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Reviews For: TYT TH-UV3R

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : TYT TH-UV3R
Reviews: 15MSRP: 69.99
Description:
Micro Dual Band Ham Radio HT.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00154.2
VE7OLF Rating: 2022-05-02
handy Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this for a while now, and it's my favourite and most used HT. Light enough to forget about, and does everything needed from a little tri-band. Easy to reconfigure using CHIRP. Cheap enough to have a spare and never worry about losing or damage. Things I like:

1. I like the battery (a cell phone style battery) that has lots of life, but more importantly I have a few spare that are easy to pop in and out.
2. The radio does have a soft drain (will drain the battery even if off), but it is easy to pop the back cover off and rotate the battery to disconnect the terminals. So between uses I do this and it keeps the battery from discharging.
3. It comes with a battery charger, so you have the option of connecting power to the radio to recharge it, or charging the battery on the charger after removing it.
4. The radio can be powered by the mini-USB port directly (with the battery removed). So you can leave it hooked up to a usb power supply directly without having to worry about the battery. I do this in the car, with the battery rotated so it is always available should I want to take it out portable.
5. The volume was a pain at first, until I realized that when you lock the keypad, the knob is used for volume.
6. I like being able to call up a channel number directly from the numeric keypad, I use that often.
7. I like being able to program it with Chirp
8. I like that it was possible to program it to be a tri-band.
9. Not scientific, but I've been really happy with the rx/tx performance and had good audio reports.
10. The belt clip is not springy at all, so it would be good for a fixed mount (like on a dash in a car) if you wanted to do that, but not for pulling it on and off a belt. But it comes with a small bit that replaces the belt clip, so you just have a smooth back. Which works better for me, for keeping it in your pocket.


Negatives:
1. The keys don't do DTMF. But there are simple smart phone programs that will generate those tones when needed.
2. It doesn't go as quiet as I would like. The quietest setting is still louder than I would like sometimes.
KD2TYT Rating: 2021-05-24
Nice little inexpensive radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this radio as I wanted a small HT I could carry all the time and charge via USB. This radio seemed to fit the bill but is not readily available except from a few retailers in Hong Kong.

Functionally I believe you get a lot of radio for the money here. It does a good job with Rx on 2m and 70cm and can be coaxed to wider ranges than the default on both as well as being programmed for a third band. I can hit the local repeaters easily. There are a lot of different output numbers flying around that differ (the label on the radio says 4W, advert says 2w etc.). I measured 2W with my meter.

The stock antenna is amazing for a ducky on TX for the efault bands, the RX is OK but there are better options available an I find myself using a stubby to carry it and a longer whip when I am stationary. If I wear out the SMA so be it, the radio was $50.

I like this radio better than my other cheap small HT, the UV5RA (which this effectively replaced). I have a couple of batteries but I find that I end up charging them before I can use them up.

Almost all of the programming of this radio can be accomplished via buttons on the radio. You can choose to skip channels when scanning, set up powersave, BCLO etc, right from the menu. Not bad and much improved over the typical BaoFeng stuff.

All in all a solid radio. I might replace it with another small HT that has a wider RX range (Yaesu and Icom make them) but I already have a few other high-end HTs and probably won't... r maybe I will if the right deal comes along.. who knows.
W6VN Rating: 2019-06-09
Small size, lousy receiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this radio for its small size, to replace a Baofeng UV3R that wore out. Feature-wise, the TH-UV3R is an improvement. It's reasonably easy to use, though the menu system is a little unusual and more complicated than most radios. I bought the programming cable in order to access some functions that are only available that way, but haven't used it yet.

The bad news is the receiver. In simple terms, it sucks -- it's not very sensitive, and the received audio is not very clear. (These remarks apply to the 2m band; I haven't really evaluated 70cm performance because that band isn't as important to me.) I did side-by-side tests with a Kenwood TH-D72, including swapping the antenna between the two radios to eliminate that source of variability. There were a number of local repeaters that were full quieting on the Kenwood but not audible on the TYT, even with the squelch opened. As a wild guess, I'd estimate the TYT is 3-10 dB less sensitive. On an absolute scale, it doesn't reliably receive one of the stations that I most want, so this radio is of limited use to me. It is the least sensitive out of more than a half-dozen HTs that I have used.
M0KED Rating: 2017-10-10
Ideal for local repeaters! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my UV3R about 18 months ago, mainly for it's small size, my club organise the UK's biggest hamfest, so UHF comms is needed, and this little radio, fitted with a one inch antenna fits in my shirt pocket nicely. Quality wise, it's a step up from the Baofeng ( Which I also own), battery life is not as good though, but enough for 12hrs use at the hamfest without dying. Audio is more than loud enough on RX, and all reports of TX audio have been good. A nice touch is being able to programme repeater callsigns and channel names in without having to connect it to a PC, indeed, I programmed all my local repeaters, marine band and PMR channels manually, a bit of a chore, but it does make you learn your way around the radio!
I have 3 hand-held V/UHF radios, and as long as 2w will do, the UV3R is my first choice, only lost a point for battery life!
WB4NAD Rating: 2016-05-29
Receiving Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Although I think this tiny handheld is a wonderful piece of ham equipment to own, due to it's size especially. I've tested many handhelds and this one meets mostly all my needs, except one. For some strange reason, I'm not able to receive broadcasts as if they're squelched out. When depressing the monitor switch on the side, I'm able to adjust the volume and hear other stations. Is there a function I seem to have missed on this one...PUZZLED!
VE5EDE Rating: 2014-12-11
Superior to Baofen UV-3R Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having had the Baofeng UV-3R for several years, this radio was a surprise. I lost the Baofeng somewhere....probably shipped out with garbage as my charging stand was over the trash can...

