Looking for a 5-watt UHF radio, 400-480Mhz with Channel Announce and Rotary Channel selector in the price range of the TYT and Baofengs.
The Baofengs (and some expensive radios) have a “Channel Announce” feature where they audibly “speak” the channel number (or name?) when you change channels. However, they do not have a rotary channel selector.
The MD380 has a rotary channel selector, but no Channel Announce feature.
Is there any inexpensive radio that has a rotary channel selector knob, AND channel announce feature?
Very disappointingly, it seems the MD2017 doesn’t have a rotary channel selector. Not sure if it has the channel announce feature…
Well there are a few Googleable sources on the net for the software, and I can confirm that this works. Be careful about the source - there are some very, very cheap ones out there - which are copies of the kenwoods and have a few oddities. The hole for the mic in the case is badly moulded and some are pin holes, meaning dull sound -a small drill cures it easily, and the voice scrambler on the counterfeits doesn’t work. everything else seems to!
Meets all your requirements, plus it is only programmed through computer. (Less ability for others to screw it up. LOL.)
Very good audio, durable textured surface and a 16-channel rotary channel knob with printed numbers plus voice announce. Easily programmable with CHIRP software.
The other great advantage is that they are easily available in Canada, and Retevis seems very customer-service oriented.
As for front-panel-programmable radios with a channel knob, my favourite is buytwowayradios.com’s Wouxun KG- UV899. It is professional-looking, has excellent audio quality and is weather resistant. My favourite radio (next to my DTR/DLRs of course) and you get Wouxun quality at Baofeng prices.
The other nice thing about the Wouxun UV899 is buytwowayradios gets radios to Canada quickly and inexpensively, and their customer service cannot be beat.
LOL! Well, I have never heard of another radio that speaks channel name instead of number aside from the DLR (that I know you are already familiar with) but I have little experience with DMR radios.
Enjoy your Retevis. From my experience, they are not just clones but seem to go their own direction in looks, quality and features. I have three now, all programmed to our rental two-way film set radios, and they perform as well as the radios costing six times as much.
Ok, got my programming cable and it seems to work. Cool little radios.
Is there a keypad-less version of this radio? I see others that are either UHF only or don’t have a channel dial, etc…
I would love something without the keypad (so users can’t program it to illegal channels) but still with dual-channel and rotary channel selector with announce… I’d lock the keypad, but then the rotary channel selector doesn’t work.
Anyone have any experience with the Wouxun KG-UV9D?
It seems to tick all the boxes, and adds a feature that would be amazing if it works - full duplex!
If that worked the way I think it should, I would be able to transmit on one frequency and receive on another simultaneously - i.e. have a normal conversation with someone and hear them while I talk.
However, in watching peoples “reviews” of the product, it’s mostly unboxing videos, no real test of the full duplex capability (without a repeater) and I wonder whether the headsets would work with the full duplex function.
Kinda crazy that these other dual-receive radios don’t do full duplex and it would be an amazing feature.
Technically speaking, it does not operate full duplex. To be a full duplex radio, it would need to transmit and receive on the same channel simultaneously, meaning that the one channel would be open transmission and reception to and from the radios at the same time.
The KG-UV9D cannot do this. What it can do is send and receive communications simultaneously on the same or different bands (UHF/VHF, VHF/VHF, VHF/UHF, or UHF/UHF), but on different frequencies within those two bands.
This is possible because in very simple terms, the 9D (and the 9D PLUS) consists of two independent transceivers in one handheld, typically referred to as Side A and Side B. They are also often called Band A and Band B by users, but it is inaccurate and confusing since each side can be programmed to the same (UHF or VHF) radio band.
For example, the radio can be set to transmit on VHF 146.400 and receive on 146.500 simplex frequencies. Side A would be set to the transmit frequency and Side B on the receive frequency. If two users were both using KG-UV9D/KG-UV9D Plus radios, they could hear transmissions on both bands simultaneously, however only one could transmit on either frequency at a time.
