| AF6TP |
Rating:  |
2021-09-06 | |
| Very good performer and fantastic support. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is my first DMR radio. Building a code plug wasn't that hard. Bridgecom has a ton of instructional videos on YouTube to help you figure out anything that coms up.
It's more expensive than the Radioddity UV DMR radio.
It seen well built, good transmit and receive audio. I use it thru a pi-star DMR hotspot I've had no complaints about any aspect of this radio. |
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| AF7JA |
Rating:  |
2021-07-24 | |
| It never really worked |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I got it for the purpose of APRS position reporting. That never worked. It just didn't work. it is possible that I never set it up right, I am in an area with no other hams. Further, the APRS functionality (if it is there) is so scattered through the radio that I have no idea if I ever set it up right, I just know it never worked.
At this point it will not connect to the computer, yes, I set the comport and verified it in device manager. When the data cable is pushed all the way in, the radio immediately begins to transmit and the eony way to stop it is to pull the USD cable out of the computer.
I know I had, and overcame, this issue a couple of years ago, when I first got the radio. That said, getting it working, on a most basic level, is a challenge.
Overall, if you want APRS, get a different radio. If you just want a dual-band radio, get something simpler that programs using CHIRP. It just isn't a good radio. |
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| EI3IBB |
Rating: |
2021-03-22 | |
| Excellent radio. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
This is an update to my first review on the 878 UV+
I now have the Openspot 3 and this allows very easy ability to cross mode from DMR to D-star and Fusion, there's a bit of a learning curve but once mastered it's very easy. You will only need 1 radio to use all 3 modes with the Openspot 3.
In the OS3 I have 3 profiles saved, 1 is Fusion, 2 is DMR and 3 is D-Star so to go from DMR I just private call 9003 press PTT and I'm on D-star and it automatically selects the last reflector in each mode.
In the radio I have talk groups set with the reflector id for YSF, for example, America link is 32592 so I program this into the 878 as a talk group, select it and press PTT and I'm on the reflector America link.
For D-Star, I create another talk group for example, 30 Charlie in the anytone is 13003, this is the id the Openspot 3 needs to be able to select 30 Charlie. The manual explains all this and is very well written.
TX/RX Audio is very good and works well over my car bluetooth system, the PTT button supplied with the 878 UV+ is very convenient.
The greatest issue is the code plug, and the future of Digital voice is the likes of Peanut where you need no code plug at all but it's in the very early stages of development and not all reflectors are available at this time.
Check out BlueDV and DVmega DV stick 30, if you do not like the thoughts of writing your own code plug. Works incredibly well on Windows and I can even use it on my Samsung S5e Tablet, though the Android AMBE version has bugs it works pretty well but you do not need a radio and it's a cheap way of getting into digital and works extremely well just make sure to go to the new DMR TG 98 for all your audio checks which 98 was created for as the Blue DV audio has to be set properly because some Blue DV setups sound really bad over the air because People can't be bothered to adjust their Mic gain especially on Android.
If you must have a radio then the Anytone 878 really is a good radio, excellent battery life but code plugs are a real pain and you're better off to program in a local repeater and just use a hotspot if you travel to save endless days of programming for each repeater. A hotspot is essential with DMR in my opinion and the Openspot 3 is worth every penny, battery life is around 8 hrs too and it charges fast via USB C.
Download the contact list from here for the 878, it will take a while to load it to the radio http://www.dmrcontacts.com/
It's pretty cool seeing the names and locations of all the stations.
I am quite happy with the 878 good radio and battery life is also excellent the Openspot 3 has made the whole experience a lot better.
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| G4AON |
Rating: |
2021-03-05 | |
| Impressive performance for a modest cost |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is my second DMR radio, the other is a TYT and this is a significant improvement. The good points are:
The colour display is clear and sharp and when on receive the display remains backlit.
Power output matches the specification, except the lowest power has been changed to 100mW (not 1W), which is an advantage when using a local hotspot.
On FM the receiver is very clean sounding with no obvious spurious signals, although I haven't tried it in a high RF environment. Sensitivity and squelch control are very good.
DMR works well, especially the talker alias.
There are a couple of minor issues, the transmit audio is a bit on the thin side and the receive audio is loud or very loud.
Beware that any changes you make on the radio will be saved when you download the codeplug. This can catch you out, so be careful with version control and saving codeplugs with appropriate file names. You can save/load just the radio settings and channels, or the whole user database complete with settings. The latter is quite tedious and very slow as the database has become huge, athough once most users migrate to talker alias the database will become redundant.
Many of the settings you would normally expect to have to program with a computer are available via the menu and keypad on the radio, which can be subsequently be saved to your codeplug file on a PC. This can be an advantage but be careful (as above).
I find the free software very good and easy to use. Creating a codeplug from scratch is fairly straightforward. |
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| LA9XNA |
Rating: |
2020-12-24 | |
| Good professional radio that can be ham radio! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
The hardware on the radio is great, everything seams to be really solide.
Software and user interface have room for improvements but this is more like tidy up the user interface and add some features in a different way.
