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Reviews For: WOUXUN KG-UVD1P

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

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Review Summary For : WOUXUN KG-UVD1P
Reviews: 155MSRP: 110.00
Description:
A DUAL BAND [UHF,VHF] HT WITH DTMF AND MULTIPLE FREQUENCY RANGES TO ACCOMMODATE VARYING COUNTRIES PROFESSIONAL RADIO MARKETS
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.wouxun.com/Two-Way-Radio/KG-UVD1P.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001554.1
AB4BC Rating: 2010-09-25
Fine Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have read alot of mixed reviews about this particular model and chose to see for myself how well this transceiver performs. In my general area, the transceiver is so popular and I've heard plenty on the air with good quality signal and audio reports. I have had no issue with anything breaking or the charger reading incorrectly, etc like some I've read. I have nothing but positive results thus far. I programmed the HT manually which, after you know the 2 or 3 menu items, its a piece of cake. At least it was for me. Most all of the operators have the 2m/70cm version and when a local shop acquired the new 2m/1.25m version, I jumped on the opportunity to have access to the 1.25m band, the only band I didn't have access to. I wish that those who've experienced negative aspects could have had the same experience as I but we all know by now, no rig/HT is perfect and there are going to be lemons in the batch in every brand/model. Give it a chance. If you know someone with one and is very familiar with the functions, try it before you buy it if you can and hopefully we can get this rating higher than the present.
N5VEG Rating: 2010-09-16
Decent quality HT with many useful features. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got my Wouxun this evening! I have not had time to fully read the manual but initial inspection is pretty much what I imagined. This is a quality built HT with a lot of features that actually work! It came with a fully charged battery, headset, desk charger and car charger! All seem to be as decent a quality as the radio. The supplied rubber duck is more than adequate for local repeaters. Signal reports thus far are very good with clean natural sounding audio. I particularly like the separate trans./rec. led's and the built in flashlight that is plenty bright! I listened to several loacal FM broadcast stations which sounded as good as any small home receiver. The belt clip appears heavy duty and has provision for a lanyard which is included.

Overall, my first impression is I now own a very decent dual band+ HT that has a great battery life and seems to work better than my former FT60R.

And that's no brags, just facts! Mien Thien!
KC8OYE Rating: 2010-09-12
AWESOME (for the price) Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It cost me $107..how high should my expectations be? Honestly, the radio has floored me at how much you get for so little money.

It's not the easiest radio to use... the menu's get a little complicated, but once you are used to using them, it's not any worse then a yeasu in my mind. Considering I'm used to my old Alinco DJ G5e which had everything accessible from the keypad w/o menus.

I haven't even tried programming it manually, it was tough enough to setup a VFO just to play with it. GET THE CABLE!! it's CHEAP!

The batteries are phenomenal!!!! I've been using the 1700mAh battery for 3 days now w/o charging it. including more then an hour of Tx on 5w on 2m

the LED Flashlight is a very useful touch.
allthough as mentioned earlier the Tx/Rx LED's are just way too bright, very distracting at night especially in the car... a piece of masking tape fixed that.

The "backwards" sma configuration on the antenna is a bit of a nusciance, but not an impossibility RadioShack had both an SMA Female to so239 pigtail, and an SMA Female-female coupler making it possible to use my mobile antennas and any other readily available SMA rubber ducky.

my only problem has been the battery charger, and a quick email to www.wouxun.us and he has another one on the way.

Customer service from wouxun.us is top notch, I wouldn't hesitate to tell anyone to go ahead and get one of these radios.

the unlimited Tx band is a nice touch too for things like MURS, or if you happen to have a commercial need as well.
N8MRC Rating: 2010-09-07
Good Radio for the $$ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought mine used for $50 from a friend. Only thing he didn't have was the programing cable so an e-mail to Ed(www.wouxun.us) and that was in the mail, got the cable programed it and works good, only thing is you have to turn the TX audio up a tad, it is kinda quiet. Got the radio for the gf, turn the menu button off and it's a fool proof radio. :)
AF6WU Rating: 2010-09-03
We christened it with beer but it sank right off the pier Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
ANALYSIS
When the wouxun arrived in it's little box from Hong Kong, the customs declaration said "toy". I found this insightful analysis, because like many the the asian-made toys of my childhood it didn't take long for an important little plastic piece to break. In this case, it was the PTT switch, which broke (a la Voltron) in my first QSO. Fortunately, my wife (KJ0DVA) is quick with a soldiering iron, so it lived to lived to squelch another day. I still haven't been able to fix Voltron.

