Chinese Dualbanders

[LtDoc]

Dave,
A couple of things. That 'certification' for Part-95 would only affect the seller of the radio, not the user if it's used for amateur radio (in the USA). And if the seller is half way competent, meaning that they found out the requirements for selling an amateur radio in the USA, then you can reasonably -assume- that the radio has that required certification. I know that's an "assumption", but it's a reasonable one to make. I only know of one -sure- way to find if that radio has the required certification, that's to ask the FCC.
- 'Doc

 

[elk2370bruce]

These rigs all have a part 90 certification and has the capability of being programmed outside of the amateur radio bands. I have my Coast Guard Auxiliary and GMRS/MURS frequencies programmed in and they work just fine. When programming, make sure you have included narrow/wide band (if appropriate) or they will not work well.

 

[nd5y]

The KG-UVD1, KG-UV1DP, KG-UV2D, and KG-UV3D are only certified for Part 90.

 

[W2NJS]

For the straight facts about the FCC certification for these radios, including how and why they are okay for ham use, read Chris Imlay's piece in the November 2010 issue of QST magazine. It's a part of the Woxoun radio review.

 

[OpSec]

So how about the Cliff's Notes for those of us that don't get QST?

 

[snakecharmer]

I recently picked up the Wouxon KG-UVD1P 2m/440 dual bander HT so I will throw in my initial thoughts. This is my first HT and I did not want to spend a bunch of cash on one because I didn't see myself using it much but figured I should have one just because. Since this my first HT, I don't have any real basis of comparison other than my experience with my 2m mobile units so take for what its worth.

The good
1- For the money, I like it. I paid $130 from my local dealer and it came with the programming cable and software. It did not come with the cigarette lighter cable that I have heard several people say is included.
2- The radio has a pretty solid feel and is fairly compact. Build quality seems decent considering country of origin.
3- Audio quality is better than I thought it would be.
4- Can monitor 2 channels at one time and do not have to be on the same band

The bad
1- Resist the urge to use the included software and programming cable. I tried on 3 different computers and the software sort of worked on one of them but broke all three. I spent more time fixing the issues that the software caused than it would take to program the thing by hand and still have not been able to get bluetooth back on one of the machines. I believe the issues to be mostly cause by the usb to serial driver more than the programming software itself but the software is buggy at best when it does work. Disappointing since this was a big selling point for me.
2- The charging cradle gets HOT! I have heard of some actually catching fire so I only charge mine when it will not be unattended.
3- The battery meter means nothing. Mine goes from full to lights out in a matter of seconds.
4- I don't care for the menu driven squelch. I can live with it for everything else but believe squelch should be an actual knob.
5- I wish it had a port to plug in a wall wart or car charger directly into the radio rather than needing to replace the battery with the eliminator kit. Could be a real inconvenience for someone that uses this as their main mobile rig or at least more than me.
6- The manual sucks! Obviously written by somebody whose English is worse than my Chinese. After much trial and error, I made a programming cheat sheet. Programming is pretty different from the other HAM radios I have owned and I was able to make a cheat sheet that makes programming fairly simple compared to trying to interpret the manual. I was surprised that it does not have automatic repeater offset
7- I can RX way farther than I can TX. I knew I would be power limited with the HT compared to my mobile but still surprised that I can not hit repeaters that I consider local. Probably not an issue specific to this radio though.

Even though it looks like there is more bad than good, none of these things are a deal breaker and I still think it is a good deal for the money as long as the programming cable is not your deciding factor, you will probably not be disappointed.

 

[RoninJoliet]

There seems to be a new upgraded model adv- by Powerwerx=KG-UV3D 2m-440 but it shows it "out of stock"...

 

[KD0TAZ]

I recently picked up the Wouxon KG-UVD1P 2m/440 dual bander HT so I will throw in my initial thoughts. This is my first HT and I did not want to spend a bunch of cash on one because I didn't see myself using it much but figured I should have one just because. Since this my first HT, I don't have any real basis of comparison other than my experience with my 2m mobile units so take for what its worth.

