I've had one of these radios on my tractor for seven months or so and it's been great! It is covered in dust and subjected to all sorts of vibration and weather. I'm putting another one in my side by side. I can't say enough about how pleased I've been with it.
Had my 778 out yesterday for a club display at a festival. Fits in a padded case with a DC. Supply, speaker & cables. A tripod, pole and a GP-1 antenna and this is my grab and go radio for field ops, works great.
Love my RT95. I modded the faceplate to be detachable, and added a 80mm pc fan which keeps it ice cold. Programmable buttons is a nice addition too, allowing you to put what you need most on the front menu.
I have two of the 778s and giving 2 of them to friends as gifts. These are pretty good units. Paired with a good antenna, ive gotten about 35-40 miles worth of simplex use, and have hit repeaters from even much farther away.
bought one for GMRS use, ended up using it on 70cm during a hurricane assignment in florida. For the price, its great. For the size, its good for modern vehicles.
Have nothing but Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood radios in all my vehicles but one. Modern cars with no room to mount my old favorites. I picked up one of these many years ago when they were first released. My long term review would be 4.0 out of 5 stars. Menu is a little clunky but you get use to it and the scan speed is painfully slow. Main problem I experienced was after a couple of years on the coldest days in the winter when the radio is powered up the screen will be solid bright white. As soon as the interior / radio warm up even a little a power cycle of the radio it returns the screen to normal. Have seen this problem on a lot of Chinese radios from numerous other manufacturers and it's almost always just a intermittent connection on the flat flex cable between the main board and front panel board. Take the radio apart, unplug and reinsert the flat flex cable a couple of times and it usually is fine for several more years. Never bothered with my radio because I know that after only a couple of minutes I can power cycle it and the display returns to normal. Just something to be aware of if you ever run into the white screen issue.
I have the Anytone variants. Made a backpack with lithium battery for WICEN events. Works well. I have one in the car, one in the shack and the backpack one. Got them for $130 delivered. No complaints.
I've got one of those. Picked it up online for $99 (US) a couple of years ago. In my shack as my radio for using the local repeaters. Great little radio. Love it.
I have an Anytone variant bought a year or so ago. Mine had really low TX audio, that turned out to be a microphone fault. The microphone module in the fist unit was poorly aligned with the hole in the plastic. The fix was to drill out the hole bigger. It looks like this was a common problem, maybe more recent units have fixed this issue.
I traded an iPhone X for one of these. I really love this radio!! I paired it with the Ailunce Footswitch/Desk mic set and it’s a SOLID performer. Using it a while. Ask me anything.
That iPhone sat in a drawer since not too long after I got it new. I never liked it. Recently a radio buddy came across the 778 and didn’t like it. I don’t recall why I proposed the trade but he jumped at it. We are both totally happy. Then he goes and gets a 878 HT cuz another guys has one. So. I bought TO’s Btech 6x2. I showed it to another group member at Sunday brunch and he ordered one that day. I have 3 more coming in for friends. I’m a deal finder. Radio Influencer of sorts. Haha. Cellular reception isn’t too bad. This is a GOOD radio!
I have that radio on its Anytone version in my truck. I've had it for several years now, it is a great radio for the price, I program it with its own software since thera are some functions that you can't modify if you use chirp. All in all, great radio. I am very satisfied with it.
I have one, very happy with it. The case which acts as a heatsink can get very hot when using high power setting on those longer overs. It's around AU$200 which is good value for a dual bander and when unlocked can get you access to UHF CB if you can put up with it.
It's a nice radio, I have an American AnyTone branded version. The only complaint that I have is I wish it had a volume pot. I really dislike pushing the function key and adjusting the volume. Driving in an automobile and trying to adjusting that is a real pain. But the speaker in the handset is great. I don't scan with it, but I feel for folks that do use the scan function . The dual watch function works okay for me because always listen in on either the 2 meter calling or 70cm analog calling frequencies. And the radio picks out the other signal well enough. So as a starter radio or as a decent backup rig. It's great. Just don't expect it to function on the same level as a Yaesu,Icom,Kenwood, or Alinco- V/Uhf analog radio. Then again, it's also only a fraction of the cost as the legacy class radios. These rigs are well built, just has some odd ergonomics. I've had mine on continuously for almost 2 years going strong..
