Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Lab599 Discovery TX-500

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Lab599 Discovery TX-500
Reviews: 16MSRP: Approx. $800
Description:
The Lab599 Discovery covers 160-6 meters, all modes, with a maximum power output of 10 W. It comes with true desktop-radio features, like auto-notch, noise reduction, and RX/TX EQ. The transceiver has a built-in fast panadapter.
Product is in production
More Info:
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15164.9
WB6AGE Rating: 2022-12-25
Great portable rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This rig replaces a well used FT-817ND and any comments or observations made use the 817 as a reference point. Having the TX-500 for about a week let's me only make general comparisons now. As time goes by, I will update this review.

What struck me first was the appearance. First thought was "this thing is a brick" There is nothing dainty about it. It looks like it will survive in the field. The solid aluminum body and water resistant fittings are a in a whole different class than the 817.

My practice is to set up a new radio in the shack using a known good antenna and let it run for a minimum of a full 12 hours. During that time several nets will be checked into using the default settings.

While tuning around and trying various receiver filters and noise reduction features, I began to realize the receiver appears to out perform the 817 on its best day. This is no surprise since the 817's design is quite elderly.

The transmitter worked as expected and easily was able to check into various nets on 40 & 80 that were difficult to do with the 817. But in fairness the TX-500 has twice the power at 10 watts.

So one week in, I am pleased with the overall performance, form factor, build quality, and features. Next step is to get it to work with my laptop for digital modes and key for CW. Once that's all done, it's off to the field for some fun.

With the new rig, I'm taking the opportunity to rework my carry bag, batteries and adding a solar charger. Will be updating as time goes by. But for now, I'm really pleased with what I see.
+++++++++++++
6-2-21 UPDATE

It's been about a month since receiving the radio and so far, so good. Have built an digimode audio interface cable using the supplied connector. The cable was not difficult to build, but be aware, the pins on the supplied GX connector are small so have good eyes or a big magnifying glass handy. Got a bit custom and used the computers headset jack for audio instead of the usual external sound card. This eliminates another thing to carry.

The TX-500 uses a standard Kenwood command set so CAT control was easy. I'm using the Kenwood TS-840 configuration in the software with no problems using Ham Radio Deluxe or Hamlib. No glitches or freezes.

Since receiving it, I have installed two firmware updates. Both have added new features like additional filters, voice and CW memories, and beaconing. Installation is a breeze with the same cable used for CAT control.

One area still needing sorting is understanding how to set audio drive levels for the digimodes to prevent excessive ALC action.

Still very happy with the rig. It is a vast improvement over the 817 it replaced.

+++++++++++
8/17 update

The more I use this rig, the more I like it. With each firmware release, it just gets better.

This is not my primary rig, but it's the one that goes camping, hiking, beach outings, jeep trips........... While traveling it lives in small carry bag along with a end fed antenna and a tablet. With this I can operate ft8 or js8 and not worry about rain or dirt. As an added benefit, the rig makes a great general coverage receiver.

What really stands out is the performance of the receiver. It truly is a vast improvement over the 817 it replaced. Take time to get really familiar with the filters, noise reduction functions and preamp/gain controls. It is well worth doing.

If you have taken the time to read down this far, you can accurately assume I am very pleased with the TX-500. The wait was long and the price high, but I am glad I did it every time I use it.

+++++++++++++
11/18 Update

This rig continues to exceed my expectations. No muss, no fuss after months of outdoor use. The firmware updates continue to polish this gem giving me actual things I can use instead of window dressing.

Have been times that I needed more power, so I purchased the matching 60W amp from DIY599. It has just arrived and I will be reviewing it after a bit of operating time.

++++++++++++
12/24/22

This rig just doesn't quit! It has accumulated thousands of miles driving, flying, off road and flying. Not one failure or lockup. It spends its travels in a canvas bag from Ikea which also holds a very small laptop for digimodes, a small bag of cables and dangles, and a small lithium battery. Depending on the trip I pack either an EFHW or Chameleon MPAS Lite with whip.

It has gotten rained on, snowed on, covered with dust, and has drinks spilled on it. Nothing has effected it. Over time the firmware updates has enhanced it. It's RF performance is head and shoulders above the FT817 it replaced and on par with the Elecraft field products owned by my friends.

