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Reviews For: Anytone AT-778UV

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

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Review Summary For : Anytone AT-778UV
Reviews: 17MSRP: 130
Description:
Micro class dual band UHF/VHF mobile transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15173.7
AF0TB Rating: 2020-12-07
Great Radio - Manual lacking Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This radio does everything you would want it to do. This is my 3rd 2m / 70cm rig purchased in a year and by far the best. Only negative is that the manual does not describe the abbreviations used for the user defined function key options. Searching for these on the internet did not yield results. Eventually I figured them out. Here they are:
A/B Switch Main Display from A or B
V/M Switch from VFO to Memory Channel
SQL Squelch
VOL Volume level
POW Power level
CDT Type of Control Tone
REV Reverses Transmit offset and receive frequency
SCN Scan
CAL Calibration (non-functional)
TALK Turns TX off for any particular channel
BND Bandwidth (adjust if audio is low to “wide” to allow for more deviation.)
SFT Frequency Offset
MON Disables squelch
DIR Direction of display
TRF Busy channel lockout
RDW Dual Watch
NULL Nothing (blank)
CH Puts Ch number in bottom of display. Only displays when control knob is set to default of Volume
WD5FUN Rating: 2019-03-05
Much better than expected Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought this radio because it is small and has a lot of features. I drive a Ford Ranger so not much room for radios and seemed to fit the bill. I was not expecting much for $120.00, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is a very nice little radio that seems to be of high quality. I really like the bright easy to read display. As easy as any to program and the 20 watts out lets me work any of the repeaters that I want.
W8IJN Rating: 2018-11-20
I really like this radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I really like this little radio. I say that having gone through various VHF & UHF radios, portable & base & HTs, over some five decades of playing radio.

The front-panel program buttons are easy to use. You can even personalize the layout. The radio is easy to program on the fly and even easier to just park a frequency, offset, tones &c with only a few button pushes. Of course, it's expected that you're not deluded enough to try and do this while zippin' down the Straße. But it's still much easier than the TH-9800 (my in-house base station).

The microphone is rather large but it has all the functions available on the front panel & is likewise easy to personalize for your needs. And you can switch the radio to use the microphone as a speaker-mic, with an option to disconnect the radio's speaker or use both the radio speaker and the speaker-mic setting. Quite sweet when cruising around.

The three power levels are perfect for driving around town & using local repeaters and the 20W high power setting works just fine for simplex conversations on the road. The audio output is clean and strong and the speaker is sufficiently large enough to use in a car.

I do wish that it had come with the programming software and cable (you have to deep search for the online download [from a Russian site]) but looking at the software, I'm probably better off hoping it's eventually accessible through CHIRP (which I use for all else in the shack).

In all this is an extremely affordable, compact, easy to set up and use two band VHF/UHF transceiver. I am very impressed & am actually thinking that I might replace the base station set up with another one. Yeah, I like it that much.
KF6YKM Rating: 2018-08-22
REAL rig for $120! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ham since 99 - Advanced Class License - This is a REAL dual band radio in the same ballpark as the big boys. The COLOR screen is phenomenal: Full of info and very colorful which really makes it a pleasure to operate. Operation and programming is easy and simple. I ordered the cable but not felt the need for it. Others have complained about the DTMF functions. It has them but since I don't use them it doesn't affect me. It offers dual watch altho I don't really use that either. Power is nice. 5-15-25 watts. And changeable on the fly. I am repeater guy so 5 watts on a indoor j-pole is fine. I also tested it on a 1/4 wave dual band mag mount on my older fan with a metal case and works nicely as well. For $120 this little rig can't be beat. I did not read the manual at all. (it is a bit rough.) Went on youtube, watched a fellow show how to program / use it and voila! Easy. Has a logical menu system layout and intuitive interface. It feels like a rugged rig. I have had two other "mobile" style Chinese rigs. The first was was okay for $60 but hard to program manually. The second I ordered recently ($80) and returned. No transmit audio. Three bands - 2m, 220 and 440. I could key the repeaters up but no audio came thru. I tested locally with my HT's and true. No output audio. Returned it to Amazon. It was tough to program manually as well altho CHIRP supports it and made it much easier. Often I like to program on the fly and this AnyTone rig is easy for that. BTW, CHIRP so far does not support this little rig BUT it has it own downloadable software. Not tried it but looked at it. Looks capable enough. Okay, bottom line - how does it sound: Speaker audio out is nice and clear and loud. Some have complained it takes two keys to adjust volume and squelch and that is true. I don't find it a big deal as the keys are next to the multi function rotary dial. Thumb press and turn. Voila. Had a buddy of mine check the audio on a repeater and reported it sounded good, loud and crisp. Can't ask for anything better. I had a feeling it would sound fine as I used it simplex here with the granddaughters helping and it worked and sounded fine. This rig is semi wide banded so working on MURS and GMRS is possible. Of course stay within legal guidelines and make sure your antenna is tuned for those bands. GMRS 10 year licenses are $80 last I checked and MURS is free but keep the power low. Same with FRS. So from a non technical ham that just wants to use a good rig and hear and be heard without too much hassle to work and program, I give this rig two thumbs up.
XE1ZLG Rating: 2017-12-04
Very good price value product Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I think this radio is one the best options when a Dual band medium power is necesary for communications... the receiver can hold a Diamond X300A without overload... and the output power measured on a bird are .. 6 W LOW... 12 W MEDIUM AND 24 W HIGH..