Ditto on your review. I love these radios so much I actually bought two of them during prime day this summer. My only complaint is the scanning is so SLLLLLLOW and it's not a true dual watch meaning it can only receive 1 signal at a time but overall like you said it's a great radio.
I got out of ham radio several years ago (license still has 2 years left on it) On the southside of Atlanta, the repeaters were quiet. They were pretty active when I got into ham. Saw a video of some cheap ht's yesterday, but If no one is on the local machines, I'm not going to spend $.
I can understand that... I always try to be the one to encourage activity - i.e. if the repeaters quiet - keep calling on it until someone replies. Eventually they'll get the idea
I have had one of these radio's for about a year now and I absolutely love it. I live in a very rural area and it has been my only form of comm's many times and its has been faultless
Hi Hayden, If you haven't already, try out the AT-779... Less expensive, smaller factor, same band coverage through to marine etc., better sound... That would be my best "bang for buck" choice... Mine has been going for a few years now, used every day in my pickup... I have the AT-778 also in the campervan, and it has lower sound quality, doesn't have the feature of push to latch open squelch... A vital feature for mobile operation working weak or fluttering stations or repeaters while on the move. In fact the AT-779 is the only Anytone/Retevis radio with this simple but important feature, not even my more expensive ATD-578 or ATD-878 have it.
@@HamRadioDX maybe! I had to buy all mine 😭 I’ve asked them to look into adding the one touch squelch open to their other radios… so we’ll see how that goes.
If you assign MON to one of the P keys on the hand mic it latches/stays on. I thought it was weird the MON acts differently on the 2 buttons but it is useful. This is on my RT95 at least.
@@c0bra99 Brilliant David! Ill try that asap.... If it works on my ATD578 also. Ill be much happier... as that is one of my big issues with models other than the 779.... Ill let you know via reply on this comment thread.
I've been a ham for less than a year, and my first non-uv5r radio is the Anytone version of this. For the most part I love it, and with a little Yagi and a battery it's pretty decent for taking up a mountain. I don't like that the up and down hand mic buttons control the active parameter when you're editing a setting instead of exiting the parameter. There are a few parameters like tone and offset where it would make sense, but to have it for everything is a bummer. Plus I use the knob for those anyway :/ Overall, it's been a great radio and helped me stay on the air much better than an HT throughout my first months of being a ham!
Welcome to Hamdom and congrats for trying hard to stay on the air. The versatility of this radio is great. They seemed to know the speaker is poor so they allow you to invert the display so you can put the speaker facing up. Genius move, actually. Keep at it, and enjoy this great hobby and all the great guys like @HamRadioDX
I have the Anytone version, and I totally agree.. An awesome option for an inexpensive mobile.. I'm glad I decided to get one back when I first got my license..
I picked up the AnyTone version and the matching Stryker 10m/11m unit for my truck, they seem like pretty solid little radios and I like that they're in matching cases. One complaint I do have is the scanning is S L O O O W and there doesn't seem to be any setting to tune/change that; I get that a radio is not a scanner but ~1 channel/sec is almost getting into useless even just for monitoring a scan list. I popped mine open and found that it's using an ARM microcontroller that seems to be "heavily inspired" by the STM32, and I'm tempted to try reverse engineering the control signals. I suspect the MCU would be locked (didn't try to JTAG it) so hacks would probably be more along the lines of flashing entirely custom firmware rather than modded factory firmware, unless a plaintext image to start from is out there somewhere.
