Purchase the Quansheng UV-K5 here from Amazon 👉 geni.us/7jgV (Affiliate) UNLOCK FULL TX 👉 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mrnwYqYTWsQ.html So many extra features! 👉ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-da8Rm83WFkc.html More ham radio reviews 👉ru-vid.com/group/PLSuX83ay4Oui4zutEWh12CUe-9nijKWBS
Hi I’ve been dying to get one of these to use when I go for a 4 to 5 hour drive where there’s no phone reception and for emergency but online it states that they’re all illegal in Australia. Please let me know that if it’s illegal then which is the legal one to own here that rematches up to 75km or more.
@@KefaJonah The radio is no different than any other radio of the same frequency and power level, antenna and terrain. Line of sight could be be 5 miles or more. They average around 3.5 watts VHF will go further than UHF for the same terrain. If yo where mountain topping probably 10 miles or on the ocean. Don't believe the BS when they say a radio with this power will go 25 miles or more. I doubt it's water proof. Maybe a sprinkle of rain but I would not let it sit out in the rain. However for the price its a good deal for Ham Radio.
Hold down the PTT and the button below it, turn on. reveals 4 extra menus of/on Tx 200MHz, Tx 300MHz Tx 500MHz, and FCC, EU, GB or off band limits. Giving 136 to 600MHz Tx and RX no gaps!!!
@@kb5elv Something that worries me is the emergency alert tone is like a Bao UV-B5 it doesnt respond to receiving a Transmission to stop the alert during its RX breaks, its ideal for jamming
@@phillipsmiley5930 Yeah...that emergency alarm on all of these things ranges from annoying to useless. Jamming is definitely a concern. I'm curious about spare batteries and larger capacity batteries.
@@kb5elv I dont understand why the K5 emergency has 5 secs on TX then 5 secs on RX if its not going to cancel on receiving a signal. thats what Baos do
@@kb5elv I wonder too what spare batts are going to cost? At least it has a USB C socket so should be able to run it from a USB power bank when the battery fades.
There is a problem with USB charging. Around 8.1-8.2V the internal boost converter goes into "resonance", the charging LED starts blinking quickly and erratically, the converter turns on/off as the led does, checked it with oscilloscope. This causes the battery to charge only up to ~8.15V, so it can't be charged fully this way. At least this is the case with my radio, but I suspect this is how it works for all of these as the manual mentions blinking led at the end of the charge. This is probably why they say in the manual it is for emergency use only. I also looked at the mainboard with thermal camera, it barely warms up while charging.
Being interested in lower cost rigs and how they might be usable for blind hams, I was excited to get this video across my feed. I started documenting a few of these with the Wouxun KG-kUvd1P in 2010. There's been some interest in this one, so will be passing this review on to the blind hams email reflector. I kind of want to get one of these to see how it stacks up for eyes-free usage as compared to the Baofengs, Wouxuns, and Puxing UV-973 (which has the worst audio but most spoken output short of the Kenwood TH-D74.
Thanks for the review of the UV-K5! I did notice that when you were checking receiver sensitivity against the specification in the user manual your measurement was based on when squelch closes on the receiver. However, the specification in the manual is based on 12dB SINAD. This means that you need to connect the receiver audio output to the HP8924 audio input then reduce the signal generator level until the HP8924 SINAD meter reads 12dB. The RF signal generator output level will be your receiver sensitivity measurement. This measurement is usually best done with the squelch set to off or "open" as you don't want the receiver audio to close before reaching the 12 dB SINAD point. Enjoy!
@@HamRadioDX Thanks for clarifying! I didn't mean to "nit pick". From your review of the uv-k5 I ended up purchasing one to play with on 220MHz. I have plenty of radio's in my collection but none of them support 220 and when I checked there were quite a few 220 repeaters in my area. I paid $39 on Amazon for the radio plus a suitable 220 antenna. Low risk buy for sure! We'll see what happens! 73...
Turn the radio off. Then on while holding transmit and side key 1. Should pop into "factory menu" where you can selet TX locking frequencies or even disable them.
In the US, on Amazon this is the UV-K5. $30 is a killer deal for these features, although the UV-K5 seems to maybe have a bit less receive frequency capability? The Wurui K5 is $45 and looks identical to the radio in this video. Love the wide band receiver, including air band with AM. Also love the USB-C charging. Wish the battery had more than 1600 mAHr battery capacity. Waterproof (at a higher price of course) would be awesome. No CHIRP programming yet, but probably soon.
