Wouxun KG-UV8D: Unboxing

BuyTwoWayRadios.com has the KG-UV8D and does an unboxing video for our consumption.

Wouxun KG-UV8D: Demo Units

BuyTwoWayRadio reports that the Wouxun KG-UV8D demo units have landed. A few notes...

- confirmed 999 memory channels
- has a real color LCD
- includes a flashlight
- SMA female antenna connector
- bonus stopwatch function
- two multi-function keys on the side

Baofeng Tech Bluetooth Adapter

You need your own Bluetooth headset, but if you want to go wireless, you can try the Baofeng Tech Bluetooth Adapter for your Baofeng, Wouxun, or Kenwood radios for $85.

Via Hans

Wouxun KG-UV8D: Manual

BuyTwoWayRadios posted the manual for the Wouxun KG-UV8D on their site. Look under "Resources" for the download link.

Apologies, but I've not looked at it yet. If you spot anything interesting in the manual, please drop me an e-mail or post a comment below.

Wouxun KG-UV920P-A: Review in April QST

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.

Wouxun KG-UV8D: Flyer

BuyTwoWayRadios.com has a new post about the KG-UV8D confirming the $139.99 price, displaying a flyer/mini-spec sheet, along with this update about the versions:

"While a 220 MHz version of this radio will eventually be available, it will not be available at launch. The 2m/70cm version is the only one that will be available at launch."

Wouxun KG-UV8D: Pricing

The Wouxun KG-UV8D will be available soon and BuyTwoWayRadios.com will be taking pre-orders on Tuesday. They will be selling them for $139.99. Woot!

Wouxun KG-UV8D

BuyTwoWayRadios has a post about the Wouxun KG-UV8D:

"Billed as an upgrade version of the popular KG-UV6D, the new KG-UV8D will have some significant feature additions and improvements. One of the most exciting new features of this transceiver is duplex cross-band repeat operation, a standard feature on Wouxon's popular base/mobile radios (the KG-UV920P-A and KG-UV950P), but is a first on their handheld models. According to Wouxon, the KG-UV8D will also work in duplex, providing the ability to transmit on one band and receive on another simultaneously. 

One feature that really stands out is the display. The KG-UV8D will sport a large, color LCD display that is more than double the size of its predecessor. The screen alone looks impressive, encompassing nearly half the front face of this handheld."

They say it should arrive in mid April.

Wouxun

Ed shares some more of his thoughts and details of his experience working with Wouxun - including some e-mail exchanges. Based on what he reports, I don't blame him for wanting to move on. Forgetting for a moment the issue of a memory loss defect (no pun intended), it sounds like the business relationship steadily grew worse for multiple reasons. I'm curious if all the other sellers were required to handle warranty problems the same way. Also, I don't really understand the pricing policy strategy.

Have a read and I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Wouxun: Main Trading Company Comments

MTC shared this message and talked about Ed's comments:

"Any Chinese products that you may see on our site are fully backed by us with a great warranty. We do not sell everything that comes down the pike. We do sell products that we have tested, beta tested with some of our great customers and put them on the market only when we feel that we can stand behind them. We have heard horror stories about folks buying some imported products with no real warranty or return policy from foreign websites pretending to be in the states or even from some popular U.S. auction sites. Some of these customers were shipped radios with foreign voltage chargers, knock offs, copies, DOA units and worse. When they found out they had to pay more than the unit cost to send it to China for warranty or deal with some crazy company here in the states working out of their extra bedroom with no real radio knowledge , the were sorely disappointed."

They focus on the warranty and service they provide, but, other than a general comment about testing and being selective, they don't really address the issue that Ed claims exists.

Wouxun Defects: The Other Side

After all the posts about Ed's divorce, Hans had a couple of Wouxun sellers comment on his site.

UK:

"We have sold THOUSANDS of their entire range and bar a very very low percentage of failures, have not encountered the problem he reports."

Netherlands:

"While he sold at least 500 dual-band Wouxun models, he only ran into the problem once."

