Harsh

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Anytone AT3318UV-E: Mini-review

A mini-review from Mike on the Anytone AT3318UV (A,B,C,D &E) Yahoo Group:

"I talked a friend into buying two of these tri-band handhelds because of the advertised FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum) feature, which turned out to be more of a random frequency trunking feature and probably a misunderstanding of the FHSS term by the Chinese manufacturer.

The radios were purchased from the exclusive US importer "Import Communications", who notified all buyers about the mistake with the FHSS option and offered a refund if so desired. 

So here I sat with my friends two otherwise good looking and great sounding 2m, 220MHZ and 440MHz plus part 90 certified handhelds as he mulled over keeping or returning the radios. After reading up on the manual, perusing the extensive programming software and living with these handhelds for a week I decided I can't live without it and and purchased one from my buddy who originally bought the pair.

These radios cover 136 to 174, 220 to 225 and 400 to 520MHz transmit and receive plus .52 to 30MHz AM HF (10KHz steps), 64 to 108MHz WBFM, 118 to 136MHz AM and 225 to about 260MHz FM receive only. The radio works surprisingly well in the AM broadcast and HF SW bands with an appropriate antenna and I did not detect any overload problems feeding it with a large G5RV type HF antenna.

The radios have a very extensive but fairly easy to navigate menu system unlike any Baofeng or Wouxun I have used and I love the various banks I can assign to memory channels to scan only specific banks if I want or I can scan the entire memory. There is also a quick talk around feature for your programmed repeater frequencies and all sorts of other nifty features that I don't see on other Chinese brands.

When using the AM/FM broadcast or SW feature, if you receive a call on whatever two way frequency is being monitored the broadcast band will temporarily mute during the call then pop back in about 5 seconds later. You can listen to music or local news and not miss a radio call. 

The receiver performance is also much better than Baofeng and Wouxun radios I've tested. I live in a very RF rich environment and was recently comparing a Baofeng UV-5R, a Wouxun UV8 plus a Yaesu VX-8R and FT-60 at a local hilltop about a half mile from a major repeater site with lots of RFI.

While listening to some simplex activity on 146.52 I noticed both Yaesu radios were hearing lots of things the Baofeng was not. Some of the signals that were almost full quieting on both Yaesu radios just did not exist on the Baofeng UV-5R. I was also playing with the cross band repeat on the new Wouxun KG-UV8D at the same location and noticed it was not repeating things that I could hear clearly on the input frequency on the Yaesu radios. 

I repeated the same tests with the new Anytone AT-3318UV-E and its on par with the Yaesu radios and could hear every weak signal the Yaesu's could in the heavy RF environment. The Anytone also cross band repeated weak signals very well under the same conditions.

I'm not knocking the inexpensive Baofeng radios, for the price they great little radios and they measure very sensitive on a service monitor. But put them in a busy RF environment and their shortcomings will show up. The Wouxun KG-UV8D is also a really nice radio and quite a leap from the first Wouxuns I played with. But the AT-3318UV-E performance is is better and you get 220MHz tx/rx and a lot more features for just a little more money.

Playing with the AT-3318UV-E menus its also apparent that Anytone engineers are familiar with how American commercial and amateur users interface with two way radio equipment. Other Chinese brands have odd and useless features and will not do many things that radio users are demanding. 

The transmit and receive audio is extremely good and better than most handhelds I own including many Motorola, Yaesu, Icom and the like. The receive audio is almost Hi-Fi and people who I know personally come out of the speaker sounding much more like themselves than any other handheld radio I have used in recent times. I also gets great unsolicited transmit audio reports.

The 3318UV-E is also more compact than a Wouxun KG-UV3 type or KG-UV8D, which I had just purchased and sold after playing with the Anytone. So far battery life is very good from the stock 1800mah pack and I can't say enough good things about this very modestly priced handheld, its just a winner all around, despite the misunderstood FHSS feature.

I think the closest competitor to the AT-3318UV-E model is probably the Kenwood TF6a, which runs about $190 more and is not FCC Part 90 compliant, although its HF receive is SSB capable. The TH6a is also a design from 10+ years ago.

So there is my story about a pair of radios purchased for a specific feature and when that feature did not pan out the radios turned out to be so good I couldn't send them back.

Mike"

Baofeng CT-3

Another day, another dollar, another radio... Baofeng CT-3:

GENERAL

Frequency Range:	136-174 / 400-520MHz
Memory channels:	Up to 128 channels
Frequency stability:	2.5ppm
Frequency step:	2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/20/25kHz
Antenna impedance:	50Ω
Operating temperature:	-20°C to +60°C
Supply voltage:	Rechargeable Lithium-lon mAh 7.4V/1800
Consumption in standby:	380mA
Consumption in transmission	≤104A
Mode of operation:	Simplex or semi-duplex.
Duty cycle:	03/03/54 min. (RX/TX/Standby).
Dimensions:	58mm x 110mm x 32mm
Weight:	130g (approximate)

TRANSMITTER

RF power	5W/1W
Type of modulation	FM
Emission class	16KΦF3E/11KΦF3E (W/N)
Maximum deviation	≤±5 / ≤±2.5kHz (W/N)
Spurious emissions	＜-60dB

Connect Systems CS7000: Update

I've been following the development of the CS7000 (and the mobile CS8000), but not published much about it. Jerry sent this update a while back to the CS7000 Yahoo Group:

"I got some good new and bad news about the project. Being good or bad depends upon your perspective.