And just several days ago, its new version was published, called k 6, there is only a few changes have been made to the exterior, with the screen backlit to orange and a Chinese menu added, but overall there are few upgrades.😊
I ordered 2 from Amazon, and they showed up after a couple of weeks, but one was missing what ever they use to detect button press under the menu key. The working one feels like there is a bubble switch that snaps when it switches, but the other one does not have any feel at all other than of a rubber button. I sent it back using the printed out return label they e-mailed to me, but after a month, I have not gotten a refund or replacement or even an e-mail about it. So, after all that, I now have one radio I paid about $80 for... I have seen others who have had the same issue post on other channels that have reviewed the rig, so its probably not all that uncommon of an issue.. So if something can get out of the factory with a non-working key (the menu one at that!) I am a little concerned that there could be a wide variance in performance too due to incorrect parts or parts placement....
Hi, I've just been listening to my old Baofeng gt-3tp (probably identical to all the Baofengs) on 2m and 70cm, at the same time as the Quansheng. I found the sensitivity tests you did interesting, because just from my simple observation I thought the Baofeng was far superior on 2m, and noticeably better on 70cm as well, despite the Quansheng having the better antenna (supposedly anyway, an na-771?). But even more annoying was that the Quansheng would not open up fast enough to get the first 1/4 second of the voice, the Baofeng was pretty instant but the Qhansheng noticeably laggy (yep, checked the squelch) The Baofeng is a lot lighter as well, has less hiss/scratchy audio, so I am not sure the Quansheng lives up to the hype. More features maybe, but would love to see a side-by-side comparison in the lab!
Great Video! It was nice to see the radio tested. It would be nice to see how clean the TX is, and if you get around to testing it, does it meet the standards set by the various regulatory offices. That said, now I wonder how the standards of the FCC compare with the regulations in Australia? I assume they are very close if not the same..?
In Australia, ror frequencies 30MHz and above: The maximum permitted spurious emission is independent of Mean Power and is fixed at 0.05mW (i.e. -13dBm) for all transmissions above 30MHz.
@@HamRadioDX The LCD I have a link to lists (P) as mean power for above 30Mhz ? See 7A of link below? Is this wrong or superseded? When you refer to "spurious" is that intermodulation and associated crud and not harmonics? www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019C00750
Thanks Hayden. Nice to see something from "that other country" that is out performing it's marketing claims. Interesting in the States that Amazon US does not sell this under the Quansheng brand name but instead has it as ANYSECU UV-K5 and Wurui K5. There are some interesting RU-vid videos on things you can do with the Wurui K5.
Quansheng is my favorite. They're not exactly a new player, they've been at it for quite a number of years. I've used the TG-UV2 and TG-UV2+ for many years, they've been great. No, it's not Yaesu. It's not even Alinco. But it's a demonstration of "you get what you pay for." Their battery life is about as good as it gets. In English it's Chahn shung.
I hate to break this to you, but outside of the circle of radio nerds, nobody gives a shit. The average consumer knows two things when they buy this radio, 1 that it covers a wide array of frequencies, and 2 when they push the transmit button, the person on the other side can hear them and vice versa. They don't give a shit about spectral purity, spurious RF emissions, filters, or any of that technical shit, which is irrelevant at the power level of an HT anyhow.
Thanks for the review Hayden! I may pick one of these up just for the AirBand RX as I would imagine it sounds better than the sporty brand AirBand transceiver I have now. Good day bloke. 👍
Further to my last comment on an interest for blind hams, it looks like Quansheng is going to send me units to review. So I guess I'll be adding to the RU-vid fun and, of course, referencing this excellent and thorough review. Mine will of course be focusing on usability eyes-free. As I haven't done anything in this line for a little while, I'm looking forward to it.
@@HamRadioDX I used eBay yeah. I’ve actually been having some rough experiences with Amazon the last month. Haha. With eBay I almost always get my stuff, not always fast but it shows up. I’ve had 3 lost Amazon orders since February lol
There's a trick to the NOAA channels. If you turn on the feature and choose your local NOAA channel, you probably won't hear anything. That's because of the squelch. Tap the monitor button (top function button under the PTT) and you'll hear it clearly.
I just bought one. For the price you can't say no. I have two UV-5 Plus radios and I use them most often as tools like an easy to use signal generator or a receiver to verify that a transmitter or receiver oscillator is working. Since many receiver oscillators are 10.7 mhz lower this puts the ones for 144 mhz radios in the 134 mhz range. Apparently there are no programming cables for this and CHIRP hasn't added it yet, but get them while they're hot!
