Episode 180 of The Two Way Radio Show Podcast is all about the new Wouxun Q10H. In this episode we announce a new quad band amateur two way radio from Wouxun with GPS capability and review its features.
Comments and feedback are welcome and could get you some swag if they are read on the show!
TWRS-180 - The Wouxun KG-Q10H Handheld Quad Band Amateur Radio
Show Notes:
TWRS-180 - The Wouxun KG-Q10H Handheld Quad Band Amateur Radio (buytwowayradios.com)
Good podcast, again guys. You mentioned Q series radios when you were talking about the GPS. What other Q series radios are there? I know this is a ham radio but why no channel wizard type thing? Looks like a nice radio. I have mumble, mumble number of Wouxun radios from yall and they are all great radios. I have several other big name brand ham radios that don’t get used much anymore because if them.
Sean
This radio is frustrating the heck out of me - I love it, but I can’t seem to figure out how it works. For instance, I turrn it on, and I see a split screen, with the top displaying CH-001 2m Calling, and the bottom displaying CH-002 70c Calling. Top is the active half, and turning the lower knob switches between CH-001, 002 70c Calling, 003 220 Calling and 004 6m Calling.
Now I click the Area button, activating the lower screen, CH-002 70c Calling, and I can turn the knob backward to CH-001, but going forward, it goes from CH-002 to CH-010.
Furthermore, I read where you can name the channels, hence (I guess) the title 2m Calling represents a 2m frequency. But if I change to Frequency mode, the freq that pops up is NOT a 2m freq (this time it happens to be 224.3875 which is a 1.25m freq.) If I push the Mode button again, this time the title isn’t 2m Calling, but CH-001, and now when I push the Mode button, it displays 146.520, which I think is the 2m calling freq in that slot.
So how do I display the actual freq. that lives in CH-001, 002, 003 and 004?
I’d love to try programming this radio, but I can’t even figure out how to save a freq. to a slot. If I go to Freq. Mode and type in one of my local repeaters, add the offset and PL tones, I can’t find any way to save it to one of the empties. Since the Channels jump from 4 to 10, I think I’ve got at least 6 slots to use without overwriting anything. But until CHIRP comes up with a Q10H model, I can’t see any real way to program it.
Edit: So I found the software. Hopefully, it will work with my current cable, which DOES fit the radio. From what I can see, the radio isn’t really supposed to be programmed from the front panel. Oh, well…
Hi, welcome to the forum!
I can understand why you may be confused with the default programming from the radio when first turning it on. As a quad band radio, there is more going on than a typical dual band model. I’ll clarify each item.
For instance, I turrn it on, and I see a split screen, with the top displaying CH-001 2m Calling, and the bottom displaying CH-002 70c Calling. Top is the active half, and turning the lower knob switches between CH-001, 002 70c Calling, 003 220 Calling and 004 6m Calling.
As a ham radio, the KG-Q10H is primarily open for programming the channels. However, some hams who are new to amateur radio are not necessarily familiar with the frequencies available to them on those bands. To get them started, the first four channels of the KG-Q10H are pre-programmed with the national simplex calling frequency for each band. The “2m Calling” and “70c Calling” are the channel names for the first two channels, with 146.52000 being the national simplex calling frequency on the 2m band and 446.00000 being the national simplex calling frequency on the 70cm band. Channel 3 is 223.50000 for 220 Calling and channel 4 is 52.52500 for 6m calling.
Now I click the Area button, activating the lower screen, CH-002 70c Calling, and I can turn the knob backward to CH-001, but going forward, it goes from CH-002 to CH-010.
There is a 5 channel gap between the national simplex calling frequencies and the next set of pre-programmed frequencies, which is a set of popular simplex voice frequencies on 2 meters. There is another gap between channels to the next set of pre-programmed simplex channels on 70cm. Another gap and channels 70-74 are pre-programmed for popular 220 simplex channels, and another gap and channel 80 picks up with the 6m simplex channels. The gaps are there to separate the frequencies on each band. While it doesn’t seem to make sense when turning on the radio for the first time, when opening the Wouxun Q10H programming software, on a visual inspection of the Channell Information it starts to make sense.
Again, this is intended to make things easier when trying to figure out the frequencies allowed for voice communications on those bands. Since these channels can be cloned to new channels for customization, it nearly eliminates the need to consult an amateur band chart when programming them. The key here is to open the Wouxun programming software to view the layout.
Furthermore, I read where you can name the channels, hence (I guess) the title 2m Calling represents a 2m frequency. But if I change to Frequency mode, the freq that pops up is NOT a 2m freq (this time it happens to be 224.3875 which is a 1.25m freq.) If I push the Mode button again, this time the title isn’t 2m Calling, but CH-001, and now when I push the Mode button, it displays 146.520, which I think is the 2m calling freq in that slot.
The reason for the confusion between the channel and frequency modes is likely because there are 3 channel modes and a frequency mode. Each time you long press the TDR|MODE key, it toggles Channel-Name, Channel-Number, Channel-Freq (the actual frequency assigned to that channel), and Frequency Mode (the mode that is open to type in any frequency and create a new channel). They are explained in the WORK MODE menu option on page 66 of the KG-Q10H manual:
[25: WORK-MODE] Work Mode
Function: Changes the working mode of the radio. This function can be assigned to the
[PF1], [PF2] or [TOP] programmable keys on the radio.
66
Area Menu Functions
Options: CH-NAME/CH-NUMBER/CH-FREQ/VFO (FREQ)
Default: CH-NAME
CH-NAME: Channel Mode. Displays the channel name (Example: SPLX:01)
CH-FREQ: Channel Mode. Displays the channel frequency (Example: 146.47500)
CH-NUM: Channel Mode. Displays the channel number (Example: CH-001)
VFO (FREQ): Frequency Mode. Allows directly tuning any frequency in the wide
receive range of the KG-Q10H. The radio transmits on amateur frequencies
only.
It’s easy to confuse the CH-FREQ channel mode for frequency mode, as it displays the frequency, but that’s normal on any radio with the multi-mode feature (it confuses me from time to time if I’m not paying attention to the mode I’m in).
So how do I display the actual freq. that lives in CH-001, 002, 003 and 004?
Toggle to CH-FREQ mode.
To follow up on your edit, actually, the radio is specifically designed to be field programmed from the front panel, and a lot of forethought went into making it as easy as possible to do so without the use of a PC and a cable. The menu items are organized in such a way to keep related functions grouped as closely together as possible, and while it does not have the Channel Wizard that was first introduced in the Wouxun KG-935G Plus GMRS radio, the menus and feature options were set up to approximate such ease of programming as much as possible.
Here’s the thing about full featured radios that I think is not often considered. The more functions that hams request to go into the radios, the more complicated these devices get. It’s just the nature of anything. Put more stuff in something, and it becomes more advanced and requires more training or knowledge to operate it. This is why the Q10H manual is as thick as it is. Compare it to the manual of something like a KG-805M MURS radio, which only supports 5 frequencies, cannot communicate with repeaters and doesn’t have near the functionality that the Q10H has, and it’s easy to see why an advanced radio like this requires more than just basic programming to operate it.