| W5NNH |
Rating:  |
2018-06-19 | |
| Good radio, bad antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Purchased a package deal that included the radio, programming cable, trunk-lip mount, antenna cable, power cable and quad-band antenna.
The radio works fine. Had it less than a month, but getting good reports. The antenna works as an antenna well, also. The problem is in the fold-over feature. When driving at highway speeds, it will fold over on its own! Contacting the seller through Amazon, I was told that it was where I mounted it on the car, among other excuses. I've owned longer antennae with the fold-over feature (Comet, Diamond) without having this happen before. The seller finally did the right thing and sent me another, but it has the same problem.
I'd buy the radio and everything else, again. Just not the package with the antenna. Next time, I'll go with one of the two brands mentioned above. |
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| W8IJN |
Rating: |
2018-05-04 | |
| So Nice I Bought 'Another'n |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
About a year and some ago, I bought a TYT TH-9800+ off a stateside vendor in California. It's been in and out of my car since then a couple times. It's a pleasure to have in the beast as I go back and forth between Ohio, Indiana & elsewhere, if only 'cause (a) it receives CB channel 19 (which I monitor for traffic conditions) and (b) it has 6m, 2m and 70cm so I can monitor 146.52 &c as I roll along too. And it's nice to have in the shack too.
When my son borrowed my car recently, I brought the radio back into the house & set it up. Used CHIRP to update the programmed channels and sat back to listen to stuff. At some point I realized that I didn't want to put it back out in the car. I wanted the radio in the house. Fills up a hole on the operating position shelf. But I still wanted to have one in the car. So four days ago I bought another'n from the same vendor as the last one. It arrived today.
Up front, I really like this radio. It's small, it's easy to program, it hears well and it puts out a good signal. The layout is easy to understand and it has enough functions and features to satisfy a guy who really doesn't like his iPhone. The first one has given me absolutely no problems and has worked perfectly for many QSOs on the four ham bands that it's meant for.
If the second one is as realiable as the first one I bought, I will be a very happy hippie. And I won't have to slide it in and out of the car to enjoy the features.
Good radio. I'm happy with it. Five stars.
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| KC3ECJ |
Rating: |
2018-03-15 | |
| Meh |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
440 version(not 220) of the radio.
The radio in general has a good front end.
Has many memory channels, but no bank scanning.
Mine anyways, just FM transmitt, recieves but doesn't transmitt AM.
Radio doesn't have VOX or a packet port for data modes.
Seems to be true narrow band for both transmitt and recieve.
The radio has Busy Channel Lockout enabled by default and THERE IS NO WAY TO DISABLE THIS!
THE "PATCH", THE MOD TO DISABLE BUSY CHANNEL LOCKOUT(BCL) DOES NOT WORK!
IT WILL BRICK YOUR RADIO!
YOUR RADIO WILL NOT TURN ON!
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|
| KM4NYI |
Rating: |
2017-11-19 | |
| Nice radio - Low price |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
After using the TH9800 for over a year, I think I've experienced enough to write a short review.
Purchased at a ham-fest and installed in my car. It worked well on all four bands with a Diamond CR8900A quad-band mobile antenna. Then after about 3 months, the transmitted audio on the 2 meter band became very low. The dealer (Ham World in Talladega, AL) exchanged the radio for another one, no questions asked. As a side note, I've bought several items from them and they have always treated me right.
Anyhow.....I've been running the replacement TYT mobile for over a year now with no problems whatsoever. Good reports on the audio quality, and its a good performer. I actually use local 6 meter repeaters more than the ones on 2 meters, and this radio works them all effortlessly. I've checked the output, and found it's very close to the manufacturers ratings.
There are a couple of oddities, though. The radio is wired so it comes on when I start the car, and sometimes the radio will constantly beep when powered on. Turn the VFO knob, and it stops. Also, I have found it easier to use the TYT software for programming the radio than doing it manually. The owners manual is your typical Chinese translation and leaves a lot to be desired. If you really want to learn a good deal about the TH9800, there's a Yahoo group for folks who own this model that is a wealth of information.
Overall, I have been pleased with the TH9800 and would recommend it to anyone on a budget wanting to add 6 meters to their mobile arsenal. It may not be as well built as the Yaesu they copied when designing the TYT, but at the lower price it's a good deal. |
|
| G3YVY |
Rating: |
2017-11-12 | |
| 4M version |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this radio bacause it had the 4 metre band.I like the ergonomic design of the radio, but that's as far as it goes. I would have preferred if it still had the 6m band and not 10m.
The handbook supplied seems to be for the 6m version.
Other things I don't like;
1, A full reset causes the radio to revert back to 6m receive only and 4m is lost, so the 4m frequency range has to be reprogrammed.
2, Only 30 watts RF output on the 4m band.
3, Right hand side receiver is not as sensitive as the left hand side.
