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Reviews For: Puxing PX-2R

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

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Review Summary For : Puxing PX-2R
Reviews: 15MSRP: 50.00
Description:
UHF Mini Ham Radio Transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.puxingradio.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00154.6
K8PD Rating: 2013-01-26
Well Constructed & Good Value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased my first PX-2R a little over a year ago with guarded expectations based on its price. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the radio and its performance. As many have noted, the manual leaves a lot to be desired but once you figure things out it's relatively straightforward to use.

I recently purchased the updated 2M version of the radio because of the good experience with the my UHF version. I was even more pleasantly surprised as Puxing had fixed a couple of the minor issues with the original radio and added some features as well.

In the original PX-2R, the s-meter was completely unusable as it would vary, randomly jumping around like a hyperactive kid. The new version has a useful s-meter proportional to received signal level. Puxing also added UHF receive only capability to the VHF transcieve function making it nice to monitor 70cm frequencies. I haven't experimented to see if it supports crossband operation.

Looking at the transmitted and received performance on my Agilent 8924 service monitor, the transmit power is at a solid 2+watts and spectrally clean, both CTCSS and voice deviations are right on the money, and receive sensitivity is better than .25uV for 12dB SINAD. Receive audio is strong and the display is easy to see, even for my aging eyes.

This radio exceeds my expectations and is a tremendous value for both cost and quality. It still has a slight audio pop as the squelch closes but that seems to be much lower than that on my older UHF PX-2R.

One word of warning about programming software and cables. Many of the USB cables coming from China/Hong Kong use non-authentic Prolific chips in them. Current prolific drivers can detect these chips and will not allow them to interface with Windows software. Your best bet is to order a serial cable with a DB-9 connector and get a USB-Serial dongle with a genuine Prolific chip to program the radio. The Puxing software is also challenging to load and somewhat buggy. It comes up in Chinese mode which displays most characters as a series of ???. There is an English mode switch in the menu across the top of the page. Clicking on the 3rd from the right question marks will display the word english in readable format and clicking on it will change the language displayed. That must be done each time the program is loaded.

I also attempted to use the open source CHIRP program but had problems with it. It would read the contents of the radio but displayed incorrect data in all of the fields. Since the software is open source, it could change in the future but my experience was that it was not functional for the PX-2R in its current version. The Puxing software had some bugs, especially programming channel 1 and CTCSS frequencies but with a little editing most of the problems had work arounds.

In summary ... Great little radio but the support including the manual and programming software could use some improvement. The user experience is pleasant. Overall a great value.
W7MAG Rating: 2011-12-30
Eh,... so so... Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
For the price I should have bought the Baofeng UV3R.

My particular radio has issues.
Very poor tx audio reported to me
with just about every transmission.
(Most report 'muffled' audio and
no my thumb is not over the mic.)
Random lock-ups when programming through
the front panel.

On the receive side it's really quite good.
Good battery life and being able to
charge using a USB cord is great!
That's about it but that's enough.

Paul
WA7YLI Rating: 2011-05-31
Great little radio! How do you connect to PC? Time Owned: N.A.
I bought a pair of these while I was in China. Unfortunately, I got Chinese manuals!! I found the radio easy to figure out and program, and audio is great both ways. Power seems good, All in all, I love this little rig!! However I'm not having much luck programming from a PC? I have installed the programming software, and the USB-Serial driver, mapped to COM1, all works well with a Wouxun radio.
When I try to connect to the PX-2R, (with its software) however the connection fails. (both radios) Is there a key sequence I need to do on the radio to connect? I think I'm ok on the PC end. (running xp)
Thanks in advance!
Larry WA7YLI
KF9ZA Rating: 2011-05-25
Great little radio. Well built Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ordered my Puxing PX-2R via eBay ( jaco3378 ) direct from Hong Kong for a total of $49 delivered. Took two weeks. I've had it now a week and really like it. Had a bit of a learning curve programming it. It has broadcast FM turned on by default so the first thing I had to do was go into the menu and turn off FM. After that I was able to program it. I'm a Mac person so I didn't get the cable and software. The included manual was a little difficult to understand but I was able to finally figure it out.

Major, major omission in the manual was how to program a repeater into memory. Luckily I found on the Web how to do it: "Go to VFO and set up the freq. When the freq. is set, hit function and then memory., turn the knob to the channel (001, 002 etc.) you want it on then I just hit memory twice. "

The audio is strong, although there is a popping sound at the end of any received transmission. Not too bad when you are listening by speaker, but with the headphones it gets annoying. I found one ham on the Web who has instruction on modifying it.

Summary. I would recommend this little radio for the price. Strong 2W transmit gets me into all the local repeaters. Solid and seems to be very well made. Great battery life. BTW, there is a VHF version, but it's not branded a Puxing. I don't know if it's made by Puxing, or if it's any good, but it appears the same. Go to eBay and search "RONSON RT-26V" and this looks like the VHF version
KC2YXU Rating: 2011-05-22
Great Little Radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I agree with most of the other reviewers that this radio is a great bargan for the price. For $47 dollars shipped from eBay, I would hwve never expected it to perform as well as it does. It feels sturdy and the recieve audio sounds clear and I get good reports on transmit audio. It has enough power to hit the local repeater and it can even get into a repeater about 22 miles away with a good antenna.
KD0BLS Rating: 2011-02-01
Shirt-pocket bargain Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I pretty much echo everything said so far. Performance of this radio is over the top for a shirtpocket radio. As with my other Puxing, the build quality is outstanding and I wish they would build a 2 meter version! As I live in Kansas, I have zero problems working the "local" 70cm repeater, even though it's over 10 miles away! Battery life on a full charge is excellent, easily giving a full day (10 hours)on Hi power in the field with some left over. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Puxing product.
W9CLL Rating: 2011-01-18
Nice little rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This was a bit of a pig in a poke for me, I have been looking at them on Ebay and I finally pulled the trigger. $47 shipped to my door in 8 days from HK. Well built, good receive with good sound quality. On the TX side I have received good reports about the audio. The display is easy to read and lights up nicely. I was able to access several repeaters from my living room.

My only nik is the manual. It does not explain all the functions, like how to save a memory setting. A quick Google search found what I needed and I was all set. There is a programing cable and software available which would help.

All in all I am happy and I am looking at Puxing's VHF models now to replace my Icom T-22a.

73's
W9CLL
N9SIU Rating: 2011-01-10
Not bad for the price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received my Puxing PX-2R a few days ago in the mail direct from Hong Kong. The radio works well but the manual is not much help except for the basics of operation. You have to learn the radio as you go to get all functions set. In all the radio is a great buy and for $ 39.00 was a excellant price through E-Bay. It is not a YEASU but it is a good radio to put in your shirt pocket and take with you to an event. The FM radio is a nice feature to have also.
KC9ECI Rating: 2010-08-25
Good value for the money. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
For the price, it's a good radio. Well built, easy to program, and the fact that it uses a standard cell phone battery that I can buy off the shelf almost anywhere is a plus. The only reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 is the inability to do DTMF. If Puxing were to come out with a 2M version I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.
KD8APU Rating: 2010-04-18
Sweet little radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Easy to use. Built well. Has 128 memories. You can listen to FM radio. Puts out over 2 watts on high power. Bought mine on ebay for $47 shipped. Extra batteries only $8. Only took 1 week to get it! Very happy.