Roaming is partly working but could have an additional feature by also sniffing data packages not only sending beacon and listening. While roaming it should also have the option of keeping time-slot and TG.
The main issue with DMR is that this is a professional radiosystem adapted to be usable for ham-radio. Most of the users that complain about the programming of the DMR assumes that its similar to programming an FM radio something its not!
Its important to read up on how to program a radio for DMR before even buying a radio. A good start is to get a CP from a friend but dont get a monster CP get something with maybe just one local repeater and get this up and running with the TGs you want to use.
There are a lot of good videos on youtube getting you started and also many web-pages with good explanations to set up the radio how you want it to work.
Study up and use google! |
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| K1SMD |
Rating: |
2020-08-31 | |
| Wonky |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
APRS is a beacon only, fixed location or gps nothing exposed via BT.
Over DMR it's a lat/long no simple processing to get a direction.
It has a serial Bluetooth that entirely undocumented.
As a general radio it does some funky things like tone squelch works then does not, reset the CPU to fix. Typical modern ship hardware and hopefully make the software work later. Give it a year or so and they might get a proper firmware shipped.
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| KB9MVW |
Rating: |
2020-08-23 | |
| Great Great Great |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| In a nutshell this is the best dual band dmr radio on the market in this price range. Programing a code plug on this is much more straight forward compared to the tytera md380.Battery life is also out of this world.I suggest watching a few you tube videos on this product.If your on the fence just buy it you wont be sorry. |
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| W4PHS |
Rating: |
2020-08-21 | |
| Great radio for DMR or general VHF/UHF use. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I've owned a lot of HTs over the last 10 years, and the AnyTone AT-D878UV is my favorite. It has a solid feeling, it fits well in the hand, it has good battery life, and the sound quality is very good. It's my favorite for both DMR and VHF/UHF.
My local ham group -- as well as an emergency agency I work with -- have started using DMR. The AnyTone works perfectly with DMR both through my home hotspot and a local DMR repeater.
But don't think of the AnyTone as just a DMR radio -- it's a great radio for VHF/UHF as well. It has sufficient power for a HT, the battery life is good, and the receive and transmit sound quality is very good. It has a Kenwood compatible dual plug connection for external mic/speaker, but I rarely use one.
My favorite feature of the AnyTone is "zones." You can group channels and DMR talkgroups into zones and then scroll through a limited set of channels of a certain type in a zone rather than having a long list of unrelated channels. Once you get used to using zones, you'll never want to go back to a conventional HT without them.
The only downside to the AnyTone is the challenge of learning how to program it. It gets especially complicated when you're setting it up for both VHF/UHF channels, DMR talkgroups, DMR hotspots and repeaters, and zones. I spent several weeks reading and watching YouTube videos before I figured it all out. If you have a friend with an AnyTone, get their codeplug to start, and get them to give you a demonstration of adding channels and talkgroups.
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| MYRDYN |
Rating: |
2020-06-30 | |
| Good hardware crappy cps editor |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Just purchased this and a D578, the hardware seems sturdy and to work. The main issue is that the CPS editor is not ADA compliant, and will prevent those with poor eyesight from being able to program their radios. Most of the screens are just fine if you run your display resolution to support them. The issue is if you want to have larger fonts and smaller screen resolutions (800 x 600) then you can not add channels, export or import data and set optional functions like hot keys to name a few. Bridgecom claims that they are not responsible and that Anytone is a foreign company (Chinese) and so does not need to comply with US laws. In short if you like small type faces and eye strain then this is a great product. |
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| WA0UAY |
Rating: |
2020-06-14 | |
| As good as most say! ....... 2nd review..... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just two days owning this radio so probably a bit early for a critical review, so I will keep my comments pretty generic to this point. I ran DMR a few years ago liked it but was not that impressed. I started using Fusion and WiresX about 18 months ago. I started cross coding from Fusion to DMR and was surprised at the improvements and activity on DMR. I still very much enjoy Fusion but now both formats. No doubt Fusion is much simpler to setup. After hours of trying to program the 878 and watching videos on YouTube and from Bridgecom where I purchased it, we finally have an understanding of the programming and the radio.
An excellent built product setup in a professional layout and what a receiver! Audio balance is very good with all the volume you could ever need! Beautiful color display and I know I have just begun to get into all the functions of this radio.
Bridgecom shipped it to me in four days. I had some questions and Savannah and the techs have responded well.
So far the only problems with the radio were created by me during setup. I did get the Bluetooth model and I did try it today in our Jeep. It did pair up but the audio of the Jeep had some distortion but was working. We’ll try it again. Great radio, Bridgecom a great company!
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2nd review as of June 14, 2020
If you want to get into DMR this is one of the radios you should consider!
Before getting this radio I would tell you that Fusion had better audio but not any longer. The receive audio, and transmit for that matter, is just outstanding! DMR is more challenging at first to setup, but the 878 is worth the effort. I’m not giving up on Fusion but the 878 and the improvements to DMR over a few years ago are vert dramatic.
If you are into nice sounding digital, I will also put in a plug for Peanut, by David PL7LIM. Great application! |
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