In short, the reviewer (KN4AQ) finds many of the problems that people who are familiar with the unit have already discovered. I actually think he is pretty fair and, in fact, generous in some areas. For example, he suggests that the radio might be right for those who like the price and don't mind some of the "rough" spots. I'm sure this will generate any number of suggestions for better alternatives of both new and used rigs.
I'd like them to take a look at the KG-UV950P and report on those findings.
Showing posts with label KG-UV950P. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KG-UV950P. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: The Results
First, many thanks to BuyTwoWayRadios.com for loaning the KG-UV950P to me. They let me have it with no strings attached - they simply wanted someone to spin the dial on this radio and see what happens. To me, this means they want to be more than just a business that sells radios. Cheers to them!
Secondly, thanks to my father-in-law and to a new ham friend, Frank. Both generously helped me with the testing - lending their equipment and knowledge. I was just talking with Frank on a repeater about the 950 and he suggested bringing it over to his shack, so we could put it on his service monitor. I had never met Frank before, but I was happy to take him up on his offer.
If you haven't already read the review by Hans, start here and come back. He's got a very thorough post and I won't duplicate his pictures or much of his content.
And now the results...
Subjective
On the subjective side, I can simply say I like the radio. I got on the air more in the last several days than I had in a while. I got good reports on my TX audio. As is common with many of the Chinese radios and, as Hans report, the RX volume seems very loud with course increments. I'm not sure why this is so difficult to correct from a systemic perspective. Unlike Hans, I did not have a problem with distortion as I increased the volume. In general, I think the controls were easy to use and the speaker mic felt good in my hand.
Misc Notes
Hans found that 6/10 meters can only be accessed from VFO A and I can confirm that as well. I also discovered in playing around that certain menu options (48 FM Radio, 49 AUT AM, and 50 AM-SW) are only available from VFO A. There is a note about those menu options being on VFO A only in the manual, but I only saw it after I figured out the options were missing on VFO B. In general, I would say the manual was okay - far from the worst I've seen. Even without the manual, I managed to figure out several things intuitively - like exiting the FM radio. Someone asked about scanning speeds, which I found acceptable. You can see the channel scanning and frequency scanning videos and judge for yourself.
Testing
During the testing, we looked at output power, sensitivity, and any problems with spurious transmissions on the harmonics. I can echo the statement by Hans that there were no issues on the harmonics. From a sensitivity perspective, the radio performed very well - no issues to report here either. On to the power measurements now. I know Hans and others were curious to see what I found.
--- 28 MHz Low ---
Hans: 3.7
Brick: 4.7
--- 28 MHz High ---
Hans: 9
Brick: 10
--- 52 MHz Low ---
Hans: 2.8
Brick: 4.4
--- 52 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 32.2
Brick: 47
--- 145 MHz Low ---
Hans: 4.2
Brick: 4.0
--- 145 MHz Med (Low) ---
Hans: 9.5
Brick: 9.7
--- 145 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 42.7
Brick: 40
--- 435 MHz Low ---
Hans: 3.5
Brick: 4.2
--- 435 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 35.3
Brick: 35
As you can see our results are fairly close with a notable exception on 6M at high power. Like Hans, I didn't see much output even on the high power setting for 10M. That might be a showstopper from some - especially those enjoying the conditions on 10 right now.
Conclusion
Wouxun has come out of the gate with a solid quad band offering with the KG-UV950R. If we were only comparing it to the way the initial 920 was introduced, this would be a slam dunk for anyone. It appears that Wouxun did a much better job with this radio.
I didn't have the distortion problem, but Hans' concerns about the channel spacing (lacks 8.33 KHz spacing) and the power issues we both saw may keep some folks away. But given the low price and overall performance, this may be a great option for a lot of people. In fact, Frank, who helped me with the testing said that he was putting the 950 on his short-list, so he could get a quad band in his car.
Thanks again to BuyTwoWayRadios.com, my F-I-L, and Frank!
Secondly, thanks to my father-in-law and to a new ham friend, Frank. Both generously helped me with the testing - lending their equipment and knowledge. I was just talking with Frank on a repeater about the 950 and he suggested bringing it over to his shack, so we could put it on his service monitor. I had never met Frank before, but I was happy to take him up on his offer.
If you haven't already read the review by Hans, start here and come back. He's got a very thorough post and I won't duplicate his pictures or much of his content.
And now the results...
Subjective
On the subjective side, I can simply say I like the radio. I got on the air more in the last several days than I had in a while. I got good reports on my TX audio. As is common with many of the Chinese radios and, as Hans report, the RX volume seems very loud with course increments. I'm not sure why this is so difficult to correct from a systemic perspective. Unlike Hans, I did not have a problem with distortion as I increased the volume. In general, I think the controls were easy to use and the speaker mic felt good in my hand.
