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Transmitter Power Drop on Btech UV 50X2 50W Dual Band

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KenCARY

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Yes, I know, you get what you pay for, but I saw the initial reviews on this radio and thought that they finally got their act together---NOT.


I have a Btech UV-50X2 that shows a steady drop in transmitter power on both low and high into a dummy load. The transmitter drops out after about 90 seconds on high and 2-3 minutes on low.

I sent back the first one under RMA and the replacement is slightly better but still does not hold transmit power. Btech support is worthless and as usual they blame bad SWR for all problems. They did not bother to read that I was on a 50ohm resistive dummy load.

I am trying to get them to test the 3rd unit before I pay postage yet again to send it back.

The 2nd unit in that I have now can hold about 35W on high for almost 2 minutes before shutting down (yes I have the transmit limit set well above that at 360sec). I am wondering if this is in fact is the limit of this radio, and it can't take a transmit cycle as at full power for more than a minute or two.

What is frustrating is that I have a UV-25X2 that holds it full 25W for 5 minutes easily. This gives me some hope that I can get a better 50X2 than what I have.

Please don't preach to me about this Chinese junk-- I get that, but I took a chance on this one and got burned. Trying to make the best of it.

I have seen this same problem mentioned on the 5001 and 50X2 by other reviewers, and some say that there in no thermal grease on the final to heat sink connection. Lots of mixed messages, and no one at Btech USA will get on a phone to have an adult discussion about this.

Anyone else have some experience with this?
 
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jonwienke

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The radios aren't designed for multi-minute continuous transmits. I set my TOT for 60 seconds and don't think I've ever hit it.
 

KenCARY

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It would be nice if Baofeng Were honest about that if that is truly the limit.

They vaguely suggest not to transmit for a "long time" on high-- perhaps that means less than 30 seconds.

I noticed my problem during a 3 minute net call that cut me off from my QSO like the gong show.
 

mmckenna

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This is common with a lot of mobile and hand held radios, not just the Chinese ones.

Since heat is what kills components, and long transmissions build up a lot of heat, most have some sort of temperature sensor that will start throttling back power when it senses the radio getting too hot. Similar to the same way some radios handle high SWR, it senses the heat and throttles back.

This is why you'll often read warnings from people on here when someone talks about using mobile radios to build a cheap repeater. They just can't handle long term transmitting due to heat build up.
Looking at a commercial/public safety repeater system will show that they are rather large, a lot of that is because of heat sinks, fans, etc.

I don't think what you are seeing is out of the ordinary, in fact, it's a sign that these radios have some sort of thought put into their design.

As Jon suggested, this is why the time out timers need to be set to something reasonable.

One thing you can try if you really do need to transmit for several minutes at a time is adding a cooling fan that blows across the heat sink on the rear of the radio. That might help get rid of some of the heat.
 

nd5y

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BTech is simply an another brand name for BaoFeng equipment.
Nope. BTech has their own FCC IDs and as far as I know their products aren't manufactured by Baofeng.
BTech is another name for AnyTone Tech, or maybe another company with the same owner.
 

N4GIX

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Nope. BTech has their own FCC IDs and as far as I know their products aren't manufactured by Baofeng.
BTech is another name for AnyTone Tech, or maybe another company with the same owner.

Did you even look at the link I provided? Apparently not:

new-logo.png
BaoFeng
Radios


"BTech" is the American face for BaoFeng:
Arlington, South Dakota, 57212
United States of America
 
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nd5y

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Did you even look at the link I provided?
I don't care what their web site says. I've seen it before.

Why did BTech or BaoFeng Tech obtain their own FCC grantee code and FCC IDs if they are simply importing and selling Baofeng products?
Why don't their products have Baofeng's FCC grantee code/ID?
Why are none of BTech's products the same as the ones on Baofeng's corporate Chinese web site?
Why does Baofeng's corporate Chinese web site have a page warning about other companies using their trademark? Home_BAOFENG official website_baofengradio.com
 

KenCARY

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While it is interesting to uncover the mystery of how these Chinese conglomerates operate, I would like to learn from all of your experience on the subject transmit time limitations on mobile rigs

I still think that a 50W radio with fan and a reasonable-sized heat sink like the 50X2, when turned down to 10W should hold that for longer than 3 minutes without shutting down.