The good
1- For the money, I like it. I paid $130 from my local dealer and it came with the programming cable and software. It did not come with the cigarette lighter cable that I have heard several people say is included.
2- The radio has a pretty solid feel and is fairly compact. Build quality seems decent considering country of origin.
3- Audio quality is better than I thought it would be.
4- Can monitor 2 channels at one time and do not have to be on the same band

The bad
1- Resist the urge to use the included software and programming cable. I tried on 3 different computers and the software sort of worked on one of them but broke all three. I spent more time fixing the issues that the software caused than it would take to program the thing by hand and still have not been able to get bluetooth back on one of the machines. I believe the issues to be mostly cause by the usb to serial driver more than the programming software itself but the software is buggy at best when it does work. Disappointing since this was a big selling point for me.
2- The charging cradle gets HOT! I have heard of some actually catching fire so I only charge mine when it will not be unattended.
3- The battery meter means nothing. Mine goes from full to lights out in a matter of seconds.
4- I don't care for the menu driven squelch. I can live with it for everything else but believe squelch should be an actual knob.
5- I wish it had a port to plug in a wall wart or car charger directly into the radio rather than needing to replace the battery with the eliminator kit. Could be a real inconvenience for someone that uses this as their main mobile rig or at least more than me.
6- The manual sucks! Obviously written by somebody whose English is worse than my Chinese. After much trial and error, I made a programming cheat sheet. Programming is pretty different from the other HAM radios I have owned and I was able to make a cheat sheet that makes programming fairly simple compared to trying to interpret the manual. I was surprised that it does not have automatic repeater offset
7- I can RX way farther than I can TX. I knew I would be power limited with the HT compared to my mobile but still surprised that I can not hit repeaters that I consider local. Probably not an issue specific to this radio though.

Even though it looks like there is more bad than good, none of these things are a deal breaker and I still think it is a good deal for the money as long as the programming cable is not your deciding factor, you will probably not be disappointed.

1 I would check with the dealer, and check the website you ordered from. They are supposed to come with a cigarette plug for the charger.

2. Mine gets warm during charging (only when the light is red) , but I wouldn't consider it 'hot' or dangerous. There isn't a whole lot inside to actually get hot.

3. Unfortunately 'Chinglish' is what you'll find in many manuals, especially with a company based in China.

4. I didn't have any issues with the software on either of the computers I installed it on. One is XP the other is 7. Vista has problems with everything, so if that's what you have, that may be your problem. The program itself is very simple/no frills and does have quirks, but I programmed my radio completely with it no problem.

 

[snakecharmer]

1 I would check with the dealer, and check the website you ordered from. They are supposed to come with a cigarette plug for the charger.

2. Mine gets warm during charging (only when the light is red) , but I wouldn't consider it 'hot' or dangerous. There isn't a whole lot inside to actually get hot.

3. Unfortunately 'Chinglish' is what you'll find in many manuals, especially with a company based in China.

4. I didn't have any issues with the software on either of the computers I installed it on. One is XP the other is 7. Vista has problems with everything, so if that's what you have, that may be your problem. The program itself is very simple/no frills and does have quirks, but I programmed my radio completely with it no problem.

I bought mine from my local HAM shop so I might give them a call on that. All the computers I tried it on were XP Pro. I didnt try it on my Win7 machine and I have avoided Vista like the plague. On my netbook, I lost bluetooth and the USB to serial adaptor I use to program my scanner would no longer work. I had to uninstall the Wouxan driver and reinstall the drivers for my other adaptor and BT to get that working. My newest laptop also lost BT and the wireless card stopped working. Both of those machines have the same BT chip so I thought maybe the software just wouldnt play nice on it. I reinstalled the BT driver and it works but now my wireless drops out constantly and it has always been rock solid. Luckily this machine is usually on my desk here at work because I have to keep the LAN card plugged in now. So I tried on my old Latatude and was able to get a couple of channels programmed but if you made a change and tried to update the radio, it would crash or not communicate with the radio until you reboot and then would repeat the process. It killed BT on that machine as well and I have yet to get it back. I see a couple of clean windows installs in my future. Your mileage may vary but I am pretty sure its not my machines that are at fault on this one.

 

[K2AFY]

Does anyone know where in the USA you can purchase this WOUXON....Thank You

cheapham.com

 

[mgolden2]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Also available at Associated Radio

www.associatedradio.com

 

[ranger821]

Anyone heard when the mobile will be available. Rumors, lies, straight from the horses mouth type of stuff.

