Just purchased the TYT TH-7800. Very Pleased with the experience. The radio arrived at my door just 2 days after purchased! I purchased this radio for the
cross band repeater function. Important considerations for this function is as follows… can it be controlled remotely from another radio? The answer is no. will the radio automatically Self Identify? The answer is no. Is the radio capable of lock band repeat? The answer is no.
Why are these capabilities important? The FCC requires that a radio in repeater operation be capable of being shut-down in case of malfunction or misuse. Without remote control someone would have to be present at the control point to perform this operation. I do not a have a solution for this yet without purchasing additional equipment. If anyone knows of solution without purchasing additional equipment I would like to hear it.
The FCC requires a station to Identify every 10 minutes. When you access the repeater with your remote radio and the cross band repeater re-transmits that transmission on the opposite band your 10 minute voice Identification fulfills that requirement. However when the cross band repeater is used by other hams, not yourself the repeater is not properly identified. My solution to this is to pick a very obscure frequency that is not in use by another station and assign a ctcss or dtcs code to open the squelch of the cross band repeaters input frequency.
Lock band repeater function allows just one way transmission of the received signal. It retransmits what it hears on the receive frequency on the transmit frequency but will not retransmit what it hears on the transmit frequency. If you can hear a repeater but cannot access it with your hand held radio you can use this function to reduce power consumption of the cross band repeater. This function also eliminates the need to wait for the repeater you are accessing to drop its carrier before you can transmit again. With TYT TH-780 you can get around this by using a dual band hand held and transmitting on the cross band repeaters receive frequency then have The TYT Th-7800 retransmit on the local repeaters input frequency while listening on the local repeater’s output frequency with your hand held.
Other than the things already mentioned the TYT Th-7800 is great radio. I checked the power levels and they are exactly as advertised. The menu system is easy to access and use. The manual was well written and easy to understand. After a weeks use I have received good reports on the local repeaters. I have used it in simplex with my son and found the audio to be reasonably good. With all that and having the radio in my hands in only 2 days I am very pleased with the radio and the purchasing experience. I have already recommended Two Way Radios and the TYT TH-7800 to several new hams.