If you can't tell, I'm happy to own one. It's not cheap, and I'm not sure how available it is at the moment considering the Ukraine War, but if your serious about QRP field ops, this is the transceiver to have.

This will be my last update unless something dramatic occurs.

73, WB6AGE
WQ2U Rating: 2022-04-13
Great QRP radio for SOTA/POTA Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Gosh, I love this thing. The performance is excellent, and the NR is one of the best I've ever heard coming/not coming out of a portable radio including my IC-705, which is starting to show its age/old NR algorithm. I have a small battery which is good for a couple POTAs, and all I have to do is keep an eye on on screen voltage meter, so I know when to charge up my battery.
AB6A Rating: 2022-03-07
Sweet Radio. Built Tough. Perfect for POTA. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I put my name down for purchase from HRO then promptly forgot about it. It was shipped to me around October 2020 and since then I have dragged it around with me wherever I go.

I recently set up in Nehalem State Park, OR with 20M Ham Sticks on a painters pole and had Japan booming in with a pronounced echo indicating reception on both short and long path. A QSO at the state park was with a station in Juno Alaska around 1600 Miles so 10W rocks.

I run the radio of a M18 lithium power tool battery with a small DC-DC down converter to 13.8V. I did purchase a QRP Antenna tuner from Elecraft.

Menus are easy to use and I'm fine with speaker/mike - Its easy to swap out to headphones as needed.

If there was a gripe, it's the lack of a builtin digital usb interface - There is USB CAT control, but no USB sound interface so a separate microphone/speaker cable is required.

Overall I am really happy with this radio for its light weight, low power use, ease of use, and rugged build. Receiver sensitivity and transmitter capabilities are great!
5B4AIY Rating: 2022-02-04
Excellent Portable Rugged QRP Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having now had my 'Discovery' transceiver for a while, I thought it would be appropriate to report on its performance. As others have commented, it is an extremely rugged piece of kit, and well able to tolerate the rigors of backpacking and portable operation, even to the extent of surviving the occasional splash. One point, the AF GAIN and RIT/XIT knobs on my unit were very loose. They are made of a rubbery material, and only fixed onto the encoder shafts with a spot of adhesive. They come off very easily, and in portable usage might well get lost. I realize that a spot of cyanoacrylate glue would fix them in place, but then they would be extremely difficult to remove without damage when it comes time to replace the internal clock/memory backup battery. Perhaps someone will make a set of replacements that are secured with grub screws? - Hint - hint!

I particularly like the almost intuitive user interface. After reading the User Manual and spending a few minutes playing with the buttons, it becomes very easy to operate. You have everything you need and nothing you do not. The latest firmware, v1.12.00, adds the facility to correct the internal reference, and in my case only a small correction was required. The 'out-of-the-box' error was only +0.35ppm, which is very good. Even so, a small correction was applied and this has virtually eliminated even this offset error.

The manufacturers do not specify the sensitivity of the receiver, so I conducted my own measurements. The standard definition is that signal at the input that results in a 10dB S+N:N ratio at the output of 10dB in a 2.4kHz bandwidth for SSB, and a 500Hz bandwidth for CW. I measured this for all the bands individually with the pre-amp on, and the mean value for the 160m through 10m bands was -120.4dBm corresponding to an input voltage of 0.21uV for SSB, and -125.9dBm corresponding to an input voltage of 0.11uV for CW. For the 6m band the SSB MDS was -117dBm, 0.32uV, and the CW MDS was -123dBm, 0.16uV. For comparison, the Icom IC-705 SSB MDS is specified as -120.97dBm, 0.2uV for the 160 to 10m bands, and -123.5dBm, 0.15uV for 6m. Icom do not specify a CW MDS. Consequently, this receiver is at least as sensitive as the competition, and well suited to portable operation when the antenna is usually sub-optimum.

The bands are selected by means of the BAND+ and BAND- buttons, but the operation is slightly odd. There are 11 band-pass filters for the 11 amateur bands from 160m to 10m, but there are actually 12 bands that can be selected. In my case, the default selection gave me two 17m band settings, but when I tried to set another amateur band frequency in this 'ghost' band it altered the frequency in one of the real bands, and when this 'ghost' band was re-selected its frequency had not changed. It seems that this 12th band is for general coverage, and to avoid these odd issues it is best to set a frequency below 160m so that as you step through the bands they are then selected in order. Odd.