I'm on my second one of these, the first one got wet....VERY wet, in a flood. I was impressed enough with it to buy a replacement. My ONLY complaint is the "claimed" power output. On BOTH of the one's I have had, and both have been the Retevis RT95, not the Anytone or other versions, the HIGH power is barely able to hit 16w on a good day. This isn't too much of an issue for me, as I am less than 15klms from my local repeater and am NOT using this as a mobile rig, so higher power than this is not really needed. I only use low power, as the paltry 2.1w output at low is enough for full access and full quieting of the repeater when it's using my homemade copper j-pole. The only downside is, my antenna is only single banded, so i can't use the 70cm repeaters in town, as my SWR is up around 2.7:1 at 430Mhz ,but it's under 1.1 at 146Mhz which is all I need. Stupid side note.....I am now on my SECOND one of these rig's, and it's been running for almost 2 years now, and the first one went about that before dying, but until I watched this video, I had NO IDEA it has programmable buttons on the microphone......it's SO EASY to program via the front panel or using chirp, I never even thought of the microphone buttons, so I never really looked at them. Thanks Hayden, you showed me a new one today.....
It is indeed a great little affordable radio. It does suffer a little bit from Rx swamping on say hilltop sites, but in the main, it is a great little radio for the price.
I've had the Anytone unit for almost two years now. Once I got used to some of the quirks that come with a cheap radio, it's been great. Especially for the price.
I've had mine for a few years now, used in the shack for repeaters and simplex.. great radio, and helps warm the shack in the winter. Mine is branded as a Midland DBR-2500. 73!
More than happy with mine. I use to programm it with Chirp. Super forward and easy. I've put a PC fan over the top of it due to some complaints about getting hot when transmiting at full power. Thanks for the vid.
Mine was delivered on Saturday afternoon. It's so easy to program and set up in CHIRP. BTW in CHIRPs Settings tab you can change the word RETEVIS on the splash screen to your callsign, assign Volume to the knob's default function instead of Channel, change the channel spacing, and change the MON button such that a short press toggles between squelch off and on instead of having to hold it down. There are also three different scan modes, Time (the default), Carrier and Search. One of these may be faster than Time but I didn't test them long enough to find out as the normal scan mode and rate is fast enough to let me monitor the measly two open repeaters in town. It has good audio from the internal speaker and great audio with a cheap external speaker. Also enabling the mic's speaker makes it what I call poor man's Aess. The display's easy to read considering how small it is though I wish I could make it a bit brighter. This is a sweet little radio and very simple to use. I'd recommend it as a new ham's first dual-band shack or mobile radio, or even their first radio instead of a cheap HT unless they actually need to operate portable. It's just a joy to use and after maybe two hours I no longer needed to look at the manual. it's so simple to operate that it rapidly becomes intuitive. And I no longer have issues being heard on nets like I did with my HT using the same antenna. The radio doesn't do anything fancy, it just communicates well on FM.
I've tested many of these and for my purposes the best one is the old QYT KT-8900. It has no colour display and so, but has the best receiver. Great selectivity on this. After buying and testing 6 similar radios under 100 dollars, I installed the KT8900 into all my vehicles. Super easy programming under Chirp, great handling and use - it has manual knob for volume and knob for changing channels/frequency-that was important to have. Scan is fast, reproduction is clear and loud. Btw. the worst radio was Baojie BJ-318, its receiver is tragic.
This has been my daily driver for a couple years. Love this radio to the point that I'll be upset if it ever dies and I'll definitely replace it with the same model. I have a Yeasu FT400XD in the shack but I this one is staying in the truck. CHIRP lets you can add frequencies for listen only like police and fire depending. GMRS and FRS as well though I'm legally bound to tell you not to transmit on them with this radio. This is really a great radio.
Just got one of these. Honestly the named brands have a lot to excuse themselves for there prices. Fantastic little radio and a give away at the price. Highly recommended.
Thanks for the video. I know they sent it to you for review but it looks like a great entry level radio and Amazon reviews mostly back that up. Newly licensed General and I ordered one of these today through your affiliate link. Have enjoyed enough of your content, figured it was the least I could do. Thanks!
Got the Anytone version, first thing I did was asign the volume to the rotary knob. No more pressing P6 or accidently turning the vfo or memory. Microphone seems a bit muffled on my set. BTW when changing the mode, it erases the memory channels.
My experience with it was slow scan that you mention. If you're scanning and power it off I would like for it to resume scan when you turn it back on, doesn't. Absolutely couldn't see the screen in daylight in a vehicle. Just my experiences landed it in the trash. Your mileage will vary.