4, When transmitting, if you change frequency on the other VFO, which is on receive, then the rig stops transmitting.
5, Changing bands on either VFO interrupts receive on the other band. (not a problem, just a minor irritation.)
I don't think this radio has been redesigned for the 4m band. Its more like a Software or Firmware bodge.
I maybe should have bought the Wouxun which doesn't have these oddities, but I liked the look of the TYT and its twin volume and squelch controls.
On the plus side, yes, there is one. The radio is very easy to program with the TYT software. |
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| W1XWX |
Rating: |
2017-03-15 | |
| 24-7 for a year |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| We are using a TYT 9800 as a distant cross band repeater back to our primary repeater. The 9800 has been running over a year now 24-7 without any issues. |
|
| HL1ZIX |
Rating: |
2016-12-05 | |
| Update review. Another problem found |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
This is an updated review of the TYT 9800+, after 6 months of ownership. I have noticed a pretty serious issue with spurrious emissions on the B-side VFO, after the radio heats up, and have to mention it. Info added below....
This is the TYT TY9800+ model (the newest version 1508A), purchased from TPK Radios on Aliexpress. The seller, reportedly, tests the radios before shipping. I believe they did so, but they probably couldn't have found the problem I have.
Fault 1: The radio has a slight high-pitched whine in receive on the right-side. The left-side receive is OK. This isn't a dealbreaker for me, because I just listen to the left side, unless a signal comes in on both. I usually leave the right side on a simplex channel that goes unused, unless a friend comes on, anyway.
Fault 2: The mic doesn't sound particularly great. A friend says I sound best with I hold it about 10 inches from my face. The three tiny holes for the mic, upper-right of keypad, are easy to cover with your thumb, too. Otherwise, the keyboard function on the mic is nice to have.
Serious fault #3: After the radio gets warm from use, the B-side VFO actually trips multiple repeaters with a several-mile radius, on both the 2m and 70cm bands (possibly elsewhere, too) on transmit. It took months to figure out this was going on. My friend runs several repeaters around the city of Seoul, and we now know what was causing it -- my TYT 9800 Plus, after warming up.
Previous additional info below....
I have used Crossband repeat, and it has been unexpectedly useful, but it makes the radio hot, so, as suggested in the manual, I run it only with low power. It is nice to walk around the house (or neighborhood) with my Baofeng HT, and access this repeater for better transmit. I now avoid it, due to above VFO B problem.
The radio has a "compander" feature, which is somewhat like a compressor. The effect is kind of useless, however, because it ruins the audio just enough to be annoying. The best way to describe it is it makes the audio sound a lot like overly-aggressive Dolby C did on my cassette tapes back in the 1980's. The last several milliseconds of each word gets clipped off. You can understand it, but is uncomfortable.
The other general features of the radio work fine.
I purchased this radio, instead of a Yaesu, because getting a Yaesu to Korea involves far higher costs and fees on import. Local sellers gouge us on Yaesu in Korea -- costs for name-brand radios are double US prices. I tried this, because I could ship this radio for what you'd pay on E-bay for it (about $235). If I had been in the USA, I would have gone with a Yaesu -- no doubt. Even a less-featured Yaesu, for the money. But, as I am in Korea, I went with this. It is serving its purpose just fine, so I am not upset with the purchase. I just want to be honest about its shortcomings. I'm hoping it holds together fine. |
|
| KB6MAS |
Rating: |
2016-11-25 | |
| Good radio ? speaker jack |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I bought one second hand for a fantastic price. Everything works as stated in the manual except the internal speaker stopped working. I had to switch to to a external speaker which works well. If they used better speaker jacks I'd give this radio a perfect score. Someday I may open it up to replace the speaker Jack but it works fine with external speaker so most likely I'll run it as it is. |
|
| GRIDLESS |
Rating:  |
2016-01-16 | |
| Failed & no warranty |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
based on a lot of reviews, I gave this radio a try. Right off the bat, it had wildly fluctuating power (on L, M2, M1, & H) -- from one frequency to another, the power output would be vastly different (from 10w to 20w to 4w on high) - all with swr of less than 1.5.
I purchased direct from tyt; as I thought that would be the best way to get warranty support, in case I needed it.
Once the radio arrived, I couldn't use the programming cable, it had no drivers for win8; so that was useless.
I had some others check the power, and they too were stumped. I contacted tyt and they wanted videos of the readings -- so I provided it.
Then a few weeks later, I could no longer access the menu system; and then it started having problems changing frequency.
TYT just stopped responding to me & have refused to warranty the radio & it's completely bricked now.
I now understand the woes of buying from China.
It appears well built & sturdy; but it just didn't work from the get go & went downhill quick. |
|
| ON3TVC |
Rating: |
2016-01-16 | |
| Price Quality the best |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Bought two pieces. One for the car and one for the RV camper. Easy programming possible with Chirp. RX TX is good, performance is great. Would buy it again. |
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