Ok, here's more observations...the issue with distorted air band audio seems to be an AGC issue. I took the radio on a drive to my local airport and the closer I got the worse the audio got. Here at home the signal isn't strong but the audio comes through just fine. The S meter does move so something is there, it's just not reducing the receiver gain. Maybe a design issue, or a fix in the firmware?
It's only 15 USD in China with some unofficial dealers, which is a really "killer" price, especially it can pass the official technical inspections to get call sign and radio license in China. I'm preparing for the HAM exam in next month and maybe it will be my first radio. It's not perfect, but it's enough for me to listen the ATC when I take photos of aircraft under the airway near SHA, it's even cheaper for an aircraft frequency receiver or SDR kit🥰
Probably means it goes straight to the battery, so there is no voltage or power limitation on that port. Typical Japanese radios had the external port current limited to 1/10th C, so there was no way to overcharge the NiCd or NiMH battery. Since this is lithium, charge control will be more expensive, not just CC.
@@lyfandeth Actually it does have current limiting. There is another problem with it though. Around 8.1-8.2V the internal boost converter goes into "resonance", the charging LED starts blinking, the converter turns on/off as the led does. This causes the battery to charge only up to ~8.15V, so it can't be charged fully this way. This is probably why they say it is for emergency use only :)
Very nice review. I've recently received one as a gift from a fellow ham, who as I have expressed my interest, felt this would be a good start point into ham radio. I've a question, I noticed you switched antenna, but I could not see which. Is it possible to connect my roof ant (with proper adapter) to it? Its basically for receiving, until I pass my lic exam.
I do a lot of airband listening and having both uhf and airband in one cheap device is great for me. The local airport has a really good uhf relay which even my second hand rebadged baofeng (esync anyone?) picks up really well. Unfortunately I am then missing out on ATIS so I have another radio for that. This would combine the whole lot (with the right antenna obvs). Lots of brands are coming out with cheap handhelds featuring airband just left wondering why baofeng hasn’t. Also the way to use these is to forego any scanner function or keep the number of channels you program in very low. Best thing to do is utilise dual watch (if it has that) or just tune in one channel and listen to that. Having physical buttons is great most cheap air band scanners use a rotary dial for selecting Frequencies which is tedious.
its not surprising that they did not add a usb to serial internally, over many thousands of radios its a huge cost saving for them, its probably possible to add a small usb to serial board inside and patch it to the usb sockets data pins but with the very infrequent programming we do its not worth the effort vs just plugging in one of our existing usb to serial cables.
I read in the user manual that the new radio has up to 5 khz FM hub on wide and 2.5 khz on narrow. Until now, the Chinese had not managed to come up with a device that had enough fm hub for amateur radio. Have you ever measured that? Manufacturers can write a lot, but the question is whether this is true. A maximum deviation of 2.5 kHz on wide is far too little.. Best regards DO1MH
I just got a UV-K5 and found the receiver much worse than my UV-5R and GA-510. Even swapping out antennas between them to make sure I was giving them a fair chance, I had to hold the UV-K5 straight up and it would sometimes pick up some repeaters that the UV-5R and GA-510 could receive even on their side. This was with a squelch of 1.
@@LevyCarneiro I just actually had a message from someone about this radio saying there is a way to unlock it, and potentially more frequencies... watch this space!
are you aware of any groups supporting this radio for mods, hacks? I would like AM mode to work in the 200-380MHz area for aircraft reception. I think this radio would be great to hack.
The fake MDC1200 squawk for a roger beep is hilarious. What I’d like is a cheap Baofeng-esque HT that supports reasonably long memory names. On my AnyTone I’ve got multiple counties worth of Analog and DMR along with NOAA, GMRS, etc organized via Zones. It’s nice because it allows for relatively long names, the 8 character baofeng limit kinda blows when you’re trying to go through dozens and dozens of channels and trying to remember “wait, what was the Skywarn or RACES frequency in this county again?”
RX is great, I can listen to my local 70cm repeater smooth noise, and TX with a Bao BF-8plus in the other hand on 2M and can still RX the 70cm. Other way around of course the BF-8plus RX blocks out
This is another one that seems to be based on the RT-830/UV88D mainboard (or at least the soc) Not that THAT is the issue, they seem to work well, I had an RT-830 for a while. No my only complaint with this, and similar radios is the fact that you cannot alpha tag channels. That's probably OK for amateurs that only have a few frequencies they use. But for professional use it can be annoying when you need to flip through a couple dozen channels and hope you remember the freq for that little used channel you suddenly need to find quickly. This makes it hard for me to like these radios, and it's a shame because they are pretty well built and better equipped than the standard 'feng
Neither the radio or software will allow RX from 76-77MHz where the Baofeng does which is a pain. Air band is ok, I am impressed, at 45km away from the airport it sounds fine. The radio can default to FM when turned off then next time it sounds distorted, caught me out.
