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Reviews For: Leixen VV-898

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Leixen VV-898
Reviews: 37MSRP: 150
Description:
Tiny dual band vhf/uhf mobile transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
13373.4
KB6HOH Rating: 2016-11-30
For Packet Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have the Luiton LT-898 which is the same Radio.
I would like to use this for Packet Radio.
I do have the Mic pinout for wiring a TNC BUT does anyone know if Pin 7 is actually Receive Audio? Not a bad Radio for the price.
G6IYD Rating: 2016-11-12
Excellent value Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
There may be some very negative comments over the Leixen VV-898, but what do you expect for such a budget priced mobile TX. I was pleasantly surprised when I obtained one from a UK ham retailer. For the price, it performs well with good transmitted audio reports, and a reasonable receiver. Repeater programming was reasonably easy and I found it simple to correct any errors I made! Yes, I do have a Yaesu mobile which cost me over 5 times the price of the Leixen, but for a tiny 10 watt Chinese mobile, I have found it extremely good value for anyone starting out, or as a back-up to your Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom etc. I would say, purchase it from a reputable amateur radio retailer, just in case you have any problems.
K3HRN Rating: 2016-10-13
Waste of Time Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Lots of nice features....BUT
First radio had bad power lead and low power transmit

Replacement radio had a defective power fuse holder and the programming cable was so shoddy, the shell broke.

To give the ebay seller credit, they tried to solve the problem and offered a refund.