Other than having to fix the PTT repeatedly, the only 2 problems are that (1) The supplied programming cable never worked. A replacement $8 cable from eBay did the trick. (2) There is absolutely zero customer service or support.

I like the wouxun because as a Scoutmaster, I often loan it to boys in our troop (KT5BSA) or take it camping. So far it's not suffered any damage that we haven't been able to repair from the camping, and if I drop it off a canoe or rappelling course, so what? it was only $90. I've also enjoyed that there is no modification needed to transmit out of band. It was very convenient to have a fix when the camp ranger runs out of HT on the camp frequency or to have a tool when the park ranger said to call on marine 16 in the event of trouble.

TIPS FOR USE
-The stock antenna is a disaster. perhaps mine was shorted. Addition of a $2 SMA/F-BNC/F adapter enabled use of a Diamond RH77CA. With this, the rig works quite well.
-The manual was great as soon as I learned to appreciate it as a comedic work.
-Turn off the voice. It's super annoying.
-Manual programming was relatively straightforward once I figured out what I was doing. You might get the hang of it.
-There are several logical errors in the menus and display. Try to ignore these. They don't (seem to) impact TX or RX.
-Careful with the reset menu.
-Don't cross the streams.

IN SUM
I was able to make a decent radio out of this "toy". It made it through a Philmont trek, so I guess it's OK. I recommend it to my scouts because it's cheap, and I think I can make it work for them.

73-
G1TAI Rating: 2010-08-28
Great Value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have just recently purchased a WOUXUN KG-UVD1P and for less than £80 it is great value. Delivery time from Hong Kong was 10 days. It came with a computer interface cable and software which is easy to use and in no time I had programmed in my favourite repeaters. The manual suffers a little from Chinglish but can be understood. The on air reports I have had have been very encouraging especially the quality of the received audio. This is my first dual band handheld and at this moment in time I can't fault it.
W2LJ Rating: 2010-08-05
I stand corrected! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Thanks to Ron W3ZV, I have to admit that I was wrong about point #3 in my review appearing immediately below.

When you are in "dual VFO mode" and the secondary VFO is being received, a little "S" pops up in the LCD display. Thanks for pointing that out to me Ron!

That notwithstanding, I still think the Wouxun is a VERY good HT at a great price. I would recommend it to anyone.
K4WEB Rating: 2010-08-05
Battery Charger & Support are a joke! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
See a video demonstration of the charger problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDLPreZELSs

I purchased the Wouxun handheld for my ARES "Go Bag". I've tried to use the radio twice -- both times it had been sitting in the charger for several hours and the charger's Green LED indicated a full charge. The battery was completely dead.

I've discovered a terrible design problem with the charger. It seems the charger's mouth is slightly oversized, which means the radio (or battery pack) can be inserted without making full contact with the charger's electrical contacts. In this condition, the charger LED will glow green, indicating a full charge... even if the battery is dead. It will also NOT charge the battery in this state.

The trick is to push the top of the radio towards the rear of the charger. This will often cause the battery to charge, although one must be extremely careful because the slightest touch or vibration will break the connection.

This problem is evident with my two batteries with and without the radio attached.

Wouxun decided to eliminate external power and charging jacks on this radio, so the only way to charge the battery is with the unreliable charger.

I've contacted Wouxun via email. To date, I have not received a reply.

Buyer beware!

Steve K4WEB
ASEC Central Branch
North Carolina ARES
VU2JQX Rating: 2010-07-31
A bitter experience. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After a wait of one month our kg-uvd1p finally arrived yesterday. It was a bulk purchase. The decision to go for this radio was taken after reading much hyped reviews of pros of this radio.
But my experience was bitter, as I started operating this rig, there was no modulation going out. One thing is pretty sure, they dont have any quality control. My advice to anyone who plans to purchase this radio, think twice, if you are rich enough and prepared for bad surprises no problem. But if you are someone who is hard on cash and wants to desperately get on air, wait somemore time to save enough to buy a good yeasu,or icom rig. After this bitter experience our club has decided to say no to cheap chinese rigs. I am now a proud owner of an expensive fm radio.
VE3PWR Rating: 2010-07-30
Great Little Radio !!!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Well... I can't believe that I've purchased 2 new Handhelds in less than 2 months...
First was the Quansheng TG-UV2 and now the Wouxun KG-UVD1P... I really like this handheld ... and what makes it nice is the programming software and cable is so much easier to program and keep track of all your memory channels and settings...
and it doesn't have the Birdy on 442.000 like the Quansheng does as my repeater is on 442.000... If your looking for a nice little radio for about 120.00 CDN that comes with a desk charger and has dual band and dual display this one gives the Big 3 a run for there money...
Martin VE3PWR