NICE INTERFACE... EASY TO USE AND PROGRAM... Thanks Anytone. XE1ZLG
N6DZK Rating: 2017-10-16
UPDATE Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
All issues have been resolved except for 1 (more on that in a moment). After some back and forth with the vendor, the usability issues mentioned in my previous post are "by design". Some of this I can chalk up to me, the operator. Some I can chalk up to questionable user interface design. Now that I have used the radio for several months I will capitulate that the bulk of the issues are with me and not the radio.

Now that I understand the workflow better, some of the A/B issues are not that big of a deal. So as it turns out, if you enter a mode, that mode will time out after about 5 seconds. For instance, if I hit A/B then chan up/dwn will also do A/B. But if I wait 5 seconds, the A/B function will time out. Or I can cancel that mode with a quick tap of PTT, or press any other key on the mic. It is one of those "once you know" things. All radios have these types of user interface issues. You just have to spend some time with the radio to work through them.

So after all that I can bump from 3 to 4/5 due to still not having DTMF transmit. The repeaters that I frequently use have features that are operated by DTMF. It may not be an issue for others, but for me and my use it is.

The rest of the previous review stands. It still has a very nice screen, good form factor, really good audio, and is actually fairly easy to program from the panel/mic. The software and cable certainly make things easier as they do with any radio.
JF1UCX Rating: 2017-08-09
Good little radio, but quirky Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got this radio as a backup UHF mobile to use in the house. I really liked the multicolor display style with reverse LCD. I wish more low end radios had this kind of display. You can only see this type on high end HF rigs usually.

Also, the handset has a nice lighting feature that indicates what band/freq (A/B) the incoming audio is on.

The transmit audio is a bit on the hot side when closer than 5cms and too weak when farther away. A mod might be necessary, such as installing some mic foam on the mic element as well as enlarging the mic hole a bit, allowing one to 'cozy up' to the mic for stronger audio without clipping or breath wind noise.

I don't like the two stage procedure just to adjust the volume. On a mobile radio, that is not a good design feature. A simple volume knob would've been much better.

I am having trouble getting the radio to perform DTMF functions on nearby repeaters. The audio makes it in fine, but I cannot control the repeater by DTMF with this radio (but I can with all my other radios). Is it a bug? I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm using the online manual since the one that came with it was in Chinese exclusively.

The speaker audio isn't bad for a mobile, but it could be louder. My TYT 9000 can reach a level about twice as loud as this unit, which is necessary for mobile installations.

Also, the MON key, used to remove squelch to hear raw audio, seems to only work when depressed in. Once the pressure is released, it goes back to squelched audio. This is similar to the MON button on the side of HTs, in that it needs to be depressed to work. Again, this could be a bug or the intended design. Would be better to have a dual action switch, hit button once, raw audio. Hit it again, back to squelch.

This radio gets hot on high power. There is no fan.

Overall, it's a nice looking radio and has an exceptionally good feature filled display (with two meters, so you can monitor the second band/freq. and see the levels on it without having to bring it to the front.