I had one of these in the Anytone version - the first issue was the poor audio, which was mostly fixed by drilling out the microphone port, as other have done. The second was when the radio just died after about 12 months of use: it just stopped transmitting audio - listeners report getting a signal from me, but no voice. Your mileage may vary, but I won't be buying another.
Tempted to try one of these for mobile use... or the FT-2980 which has 80 W on 2 M and dedicated volume and squelch controls :-) Appreciate the content
They are OK, not as mobile oriented as they should be. The selector nob should have more traction, either rubberized or better grooving, because it's a slippery little rounded off bugger. Also, the most accessed features besides channel selection, volume, and squelching adjust shouldn't require two to three steps, even more if you use the function button route. It's a good beginner radio for a compact location.
I just got this radio for my car and love it. However, WHY does the VFO shortcut NOT work if the settings are saved to display channel name? I'd much rather see Channel x, etc instead of the frequently for FRS channels. If I set it to freq or name, it works fine, but still displays 1-22 as the frequency instead of actual name? Really not a fan of this at all. Any idea what's happening why I can't save as channel name on display if I want to use VFO at all?
I have the Anytone version and had to stop using it because the receiver would overload and generate a loud noise when I passed through areas of high RF, which are common in Phoenix. I use an 18” dual band whip on a hatch mount. Unfortunate, as I like the radio otherwise.
It's so nice to see reviewers now starting to do testing on harmonics. Some of these Chinese radios are so bad that the second harmonic is almost the same level as the fundamental.
This is 6 months old now, I was wondering if this is still the best option for under $150? I was looking for a 50watt and willing to go 180 but not sure what im doing lol
Well, as a newly licensed HAM, I've gotten it programmed and set up in my Jeep and I hear nothing but static. I am discouraged and cannot figure out what I need to do next. I wish there were instructions that didn't use a lot of acronyms and short cut words.l for newbies. Thanks for the video it was informative, btw! KC3YCO in Maryland
Great review, Hayden. Thanks. TO had started a project to hack in an APRS interface. I guess he got too busy to revisit that... but that would be a welcome upgrade.
Hello HR-DX. Enjoyed the video sir. Question??? What mobile antennea would you suggest? Thank you. Oh, My Ford F-150 body and bed are made of aluminum. So magnet base wont work. Does an antennea have to be grounded? Thanks again.
Hey mate, For dualband, I'd look at the Diamond series of mobile antennas. I have run the Super Gainer series for a few years - SG-7400 currently and previously SG-7900. www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-006824 You'll need a mount for this, NMO to be drilled into the vehicle (roof is the best stop) or front bonnet/guard.
Great review, vid. Nice radio. Looks like the Px buttons can be swapped so they are up the correct way when the radio is mounted upside down. Could you plz include a shot of the internals, like lift the hood so to speak ! I like to know what I'm buying / getting for my $s cos I don't have many to spare. Is it repairable if it goes bad post warranty ! After all, diy is the very backbone of the hobby...
I am interested in getting one of these but I would just like to find out what it's like for breakthrough ? I have heard they are as wide as a barn door ? Could anyone share any thoughts on this ?
25W isn't much. I use the FT2980 for 2m and that has 80W out. Would be nice if Yaesu made a dual band 2m/70cm version, or a 70cm only version with same output. I would consider the Anytone however for 70cm only local repeaters.
I have the 2980 as well. Its my shack radio. 80W is just perfect for me. I have it tied into a 1/4 wave ground plane with 4 radials and about 12 feet in the air. Works well
I love watching your reviews ... always very informative !! I bought myself a AnyTone AT-778UV and i tried releasing some more frequencies by holding the F4 + Function buttons on start-up, but .... it now requires a password to be able to use the radio at all. Any ideas ?
Hi mate, Im having issues reading the radio, the cable I have is one of those 8 in 1 and Ive also got a cable to ready my kenwood mobiles. Neither cables work... Do they have a different pinout?
