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Reviews For: QYT KT-980 PLUS

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

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Review Summary For : QYT KT-980 PLUS
Reviews: 4MSRP: $155
Description:
? MINI & NEW OPERATION MENU: Updated version for KT-UV980, new development menu personalized design operation, easy to use. With handheld mini size, easy to carry. Size: 4.96*4.05*1.85 in, Weight: about 2.3lb. ? 75W HIGH POWER: Output power is up to 75 Watt of VHF, 55 Watt of UHF. A real long-distance Communication monster! ? DUAL BAND SUPPORT: VHF 136-174MHz (Rx/Tx) UHF 400-480MHz (Rx/Tx) ? UPGRADE VERSION: Scan function splved, Large LCD Display, Cooling Fan, QUAD standby, External Speaker Jack, Program Jack (Program Software Same as 8900D: https://s3.amazonaws.com/usbdriver/QYT+KT-8900D+Program+Software.rar) ? MULTI FUNCTION: FM Radio, PTT ID, DTMF(2 / 5 tone), Remote stun, Remote Kill, Alarm, Monitor, High/Low Power Settings, Colorful LCD, Wide(25KHz)/Narrow(12.5KHz) bandwidth, Scrambler, Squelch, TOT
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.radioddity.com/products/qyt-kt-980-plus-dual-band-car-transceiver-colorful-lcd
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0042
SV9AWG Rating: 2021-08-26
This radio has surprised me positively!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This radio has surprised me positively!!! i have it for 1 month and i think that is a very good radio have very good performance in vhf that I have tested, and the 4 frequencies on the screen is in automatic scan mode with very good reception! i used one vhf/uhf measuring instrument that I tested with 4 different radios (because I did not believe showed my eyes) and on VHF a have 98watts with a X200 antenna in my roof of my house
I do not know why the impressions that the other members have are so negative! but I have a different opinion from them, my own experience is very positive, it is worth up to the last of the 100 euros I pay!!!
WD5ACP Rating: 2021-05-30
Cheap - awful interface - works okay once you set it up Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
So I picked one of these up off of Amazon Prime on sale ($110) figured low risk / easy return. I wanted a VHF / UHF radio capable of cross-band repeater operation as my older quality Kenwood dual bander didn't really like that mode.

This little radio CAN be configured for cross band operation so I gave it a shot. That actually works, so for my ONE application it actually will do what I need it to do.

power output isn't quite what is advertised but seems okay - probably need 1:1 SWR for full watts.

The quad-band is a misnomer. It's not a 4-band radio; only 2M and 440.. the 4 band refers to the display and simultaneous receive! You can configure it to monitor 4 channels (A, B, C, D) or VFO "M" and any other 3 memory channels all at the same time without scanning. (It does scanning too).

The user manual is minimal and poorly translated, The website is the same. If you're lucky you'll find the right drivers and the free setup software and you CAN get this thing to work - but it's miserable to make any change to any channel or setup. It should ONLY be used if you plan on setting it up ONCE and never changing anything again. The menus are cryptic and things that should be easy / common / repeatable require menu settings. It is NOT a ham-friendly radio. There's stuff in the rig that no Ham would use including emergency call tones, a SW remote kill switch and it even has a crappy FM broadcast mode that won't remember the last setting.

Is it garbage radio ? Not quite as it DOES do what it DOES okay I guess - but it IS a garbage HAM radio. Save your money and get a real HAM radio from the big 4 and don't waste your money on this thing unless you have a single specific mode/freq/repeater/setup you want to use and don't want to ever change anything again. I can't image going mobile with this rig and trying to setup something without the manual and PC setup program.

I would hate this rig to be my only radio and/or the introduction to ham radio.
WW5RON Rating: 2020-11-17
good but dies Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Own 3. 2 newer ones died between 9 months & a year. First one I bought still works great after 2 years. gets up to 97 watts out on 2 meters around 30 watts out on 70cm, frequency & antenna dependent. good radio if they lasted longer but 1 has no power at all as if fuse blew(but no evidence of damage inside & no visible fuse on top side of board) , other receives, but won't transmit possibly blown output Transistor) , third is good. so I wasted $300 in the two dead ones ... I ue RT Systems cable & programming software, it's the same radio as Socotran ST980 and Luiton LT598 and Btech UV50x2 but each may have minor changes like better output transistors or something...shouldda bought a yaesu FTM 7250 or an Icom 2730.. I do however like my Anytone AT5888uv !!! Triband and Yaesu 2m only Ft2980r (wish there was a FT2980r in UHF/70cm though)
KE7FD Rating: 2020-04-19
Junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
First the good news: None

The bad news: This radio does not even come close to the advertised 75 watts as advertised. In fact, its output was lower than my Yaesu FT-7900R which is rated lower than this radio! In other words, this radio is a poor performer. Also, this radio is often sold with a programming cable. It's junk too! As we've often seen in the past with generic cables coming out of China, this cable will not digest the drivers from the manufacturer of the built-in chip (Prolific?) because it's a knock-off chip, not authentic Prolific, and it wouldn't work with the driver found on the QYT web site! Your mileage my vary, but I got no where. The cable begins to act like it's connecting but once Chirp runs a few seconds, it errors out and you're sunk. This happened whether I used Chirp versions that were 15 months old, 12 months old, or the latest version: nothing worked. Moreover, after I ordered a real FTDI chip based cable, I was able to do basic programming of the radio, but Chirp only touches basic features; it's not intended to reach every feature of [this] radio, which is no fault of the Chirp guys (you have to use a different model from the pick-list to get anywhere). I also seemed to encounter something where the transmit halted on longer transmissions: I'm guessing the final was getting too hot. This is the only radio I have that's behaved like that on the same antenna I use with other radios. The display is funky too. The four frequencies displayed [can] represent the first 4 memories (or VFO depending), yet instead of turning the knob like every-other-mobile-ham-radio to cycle through the memories, the knob changes the line you're on to the next memory. I know this is hard to visualize, but if you want to parse through whatever your memories are by twisting the knob (manual scanning), you basically hose up what order of memories are displayed. The smart thing they didn't do was to limit the display to two lines of channels or memories. But no, for some bizarre reason there's 4 lines on the display which at least in Chirp I couldn't get to show the alphanumeric name of the repeaters, just their frequency. Now, if I had monkeyed with it longer, I might have gotten that to stick, but it's not what you think it would/should be. So each of these 4 lines becomes it's own island of frequencies. You turn the knob and you cycle through all the memories on that one line. Arrow down to the next line, the same, Next line, same. Next line, same. But you're only able to listen to one at a time, or at least I never could hear traffic on adjacent memories. The manual is in English but it's really nothing more that a description of the buttons and not really how the radio works. It seemed to me that the manual was like a homework assignment given to a high school student.

I do NOT recommend this radio to any ham, of any skill level, of any age group. It might have been designed around a different audience other than Amateurs, maybe that's why it does not fit in our array of go to radios. For a few dollars more, you can have a real radio from Yaesu or one of the other big players, which will have better power out, better spectrum figures (which I didn't touch on), easier to program and use.