So is Ed unlucky? Did he get bad lots? Is he wrong? I've worked with the Chinese enough to be aware of some of the cultural differences that can create problems. I've had problems with our plants in Mexico and Italy, too. It's just easier when everyone thinks (mostly) the same way. But ignoring some of the communication and ordering problems, the question remains: is there a big quality problem with Wouxun radios? The data is not very clear. I took what Ed posted at face value. We've all seen quality problems with the Chinese radios, so it was all to easy to just run with his comments.

I'm going to do some more analysis and get back to you.

Impact and Perception

I posted about the Wouxun problem.
Hans posted about the Wouxun problem.
Matt posted about the Wouxun problem.
David posted about the Wouxun problem.
It is making the rounds on the Yahoo Group.
It is making the rounds on the forums like eHam.net, QRZ, and AR-15, CalGuns.net.
[ EDIT TO ADD: ] The QRPer posted about the Wouxun problem.


That's in less than 24 hours. I know we don't represent a huge part of the total internet, but for the Chinese radios, we are what I like to call a non-trivial number. Wouxun had a huge lead on the other manufacturers. The KG-UV920R was a disappointment. Losing the guy that bought these radios to the US market is another step back. Culture issue? Poor management? Inability to manufacture? With alternatives like Baofeng, AnyTone, and a multitude of others, more problems or perceived problems* will make them go the way of AOL.

* Especially considering the price increases as they became more popular. My first Wouxun was less than $110.

Wouxun Defects

In addition to announcing the AT-3318UV-A and the end of his relationship with Wouxun, Ed takes some parting shots about the quality of the Wouxun radios, the warranties, and services:

- "flop" of a dual band mobile
- ordering difficulties
- lack of a real warranty, only repairs
- memory loss problem on all dual band radios

The last one has the most direct impact to owners. According to Ed, all dual bands have a chip that may go bad causing the radio to revert to Chinese, display the channel numbers, and sometimes erase the programmed channels. Reprogramming the radio might fix it - or only until the power is cycled again.

AnyTone AT-3318UV-A

I had not seen much from Ed at Import Communications. Now I know why. He is ending his relationship with Wouxun. He is selling off his current inventory of the Wouxun KG-UV6D for $109.95 (inc free AA Pack).

And for his next big announcement, he is introducing a line of AnyTone radios - the AT-3318UV. (Astute readers will recall that Buddy asked me what I knew about this radio in July. My answer was not much.) I suspect these will become more popular just because of the visibility that Ed will bring to it.

First off is the AT-3318UV-A for $99.95:

• 6 Watts VHF
• 5 Watts UHF
• 136-174 MHz & 420-520 MHz & FM Broadcast
• Wide Band & Narrow Band
• 2.5 kHz tuning step for splinter frequencies
• 5/Tone encode and decode
• 199 Channels with Alpha Tags
• Squelch level adjustable for each channel
• Squelch tail elimination
• CTCSS that really works - when scanning channels, radio will stop ONLY when CTCSS tone is present
• VFO Scanning - frequency limits can be set for both VHF & UHF
• Channel Scanning - scanned channels can be ADDED or REMOVED via the keypad
• Frequency Reverse button - exchanges TX & RX frequencies
• Talk Around button - sets TX frequency to repeater's output frequency
• Programmable by computer
• EASY to manually program
• Keypad totally lockable to meet FCC Part 90 requirements

There is a Yahoo Group setup for the AT-3318UV.

I'll post more as I learn more.

6-in-1 Programming Cable

I love things like this 6-in-1 cable for programming various radios. Of course, with the problems people have with counterfeit chips, poorly fitting connections, COM port confusion, etc. maybe it isn't the best idea to introduce another variable.

Discovered here.

Wouxun SPS30 III Switching Power Supply

For those of you who want to have 100% Wouxun shack, you can get a step closer. The Wouxun SPS30 III Switching Power Supply is $75 from BuyTwoWayRadios.com

Specs:
- Input voltage: 110V/220V AC
- Output voltage: 13.8V DC - adjustable between 9.0 and 15.0 V
- Output voltage regulation: less than 2%
- Protection: short-circuit - Automatic current limiting within 30A
- Output current: 30A(max) 20A(continuous)
- Ripple: less than 80mVp-p at rated load
- Fuse: 220V:5A, 110V:8A
- Meter: single volt/current meter - backlit

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!

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!

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!