Technically, a user could program one 9D radio to transmit on A and receive on B, and the other 9D to receive on A and transmit on B, and you could transmit and receive at the same time, but you are still only able to transmit or receive only on either frequency at any time. It creates a full duplex type of setup known as frequency division duplex. This is what Wouxun refers to as Duplex Work Mode or Duplex Operation. It is not full duplex using the same circuit.
I hope that clarifies duplex operation on the Wouxun KG-UV9D.
Incidentally, my son has a 9D Plus and the dual operation works very well.
I actually always thought that you would need to use a separate frequency for transmitting and receiving. I never cared about trying to duplex on the same frequency.
However, even with different frequencies, or even bands (UHF/VHF), there sure are a lot of differing opinions as to whether or not this will actually work.
What I mean to say is that while receiving a transmission on your radio, you can press your PTT and speak, it will not mute the audio coming in and it won’t interfere with the receiving transmission.
Many are saying that the transmitter will “overload” the receiver and it won’t work. Others (including yourself, I think) say that it does in fact work. The fact that you’ve tried it and it works, leads me to believe that perhaps the dissenters were not doing it properly?
Are there any YouTube videos anywhere showing this actually working? I just can’t seem to find real proof that this will work. I’ve never seen it work myself, I wasn’t even aware until recently that it was even a possibility!
To be honest, as I recall we’ve only tried it while logged into two different nets on a repeater. We talked on one net while listening to another. It was just for fun to try out the dual receive capability, but I wouldn’t recommend it because listening to two channels at once was overwhelming and trying to talk on one while listening to the other was just too much. For our test, the Duplex Work Mode worked, but wasn’t a very practical application of the feature.
No - Rick didn’t say that - he mentions that they can receive on two frequencies at the same time - in any of the covered bands, so 145.56 and 145.025 at the same time. No radio made that uses normal FM mode can transmit and receive on the same frequency - it simply can’t be done. Two real reasons - they share an antenna so full power output would be applied to the receiver, probably damaging it. Most dual band radios that can do dual frequency receive are locked out so the VHF and UHF sections are isolated - usually filters that stop this massive overloading happening. Even if you separated the VHF frequencies by a few MHz, the receiver would suffer really bad desensitisation by the close to frequency. It’s even worse as they share an antenna - but two side by side radios one on 145 and the other on 145.5 wreck each other’s performance. UHF transmit and VHF receive usually works not too badly, but VHF transmit and UHF receive is less good because the third harmonic of many VHF frequencies falls in the UHF band - so you can get issues even trying that, because filtering on handhelds of this price range its usually a bit feeble.
Just to make sure you get the correct information you cannot transmit and receive duplex on the same frequency using any form of continuous wave - so ordinary FM cannot do duplex. It’s just impossible. You can do it with TDMA techniques - the digital slots we talk about where you transmit then receive alternately in sync. If you stick 5W up the spout into an antenna that is also connected to a receiver, then that receiver is expecting microvolts of signal on the antenna, and suddenly getting many thousand time that level will at least shut down, limit and protect themselves - with many volts from the transmitter that is close - a distant transmitter on that channel is totally unheard.
A normal repeater on VHF needs good cavity filters that are physically very big to enable a 600KHz offset. 1.6MHz means smaller filters - all these things add up, but same frequency working is not possible.
Just to clarify, for me personally, I don’t care one iota about transmitting/receiving on the same frequency. Subject for another discussion if people are interested in discussing that topic. I do understand that you’re clarifying for anyone else reading this topic.
For myself, I am only speaking of the vary narrow subject of the following:
Radio A set to Transmit a UHF frequency and receive a VHF frequency.
Radio B set to Transmit the same VHF frequency as above and receive the same UHF frequency as above.