The panadaptor display is quite usable, and, it can be averaged to smooth out the noise, making weak signals more visible - something that Yaesu might well like to consider in their next firmware updates for the FTDX101D, as it constantly annoys me having to look at the raw display on this transceiver.

The quality of the audio from the speaker-microphone is adequate for communications purposes, and there is ample audio power available for outdoor use, especially if you use the increased audio power by setting it to OUTDOOR. Be aware however that the headphone socket on the side of the speaker-microphone is only wired for one earpiece of a stereo headset, which is a nuisance. Much better results can be obtained by using a standard computer boom microphone headset. This plugs into the accessory lead and I have tested it with several headsets, the Yamaha CM-500, Koss SB-45, Trust, Logitech H110, and the EPOS H3. The latter headset performed the best, with reports of excellent speech quality, as well as being a comfortable fit and good audio in the earpieces. No adjustment of microphone level was required except for the Logitech unit whose microphone output was significantly lower than the others, but there is still more than enough adjustment range available to compensate. If the audio output is connected to a good quality 8 ohm bookshelf speaker, the AM short-wave performance is quite good. Note however that the audio amplifier uses a bridge-mode device and neither side of the speaker is grounded - be careful!

On the down-side, the receiver is not without its share of spurious signals. Especially annoying are two on the 40m band, and one on the 20m band. Most of the spurii are of a sufficiently low level that they are at or below atmospheric noise when connected to an antenna, and so are less likely to be heard. Also annoying are the loud glitches when tuning. This is not a fault, but merely an artifact of the way the synthesizer works. The radio uses a Silicon Labs Si531 PLL Fractional-N synthesizer, and the tracking range of the PLL is limited to about 3,500ppm from its set frequency. Consequently, if you tune further away than this then the microprocessor has to change all the internal multiplication and division registers to a new center frequency, and this change is what causes the glitch. It might be worthwhile in a future firmware update muting the audio whilst this register change is occurring - just a thought.

Also on the downside, there is no ATU, so either you have to pack one, or else your antennas needs to present a reasonable match to the transmitter. Lab599 have said that an auto ATU that can be attached to the transceiver is one of the things that they are considering, as well as an integrated battery pack.

So, I am very pleased with my transceiver, sensitive, easy to use, excellent overall performance, compact and rugged, with a really low power consumption in the receive mode, hence 5 stars.

Adrian, 5B4AIY

04-FEB-22
The following current consumption figures may be of interest, using a Pro-Audio Engineering PAE-KX33 PSU:
14.3V RX = 100mA, TX 5W = 1.59A, TX 10W = 2.15A, TX 10W, SSB, No Modulation = 0.71A

AB0O Rating: 2021-12-30
Serious, no-compromise, quality radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I won't re-hash the glowing remarks of previous reviewers, but adding my perspective as follows. I am very active with POTA and have been using a KX-3 for over 450 park activations and almost 14,000 SSB QSOs, and have used a FT-817 for years before the KX-3.
I decided to try something different and having had very good experiences with Eastern European tech/manufacturing in other areas, I decided this should be a good choice.

Having so much time on the KX-3, I have taken the TX-500 on a dozen park/field activations so far for an "A/B" comparison with the same antenna and headset/mic.

The first impression is that the receiver is very quiet, even without NR or NB. The filters are very sharp. The menus are easier to navigate than on the Elecraft...fewer buttons.
After a dozen trips I'm almost to the point of saying that it is equivalent to the KX, with the added advantage of being rugged...almost military style.

My only disappointment was the supplied audio interface wire/connector harness that allows connection to speaker, mic, and has the PTT button. As rugged and high quality as the rig is, this cable harness is far too delicate and frail with tiny enamel-insulated wire...mine had issues on the first day. I would not trust that harness to be reliable for very long and certainly not take it on a long hike. I am not sure what they were thinking when they chose that particular wire harness.
There is a USD$35 aftermarket source for a wire harness that is better, but ultimately, I built my own with RG-174 coax that is very strong and durable.

