| KU0HN |
Rating:  |
2023-09-18 | |
| Still going strong 5 years later |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've had two of these for over 5 years now. Both have been great.
It's nice that they don't charge extra for the separation kit or play nickel-and-dime games like that. The radio is supported in CHIRP which is a must if you prefer open-source software. Unlike some major vendors, TYT doesn't void your warranty for using it either.
The interface is easy enough to figure out without a manual--much better thought-out than the Yaesus I have owned that came out in the past few years (which is funny because it's supposed to be a Yaesu clone).
It only gets 4 out of 5 because of the intermod issues someone else pointed out and the lack of a 6-pin mini-din data jack. |
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| KD9WNR |
Rating: |
2023-05-10 | |
| Love the Features on this Radio... But, Lousy Quality Control |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Just got my tech ticket, and this is the first radio I bought. I chose it because it had four bands... If the FT-8900 were still on the market, I'd would have chose that, but didn't want "used". So at this price, I took a gamble, despite all the bad luck some folks have had with failure of this radio over time.
I had a Btech GMRS-20V2 in my car and have been playing with it, and monitoring with my UV-5R. So, I have limited experience, but I have enough to know what frustrates me with operating mobile. All the cloned features of the FT-8900 in this radio make it easy to operate (and see) even for a newbie.
What I love about this radio is the fact that it has true Dual-Watch, not just a cut-over to a second channel. But, what I really love is the Preferential Scanning... I set the right side for scanning the half-dozen or so local repeaters I frequent. That leaves me free to work the left side on any band, without interruption.
When I first got it... I connected a dummy load and stressed all the TX bands out for awhile. So far it's working as advertised. If it dies on me... I'll update. Keeping my fingers crossed.
BTW: Bought on Amazon with 3 year replacement warranty for $33. Just in case.
*** Update 5/9/23: After three months of occasional use, the receiver on the left side failed... The right side was still working... $33 buck well spent. I really liked it when it was working. But, I'm not getting another one. So, I wasted $30 on RT Systems software, and now I'm stuck with a Quad-Band Antenna, and a Desk Mic. The experience put me about $150 in the hole. I've lost my faith in CCR's.
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| W0HLK |
Rating:  |
2022-06-14 | |
| Quit Transmitting After a Week Of Use |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This was the first radio I bought when I got into Ham Radio thinking that I could save some money. After a week of use, the radio quit transmitting on 2 meter. And while the online store I bought it from wanted to just replace it, I was fortunate enough to get a full refund. In the end, I saved up the extra money and got the Yaesu FT-8900R which worked great up until I used for a trade in on an FTM-100DR at a Hamfest. Looking back, I wish I still had it for the crossband repeat function. |
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| AF5CC |
Rating: |
2022-06-13 | |
| Junk |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I had the HYS TC-8900 version of this radio but I am pretty sure it is the same radio. I will give it one star because it did transmit and receive for a little while. Bought it used for what would have been a good price had it worked for longer than a week.
First off, the hyper memories never worked like the Yaesu hyper memories. To program a hyper memory, you had to use the VFO dial to set the frequency. If you used the keypad on the mic to enter the frequency, the hyper memories wouldn't save the frequency. Must have been some bug in the program. And the hyper memories really weren't memories, they were more like VFOs-if you changed the frequency of one of them after recalling a hyper memory, it would stay on the changed frequency. Kind of defeated the purpose of them.
I was using this radio on the FM satellites and it did ok for a week. Heard the satellites pretty well and put out decent power. Then one day I could no longer hear the satellites but could hear the local repeaters ok. I had left the antenna plugged in during a storm and I guess that blew something in the receive section of the radio, even though all other radios I have survived the storm just fine. Guess the receive circuits are extremely fragile in these radios. Then the receive became even worse. Only thing I can figure out is that I transmitted on my TS590S while testing out this radio on 6 meters, without the antenna plugged it. Must have blown something else in it.