The 2 radios are fitted with surveillance earbuds. Can the 2 people converse back and forth without having to wait for the one person to release their PTT before the other can speak? (Just like a normal telephone if it had a PTT button)
Will this work adequately on a pair of Wouxun KG-UV8D or KG-UV9D?
The amount of people saying “no” vs the very few that say “yes” leads me to really hope that this is something that someone could actually test with real radios and verify once and for all. BTW - Wouxun says yes it will work, but often Chinese manufacturers are mistaken in their products’ capabilities.
My Retevis “dual receive” radio - the RT-23, cannot do this as it doesn’t have the functionality built in, even though I can listen to 2 transmissions at the same time. Not as useful as being able to transmit on one frequency and receive on another…
My ancient Icom IC-32 does this, and I bought it in the 80s. As long as you make sure the two frequencies are not harmonically related, it works surprisingly well.
Not really. My RT-23 does cross-band repeat. I have no use for the function.
My ancient Icom IC-32 does this, and I bought it in the 80s. As long as you make sure the two frequencies are not harmonically related, it works surprisingly well.
I’ve heard that this radio did this. Seems there were many “back in the day”.
What I am interested in is a currently-manufactured, reasonably inexpensive radio that can do full-duplex audio. If such an animal exists!
I think that you really should just buy one from a uk based online supplier and try it. So far I have never found any radio that has a PTT button that does not mute the receive audio for feedback reasons, so while they might be able to receive, is it wise to allow that audio to howl around. I’m imagining one of these each end, and a horrible feedback loop when both ends press their button.
Phones are great for full duplex, radios with loudspeakers and plenty of volume aren’t. I doubt people who own them have tried this, so you are probably a pioneer. The IC-32 did cross band repeat, but pressing the PTT mutes the incoming audio, and I suspect this will be the case with this one.
I thought about buying one - but just discovered the price - ?120 is an awful lot of money for a dual bander - HOWEVER - I found one dealer with a hand-free kit which does suggest it really does do what you want?
Well, I’m in Canada, so my cheapest supply would be from China. The prices are low and they ship for free typically.
So far I have never found any radio that has a PTT button that does not mute the receive audio for feedback reasons, so while they might be able to receive, is it wise to allow that audio to howl around. I’m imagining one of these each end, and a horrible feedback loop when both ends press their button.
If I transmit on Frequency A, and the Radio is receiving on Frequency B, why should the audio from my transmission come through the speaker? Only if the transmitter is overloading the receiver (what we’ve been discussing) or the person with the other radio ALSO has his PTT pressed. Anyway, the way to run this if it has the capability is to use an earpiece, not the speaker.
Phones are great for full duplex, radios with loudspeakers and plenty of volume aren’t.
Not true. All professional intercom systems are full duplex (the type used in theaters and events) and work with speakers just fine without feedback. As long as the local mic is not being sent to the speaker, it’s fine.
I doubt people who own them have tried this, so you are probably a pioneer. The IC-32 did cross band repeat, but pressing the PTT mutes the incoming audio, and I suspect this will be the case with this one.
I thought about buying one - but just discovered the price - ?120 is an awful lot of money for a dual bander - HOWEVER - I found one dealer with a hand-free kit which does suggest it really does do what you want?
Worth a punt?
Yes, I likely will buy a set and try it. Like so many things with radio, there’s so many sites and information, but much of it is just plain wrong, and often the info is never about the specific thing you’re interested in. That’s why I added the DTR info I found to my web site. There was almost no info about those radios and certainly what there was was incorrect. Now I have more information on those radios than anywhere else on the web. I corrected a LOT of misinformation about those radios, and I may have to do the same with a Wouxun or AnyTone I guess!
Not sure if you’re on the RadioReference forum, but I’m having a conversation with a poster there and there is some evidence that full duplex audio works well with the AnyTone radios.
Not sure if I’m allowed to post links from other forums here or not… But I can PM you the link if you’re interested.
The big question is whether it works just as well with the Wouxun?