Otherwise, this radio is becoming my primary radio for taking to the field. Pocket-sized, and fits a Nintendo Switch case perfectly.
Will update after some winter operations.
Very good product!
VE3EGA Rating: 2021-12-26
Buy one you won't regret it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Firstly, buying a new radio is not about 'need....

Trust me, this radio 'checks all the boxes' for usability ruggedness (you don't need an "exo-skeleton" case/handles like KX2/3) and portability - and it looks pretty damn good too! Oh, btw it doesn't mind a bit of rain either!

I have a KX1, 2, 3 and wanted a radio that I can easily roughly, backpack and use for CW, SSB, maybe FT4/8 and maybe WinLink and was happy sitting on a rock, in a car or on a beach!

I wanted something that was easy to use, had all the operating features I would want to use in different circumstances - as I said, it checked all the boxes!

Its a 10 Watt radio - that's a LOT of QRP!

What I like (and use a lot) the built in 'TUNE' feature which is like a VNA - you can actually see your antenna's resonance/vswr - my first QSO was without a tuner and just a UNUN and EFLW - accomplished with this feature!

I like the no-nonsense menu buttons, read the instruction pamphlet once and you are up and running and on the air in minutes!

I had a few SSB QSO's and it is currently running FT8 quite happily here, sat by my PC feeding an indoor loop.
It uses 'digi-mode' and the settings are independently stored when you switch back to SSB/CW!

I have a SignaLink USB - it works fine (via USB/VOX) but now I prefer my newly purchased "digirig" interface that comes with plug-and-play cables for the TX-500 and uses CAT control. The radio runs cool!

Note: Its not my intention to use the TX-500 as a FT8 radio - there are more economical choices for this!

My Summer plans for this radio are POTA and maybe SOTA? I am really looking forward to field operations with this radio -check out Lab599 (groups.io) also lots of YouTube videos out.

There is a reason HRO (and others) are always back-ordered - PERHAPS IT'S THAT GOOD? (btw, you can call them to get on the list for next Months delivery!)

Go get one and join us!

73

Terry, ve3ega
W0PZD Rating: 2021-10-29
Best new little radio out there! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
HRO still waiting for their ship to come in (and unload!). For a few dollars more I have the Swedish version. I'm Swedish with a little Russian so perfect! Radio got here yesterday and I like it better than my last several rigs: FT817, FT897, FT818, Kx3, Kx2 G90, IC7300, and most recently IC705. Took 16 days to work WAS on FT8 with the 705, we'll see how long the TX500 takes. Haven't worked out all the hookups for digital yet but there's lots of help out there.
My only black-marks go to FedEX for misplacing the radio in Indianapolis customs for 6 days.
AE7YD Rating: 2021-08-29
the best receiver. the best radio overall. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This radio is not only build by military standard it is also an outstanding performer. The receiver has the lowest noise floor from all the radios I ever owned.
It is really easy to use, no deep menus, very ergonomic.
I am not a ft8 fan but it is really easy to interface for digital modes or SSTV.
Not cheap and I had to wait a long time to get it but it was worth every penny and the wait, no doubt.
There has been so many positive reviews there is not much I can add.
KD4AFW Rating: 2021-06-22
I love this radio!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After much deliberation, I chose this rig over the others. I'm an Elecraft fan, and always will be, but this little brick works great. It's very intuitive in it's menu structure. Audio reports have been great, and aside from a birdie here and there, no complaints. Nice packaging too! I also might add that the general coverage rx is especially nice. I've had the Elecraft K2 for years, but missed gen coverage rx. No buyers remorse here.
WK7L Rating: 2021-04-17
Incredible radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Although the radio is still backordered at HRO, it is well worth the wait if you're a QRP operator. It's rugged and built like a brick. It's very easy to operate. The audio quality is quite good, though the speaker in the speaker-mic could be a little better. The filters are phenomenal. I have this connected to an 80-10 EFHW and have very little difficulty being heard when the band conditions are good. And while it's not as fancy as an IC-705 or KX-2, it gets the job done. If you have to have a built-in battery or ATU or waterfall display (it has a panadapter), this is NOT the radio for you. But as a radio built for field operations, I don't think that you could do better. Oh, and the literature is accurate in that it draws about 110ma in receive mode with the backlight on.