Looking for an alternative to this not so great radio.
W6LDB Rating: 2016-10-08
Split memory Verson is a flop Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have put several of the single 200 memory version into service and was very satisfied, only one failed. That one was returned, and replaced, no problem. The new radio has two 100 memories, Memory A and Memory B. Using the latest factory software, I have been unable to store to B. I'm hoping the old version is going to be available.
K4SDW Rating: 2016-03-17
Neat Little Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
For the money paid, this is an ok little radio. I bought it for its size. I had been reading some of the other reviews and figured the programming would be confusing so I ordered one of the programming cables. The radio came and the cable is still not here so I decided to program it manually from the radio. This is where the you tube video came in handy. The book that comes with the radio is so confusing it is almost impossible to figure out what they are trying to tell you about programming the radio.
I brought up the You Tube video and followed along with the guy and paused the video and tried what he said to do and it was fairly simple after that. Really the only menu items you will need are like 10 and 11 and 34 and 35. You will probably have to set the step to 5 or it will not let you enter the correct frequencies. After you get the step set, just follow the you tube video.
I programmed mine in about 30 minutes after I figured out the first one. It is really pretty easy to do once you watch that video. I would purchase another one of these radios. After I got it programmed, I installed it in my ranger truck and used a mag mount 5/8 wave antenna and was hitting repeaters 70 miles away with 10 watts. All audio reports I have gotten have been good. For the money I give this 4 stars.
MM1DHU Rating: 2015-10-29
tiny but does what it says on the tin pretty well Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
bought 1 of these since my icom ic 2725e uhf driver or pre driver failed altho vhf is fine
this radio does much the same altho some rx freqs not there but does what it says on the tin plus an added few fetures ie programming fleet radios of the same kind wireless ie prog the main radio and it will transmit the data to your fleet taxis lorries ect this i found amazing for such a tiny radio about the size of 20 mayfair ciggies..
dual display name tagging dual watch monitor ur chosen freq and a lot more... does what the big three do as mentioned earlier easy to work if you have haf a brain no rokit science needed
yes its cheap its chinease easily programmed and works better than i expected so the icom will be repaired then sold i presume dont presume all chinease equipment is crap because this little fellow proves they can do as good or in some cases better than brand name expensive crap even these little hf radios that they are producing are the bees knees does the same as a brand name radio fact and soon the chinease are going to produce the same or better hf radios than the big names for half the cash chinease radios yrs ago were crap plastic and very breakable but take the baofeng uv5r bang it aff a wall n it still goes i shall run the car over this 1 and see how tuff it is and if it breaks il buy another at least they dont break the bank 75 qwid well spent for local chit chat repeaters and long distance simplex and repeater with only 10w thats what ye call pea n ham from a chicken lol for the price i would recomend these to any radio user compact light and small just what most want on the go these days even works on an outdoor antenna fine no breakthru like the icom now thats something quite a lot of 2m radios suffer if close to cities ect nada on this i give it 5/5 altho the only thing i dont see is a cooling fan havnt felt it get that hot but im sure after a long waffle it would generate some heat my solution will be a small cpu fan and a few holes on top with a tiny drill but if your going to do this remove the top lid before drilling ye dont want to waste a good radio..... and thats my opinion on this little toy its a toy with hidden features n work most from the mic again like my icom and beleive me looks are deceiving try it n see dont like it ur sure to get your money back go on whats a few qwid for a small peice of todays ham radio kit compared to what you spend on the brand names ok there may be a few that are deaf maybe the odd fault but is there any radio perfect???? this is as good as any other...
and just imagine if ssb was built in there
the china man knows his stuff and just keeps getting better my nxt buy will be one of the little 20w hf radios only thing is they look out of place nxt to a ts950s a pro3 and a ts590
but size aint everything its the quality and how its used
KF4BGW Rating: 2015-06-30
Impressive little rig! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought this to install in my Yamaha Rhino UTV. I've been a ham for many years and been around commercial transceivers even longer. The size and the fact it's output is 10 watts are what drew me to this radio for the Rhino, I needed something small for the limited cab space and something not drawing too much of a current. Programming was a breeze with the free software downloaded from the site where I purchased the radio. I am using a Tram 1185 dual band mag mount on the roof of the rhino and when I got through programming I was trying it out and amazingly was able to access a repeater over 70 miles away, on 10 watts sitting INSIDE my garage! I've used the Rhino on a medical standby for a weekend and the radio performed flawlessly, easily covering the 300+ acre area on simplex. The built in fm radio works great and the radio will automatically revert to 2 way mode if there is traffic on the channel you have it set to monitor while you are listening to the fm radio. If you are an elitist snob, save your $ for a polished and powerful "big 3 brand", but if you need a tiny, feature packed mobile and you understand the trade offs for the price and size, get one ASAP! I like it so well I just purchased another one for a go bag for a "portable base station" setup.
N0FPE Rating: 2015-04-11
Update after 3 weeks Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After 3 weeks of use I have found that the receiver is not very good. Using my UHF HT hooked to the same antenna is way way better in the receive side. I also noticed that the display has a habit of losing segments in cool(not cold) temps as well in hotter temps. I am in AZ so the heat is always there, but the radio has had missing segments in the display at 50-60 degrees over night. All in all I am glad I didnt pay full price for this thing. The power output looks ok. I will stick the radio on the service monitor and see just where the receiver plays well. So if you are looking for a cheap sorta ok radio then here it is. If you are looking for a great mobile radio, KEEP LOOKING cause this aint it!! LOL



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Earlier 3-star review posted by N0FPE on 2015-03-22

I picked one of these things up at the local hamfest yesterday brand new in the box. Price was right so i hauled it home. A real PITA to program even using CHIRP. Once i got it going it seems to work ok. I want to use it in my work van so we will see how it holds up. The reason the OM was selling the brand new unit was he was not aware that it was a real bear to program without the software and cable. well I have a kenwood cable that works fine and of course the CHIRP software is free..time will tell if it is any good out in the real world.
M0KFO Rating: 2015-03-26
Value for money Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Not much to say. It's a fairly basic rig, that does what a basic dual bander should do. RX & TX are fine and at 10w it's okay for most things.

This is all reflected in the price of about £80 and you can't expect too much for that. You can use Chirp to program it. The best thing is that it's the size of two fag packets (for the colonials, fag is slang for cigarette).
NR7J Rating: 2015-03-24
Overall not too bad. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It's a fun little radio.
Volume at ZERO is more like a 5.
Programming it is just like all the new menu driven radios.