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Reviews For: TDXone TD-Q8A

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

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Review Summary For : TDXone TD-Q8A
Reviews: 2MSRP: 59.95
Description:
The TDXONE TD-Q8A HT is a compact hand held transceiver providing 4 watts in the frequency range of 144-148 and 430-450 MHz transmit (136-174 MHz and 400-520 MHz receive). It features 128 memories, simple controls, High/Low power, time-out timer, lock, English/Chinese voice prompt, VOX, CTCSS encode, 1750 Hz burst, dual band display, battery saver, LED flashlight, low battery alert and FM broadcast band reception. It will fit in your shirt pocket with room to spare at only 2.25 x 4.35 x 1.3" 7 ounces. The TD-Q8A comes with Li-ion battery, charge tray, AC adapter, standard SMA antenna, manual and belt clip.
Product is in production
More Info: http://universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/6008.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
KE0ABP Rating: 2020-02-08
Best HT for the money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The TDXone is the equal of much higher priced radios. I have two and I would happily purchase more if they were still available. Very easy to program in the field, good audio, nice feel.
AB0RE Rating: 2016-02-04
A bug-free Baofeng! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I won a TDXone TD-Q8A at a hamfest as a door prize from Radio City. I've had my share of Baofengs and Wouxuns and am admittedly a bit soured by Chinese radios due to quirky programming and performance. I assumed I'd have a similar experience with the TD-Q8A. Boy was I wrong.

Immediately after unboxing and programming the radio, a number of improvements over the Baofeng and Wouxun equivalent radios were observed. I'll rattle off a few here:

- Receive audio is phenomenal! It appears they must've rolled off the top portion of the audio spectrum a bit (hiss is much less noticeable than with other HTs) and left plenty of low range in the receive audio circuit. This radio is a pleasure to listen to and despite my having eight other handhelds, I consistently find myself using the TD-Q8A as my "daily listening" unit due to the richness of the audio.

- Programming is much easier. One can set the TX & RX PL tones at the same time. The menu and corresponding keyboard "shortcuts" are relatively easy to navigate through.

- The antenna on the TD-Q8A seems a bit taller than the one that comes on the Baofeng UV-5R. Although I don't have any measured performance data, I can say without hesitation that the antenna seems more efficient and I haven't had the desire to replace it with an after-market antenna from a different manufacturer, as I did with the Baofengs I've owned in the past.

- It appears the S-meter, although not too many segments, actually works on the TD-Q8A. Not so with the Baofengs.

- The accessory TD-Q8A speaker mic that I purchased doesn't sound quite as good as talking into the radio itself (still just a bit hallow), but it's light years ahead in sound quality over both the Baofeng and Wouxun speaker mics I've purchased previously.

- The TD-Q8A transmits "out of the box" on the ham bands (2M/440) only (it still has wideband receive range on both VHF and UHF). I understand there is software to unlock the transmit range, but I have not pursued this. There are two other hams in my household that are much less experienced than me, so it's a bit of a relief not having to worry about out of band transmissions as I have in the past with the Baofeng and Wouxun units. The appropriate transmit range of the TD-Q8A would make it a more appropriate choice for new hams than competing Chinese HTs.


Sure, there are some quirks, too:

- It appears the "dual watch" feature does not work when one of the sides of the radio is scanning.

- The battery is a tight fit and a bit cumbersome to remove from the radio.

- Not quite as visually appealing as the Baofengs and certainly not as visually appealing as the Wouxuns (you won't be the cool kid at the Baofeng Amateur Radio Network when you walk in with the TD-Q8A clipped on your belt).

- Still dismally slow scan speed (I typically leave the local repeater on one side of the radio, and the law enforcement dispatch on the other side of the radio with Dual Watch activated, so not an issue for me.)

- The TD-Q8A costs 3-7dB more than the Baofengs on Amazon, and are a bit more difficult to find. Of course, factor in that you get a real antenna on the Q8A and won't need a replacement, then the price difference is negligible.

- The TD-Q8A can be found at Radio City, Universal Radio, and a handful of other vendors, but is not available at the big box ham stores.


Sorry for the long rant, but I felt this little gem needed an appropriate review here on eHam.