Get the Revetis RT-95 here (Amazon) 👉 geni.us/f7dZ (Affiliate)
Anytone AT-778UV (same radio) 👉 geni.us/KHrMg4F (Affiliate)
bro where to buy good handheld s now cant find quangsheng uvk6 anywhere
@@kronikphase..price for it pleinse.
I've had one of these radios on my tractor for seven months or so and it's been great! It is covered in dust and subjected to all sorts of vibration and weather. I'm putting another one in my side by side. I can't say enough about how pleased I've been with it.
Had my 778 out yesterday for a club display at a festival. Fits in a padded case with a DC. Supply, speaker & cables. A tripod, pole and a GP-1 antenna and this is my grab and go radio for field ops, works great.
Got the anytone version in the car. On the dash in full sun gets used almost everyday for about 2 years has not missed a beat.
Love my RT95. I modded the faceplate to be detachable, and added a 80mm pc fan which keeps it ice cold. Programmable buttons is a nice addition too, allowing you to put what you need most on the front menu.
I have two of the 778s and giving 2 of them to friends as gifts. These are pretty good units. Paired with a good antenna, ive gotten about 35-40 miles worth of simplex use, and have hit repeaters from even much farther away.
bought one for GMRS use, ended up using it on 70cm during a hurricane assignment in florida. For the price, its great. For the size, its good for modern vehicles.
Have nothing but Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood radios in all my vehicles but one. Modern cars with no room to mount my old favorites. I picked up one of these many years ago when they were first released. My long term review would be 4.0 out of 5 stars. Menu is a little clunky but you get use to it and the scan speed is painfully slow. Main problem I experienced was after a couple of years on the coldest days in the winter when the radio is powered up the screen will be solid bright white. As soon as the interior / radio warm up even a little a power cycle of the radio it returns the screen to normal. Have seen this problem on a lot of Chinese radios from numerous other manufacturers and it's almost always just a intermittent connection on the flat flex cable between the main board and front panel board. Take the radio apart, unplug and reinsert the flat flex cable a couple of times and it usually is fine for several more years. Never bothered with my radio because I know that after only a couple of minutes I can power cycle it and the display returns to normal. Just something to be aware of if you ever run into the white screen issue.
I have the Anytone variants. Made a backpack with lithium battery for WICEN events. Works well. I have one in the car, one in the shack and the backpack one. Got them for $130 delivered. No complaints.
I've got one of those. Picked it up online for $99 (US) a couple of years ago. In my shack as my radio for using the local repeaters. Great little radio. Love it.
I have an Anytone variant bought a year or so ago. Mine had really low TX audio, that turned out to be a microphone fault. The microphone module in the fist unit was poorly aligned with the hole in the plastic. The fix was to drill out the hole bigger. It looks like this was a common problem, maybe more recent units have fixed this issue.
I'm a big fan of this little radio. I can't wait until I get mine back.
Any progress on that?
@@HamRadioDX I think they just got it.. so it's probably on a boat
I traded an iPhone X for one of these. I really love this radio!! I paired it with the Ailunce Footswitch/Desk mic set and it’s a SOLID performer. Using it a while. Ask me anything.
Haha! You could buy a few of these for 1 x iPhone X?
How's the cellular connectivity? I recon you'd be stuck on 2G and unable to receive calls 😉
That iPhone sat in a drawer since not too long after I got it new. I never liked it. Recently a radio buddy came across the 778 and didn’t like it. I don’t recall why I proposed the trade but he jumped at it. We are both totally happy.
Then he goes and gets a 878 HT cuz another guys has one. So. I bought TO’s Btech 6x2. I showed it to another group member at Sunday brunch and he ordered one that day. I have 3 more coming in for friends. I’m a deal finder. Radio Influencer of sorts. Haha.
Cellular reception isn’t too bad. This is a GOOD radio!
I have that radio on its Anytone version in my truck. I've had it for several years now, it is a great radio for the price, I program it with its own software since thera are some functions that you can't modify if you use chirp. All in all, great radio. I am very satisfied with it.
Thanks for sharing, that's cool!