Misc Notes
Hans found that 6/10 meters can only be accessed from VFO A and I can confirm that as well. I also discovered in playing around that certain menu options (48 FM Radio, 49 AUT AM, and 50 AM-SW) are only available from VFO A. There is a note about those menu options being on VFO A only in the manual, but I only saw it after I figured out the options were missing on VFO B. In general, I would say the manual was okay - far from the worst I've seen. Even without the manual, I managed to figure out several things intuitively - like exiting the FM radio. Someone asked about scanning speeds, which I found acceptable. You can see the channel scanning and frequency scanning videos and judge for yourself.
Testing
During the testing, we looked at output power, sensitivity, and any problems with spurious transmissions on the harmonics. I can echo the statement by Hans that there were no issues on the harmonics. From a sensitivity perspective, the radio performed very well - no issues to report here either. On to the power measurements now. I know Hans and others were curious to see what I found.
--- 28 MHz Low ---
Hans: 3.7
Brick: 4.7
--- 28 MHz High ---
Hans: 9
Brick: 10
--- 52 MHz Low ---
Hans: 2.8
Brick: 4.4
--- 52 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 32.2
Brick: 47
--- 145 MHz Low ---
Hans: 4.2
Brick: 4.0
--- 145 MHz Med (Low) ---
Hans: 9.5
Brick: 9.7
--- 145 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 42.7
Brick: 40
--- 435 MHz Low ---
Hans: 3.5
Brick: 4.2
--- 435 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 35.3
Brick: 35
As you can see our results are fairly close with a notable exception on 6M at high power. Like Hans, I didn't see much output even on the high power setting for 10M. That might be a showstopper from some - especially those enjoying the conditions on 10 right now.
Conclusion
Wouxun has come out of the gate with a solid quad band offering with the KG-UV950R. If we were only comparing it to the way the initial 920 was introduced, this would be a slam dunk for anyone. It appears that Wouxun did a much better job with this radio.
I didn't have the distortion problem, but Hans' concerns about the channel spacing (lacks 8.33 KHz spacing) and the power issues we both saw may keep some folks away. But given the low price and overall performance, this may be a great option for a lot of people. In fact, Frank, who helped me with the testing said that he was putting the 950 on his short-list, so he could get a quad band in his car.
Thanks again to BuyTwoWayRadios.com, my F-I-L, and Frank!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Programming
Here I add a repeater into a memory channel. There really isn't much to it.
Updated: Just adding a note to thank BuyTwoWayRadios for loaning me this radio with absolutely no restrictions or demands on what I do with it or what I write about it. First class!
Updated: Just adding a note to thank BuyTwoWayRadios for loaning me this radio with absolutely no restrictions or demands on what I do with it or what I write about it. First class!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Channel Scanning
Updated: Just adding a note to thank BuyTwoWayRadios for loaning me this radio with absolutely no restrictions or demands on what I do with it or what I write about it. First class!
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Frequency Scanning
Updated: Just adding a note to thank BuyTwoWayRadios for loaning me this radio with absolutely no restrictions or demands on what I do with it or what I write about it. First class!
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Pics and QSO
I got the KV-UV950P settled in the shack and took a couple of pics while I was talking on some of the local 2 M repeaters. Audio reports were good. Thanks again to BuyTwoWayRadios.com for letting play with the 950 with absolutely no strings or pressure. More to come...
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Time to Play
Thanks to the kind folks at BuyTwoWayRadios.com, I have a KG-UV950P to play with for a few days. I don't have a sophisticated bench to do a lot of in depth analysis, but put your requests and questions in the comments if you want me to look at something specifically.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Hans on Review
Hans reviews the KG-UV950P. Lots of words and pictures - even a graph. I've not read it yet as I just saw it was I was heading out the door before school kicks my daughter to the curb!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: US Distributor
Wouxun says that CheapHam.com will be the US distributor for the KG-UV950P. I reached out to CheapHam and they responded very quickly to my request for information about the timing and cost with the following:
"We just started evaluation. No data as of yet.
Very limited quantities currently available, we expect production to pick up towards the end of the year.
We are looking at a selling price in the low $300s probably $319 to $329 range."
Friday, September 20, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Update
Hans is closer to getting his hands on the KG-UV950P. He's such a tease with his talk of price rumors and features.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Wouxun KG-UV950P: Quad Band Mobile
I got an e-mail from Wouxun this morning.
"Latest mobile radio model:KG-UV950P with QUAD bands:
RX:
28.000-29.795MHZ
50.000-54.995MHZ
108.000-180.995MHZ (AM/FM)
320-480.995MHZ
65.000-108.000MHZ
TX:
28.000-29.795MHZ
50.000-54.995MHZ
136.000-174.995MHZ
400.000-470.995MHZ
2. Same or different band(s) simultaneous reception: UU, VV, UV or VU
3. Remote control setting
4. Four levels of output power:
VHF 50W/20W/10W/5W
UHF 40W/20W/10W/5W
5. 8 Groups scrambler plus 2 groups customized scrambler"
They also mention a new HT.
"Branded New Designed Handheld(with undetermined model number)：
1.Dual band, dual standby, simultaneous reception: UU, VV, UV or VU.
2. Full duplex cross-band
3.Customized CTCSS; DCS encoding/decoding(Including 105 groups standard DCS and 50 groups normal CTCSS)"
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