The good news is I will be able to put in full DMR capability fairly rapidly. The bad news is I had to take out the WiFi Capability in this version of the radio.

After speaking to some experts in the field of Software Defined Radios, it was determined that my existing hardware design had a small chance of ever doing DMR. The reason had to do with the Error correcting code of DMR verses the other formats. DMR uses a technology called "Turbo" while all the other formats use a technology called "Convolution". If I wanted to do DMR as a software defined radio I would either need a fast DSP processor or have a DMR baseband chip like what is used in the CS700.

The best solution to have a combination DMR and D-STAR radio was to add the DMR baseband chip like was used in the CS700 and change the hardware design so it looks very very close the existing CS700. While this approach is the more expensive approach, it will allow me to incorporate DMR into the CS700 very rapidly. Possibly even before the D-STAR. 

Because I had to add a fairly substantial size chip along with the AMBE 3000R, there was no more room for the WiFi module. Possibly in a future version of the CS7000 I will put back the WiFi module.

The hardware has now been redesigned and I submitted it to the manufacturer for review to make sure he can build it. The software is progressing smoothly although there is substantial work to take into account the new hardware design.

I will be able to put in the WiFi in future versions by a careful mechanical design of the electronics. Probably use Hybrid circuitry to reduce the size. I might at that time also incorporate Blue Tooth and GPS along with the WiFi if I can get the parts I need.

May also be able to do a multi band design. For now I am concentrating on getting the first version of the CS7000 finished with both D-STAR and DMR capability.

Jerry Wanger KK6LFS"

Routers

As is often the case, life seems to work in themes... since I've talking about the CWNP, I see a couple of articles about routers.

The first is a primer for buying a new router for your home.

[[[ UPDATE: Check out this reddit thread about the anonabox ]]]

Second is anonabox : a Tor hardware router:

"The anonabox easily encrypts Internet usage with a simple device that secures all web traffic, not just the traffic coming from one program. No software to download or configure, no login credentials, no registration, just plug it in and your network connection is encrypted. The anonabox also allows people to use programs over Tor that never supported it before or required complicated configuration like Skype, Safari and Filezilla, to name just a few. Also the default firewall configuration protects your computer or network from outside access."

Topsung TS-689: 10W, Triband

I waited a few days to do my regurgitating of Hans' discovery of the Topsung TS-689. I thought I might see what others thought as his posts usually get people chiming in if they have any experience with a particular radio. In this case, no one seems to have the 10 watt, tri-band handheld transceiver. I couldn't even find a different picture of the radio.

Description:Tri-band: 136-174MHz / 350-400MHz / 400-470MHz• Tri-band, dual display and stand-by• DTMF encode and decode• ANI function• 2 tone encode and decode functions• 1750Hz tone• CTCSS / DCS• 200 memory channels• FM radio• Torch light function• Reverse function• HI/MI/LO power selective, max.: 10W• Scrambler function

While 10W and a tri-bander might interest some, I agree that the extra 5W isn't worth much and there are better choices than 350 – 400 MHz.

Portable SDR

PortableSDR:

"The PSDR is a completely stand-alone (no computer needed), compact, Portable Software Defined Transceiver (hence the name, sorta). Originally designed for backpacking use by Ham Radio operators. It includes complete coverage up to about 30Mhz (plus 144Mhz), it has a 168Mhz ARM processor, color display, and an innovative interface. "

Via reddit

Standards

Not a joke! RT @rjek: Today is World Standards Day. Except in the US, which celebrates it on 23rd. http://t.co/ePc5KIvpIa
— Thomas Robitaille (@astrofrog) October 14, 2014

Leixen VV-898: Hans Reviews

Hans reviews the Leixen VV-898:

"The receiver is sensitive, very sensitive. With an average sensitivity of -127dBm the Leixen is amongst the most sensitive radios around. Sensitivity isn’t everything though; the capability to separate wanted signals from unwanted signals is much more important. 

That proved to be something the Leixen VV-898 can’t do at all. Even on a relatively deaf antenna, a Diamond discone, I heard mixer products and out-of-band signals all over VHF and UHF."

CWNP

I'm looking into the Certified Wireless Network Professional program for my next cert. CWNP is vendor agnostic. I've never formally done any training or studying on the wireless side, but after reading a couple of chapters, I'm excited about the (no surprise) overlap with ham radio topics. I spotted a ham calling "CQ" in the CWNP forum.