Thread: Cheap UHF radios from ebay

Have you checked out the Wouxun threads here.

Highly recommended.

I have one in the second link - I have it for about 3 years and use it as a spare in my 101 and my sole radio in the RRS. It is a full 5 w, battery life is a couple of days, is upgradable at home to 80 ch, is as good as other "brand" names worth a lot more, has a quality build and good enough for convoy work with the standard aerial.

The aerial unscrews so an external aerial cable can be connected if required - will then have range typical of any UHF. I have purchased 12v power supply that replaces the battery for use in the car (the desktop charger is not good to use in the car - but then the battery does last a long time) , there is a 80 channel programming kit available (I have it but not used it yet) and a cheap knock-off of a Motorola speaker mic - this is not good so get the real Motorola version.

As a portable, you cannot go past this - especially for the price.

Wouxun !

Two Way Radio KG-UVD1

Get it from here delivered to Oz for $110US

KG-UVD1P UU DUAL BAND TX/RX 136-174MHz/420-520Mhz - 409Shopwww.409shop.com

You can program all the 80ch UHF in with room to spare for other stuff if required.

There's a few of us using these and I can't speak highly enough of the quality.

Wouxun.

I'm with Fluids on this one. Excellent unit. Simple to set up and operate. I have a KG-UVD1P (the KG-UVD6 is excellent also).

Don't have any direct experience with the FDC units. I do know that a number of the Amateur Radio places stock the above units for use by Hams, who are notoriously picky (I can say that 'cos I were one).

Don't let the fact that these things are made in China put you off. Many of these units roll off the production lines that manufacture some of the "name" brands - like Kenwood, Yaesu, Motorola and Icom.

Of course, they are not always produced to quite the same QC levels as the "names". Although unless you have a lot of VERY expensive test gear, for all practical purposes, you're not likely to notice the differences.

There is a huge array of supplementary gear for these units - like the battery eliminator that Garry uses (and so do I). The thing that sometimes let them down is the speaker microphone unit. The one most often supplied is barely adequate and feels quite cheap and "toy like". Spend a little extra and get a good robust speaker mike and you'll have a great unit that will do excellent service and last a very long time.

Cheers,
Iain

OK team, thanks for the great replies. Had a read of the Wouxun threads and I'm convinced. $20 more than the cheapest one I was looking at on ebay, but still way cheaper than a "brand" name one, so sounds like a great deal. I'll definitely pickup some of the extra as well.

These look interesting!
Way cheaper than the ICOM 41S that I'ld been thinking of.

Has anyone tried programing them?
Or brought some of the accessories?

Thanks
ATC

Originally Posted by ATC

These look interesting!
Way cheaper than the ICOM 41S that I'ld been thinking of.

Has anyone tried programing them?
Or brought some of the accessories?

Thanks
ATC

Dead easy to program (use the PC software and programming cable). It's just like filling out a spreadsheet. There's a thread around here with some pre-programmed files you can download and flash to the radio.

Or just download the software, and have a play.

Bought the radio, prog cable, spare hi capacity battery, double dock (charges the radio and the spare at the same time), spare antenna and adapter to connect the UHF antenna that's mounted on the rangie.

Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

Bought the radio, prog cable, spare hi capacity battery, double dock (charges the radio and the spare at the same time), spare antenna and adapter to connect the UHF antenna that's mounted on the rangie.

Same here (less the antenna adapter) .... but I also added a speaker/mic, and a case/cover ... much easier to use when mobile (my radio clips to a holder on the RHS of the instrument cluster, and the speaker mic clips to the grab rail over the drivers door ... right next to my ear).

... all delivered for around $200 US