It does Hold down the PTT and the button below it, turn on. reveals 4 extra menus of/on Tx 200MHz, Tx 300MHz Tx 500MHz, and FCC, EU, GB or off band limits
The wideband receiver makes it very appealing. Antenna upgrade will need to be made though, the stock antenna is crap for receiving outside their bands - and even inside their bands
For the past few days, I have been receiving Police comms chatter from Australia Hobart Tasmaia Ch1 . Think someone has set a repeater up on a Crossband ?? UK
Yeah not too bad. Outside of the 136-174 and 400-470 bands, you'll need a better antenna. Listening to 53 MHz repeaters requires a better antenna (probably external)
@@HamRadioDX Got 2 FT 897s one is a D just selling old junk and buying some toys icom706Mk2 am looking at to leave in work to play on Sundays as the roof is open to me. looking at a DX comando as well toys toys toys. 2E1GZQ UK am re newing my licence soon
Hayden, would be grateful if you could confirm RX on 76Mhz please. This is the frequency for my brigade's system, I like to listen when at home if not on the call. Thanks Kevin.
Nice review! I am interested in the set of connection adapters you have in the blue case showing in the video. Did you buy that as a set or put it together yourself? Do you have a link where I could buy one? Thanks, Tom from USA!😁
Better than a boafeng is a low bar, lol, and I like the boafengs... More ham radios is always more better! :D First thing to do it turn off the talking. I now understand why Luke didn't like all the talking C3PO was doing... lol
My biggest complaint with any Baofeng is that after awhile they all have knobs that don't seem to work worth a crap. You end up having to play with them to get it to work or have sound more than anything else. I don't know if this is a result of cheap "pots" or if it is something else. So any radio that has a on/off/sound that works long term is a step up over any Baofeng.
I have two Quansheng HTs that are a fair bit better than any BooFang POS portable. I'm interested in this new model as a cheap beater HT that I don't care if I break it or lose it. That frequency scan is trying to be like Uniden's Close Call (CC), but it looks like it's pretty useless on this radio.
Yeah that's what I think. I need to test it a little bit more just to see if I can get it to work. Especially CTCSS if we can get it to work. There is firmware available for the radio on their website which may make it better in the future - www.qsfj.com/products/3002
Great video, Hayden. Can you elaborate on what type of antenna connector is on the radio. Is it a 'reverse polarity'' SMA as is used in the Baofeng UV5R, or is it a standard SMA connector? Thanks and 73. Ken -- WBØOCV
Whoa...wait aa sec. Reverse polarity SMA isn't that. RP-SMA is different. I think what Ken meant to ask is whether the male SMA is on the radio (as in Baofeng, Puxing, some Wouxun like KG-UVD1P, and what they tell me is commercial standard), or whether female SMA is on the radio as with most amateur stuff.
Hey I have f8 vhf blue radio with 9v power input on the side orange lcd 5w easy-to-use no fm band members of rcmp hear from audio tyt are great for testing purposes.
Quansheng UV K5 I bought one Quansheng UV K5 Can you please point me to a video or instructions on how to program and use voice encryption feature? Don't see it in the short short manual. Thank you Randy
It's still a Chinese radio. A dime a dozen. What type antenna connection? Is it an SMA male like the Baofeng? However, I do have my Baofeng UV-5RE opened up so it's now a tri-band radio. Yep it will do 1.25 centimeters. My other HT is a Yaesu 4-VR 2 meter only radio. My base station radios are: 1-Yaesu 991a & 2-Kenwood 281a which is 2 meter only. Cheers & 73 from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
I found a weird bug in my radio. Wonder if anyone else's does it..? Plug in the USB charger and have it on, go to a known working weather channel, does the audio from NOAA come thru? Any channel with audio will do. Mine will simply have white noise with the squelch open on a known channel with a carrier only while USB charging is going. Unplug the charging cable and the receive audio comes back. Weird, no???
Ehh.. yes it will. Don't ask me how I know ;) You can change between WIDE and Narrow in the menus. I haven't tested the actual deviation or if that's just on RX.
Very interesting radio. But he has a very big minus, as for me, - he does not have water protection at all. I suppose that there will be a very unpleasant situation when, after several hikes in nature, the radio simply stops working.