Stay away from these, spend the extra money to get a Yaesu FT8900, they work much better. Sold off this piece of junk as a parts unit at a significant loss. |
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| N0FQN |
Rating: |
2021-11-10 | |
| Low power on high right out of the box. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I bought one of these to give it a try. I have a HP8921A service monitor and the Bird 43 meter with a 2 meter slug into a Bird 8201 dummy load. This is to make sure what I'm reading is correct. Hooked it up and checked receive, all's good. Checked transmit in Low, MID1 and MID2 all were correct. But, in High level, any band, the power level was low by 8 watts. 50 watts = 42 watts, etc right out of the box. Asked seller about adjustment procedure and none given. My feeling is, they know they have a driver/final issue and are purposely turning the high power level down to try and get the rig through the warranty period and save the components. Very poor design and, not my idea of a good policy. I bought it state side so it's on it's way back for refund. |
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| EA1AWY |
Rating: |
2021-08-19 | |
| Audio chain IC´s oversupplyed |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Thank you for your interesting comments on this transceiver. It is quite similar to the Yaesu FT8900 but has noticeable differences. My TH9800 has stopped modulating the transmission in 144 and 432MHz and I see in the network that other users have experienced similar audio breakdowns, either in TX, RX or both functions. Those in charge of handling the audio in TX and RX for both sections of the transceiver, are two IC model CMX138. Consulting their datasheet it appears that they guarantee their operation up to 3.6V and they can break down from 4.5V. In this equipment they are powered at 5V. Tried feeding them 3.6V and they didn't work. Possibly due to an error in the communication lines with the CPU that is powered at 5V. Another drawback of lowering the supply voltage would be that the output voltage of their D / A converters would be proportionally reduced, with which they carry out the dragging of the 144 and 432MHz bandpass filters, detuning them. In the Yaesu these voltages are amplified with operational powered at 9V. I can't get into service mode with the Yaesu key combination to correct this. I have asked for some to replace the one that is faulty, but perhaps I will try to remove half a volt from the power supply to see if they work and do not break down. I will comment on results. All the best |
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| N9SSW |
Rating: |
2021-04-30 | |
| Liked it just fine for a year and a month... Then BEEP BEEP BEEP |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Liked the radio just fine for a year and a month. Mic is a bit cheap even compared to my last Wouxun Mobile KG-UV950P quad bander. After 13 months... al the radio does is BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP forever and ever. No reset, I have tried them all, and no firmware upgrade, even one that was sworn to fix the issue have resolved it. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. I have learned that the only way to stop the BEEPING is to shut down the LEFT VFO completely. No LEFT VFO on display no BEEPING. LEFT VFO on display = BEEP BEEP BEEP... anyway you get the picture so I have a radio I can only use one VFO on. No dual band monitoring, no switching back and forth from left to right VFO on same\different\ANY bands. And this is the "PLUS" model of the radio.... Don't feel right selling a broken radio, but too pissed off to use it in only half of it's advertised capacity... Piece of crap if you ask me... not sure I will EVER buy another Chinese mobile radio... |
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| W4KVW |
Rating: |
2020-10-06 | |
| Well worth the investment |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have used it a few days & have 84 frequencies in memory.I hate a Yaesu so it was a easy choice buying the TYT & it was new from a friend who decided he wanted an all mode HF/6 meter radio & he purchased an ICOM 7200 & sold the TYT to me for a lot less than an new one.The Diamond CR-8900 cost me almost as much.I have had a lot of success with my TYT TH-9000 so I will be very pleased if it does as well.
UPDATE:Well mine lasted 2 1/2 years & now it has Zero Received signal coming from the internal or external speaker.I get No Replies from TYT via the internet so I guess it's now TRASH.I had a lot of fun with it but I can't buy a new one every 2 1/2 years.Putting my ICOM 2820H back i my mobile & leaving it. |
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| VE7EA |
Rating: |
2019-06-17 | |
| Value, but susceptible to IM |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This has to be one of the bargains in ham radio today - 4 bands, reasonable quality, easy to use, dual receive. However, (and that is a big however), my VHF/UHF antenna can directly see across water about 5 km away at least 3 large commercial radio towers, plus another tower 1km away. This radio was plagued by intermod problems on many frequencies and, although I tried to ignore it for 2 years I could no longer stand it and recently sold it for a Yaesu FTM-100D.
Neither the new radio nor a previous Icom IC-2100H had or have such poor filtering problems. The FTM-100DR is very quiet and so far no serious continuous intermod.
If you live in a rural area away from commercial UHF-VHF systems this would be a fantastic radio. |
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| W8KDG |
Rating: |
2018-11-05 | |
| Get what you pay for. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I’m giving it three stars simply because Radioditty’s suppprt was beyond excellent. They honored the one year warranty, replaced my failed 9800, and even let me just keep the old failed unit so I didn’t even have to pay return shipping. I did, however, carefully document all the issues, list all my troubleshooting, and make a video. (I did all of this for my first contact with them and they just replaced it.)
In short, I believe that they are well aware of the transmit issues that this radio seems to develop and the lack of QC with this product by TYT. Quality is just not consistent with this radio. There are many reports of this radio failing. I didn’t want to believe all of them at first, and even chalked them up as “operator error”, however when my unit developed issues I wished that I heeded the warnings. I plan on replacing the replaced unit even with a Kenwood TM-V71A. (The Kenwood has a DB port on the back anyway, which I find attractive for AllStar.) Although the replacement is working fine (for now), I just don’t have much confidence in the unit lasting. It’s a shame because this could be a nice radio had TYT not cut corners on quality control. That seems to be a common problem with many of these Chinese radios — quality control just isn’t there yet. I believe that eventually they will get there. The Japanese had the same issue, but look at where they are at now. The Chinese will likely follow the same path, but once they get better QC expect the price to increase and the end of the era of “cheap Chinese goods”. |
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