Bought one on a whim. Mine's a 898S. It's supposed to be a tri-power, 5/10/25 watt. I don't think much of the programming functions but it seems to work OK. Coupled with a nice dual band mobile antenna I reach the local repeater, 17 miles away in the 5 watt mode just fine.
I thought the same thing but from the few reviews I read about them people say receive is fine. If anything they complain about transmit audio due to the mic. I read that can be remedied somewhat by enlarging the hole for the mic element.
Hello, Mike! Is the device durable? I need a pair for when I travel with my brother but I live in Brazil so I need a device that has good heat dissipation. Btw, we don't talk all the time and don't need, most of the time, the 25W - 10W will do enough since we use it only in places without cell coverage. Thanks!
I have one of these I use as a aprs digipeater. It does very well, actually better than either my Kenwood or yaesu 2 meter rigs. It's only 25 watts max transmitter but that receiver is out of this world. 👍 Looking for another one for old packet digipeater on 2 meters. I run the aprs on its own power (solar panels and AGM batteries, so when power goes down the aprs stays working. Will do same with the packet digipeater. 73 thanks Mike really good video. 73 Earnest K5EWM.
I've been checking these little radios out..for a starter radio in that hobby ..either this one vv898 or the btech.mini 25x2 radio... btech has more mhz... what antenna would be best for the VV898S ? MIKE FROM MINNESOTA
Hi Mike, what do you think about my chinese rtx could have, bj318, all right in vhf instead in uhf it receives, when it transmits there is current absorption but rf does not come out.. Thanks a lot
Those little china-men shoveling electrons joke made me choke on my diet coke....! Really good one Mike! I'm still laughing while cleaning up the mess.
Ahhhh, Kay Elemetrics...great step attenuators, have had mine for years. I'm guessing that angled piece of aluminum on the left hand side of the PCB is the PA heat sink?
Yes its the heat sink. Has a square of silicon heat transfer material under it. It looks like it also is designed to transfer heat through the board to the external heat sink.
You can't get away from the Chinese influence in any device nowadays! When you say you won't buy Chinese you had better check again, you likely already have!
I am not an expert, but there is usually a large diode, not surface mount, or a big surface mount, DIODE to protect the positive bus in this event and make a permanent skunk spray of fried electronics. This safety feature is not required, and can be why the radio performs so well for the price, and that diode could mean a tiny % of lost profit. By replacing it with another silicon diode, or an led, or more sketch, a jumper, you can see if it is fried, or franky stein radio lives, but if you cannot find the smoked diode, and find a fried transistor, i.c. chip, or electrolytic capacitor...it is a lesson on "fuses", homie.
If it was working when it left the factory and wasn't working when the customer got it then it must have been tampered with where it come into the country would I be right?
DAVID GREGORY KERR I would imagine that it either had a problem originally and it was just poor quality control or it got bumped or jostled and the little piece of solder moved to the wrong spot and shorted it. Unlikely as it may be... It could have gotten very hot and the solder melted and flowed to a short.
What is that receiver sensitivity comparable to? I have seen a lot of your AM and SSB tests down to -133dBm at 12 SINAD but I don't remember any FM tests.
Sinad is the comparison. It is a measurement of signal to noise and distortion. It is normally understood in receivers that 12db Sinad is the minimum required for clear speach intelligibility.
As a very rough guide, by ear, the 12db sinad point is approximately the point where, as you wind the signal down and the 'smooth noise' is coming up, it's where the 'rough noise' just starts.
I was more interested in how much you would expect to have to pay for that level of sensitivity? Say, if someone asked you how much would I need to spend to get that level of performance? All designs are a series of compromises, so what are the negative aspects of the receiver?
+James Munn I expect the receiver response curve, because you won't get a decent crystal filter in a $60 radio. You'll probably find the adjacent channel selectivity is quite poor.
And so sensitive is just why the damn things receiver blocks on the HAMbands when there is a (small) signal in the proximity of the receiving frequency !! Not funny, can't be used in the city with all kinds of signals !
A buddy of mine has this radio. He has a huge problem with programming it. When he tries to program it with Chirp it will only program every other channel. Has anyone else had this issue?
YES !!! My new (?) VV-898S ver. 1.08 went crazy when I tried to program it with Chirp. I guess there's a work-around for it. Leixen factory software is less risky.
I have the same radio with a different name on it the Chinese like to make multiple clones of the same radio and then advertising has different bran or Name. An order into tricking people to buying it. But seriously quit with the Chinese radio jokes not everyone has $1,500 to spend on Motorola or other ham radio we buy the Chinese radio what are the types of radio because it is is in our budget. Not everyone can afford a $2,000 RADIO... 📻
My new Icom 7100 says made in Japan on the box,opened it to do the mars/cap and it says made in China on the inside.My new ft 857D is the same..everything is made in China now :-/
dougsnova1 makes me sad hearing that. but also wonder if that 7100 isn't a knockoff. (China is real good at that) but yet the big manufactures wonder why I laugh at them when they try and point me to their newest wizbang and I tell them im not interested in made in china junk. ill keep my older stuff