 

[n5ims]

Anyone heard when the mobile will be available. Rumors, lies, straight from the horses mouth type of stuff.

"KG-UV920R Dual-Band Mobile Coming in early 2011" per their US dealer's web site Wouxun KG-UVD1P - KG-UV2D - KG-UV920R Mobile Transceiver where you can pre-order now and receive it from their initial shipment(s) once they get their FCC Certifications. Many posts indicate this will be in Jan or Feb of 2011.

 

[LtDoc]

They certainly sound nice, but I think I'll wait a while before ordering one. I'll let someone else do the testing!
- 'Doc

 

[rilke67]

Cheapham.com

 

[N4JKD]

Many hams, EMTs, firefighters & police officers use this radio, so that says a lot. Also, yes, anybody can transmit on these frequencies, but unless you are authorized to use these freqs, I don't recommend it. To prevent this, I didn't program the PL tones so the transmission won't go through should the key accidentally be pressed. I payed $100 for mine, and you can get the battery eliminator, porgramming cable, extra battery & speaker mic for less than $50. All in all a great radio. Running low power, my battery lasts for 2 full days with heavy use. I am able to get into repeaters 15 miles away with one watt that my Kenwood won't on 5 watts with the rubber duck. As a storm spotter, this is a godsend. I can transmit on 2 meters and monitor the linked repeater system through the midstate when the SHTF with the weather.

You won't be sorry!

 

[N0BDW]

Many hams, EMTs, firefighters & police officers use this radio, so that says a lot. Also, yes, anybody can transmit on these frequencies, but unless you are authorized to use these freqs, I don't recommend it. To prevent this, I didn't program the PL tones so the transmission won't go through should the key accidentally be pressed. I payed $100 for mine, and you can get the battery eliminator, porgramming cable, extra battery & speaker mic for less than $50. All in all a great radio. Running low power, my battery lasts for 2 full days with heavy use. I am able to get into repeaters 15 miles away with one watt that my Kenwood won't on 5 watts with the rubber duck. As a storm spotter, this is a godsend. I can transmit on 2 meters and monitor the linked repeater system through the midstate when the SHTF with the weather.

You won't be sorry!

I'm sure you already know and are super careful, but even without the PL tone you would still be illegally transmitting on those frequencies. Now, breaking the law and being prosecuted for it are two very different things. I'm just suggesting to anyone else who might be reading that they should exercise extreme caution when programming frequencies they are not licensed to transmit on into any transmitter.

 

[N4JKD]

I'm sure you already know and are super careful, but even without the PL tone you would still be illegally transmitting on those frequencies. Now, breaking the law and being prosecuted for it are two very different things. I'm just suggesting to anyone else who might be reading that they should exercise extreme caution when programming frequencies they are not licensed to transmit on into any transmitter.

This is true, I should have put a disclaimer. As a licensed ham operator, you know what frequencies you are authorized to transmit on. It is legal to monitor any frequencies, but if you are not licensed or authorized to transmit on ANY of the frequencies, you can be in hot water with the local authorities & FCC.

The programming software allows you to block transmission on any frequencies, which can completely eliminate the possibility of getting in hot water. The local VFD firefighters all have these radios, and the fire chief has all the bands locked out except the police, fire & EMS. Only ones that are opened are the firefighters who are licensed ham radio operators.

Another tidbit of info, while you can monitor the FRS frequencies, it is illegal to transmit with this radio on those frequencies because max power is 500 milliwatts, and this radio only goes down to 1.2 watts on low power.

The radio has many possibilities, but only get it if you know what you are going to use the radio for.

 

[N0BDW]

Another tidbit of info, while you can monitor the FRS frequencies, it is illegal to transmit with this radio on those frequencies because max power is 500 milliwatts, and this radio only goes down to 1.2 watts on low power.

To add, it has a detachable antenna, which isn't allowed for FRS certification.

 

[prcguy]

Unless the rules have changed a licensed GMRS user can operate with up to 5w ERP on the FRS channels with a detachable antenna up to 20ft above ground level.
prcguy

To add, it has a detachable antenna, which isn't allowed for FRS certification.