Howdy, I am a new Ham and disabled Vietnam vet. Looking to set up a base and mobile station. $$$ are limited so have been researching Baofeng and Wouxun radios. I like the features on the Wouxun UV-920P but would like to hear suggestions from some experienced operators.
Thanks for your help.
Mel KM4ZVY
I have two of the wouxun radios, one is the base unit style and one is the HT.
I also have two of the other brand you asked about as well, both are HTs.
I much prefer the wouxun…the 920 is a good radio for the money and it does crossband well, except if you are using it to crossband with an ht to work a net…steady traffic will cause it to overheat… i even added another fan to assist with the cooling and it could not handle it, where my icom handled it easily…
for the money and general use, the wouxon is a great little radio.
I would have no problem recommending them to someone starting out on a budget. oh, and thanks for your service, I also, am a vietnam vet.
Sir Obed. Thanks for the reply. Thank you for your service as well. Welcome home! I appreciate your comments on the Wouxun radio. I have been putting away some $$$ so I can start to build my shack.
Be safe.
73
Hi Mel, My son and I set up a KG-UV920P-A as a base station with a Wouxun power supply a few years ago and we still use it to get on the local evening nets. It’s a solid performer. My only beef is the volume control stepping goes from low to quite loud between levels 1 and 2. It’s fine when you are in a vehicle, but in a quiet bedroom it can be an annoyance. If you use an external speaker with an independent volume adjustment it isn’t an issue.
The TYT TH-7800 is also a good radio and the volume knob behaves more like a real pot instead of a digital step.
Our 920P is connected to a Tram 1185 dual band mag mount antenna stuck to a pizza pan perched on top of my son’s dresser in his room. We transmit at low to medium power and it can hit every repeater in the area with full or nearly full quieting.
We both have Baofengs but he prefers his Wouxun KG-UV9D Plus. I was using an 8D but am switching to the 8E tri band for some action on the 220. It’s become my new favorite HT.
Thanks again for the reply. The pizza pan idea sounds great. I appreciate your comments and suggestions. Do the mag mount antennas require some sort of ground plane?
They do - but if they’re stuck on something large and metallic, so they stick - that’s job done.
Seriously - any aerial design that relies on a ground plane could be stuck onto anything - the question is how good are they. A true ground plane is something large in comparison to the wavelength the antenna is resonant at - so a boat at sea, on salty water, stretching for thousands of miles, has a pretty good ground plane - and the UK had lots of pirate radio in the 60s/70s in converted fishing boats taking advantage of the sea. Large areas of ground work pretty well too - not as a well as the sea, but still good. The top of a car, with the aerial central working on UHF is big in comparison with the wavelength, but less so at 2m. Worse again for CB, when it’s starting to get a bit small.
If you make the ground plane smaller, then the aerial ‘system’ is less efficient, and the quest is for maximum efficiency. You can stick a mag mount on top of a scaffolding pole and it sticks if the metal is the right type - a but of a rubbish aerial though. Adding some ground plane horizontal elements that link mathematically to the wavelength make it more efficient. Adding random lengths less so.
Some people like to think of the ground plane as a mirror, or reflector, or a sort of ‘balance’ - or counterpoise. Most of these analogies are a bit simple, but do work in most cases.
Yes they do… the pizza pan will be sufficient; but a larger surface would be better.
You could also construct a simple 2 meter quarter wave ground plane with metal coat hangers and an SO-239 chassis mount connector. Brazing rod also works well. You’d use one 19" rod as the radiator and use 4 19" rods as the ground lane. Instructions all over the place. Works great for what it is.