So why not try a new radio? This came from 409shop on ebay for about $50 Canadian and arrived 10 days later. Like the Baofeng, it uses cheap cell-phone batteries and can be charged from a USB port. Almost exactly the same size as the Baofeng, it came with an equally useless belt-clip. Mine will go in a buttoned shirt-pocket. The antenna is actually halfway decent.

I was somewhat disappointed that the radio did not have DTMF. It had buttons, after all! These only serve to enter frequencies directly. Had to spend an additional $16 on a USB programming cable. Programming is easy, rudimentary, but nothing to write home about. You can listen on one band and transmit on another. No crossband repeater function at this price. 220mHz frequencies can be programmed, and the band suppression on the TYT is not as severe as it is on the Baofeng. But best of all, it has a nice, legible readout with six-place alphanumerics.

As for complaints about battery drain when turned off, any radio that doesn't go "click" when you turn it on is in effect always on, including the Baofeng UV-3R. My only complaint about radios this small it that the loudspeaker is basically just a tweeter. The squelch tails on tweeters are way louder than the modulated signals.

It works. Does everything I want and does it cheap without feeling cheap. You can't lose on this one. 73
W4SNP Rating: 2013-12-15
Nice small HT but... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Nice small HT however when placed on my HP service monitor the high power output was 0.9 Watts not 2.0 Watts as advertised. I suspected this because of the cellular telephone like battery since those devices are less than 1 Watt. Receiver sensitivity was very good around -120 dBm as advertised and a lot of audio for its size. The knob on the top is for multiple functions with its primary 2 being on/off switch and frequency. Operation of using it in conjunction black side button for volume is a bit awkward because the it cannot be changed "on-the-fly" like with most HTs. If you looking for a pocket size HT to use at hamfests or other events this might be the one for you. Just remember if you attend an event like Dayton Hamvention you will most likely get clobbered by all the RF as like all the low-cost Chinese radios this one has wide receiver selectivity even narrow band mode. One last comment the programming software for this radio is the 20121019101555204_R25.rar not the one found on most US web sites. The original _R version gives the impression you cable is not working by the error msg. Also you need something like WinZip to unbundle it. I am looking at various radios for the new people in our club and this one is more advanced to use than the other brands especially since its Chinglish manual is in comprehensible at times even to me with land mobile radio experience. 73 and good luck.
W7DCF Rating: 2013-11-02
Small Form Factor Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The strong asset of this radio is its small size. In comparison with the BaoFeng UV-3r this radio is more polished with a number of added features. If you are not very excited about the small size, I think there are better choices. I find that I use my UV-5r more than either the TYT or the BaoFeng UV-3r. The TYT eats batteries even when it is turned off. I find that the UV-5r meets my day to day needs better for battery and operational convenience.
N5LXI Rating: 2013-09-18
Update Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It's still a pretty cool little, low-powered HT. The open source Chirp software is a HUGE improvement. Chirp is very easy to use and transfers data between different radios. I don't like the digital "stepped" audio on the radio, seems like it's either a little too soft or too loud. I mostly listen with it, but can hit area repeaters.

The battery will run down even if the radio is off. If must use a "soft" power switch. Charging time is somewhat slow. I bought a couple Nokia BL-6C batteries (made for a cell phone) from eBay cheap and it's not a problem now. Using it with one battery IS a problem.

In summary, with upgraded free software and a spare battery, the radio is fun and is working FB.

73, joel

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Earlier 4-star review posted by N5LXI on 2012-06-28

You can program alpha tags with the software. I still find software is quirky. But it does work.

After a couple weeks, I'm happy with the little radio. I posted a little one page help sheet at http://www.n5lxi.com . It might help you get started, although the brief printed manual is pretty good.

73, joel / N5LXI in Dallas
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Earlier 4-star review posted by N5LXI on 2012-06-12

All HT's have their quirks, and so does this. The hardware seems quite solid and once you figure it out, it's not bad to use. The supplied duckie antenna is fine for the size. I'm working on a mini-guide which I will post on www.n5lxi.com soon. It will help new users.

After I downloaded updated software and a driver the USB cable works. It does not allow you to program alpha tags and a few other things as well. I found the best way to program it was a combination of the software and the radio itself, with a few uploads and downloads. At least you can backup your settings.

For listening (which I mostly do) and hitting some close repeaters it works great. It's cheap and cute. I have owned several tiny low power HT's. They all have compromises, but this is the best of the lot even without the low price.
YO3IDN Rating: 2013-08-18
Updated Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After several months of light use I found that the transceiver is depleting the battery when not in use for few weeks, I have not messured how long it takes. (The same as Puxing-888). The ratting drops at 4.