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Reviews For: Wouxun KG-UVD1

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

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Review Summary For : Wouxun KG-UVD1
Reviews: 38MSRP: 149.99
Description:
136-174MHz & 400-470MHz Dual display, dual receive.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.wouxun.com/Two-Way-Radio/KG-UVD1.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00384.5
WA4DOU Rating: 2015-09-18
High Value for the Money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Having been a lifelong land mobile radio tech., I felt little interest in vhf/uhf FM amateur radio as it was too much like my work experience. Upon retirement, I began to reacquaint myself with vhf/uhf happenings and discovered the Chinese radios were here! Curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to see what they were all about and how they could possibly be so inexpensive. I picked up the 2m/220 Mhz version, using it primarily on 220, now for 31-32months. I programmed mine thru the keypad and had little difficulty, after initial difficulty with the poorly written instructions. I'm still using my original and spare batteries and I've experienced no trouble of any kind. I'm told that there are plenty of users that have had experiences such as mine and others who suffered delivery of defective products with short life, due to manufacturing defects, that Wouxun either wouldn't admit or wouldn't resolve. Guess I was pretty fortunate. IMO, this is a throw away radio, too inexpensive to expect to repair or have repaired. From what I hear, WOUXUN has damaged their reputation and may be trying to change their name and image. Nevertheless, my experience with this radio has been good. I can't complain.
AC7CW Rating: 2014-03-29
I like it a lot! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
In operation I like the radio and never have any problems with it.

Programming via the keypad is a bit of a challenge. The terminology has to be understood and a few of the settings are contextual to other settings. I put in the time to "get it" and eventually became comfortable with the radio. There is a very thorough youtube video on the subject: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3qEa4WYhbc

I bought a 40" extending antenna from MFJ and adapted it to the radio with a barrel connector. I can get full quieting from the local repeaters. I wouldn't expect much more than that.
EI3HAB Rating: 2014-03-24
good for ham repeaters Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased mine from 409shop.com at least 2 years ago; 2012. I never programmed it, I key in the repeater information incl., ctcss and talk away to fellow hams. It can reach a repeater that is 30 miles from me but this is strictly line of sight and the repeater is on a height. The charger and one of the two rechargeable batteries packed it in. I have purchased replacements via paypal. march 2014. Postal services from Hong Kong and Singapore are good. 73's from Dublin, Ireland.
W2DWL Rating: 2012-12-16
Worth the money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using this HT for more than a yr, and have not had any problems. It has a better receive than my Icom HT. And using a hand mic has a better audio than my other HTs. I have programmed this radio manually and have found it easy to do. This is a very reliable
Amateur radio
F4DYT Rating: 2012-08-17
Very good value for your money Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have this radio since three months, and it is my
first radio of this type.

Motivation for purchase was price and curiosity. Without a price under 100 euros, I would never have spent money on a handheld VHF transceiver just for exploring this type of radio.

With it, I have done QSOs in the 2m band, both in single channel mode (145.4500 MHz here in France) and using a relay in the Marseille region.

My signal was reported as weak but still understandable. This was expected as in all cases transmission conditions were not optimal, and I transmitted with only 5W.

The manual is "user-feindlich" as Germans like to say, just good enough for starting. With the help of volunteers who wrote better introductory manuals (downloaded from a distributor site in the US) I could finally understand what am I doing. Thank you to all of them.

The scanning feature is rather slow, although you can program channels and scan those channels instead of continously scanning the spectrum.

The loudspeaker is just good enough, the use of earphones greatly improves audio quality.

The commercial FM reception feature is very useful for me.

Battery life is adequate. However, if you forget to turn it off, the radio does not suspend service at low battery levels, to preserve battery chemistry. Twice my battery went flat. This is not good at all.

The SMA connector is not a problem, since for a few euros you can buy an SMA to BNC adaptor.

Did not receive yet the programming cable, as soon as I will receive it I will publish an update.
W0NQ Rating: 2012-02-05
A Killer Value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using mine over a year without a hitch. Just now thinking I might like to add a gain antenna to it, $13.00 isn't much of a gamble. I love this thing. Programming, as most will attest to is, well, ok. You have to figure your own offsets & such but that's no biggie. Once it's programed it will stand up against any Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood HT I have had. Less bells and whistles but everything you need. Buy one, they are a great value.
VE3KNT Rating: 2011-11-01
Good little radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Having bought my Wouxun HT well over a year ago, I think I'm now qualified to write my little review of it.
I was the first ham in my area to get one of these inexpensive dual band radios. I bought it on eBay direct from Hong Kong with the USB programing cable option. It took 8 days to get here, and came registered mail.
Over all I'm happy with it. There are a few down sides, I don't care for the SMA connector for the antenna, so I have an adapter on it to use BNC antennas, so when I get in my car I can pop the rubber ducky I bought for it off, and connect it to the mag mount whip that I put on the trunk of the car.
If there's an incoming signal some buttons don't respond until the signal is gone again. I've also found the if you program it by computer (and that is the best way to program it) you can not make changes to the programmed channels on the fly. Also,there's no easy with to switch from low to high power easily. You'd probably be best to have two separate entries if you want a low and high power setting for a certain frequency.

The built in white LED flashlight is handy, so it the FM broadcast receive radio, although the sound quality of music is not great, but that not the main purpose of this radio. It sounds good on the air, and since I got mine, server other locals have bough them now, after hearing mine on the air.

So it's not perfect, but a dual band radio for this price can't be beat. And I would recommend it.
EI4KE Rating: 2011-09-12
good value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used this h/h as my base radio for the last few months, having sold my FT 736r, and to be honest for local qso's and repeaters I find it does all I need of a 2m fm rig. I do find the menu hard to get around but I also suffer from this affliction on most radios today.
5/5 for value, 4/5 for ease of use once the memories are sorted.
N2PLI Rating: 2011-08-25
Its okay but Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi I just finally recieved my Wouxun HT Iam giving it a 5 star rating only because it was a great value for the price and its capable of gmrs transmit stock.Its hard to program I still havent figured how to save a channel to the memory.And the tone scan funcntion is hard to use. nice display will have follow up review in 6 months
NL7SX Rating: 2011-01-15
lightweight 1 1/4m and 2m ht Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Challenge to hand program but doable. Speakermike very useful (low cost). Bigger battery worth buying (low cost). Must carry the carrel/charger to do mobile recharge (12v). One disadvantage is that dust can get under the window for the display of the KG-UVD1. FM (88-108) receive band a little flakey but usable. Good belt clip.