I have one, very happy with it. The case which acts as a heatsink can get very hot when using high power setting on those longer overs. It's around AU$200 which is good value for a dual bander and when unlocked can get you access to UHF CB if you can put up with it.
Just what I wanted to know, can you transmit on 476 477mhz here in Aus? How to unlock the radio????? I have one coming in the post :) Thanks.
@@StudioLanePhotoat timestamp 11:15 he shows the unlocking. Yes it will function on uhf cb.
I installed one of these in my wife’s car. IMO it’s the best bang for your buck out there for dual band mobile radios.
It's a nice radio, I have an American AnyTone branded version. The only complaint that I have is I wish it had a volume pot. I really dislike pushing the function key and adjusting the volume. Driving in an automobile and trying to adjusting that is a real pain. But the speaker in the handset is great. I don't scan with it, but I feel for folks that do use the scan function . The dual watch function works okay for me because always listen in on either the 2 meter calling or 70cm analog calling frequencies. And the radio picks out the other signal well enough. So as a starter radio or as a decent backup rig. It's great. Just don't expect it to function on the same level as a Yaesu,Icom,Kenwood, or Alinco- V/Uhf analog radio. Then again, it's also only a fraction of the cost as the legacy class radios. These rigs are well built, just has some odd ergonomics. I've had mine on continuously for almost 2 years going strong..
You CAN Assign the Knob to be the Volume knob by default in settings. The knob does many things depending on what you’re doing but it’s customizable.
Ditto on your review. I love these radios so much I actually bought two of them during prime day this summer. My only complaint is the scanning is so SLLLLLLOW and it's not a true dual watch meaning it can only receive 1 signal at a time but overall like you said it's a great radio.
lmao I just described the speed of the scanning almost exactly the same, it is all caps extra letters SLOOOOOW 🤣
I got out of ham radio several years ago (license still has 2 years left on it) On the southside of Atlanta, the repeaters were quiet. They were pretty active when I got into ham. Saw a video of some cheap ht's yesterday, but If no one is on the local machines, I'm not going to spend $.
I can understand that... I always try to be the one to encourage activity - i.e. if the repeaters quiet - keep calling on it until someone replies. Eventually they'll get the idea
Your glowing RT95 review is making me seriously consider the RT9000D 220 radio.
Thanks Hayden.
73
I have had one of these radio's for about a year now and I absolutely love it. I live in a very rural area and it has been my only form of comm's many times and its has been faultless
Hi Hayden,
If you haven't already, try out the AT-779... Less expensive, smaller factor, same band coverage through to marine etc., better sound...
That would be my best "bang for buck" choice... Mine has been going for a few years now, used every day in my pickup...
I have the AT-778 also in the campervan, and it has lower sound quality, doesn't have the feature of push to latch open squelch... A vital feature for mobile operation working weak or fluttering stations or repeaters while on the move.
In fact the AT-779 is the only Anytone/Retevis radio with this simple but important feature, not even my more expensive ATD-578 or ATD-878 have it.
Maybe Anytone will send me one to take a look at. Thanks mate!
@@HamRadioDX maybe! I had to buy all mine 😭
I’ve asked them to look into adding the one touch squelch open to their other radios… so we’ll see how that goes.
If you assign MON to one of the P keys on the hand mic it latches/stays on. I thought it was weird the MON acts differently on the 2 buttons but it is useful. This is on my RT95 at least.
@@c0bra99 Brilliant David! Ill try that asap.... If it works on my ATD578 also. Ill be much happier... as that is one of my big issues with models other than the 779....
Ill let you know via reply on this comment thread.
I've been a ham for less than a year, and my first non-uv5r radio is the Anytone version of this. For the most part I love it, and with a little Yagi and a battery it's pretty decent for taking up a mountain. I don't like that the up and down hand mic buttons control the active parameter when you're editing a setting instead of exiting the parameter. There are a few parameters like tone and offset where it would make sense, but to have it for everything is a bummer. Plus I use the knob for those anyway :/
Overall, it's been a great radio and helped me stay on the air much better than an HT throughout my first months of being a ham!
