Had to try it: Hamgeek APX-8000

[Falcon9h]

Perhaps we should focus on talking about the radio rather than insulting the people who choose to buy and use it.

THANK you 👍! I was curious to try it, and maybe this helped someone else. At least I got a lively discussion going.

 

[rescuecomm]

I like the top display. Don't need any more HT's, but i might buy a couple just for the h#ll of it. I'll be cool about "NOT" carrying CCRs into Jawja to keep a certain person's blood pressure down. After the Six Flags mini-riot, I'm not crossing the state line except in a jet.

 

[Falcon9h]

I like the top display. Don't need any more HT's, but i might buy a couple just for the h#ll of it. I'll be cool about "NOT" carrying CCRs into Jawja to keep a certain person's blood pressure down. After the Six Flags mini-riot, I'm not crossing the state line except in a jet.

After all I wrote? Don't waste your money and stress. Worst radio I ever had in 50 years of fooling with this stuff. It's a shame because it *looks* great, and when I tore it down the build quality is good. Electrically? Hard pass.
Commercial radio'd be great but I need dual band, and ain't gonna be no APX on a social security income. For guys like me CCR's have their place. I'm rural and 25-30 analog channels cover everything. Baofengs work fine, 99.9/10% of use is listening and sensitivities beat the crap out of scanners.
Wound up with the Btech 6x2, hacks available, familiar with the CPS, and it just works. Sorry, not every Chinese radio is junk.

 

[rf_patriot200]

I think it's well established that the radio is a piece of trash, and no different than any other low performing, buggy, sub-standard, low quality CCR except it's in a new case that cosplays itself as a high tier MSI product.

I don't think there's anything wrong in liking the radio for it's novelty, or simply because it's available. Some may be happy with it, some may not. Not all of us are Purists. That's all I have concerning the device.

 

[MTS2000des]

I don't think there's anything wrong in liking the radio for it's novelty, or simply because it's available. Some may be happy with it, some may not. Not all of us are Purists. That's all I have concerning the device.

One can like anything. Some people collect fake turds. It doesn't make them valuable. The fact that there enough suckers to spend $100 on a $15 radio is just capitalism. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't make this turd morph into a pile of gold.

 

[ResoluteConfusion]

Welp... ordered one from greedbay. Impressions: looks great, build quality good, loud audio, not hi-fi but not baofeng-tinny either. Sensitivity on a par with your average CCR. More hefty, better feel than most other consumer grade radios. Call it prosumer.

Not so good: on some frequencies the squelch tail is horrible, even a double tail. Audio dropouts unless you have the right bandwidth selected. Other radios of mine aren't so fussy. On ham freqs unless you have it set to wide, audio will mute on a received signal. The real kicker: in scan, if you have PL on receive, it skips past the frequency and won't stop IOW you hear a burp and it keeps scanning. Death sentence. In CSQ scan works fine.

I have a message in to the seller to see if I can try another one but not holding my breath.

Hand programmed, didn't wanna wait weeks for a cable. Life's too short. At least I got the radio from a U.S. based source.


Anyone else here get curious and get one? What are your *polite* thoughts? Buy-an-APX comments will be ignored, one of those is 3/4 of my whole yearly income. For us wacker wannabe proles this could be a good alternative if they'd fix the problems.

The latest firmware indicates channel name on the secondary display.

 

[rf_patriot200]

The latest firmware indicates channel name on the secondary display.

Was the display already a Dark background, or is that enabled by the firmware upgrade ?

 

[ResoluteConfusion]

Was the display already a Dark background, or is that enabled by the firmware upgrade ?

The display was already dark. This photo was taken outdoors which indicates the excellent visibility in bright settings.

 

[rf_patriot200]

The display was already dark. This photo was taken outdoors which indicates the excellent visibility in bright settings.

It's a good thing your Firmware upgrade worked. I read on their site, where they suggested Not doing it unless you needed to.
I guess they're not too confident in it.

 

[ResoluteConfusion]

It's a good thing your Firmware upgrade worked. I read on their site, where they suggested Not doing it unless you needed to.
I guess they're not too confident in it.

Well, that's not it exactly. They don't have confidence in the user's ability to do it--and, most likely, rightly so. Most manufacturers give the same cautions. I've done a few and they have been flawless if you follow the instructions with patience--which seems to be a problem for many.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Well, that's not it exactly. They don't have confidence in the user's ability to do it--and, most likely, rightly so. Most manufacturers give the same cautions. I've done a few and they have been flawless if you follow the instructions with patience--which seems to be a problem for many.

True. I've seen a couple that were done textbook, and the radios bricked themselves.

 

[ResoluteConfusion]

I guess that the other flaw in the process could be poorly written instructions, at least it would not surprise me.

 

[pto]

Mine never had a top display issue. I used rt software to program it though.

The email I received from hamgeek was hard to translate.
What I surmised is that if I didn't have the Issue, don't try to update.

aside from that,
I also asked if they were going to do any updates to address the actual problem of it being a piece of crap.
I got an answer, again, hard to translate,
I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

Doesn't matter, I returned it for a full refund,
Seller even paid return shipping.

I wasn't expecting much more than a 'feng...
It was worse.....

 

[ResoluteConfusion]

Are you speaking about a particular top display issue? I am not aware of any problems with it but would like to know.

I understand how you feel about it.

 

[pto]

Are you speaking about a particular top display issue? I am not aware of any problems with it but would like to know.

I understand how you feel about it.

The top display evidently did not show alpha tags, just frequency,
according to the email I received from HamGeek.

Again, mine did not have that issue.
Maybe because I used RT Systems software to program it..
I'm just guessing.
YMMV

 

[Falcon9h]

I mentioned before all the problems I had:
Receiver would cut out if I got my hand near the display.
In scan, PL would not decode so radio skipped over those channels even when active.
The worst: obnoxious long double squelch crash.
If firmware updates fixed all-not some-of this I could be tempted, otherwise, no way.

 

[doc62]

I figured that I would give one a try. Ordered off of Amazon. Came today. Only 8 watts on 2m and 7 watts on 70cm. Also the box looked to be someone’s return. The items were just tossed in the box. The card board for holding everything was torn and there were no plastic films on the displays. Already returned it for a refund.

 

[Falcon9h]

I figured that I would give one a try. Ordered off of Amazon. Came today. Only 8 watts on 2m and 7 watts on 70cm. Also the box looked to be someone’s return. The items were just tossed in the box. The card board for holding everything was torn and there were no plastic films on the displays. Already returned it for a refund.

That's getting to be par for the course with Amazon.