Chineese Radios/Established brands

[E5911]

I am looing for a new dual band,
And it got me thinking....
Is there any real difference in radios build in china for the world market
I mean the following radios are essentially the same
YaesuFTM300R except for C4FM
BtechUX50x2
TYT TH-8600
Retevis RT-95
Midland DB2500
now except for the Yaesu the radios are the same yes?
I guess my question is that is there any quality difference or is it one factory belching out the same crap?
Has Yaesu gone down the rabbit hole or do they really tell their builder what kind of quality they want?

I have herd of Chinese names cloning Moto, Kenwood icom gear and changing this or that to prevent a trademark dispute .
How good is this stuff technically , I mean on the bench?
Does the quality come from the engineer at Moto who demands this or that chip or firmware, or is more functional, we want the radio to do this or that (dmr-Trunking C4FM, etc)


Maybe beating a dead horse but im curious, would love to put them all on a service monitor to really see....

 

[mmckenna]

A lot of the cheap Chinese radios have no/little filtering and don't perform well in high RF environments. Their specs are all over the place. Quality control can be lacking to non-existent.
You would pay more for better quality control. Depends on what that is worth to you.
I've had a user at work that tried to bring in some cheap Baofengs on one of my UHF systems. They sounded like complete and total crap. Replacing them with a quality radio resolved the issue. I've put the Baofengs on a service monitor and was not impressed. The user barely got the $25 worth of radio they paid for.

Might be the same factory, but a reputable brand will pay extra for the QC to get a reliable product. Despite what some will claim, the Chinese can do QC very well, it just costs money. Companies looking to make quick buck will bypass paying for the additional QC to get the product out the door cheaper, thus boosting profits.

 

[MTS2000des]

The problem with the China radios is their reliance on the "WOC" chipsets which are low rent, price point chips designed for consumer grade electronics like FRS/GMRS bubble packs, kiddie talkes, etc. Putting adequate filtering on RX and TX can clean things up, but these will never meet or beat performance of "real" radios designed with higher quality front end component stages and more advanced transmitter/controller circuitry.
Traditional manufacturers, while they may use application specific ICs for things like IF, front end RF amps, etc, they are generally of much higher quality and aren't cut rate circuits which is why the radios cost double even triple the price of the low end radios.

 

[buddrousa]

Cheap Chineese Radios = UGO CARS
Stick with
Yaesu
Kenwood
Icom
Companys that have been around for years that have built a good reputation.

 

[twotoejoe]

I have a TYT-9800, a quad band radio, that is supposed to be a clone of the Yaesu-8900. It was not cheap, but less expensive. It seems to be doing a good job, especially with crossbanding.

 

[iMONITOR]

Cheap Chineese Radios = UGO CARS
Stick with
Yaesu
Kenwood
Icom
Companys that have been around for years that have built a good reputation.

Where does Alinco fall into the mix? I think they have facilities in both China and Japan.

 

[buddrousa]

Companys that have been around for years that have built a good reputation. I had one 36 years ago.

 

[buddrousa]

I have a TYT-9800, a quad band radio, that is supposed to be a clone of the Yaesu-8900. It was not cheap, but less expensive. It seems to be doing a good job, especially with crossbanding.

I started to buy one but the MD380 software is so clunky and I saw several negative post on several Ham Sites.

 

[twotoejoe]

I started to buy one but the MD380 software is so clunky and I saw several negative post on several Ham Sites.

I've had absolutely no problem with the software linked to on TYT's website, not sure if it's the 'MD380' software or not.

 

[buddrousa]

The 380 software often crashes on 64bit OS had to keep a xp laptop around just to play with the 380 as a cheap option for DMR in the day.
The transmitter on my 380's looked like a sawed off shotgun on the service monitor at the shop. The reason it was used as receive only in the day.

 

[alcahuete]

380 software works great on Win7 64-bit. I have been using it for ages, and not a single crash.

Doesn't fix the service monitor part. LOL!! Haven't put mine on one, but I'm sure it's the same. I don't use it for transmitting anyway, just receiving.

 

[cmjonesinc]

My only complaint with my tyt 9800 was the volume was a bit low. I was using it in a loud environment and eventually swapped it out with a kenwood 790/890 setup. But as for in the shack, it's just fine. I find myself bouncing between the tyt software and chirp for programming it. Overall not a bad radio for what it is. The software for it is less clunky than the 380 for me and more stable. Out of all the ccr's I've used the tyt's seem to be at the upper level of quality for them. Not professional gear by any means but far better than a baofeng.

 

[NC1]

I have a TYT-9800, a quad band radio, that is supposed to be a clone of the Yaesu-8900. It was not cheap, but less expensive. It seems to be doing a good job, especially with crossbanding.

I have one of those as well and have had zero issues for the past two years. The radio works just as I expected it to, the software is operating without a glitch, and others I know who own one are very happy with theirs. I guess what really matters after all the discussion is said and done is the experience of the end user as a whole, not some test equipment readings that fall short of spec or don't compare equally to name brands - and I have seen test equipment that isn't up to par also.

 

[W8WCA]

I have one of the HYS TC-8900R's So far it seems good - but I am really just getting started with it

They are not as easy to find as theTYT9800
But I can use RT Systems software for the FT8900 and it works fine

 

[E5911]

What is your impression of the new Yaesu? Visibly it looks like the rest of them ...

 

[jaspence]

Until the big M lawsuit, Hytera made very good radios and were a major player in DMR.

 

[W6BAR]

I've played with several different Chinese radios, along with having equipment by the established players. Sensitivity to RF (especially while near computers, cell phones, and in cars) has made these nearly unusable for me.. I found one brand, Wouxon, which in terms of sensitivity to RF and build quality is definitely a step above Baofeng. The one I have, which I linked fulfilled my desire to have an HT better than the Baofeng in recieve/transmit quality while not paying the $700+ for a duty rated Kenwood or Motorola.

 

[ladn]

I've had absolutely no problem with the software linked to on TYT's website, not sure if it's the 'MD380' software or not.

The TYT software is kinda klunky, but the radio programs fine with RT Systems or CHIRP.

 

[n1das]

Until the big M lawsuit, Hytera made very good radios and were a major player in DMR.

Hytera still does make some very good radios but the /\/\ lawsuit forced some features to be removed from affected models. What Hytera DMR radios I currently own are my last Hyteras.

 

[krokus]

Wouxon ... fulfilled my desire to have an HT better than the Baofeng in recieve/transmit quality while not paying the $700+ for a duty rated Kenwood or Motorola.

Kenwood TH-D72 and TH-D74 do/did retail in the $500 (US) range. Both are well above the CCRs in quality and performance.