Welcome to Hamdom and congrats for trying hard to stay on the air. The versatility of this radio is great. They seemed to know the speaker is poor so they allow you to invert the display so you can put the speaker facing up. Genius move, actually. Keep at it, and enjoy this great hobby and all the great guys like @HamRadioDX
As an even newer ham, I appreciate your perspective on this radio. Thanks for the comment.
I had one for years very good value
I have the Anytone version, and I totally agree.. An awesome option for an inexpensive mobile.. I'm glad I decided to get one back when I first got my license..
I picked up the AnyTone version and the matching Stryker 10m/11m unit for my truck, they seem like pretty solid little radios and I like that they're in matching cases. One complaint I do have is the scanning is S L O O O W and there doesn't seem to be any setting to tune/change that; I get that a radio is not a scanner but ~1 channel/sec is almost getting into useless even just for monitoring a scan list. I popped mine open and found that it's using an ARM microcontroller that seems to be "heavily inspired" by the STM32, and I'm tempted to try reverse engineering the control signals. I suspect the MCU would be locked (didn't try to JTAG it) so hacks would probably be more along the lines of flashing entirely custom firmware rather than modded factory firmware, unless a plaintext image to start from is out there somewhere.
Hayden, I'm a brand new ham and you are one of my very favorite ham UA-camrs. And I don't even speak Australian! 🦘 Thanks for the great content.
Thanks mate! I really appreciate it and welcome to Ham Radio!
I'm on my second one of these, the first one got wet....VERY wet, in a flood. I was impressed enough with it to buy a replacement. My ONLY complaint is the "claimed" power output. On BOTH of the one's I have had, and both have been the Retevis RT95, not the Anytone or other versions, the HIGH power is barely able to hit 16w on a good day. This isn't too much of an issue for me, as I am less than 15klms from my local repeater and am NOT using this as a mobile rig, so higher power than this is not really needed. I only use low power, as the paltry 2.1w output at low is enough for full access and full quieting of the repeater when it's using my homemade copper j-pole. The only downside is, my antenna is only single banded, so i can't use the 70cm repeaters in town, as my SWR is up around 2.7:1 at 430Mhz ,but it's under 1.1 at 146Mhz which is all I need.
Stupid side note.....I am now on my SECOND one of these rig's, and it's been running for almost 2 years now, and the first one went about that before dying, but until I watched this video, I had NO IDEA it has programmable buttons on the microphone......it's SO EASY to program via the front panel or using chirp, I never even thought of the microphone buttons, so I never really looked at them. Thanks Hayden, you showed me a new one today.....
Glad the video was helpful mate! Yeah those buttons are able to be programmed in the menu... pretty easy!
It is indeed a great little affordable radio. It does suffer a little bit from Rx swamping on say hilltop sites, but in the main, it is a great little radio for the price.
I've had the Anytone unit for almost two years now. Once I got used to some of the quirks that come with a cheap radio, it's been great. Especially for the price.
I've had mine for a few years now, used in the shack for repeaters and simplex.. great radio, and helps warm the shack in the winter. Mine is branded as a Midland DBR-2500. 73!
More than happy with mine. I use to programm it with Chirp. Super forward and easy. I've put a PC fan over the top of it due to some complaints about getting hot when transmiting at full power. Thanks for the vid.
The TYT dual band is waterproof for 135.oo. The screen has been reported to go blank white on the rt95.
Nice to see the spectral purity included, that's way too often skipped upon for these low end radios and their review videos!
Thanks for watching 👍
Mine was delivered on Saturday afternoon. It's so easy to program and set up in CHIRP. BTW in CHIRPs Settings tab you can change the word RETEVIS on the splash screen to your callsign, assign Volume to the knob's default function instead of Channel, change the channel spacing, and change the MON button such that a short press toggles between squelch off and on instead of having to hold it down. There are also three different scan modes, Time (the default), Carrier and Search. One of these may be faster than Time but I didn't test them long enough to find out as the normal scan mode and rate is fast enough to let me monitor the measly two open repeaters in town. It has good audio from the internal speaker and great audio with a cheap external speaker. Also enabling the mic's speaker makes it what I call poor man's Aess. The display's easy to read considering how small it is though I wish I could make it a bit brighter. This is a sweet little radio and very simple to use. I'd recommend it as a new ham's first dual-band shack or mobile radio, or even their first radio instead of a cheap HT unless they actually need to operate portable. It's just a joy to use and after maybe two hours I no longer needed to look at the manual. it's so simple to operate that it rapidly becomes intuitive. And I no longer have issues being heard on nets like I did with my HT using the same antenna. The radio doesn't do anything fancy, it just communicates well on FM.
