Does anyone know a trick to fix the receive issues with the KG-S88G?
What problems are you experiencing? I have several of these radios and haven’t had any issues.
Hi ipokebadgers. I’m glad yours have been good. Mine doesn’t receive well at all. In fact it’s so bad I don’t even use the radio anymore. I’ll give you an example. Yesterday, I drove to a local business, to pick something up, and brought my KG-805G. I was 3.36 miles away as the crow flies. I called my son from outside of the building and he could not hear me on the S88G, but he could hear me on our other 805G. The CTCSS codes were the same (we checked before I left the house), he turned the squelch to 0, and he was using a Nagoya NA-771G that we got from buytwowayradios.com so we know it’s not a counterfeit. We have done a similar test using the stock antenna with the same results. So unless I got defective stock and Nagoya antennas, it’s not the antenna. Every time we’ve done the test we use the 805G’s as a baseline. They hear each other, but unless we are very close (and I mean spiderman walkie talkie that you got at the toy store close) the S88 can’t hear anything other than static. I’ve done some searching online and apparently others have had issues with poor reception as well.
So I’m hoping there is a trick to fixing the reception issues. Do you think adding a tiger tail might help?
Do both these radios have the same socket? If so, swapping antennas would prove if it’s radio or antenna. Seriously though, a few questions. When the radios are close to each other, all these radios talk to each other fine, it’s just distance? I suspect that it could be the antenna - 771 antennas are not the most reliable, and they do fail. usually between the connector at the bottom and the internal construction. Radios do, of course, fail - and one going deaf is quite possible. usually they are simple mechanical faults, typically dry joints - that kind of thing. I’d try a simple test. Remove the antennas from both radios. bring them close to the other radio. transmit on that one to the two antenna less radios and gradually increase the distance. without the antenna, it won’t be far, but both should be similar. if one does 20ft and the other 18, then I think that would signify both are fine, but if removing the antennas means the dodgy one is totally silent, then that points to the radio
As paulears points out the simplest test would be to swap antennas with a known good antenna from one of the 805Gs and see what happens.
A counterpoise (tigertail) can have a positive affect on a handheld radio but if you S88G is as deaf as you say, I wouldn’t think that would help much. Of course you can always try.
The S88Gs I own are not as sensitive as my 935G+ for some reason. I tested them by using them both from the same location at the same time with various antennas and transmitting through a low power repeater 7.8 miles away to my wife who was at our home. I would transmit with one radio and then turn it off and transmit with the other radio. The same four different antennas were used with both radios. If I couldn’t reach the my wife with one of the radios I moved closer to the repeater. I live in a mountainous area and the places I transmitted from were all previously known locations that allowed contact through the repeater. The 935G+ could reach my wife through the repeater at 7.8 miles using two of the 4 antennas. The S88G could not no matter which antenna I used. The S88G was able to make the contact at around 5 miles out using a 771G antenna and the stock antenna from the 945G+. At that same location the 935G+ made the contact with all four antennas including the S88G stack antenna and a 701G antenna. Both radios were transmitting at high power.
I have also used the S88Gs simplex and was able to hold a conversation at a little over a mile on the side of a mountain with tall trees.
I understand that my test results are anecdotal and not scientific. Even so, my S88Gs have worked well for how I use them even though they don’t seem to TX/RX as well as the 935G+.
I would guess that if you swap antennas with what you know works on the 805G and it still doesn’t work you have a defective radio. It happens.
Thank you for the reply paulears. If by sockets you mean antenna connection, then yes they are both SMA males. Yes, when we are in close range 1/4 to 1/2 mile line of sight with no obstructions, the S88G works just fine. It’s just when the signal is less than perfect it becomes a problem. I tried the test you suggested. I removed the antennas from the S88 and one of the 805’s. Then using the other 805 with it’s antenna in place I transmitted. Both the antennaless 805 and s88 received the signal out to ~60 feet. I am working alone today and had to rely on watching the screens light up to verify reception. Once I have help, I’ll push the distances until I loose signal on both radios.
I appreciate your input and you detailing your results. TX has always been excellent from the S88 with the NA-771G antenna installed. Last weekend, I was dropping apples off to one of our friends and my son and I did another test of the radios. This time we were 6.53 miles away (measured using google maps’ “measure distance tool”) and again the he could hear me on the his 805 just fine. However, he transmitted to me using the 805 at high power and then his S88 at low power and his signal was noticeably stronger from the S88!
Just to clarify, we live in a small valley and our house is part way up on the side of the valley wall. So I normally get better than average performance out of my HT’s.
If you imagine the polar diagram of a typical handheld antenna - it’s usually like a quarter wave – a round donut with a hole in the middle. The upshot is that the radio can be tilted away from vertical quite a bit with little impact on performance. The nagoya antenna is different. It’s like the donut after you accidentally sat on it. it’s diameter has increased but the height reduced - and this is where the extra range comes from, but the orientation of the antenna needs to be more accurately matched to the source the other end. In practice as you stray away from vertical, performance gets worse than the simple antenna the radio was supplied with. Polarisation in built up areas also gets changed by reflections, so while antennas with gain work great on a pole up in the sky, perfomance in your hand can be very variable.
I was looking at the antenna connections on the S88 and one of the 805’s. I noticed that the brass ring on the outside of the SMA “barrel”? looks like it has been tightened down more on the 805 than on the S88. Hopefully that makes sense. I will try to upload a couple of photos to show everyone. I might not mean a thing, but if it were the problem, this would be a simple fix.
That’s quite common and depends on the panel thickness - with SMA type connectors, the important thing electrically is the inner thread and pin BUT remember most of the mechanical strength comes from the fit of the outside of the antenna. This means that on the Wouxun the SMA could bottom out in the socket, but the outside may not be touching the case plastic on some antennas, which means the strain is on the very weak SMA - on the other it looks fairly normal.
After comparing it to other S88G models, the rings appear normal, so I don’t think any tightening is necessary at this point. The 805G generally performs slightly better than the S88G, averaging about 2-1.5 dB stronger reception. However, it seems that in this case, your 805G is performing substantially better than your S88G. This suggests that either the S88G may be underperforming or the 805G is exceeding typical performance.
If you’d like, BuyTwoWayRadios would be happy to test your unit to ensure it’s performing optimally. If you can manage without the radio for about a week, we can arrange the testing. Feel free to give me a call at (888) 569-9499 ext. 231 today, or you can fill out an RMA request here: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/rma, and I’ll take a closer look at it.
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Did you get this resolved? I too have an S88G that receives (green LED is on solid) but no audio from the speaker. (My other S88G and 935G+ on the other hand do fine.)
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Sort of. I sent the radio into buytwowayradios for testing, and it tested out fine. The receive capabilities are a fraction of my KG-805G. I had the two radios sitting next to each other with the squelch off on the S88, the 805 hears me the S88 is nothing but static. Installed an Nagoya NA-771G that I bought from buytwowayradios, so I know it’s not a counterfeit and had the same results. I don’t remember if the green light was lit or not. You tried lowering the squelch, right?
I will give that a shot, thanks! In my case no audio at all, not even static, from the S88G, but my S88G+ and 935+ are both clear. 
Let me know. I’m curious how it works out.
Adjusted the squelch down to 1, no difference in audio. Got an RMA and am sending back to BTWR for evaluation.
They’re good guys. They’ll take care of you.
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They had a look at my old radio and are sending me a new one. Super nice CS and friendly people!
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I’m glad to hear it!
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