracking alignments? I'd love to get to a service monitor for a day...
Yes, and they're not super-critical. Adjusting +/- a few hundred either side of current setting doesn't have much influence. Unless it's considerably out of adjustment, you wouldn't notice. I get the feeling you could squeeze another dB out of a spot frequency at the expense of band extremes. Not really worth it in my view.
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Ah. Thanks for that-saved me some trouble!
I just got this radio and was having a lot of trouble setting it up for analog frequencies. NOAA on 162.4 is super clear on my other HTs, this one was cutting in and out constantly, "RX" on the LCD was blinking on and off. The only thing that fixed it was changing "No-Signal Ste" in the Menu to "OFF"
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