Looking for owner reviews of this new Wouxun KG-1000G GMRS Base/Mobile Radio
I have a B-Tech 50W GRMS as well as the Wouxun KG-1000G. Both have excellent range and clarity but use the Wouxun as my base radio. When I received the Wouxun I thought it looked too simple for all of the features it claimed to have. It ends up that the simplicity is the beauty of the radio. I have a Tram 1486 UHF antenna (tuned) on a 10 foot mast and always get excellent signal reports. The B-Tech claims that you need to have an SWR of 1.5 or lower which makes me question the quality of the radio. Mine is lower than that but it seems like a strangely low threshold. Also the B-Tech has a very busy and somewhat hard to read screen on it. The Wouxun has large, simple and easy to read screen. The programmable buttons on the top are a great feature. Programming from the menu is similar to the B-Tech and not too hard. The only drawback of it for me currently is the fact that it is not supported in CHIRP software yet. I am sure it will eventually be and I am hoping that CHIRP will have some more features that the software that is downloadable currently.
Bottom line is if you want to get serious about GMRS this is the model to get. If you want to save $100 then the B-Tech is certainly a capable 50 Watt radio also. IMHO these are the only two models I would consider for high power performance.
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@boscorocks - I’ll assume you’re basing your actual SWR readings as found via an external meter, as even on the best internal SWR embedded facilities - internal ones are more of a guide (some being better than others) than critically accurate.
Quality of radio actually has little or no impact on antenna matches outside of where there’s an atu embedded in use, so since I doubt any Chinese mobile would have an auto atu, then the nominal terminating impedance of 50 ohms is unlikely to outside of the nominal range post PA final matching internally.
So if an external reading vs a dummy load of suitable wattage through an SWR/Reflector bridge is showing effectively a perfect match, then re-test with antenna instead of dummy load/sink and reverify your effective SWR within the channels/frequencies you actually use frequently as this is where your higher Duty Cycle load on the rig’s PA gets high, and subsequently at each end of the allocation channel/frequency wise range.
It’s not uncommon that you’ll find a slight skew where one extreme is high or low (around 1.5:1 being nominal high at both extremes given a good setup) when you test at extremes, it just tells you that the frequency the antenna was tuned against at installation or found to be OK at was not at the centre of the range.
But as long as you’re at or within 1.5:1 at extremes, leave well alone as you’ll be seeing better as you get to centre and I’ve yet to see a rig (even really high power+extreme linear pairing) suffer PA damage at that ‘high’.
It’s not uncommon that manufacturers claim a 1:5 or better match as nominal, they just happen to use the best figure and conveniently neglect to mention that’s reliable at the proper optimal antenna setup conditions and more probably are based on a derived figure based on the hypothetical isotropic radiator perfect match basis which even if such a beast existed, you’ll never get outside a hypothetical free-space lab-rat environment.
So the odds are you can trust your low SWR with low SWR at channel extremes if measured with suitable gear and radio quality isn’t really a factor here.
What is an indicator of problems is if you notice that your radios current consumption/demand goes abnormally high, as this points to potential mismatch and/or PA issues. Back in the days of analogue radios with analogue displays, it was a given that if lamps and indictators went very bright, shutdown as either a ■■■■ of a lot of excess current was being pulled or your PSU regulation was suspect or potentially both.
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We have both - one in each Jeep (his & hers). The removable/remotely-mountable faceplate on the KG-1000G makes it the radio worth getting, but the larger (more simple) screen and larger/easier to use buttons are also great.
The better circuitry and a squelch that actually works are just icing on the cake!
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So far, I love mine. It’s working great, and the range is vastly superior to the Micromobile that’s in my Jeep. And I’m picking up repeaters from distances that are further away than advertised.
My only problem, to the extent it is one, is that it always comes on when the truck is on. I.e., for some reason there’s no way to turn it off. If I hit off, the faceplate turns off but the radio does not.
I’m looking at replacing the Micromobile in my Jeep, but I do take the top off of it during the summer and I don’t’ want to wreck when I get rained on. Did you have to address that, and if so where did you mount the radio?
Sorry, but can’t recommend the KG-1000G. While I loved the radio while it was functioning, it died only 19 months after purchase from BuyTwoWayRadios.com. It transmits but does not receive. Went through a thorough troubleshooting procedure with BuyTwoWayRadios Tech Support, and he confirmed the radio is truly broken. But because it’s out of warranty, they won’t replace it, and there’s noplace I’ve found to send it for repair. So now I have a $380 brick.
While I don’t like the design of Midland radios as well, maybe that’s the way to go if you can get out-of-warranty service from them?
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Well, you have a receive only radio, not a brick. When I have to say no to a customer, I still feel for them, but I have to remember that the amount of profit on a transaction often has no real link to the price. Let’s assume a dealer on a transaction makes $40. That’s not an awful lot of money, so until a set period passes, the risk is on the seller, then, phew, it switches to the customer. That’s business. At maybe 13 months it’s rough on the customer who feels aggrieved, at 11 months it’s hard on the seller. The good thing is that faults are genuinely rare. Or perhaps I should say genuine faults are rare. I estimate over 75% of faults are actually user caused. Most accidentally, but when you find a chip physically separated from a pcb, you know they dropped it. What I’ve seen a couple of times are power output devices with very little heat paste applied in the factory, and if the customer is a rag chewer, I can see these overheating. Personally, I do feel for customers in these situations, but I guess it’s bad luck really. I can say hand on heart that I don’t sell any piece of kit I don’t trust. I have at present only six items I have a few of that are brand new in their boxes I wont sell. Two are handheld digitals, and the others pointed at hams. I have zero marine band products oddly. Marine gear is properly sealed against water, so maybe also offers better protection against condensation related faults? When you get a fault nowadays, it really is just bad luck!
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