Thoughts?

Btech USA finally send me a free return postage mailer so I will send this one off again and report back the test results on a 3rd unit.
 

wyShack

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While it is likely the radio backing down (probably sensing heat buildup), you may want to check a few other items. One is the coax -I have had connectors heat up and go intermittent only when transmitting for long periods. The other is your dummy load-many of them heat up and change impedance (and therefore SWR goes funny).

Depending on the design of the finial amplifier-it may heat up just as much on lower power settings due to bias current -not likely for FM but quite likely with a linear amp for AM or SSB.

You may also wan tto feed audio to the unit- in case some well meaning designer has designed in a 'stuck mike' circuit -again not likely but I have seen it.

Good luck
 

Ve7qjd

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Tech/Baofeng UV 50X2

I too am on my second unit with thermal shutdown, I just finished sending the whole sad story to EHAM and it is online there. I am not sending the unit back again to Tech as they have not even figured out that to wend it back to Canada they need to put WARRANTY return on the package and I ended up paying both the shipping fee to them and a customs fee on return. This is now an expensive Rx scanning radio capable of very short transmit times until I figure out a cooling system. They do need to fix their problem. In the meantime I cannot recommend this unit to anyone as it is essentially non-functional.
 

mmckenna

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I cannot recommend this unit to anyone as it is essentially non-functional.

Which is what most people who work with radios will tell you about these cheap Chinese radios. As the OP stated, you get what you pay for. Some people get good radios, some get trash. Seems like a spin of the wheel. If you get a bad one, you've got to deal with minimal support out of China.
 

Ve7qjd

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Repetitive

I think we all know that, it does not really add anything to the informative aspect which was the intention. I have had excellent luck with many products out of China but not this one!! Information is useful but platitudes not so much. Buying the occasional one of these in the mix of more expensive brand names is part of the fun but informing others is still useful.
 

spongella

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All valuable information, as a ham friend of mine just bought one of these; will see if it has that problem, but for normal 2m FM contacts should not be a problem, just keep the xmissions short as 2m was intended. Question, do repeaters still have time outs? Shows how long it's been since I was on hi hi.
 

Ve7qjd

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UV 50X2

Yes it will be most interesting to see how your friend's new one works. My transmissions were very short on both occasions where this has happened. I am going to experiment with cooling fan nearby to see how that affects it. My Yaesu 3200DR has a fan which is most annoying because it is thermostat driven and kicks in and out, so a white noise fan on the Tech will be an advantage. Working on it today.
 

KK4JUG

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Which is what most people who work with radios will tell you about these cheap Chinese radios. As the OP stated, you get what you pay for. Some people get good radios, some get trash. Seems like a spin of the wheel. If you get a bad one, you've got to deal with minimal support out of China.

I've said it before: CCRs are like Bic lighters. When they quit working, you throw them away. It's not worth trying to fix them.
 

Ve7qjd

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Fan Fix

Small 12 v computer fan pointed at the rear fins fixed this, held long full power transmissions and no blackouts. Tech just need to fit a fan inside or on the rear. Radio fine otherwise.
 

chu88

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I have seen this same problem mentioned on the 5001 and 50X2 by other reviewers, and some say that there in no thermal grease on the final to heat sink connection. Lots of mixed messages, and no one at Btech USA will get on a phone to have an adult discussion about this.

Anyone else have some experience with this?

Anywhere you have a heat sink is a very good idea to apply thermal grease or paste. The more high-end material (like this) the better. Long sustained heat gonna make a lot of damage to any electronics. its better to avoid that.
 

Ve7qjd

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Nice receiver

Oh well, it makes a good receiver for FM radio etc, (50X2) but it is working fine with a fan in place. The CCT stuff varies but overall I like having the choices. If you have the money you can buy Kenwood or Icom for sure.
 
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