Here's my first review shortly after I bought it - just in case the moderators delete it (as I suspect they will) in favour of this "final" one... If you've already seen it or it's still there, just skip down to "The Final Sum Up" below....
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I've had a Wouxun KG-UV8D hand held dual bander now for a handful of months and mostly it has been a good little radio, but I was also on the market for a newer base/mobile dual bander as well, so I decided to put a bit of extended trust into the new KG-UV950P. Programming was a bit easier than the UV8D, especially with the memory channels, not only because of the difference styles of programming methods but also because of the 950's mic with all the buttons needed to run this radio from a small distance. I was a bit stumped at why the 950 has so many internal speakers (3 all up including the mic speaker) but getting externally attached speakers to fire up was a bit of a tiny mission on its own, all controlled through menu option 24. I had to have two external speakers plugged in to stop the internal ones from radiating sound - hmmmmm...!!
After that though, programming memory channels was quite a breeze and the only chore was deciding the default settings for your own preferences, and that was of minor consequence. In short, the 950P is quite easily set up and within a couple of hours of mixing and trying some of the options and with a handful of memory channels programmed in, you should have it ready to fire up for the first time. I've heard my own 950P from the receive end, via a repeater and I have to say it sounds as good as any other of the multitude of radios out there but then again, most radios sound different on every repeater.
One thing that I have to say is that I don't quite know why Wouxun decided to clutter up the display by having all those decimal places and zeroes to the max. It just looks a bit cluttered an unnecessary. I know it's because of the repeater offset option but they could have stopped so many zeroes from showing up during normal use. It looks like one large string of numbers from one side of the display to the other. Instead, they could have had the memory channel numbers a little larger. They're like fine little hairs and one has to be quite close to see them. Mind you the colour blue is not that hot for daytime use (pretty though), nor is green and white looks to sterile, so the choice of LED colours is a little limited by choice. The standard yellow or even a less bolder green would have been very welcome. Still though, these are just my own gripes and anyone else might see them "in a different light" - d'ya get it (joke)..!!! Well I thought it was funny...
Actual usage and ease of use, once programmed, is as good and friendly as any other V/UHF radio I have ever owned or used. Absolutely no complaints here at all. I like it in this respect. I also like the layout of the buttons across the front panel, with all the more needed adjustments at hand - well done Wouxun. In my humble opinion, the most applaudable feature of normal use is the microphone. It has basically everything on hand to operate the radio without having to reach over and stumble about at arms length. I really like this set up...
Well, it's early days yet and there's a lot of testing to do over the coming weeks an months so I am hoping for a clean burning on air performance from my 950P. It sure gives me the impression it is capable of it. I'll try to blow out any cobwebs it had prior to shipping. This one came directly from the China factory, so there shouldn't be any/many at all.. Here's hoping..!!
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The Final Sum Up...
Things change, and this time they did...
My initial review was one I guess, typical of a new toy. You usually just want to tell the whole world about it, like I did in my previous initial review (if the moderators have not deleted it in favour of THIS one), however things change. The KG-UV950P has actually turned out to be quite a disappointment on the whole, spoiled mainly by niggles, lots of them, nothing quite so major that you just want to throw it in the trash, but just more "poor manners at the dinner table" types of issues. I've made this list of the most annoying things and here they are...
First of all.. I have to say that this is strictly for information of what I term - "knowing in advance" or "even knowing of existing" issues with the Wouxun KG-UV950P. This would have been nice to see before I bought mine, so maybe someone can make use of this. I did see occasional reviews or tests which mentioned a few here and there, but not all of them at one time...
Second.. To date I have not actually encountered any "problems" that appear to be on a collision course with radio destiny. In other words, they do appear to be annoyances, not problems, and have annoyed me rather than had me wondering when the final day would be... Here they are...
1. Noise handling - The 950P has quite a poor noise handling ability. No matter what type of noise you categorize it as, the 950P seems to fail on most or all of them - overloading, adjacent channel, inter-mod, other internal noise, you name it, the 950 lets it through. The result is sometimes more noise coming through to your ears than the signal on the desired frequency. I have compared the 950P side by side with other radios and it's not a problem with those others,, but it IS with the 950P...
2. Volume issues.
a) Left and right volume controls quite clearly interfere with each other. Turning the volume up or down on either side usually drags the other side along with it. I don't know if this is the two concentric volume knobs rubbing against each other, or if it's software doing it. Whichever, it's just quite annoying.
b) The left and right sides have different levels of volume at any set value - eg,, VOL:01 on the left side is approximately equal to VOL:02, maybe even slightly more than, on the right.
c) Even VOL:01 is too high. It is VERY high in actual volume, where it should be VERY low in volume on either side. It's far too high to listen to first thing in the morning with a house full of others who don't get into radio. At 6 am, they'll soon tell you to "turn that noise down". Using FM 'Wide' as opposed to 'Narrow' via the menu setup, can slightly alter these volume levels, but not enough.
3. Strange Goings On - Sometimes just after power up or other times after changing volume and yet further times right out of the blue, when the 950 gets an incoming signal on either side, you see the frequency or the channel number disappear and the volume level again indicated for a second or two and it flickers a handful of times. This may happen just once on an incoming signal, or it may happen on multiple occasions for about 10 seconds or more, then it's back to normal operation. Yet, at other times everything is completely normal all day long but that's rare.
4. VHF/UHF, choice of sides - I have found the having VHF repeater memories on the left, while having UHF on the right, yields poor reception of the VHF memory channels. I cannot figure this one out, eg,, Mem 001 -147.325Mhz on the left with Mem 999 - 439.875Mhz on the right, interferes somehow with 147.325 and I pick it up at no more than about half strength and very noisy at that. Reverse them though and all is well.. I always like VHF on the left and UHF on the right sides of any dual band radio. Since owning the 950P, I have learned to live with the opposite.
5. Tuning Knob - the knob on the left side has "Runaway" syndrome. Turning this knob to adjust memory channels or frequency, either makes the channels or steps shoot past the next step, maybe 3 or 4 more channels or steps ahead, or, it fails to adjust at all first time or two. This is a common thing with these types of adjusters and is annoying, especially if it's like this from BRAND NEW, as with the 950P...
6. Turn OFF / Turn ON - The KG-UV950P sometimes likes to turn itself back on when you turn it off. Pressing on the power On/Off button to turn the 950 off is mostly a trouble free operation. Other times, if you are heading out the door, it pays you to turn around and take another look. You may find that the 950P has rebooted itself and is now On again. It has happened many times, I reckon it happens about once every 15 times (I am being generous but fair here) on average. Some times it happens as soon as the radio is Off and other times it waits a second or so then boots up again, even after your finger is no longer touching that button. Bad switching or software.? Who knows...!!! I have tried all sorts of pressures on the power button, and different durations of push time and it makes no difference at all. Would you believe it..?? I just tried it this very instant and that 1 in 15 times came around again,, YES,, it did it again...
These are just the larger areas of concern to me. They have been there virtually since day one of my ownership of the 950P, which is about 6+ months now, and don't appear to have gotten any worse (or better for that matter) so although I am not overly worried or distressed by their presence, it has to be said that if these niggles were either non existent or far lesser in degree of severity, I would have lots more good things to say about the 950P. There are other niggles that I could mention but they are more based on my personal preference rather than genuine areas of mystery, so I wont mention them here...
Ok, now that the bad stuff is out of the way, I can still say that the 950P still receives well when the air is quiet and mostly void of other radio transmissions. At night it works very well, nice and quiet. I wish it was like this all the time. Audio sounds nice from a good external speaker, although I've recently found that even though it does sound nice, it suffers from a bit of what sounds like clipping of the output audio wave, and is only really noticeable when compared side by side with another radio on the same frequency. There's plenty of good audio fidelity (voices sound quite natural) but a bit raspy, especially if the volume is turned up.
Despite all the things I have quoted above, I still kind of like the 950P because it does do some things quite nicely and has plenty of features available. I just wish it didn't make me grind my teeth most days. I think this radio just needs time to evolve into something more manageable...
Really, I'd like to give it 5 out of 10 but 3 out of 5 is all that is available. It is a good radio slightly spoiled by bad manners, and all of those good things that it gives to you, are overruled by the not so good, making it in my opinion, very average overall... |