Nice to see some love for one of the best-kept secrets in ham radio. Love mine.
Great video brother
Thanks Lewis!
I've never seen a radio that you could use upside down. That's a pretty cool feature. Cheers & 73 from K9POW in eastern TN
I've tested many of these and for my purposes the best one is the old QYT KT-8900. It has no colour display and so, but has the best receiver. Great selectivity on this. After buying and testing 6 similar radios under 100 dollars, I installed the KT8900 into all my vehicles. Super easy programming under Chirp, great handling and use - it has manual knob for volume and knob for changing channels/frequency-that was important to have. Scan is fast, reproduction is clear and loud. Btw. the worst radio was Baojie BJ-318, its receiver is tragic.
I have 2 in the AnyTone variant and they work great just get really hot on high power other then that a great radio
This has been my daily driver for a couple years. Love this radio to the point that I'll be upset if it ever dies and I'll definitely replace it with the same model. I have a Yeasu FT400XD in the shack but I this one is staying in the truck. CHIRP lets you can add frequencies for listen only like police and fire depending. GMRS and FRS as well though I'm legally bound to tell you not to transmit on them with this radio. This is really a great radio.
The audio is excellent and great value for money.👍
Just got one of these. Honestly the named brands have a lot to excuse themselves for there prices. Fantastic little radio and a give away at the price. Highly recommended.
Their
Thanks for the video. I know they sent it to you for review but it looks like a great entry level radio and Amazon reviews mostly back that up. Newly licensed General and I ordered one of these today through your affiliate link. Have enjoyed enough of your content, figured it was the least I could do. Thanks!
Thanks! Glad it was helpful!
Got the Anytone version, first thing I did was asign the volume to the rotary knob. No more pressing P6 or accidently turning the vfo or memory. Microphone seems a bit muffled on my set.
BTW when changing the mode, it erases the memory channels.
My experience with it was slow scan that you mention. If you're scanning and power it off I would like for it to resume scan when you turn it back on, doesn't. Absolutely couldn't see the screen in daylight in a vehicle. Just my experiences landed it in the trash. Your mileage will vary.
I love you channel, makes me spend money every time I watch your videos
lol I make no apologies 😂
@@HamRadioDXI will definitely be buying this radio with your affiliate link Mr Hayden! Thanks for making the video!
These are GREAT radios! I have 4. Way more reliable than the QYT.
I had one of these in the Anytone version - the first issue was the poor audio, which was mostly fixed by drilling out the microphone port, as other have done. The second was when the radio just died after about 12 months of use: it just stopped transmitting audio - listeners report getting a signal from me, but no voice. Your mileage may vary, but I won't be buying another.
Nice review, have you seen anything on the PMR-171, it’s a 20watt shack in a box and loaded
I have 2 of them one for a base and one for on going ..realy solid little radio !
What a great little rig, for its price you can't Moen, thanks for sharing this with us Alan from ENGLAND 🤔👍
Cheers!
Tempted to try one of these for mobile use... or the FT-2980 which has 80 W on 2 M and dedicated volume and squelch controls :-) Appreciate the content
This one is on my shopping list for like 2 years now ;) Still trying to get spare cash to get it.
These are good little cheap radios. DigiRig just announced a control cable for this radio, so I assume that it can do VHF/UHF digital modes.
I have one of those radios, really nice radio with good audio and great for small spaces.
I have the same radio and also enjoy it very much
They are OK, not as mobile oriented as they should be. The selector nob should have more traction, either rubberized or better grooving, because it's a slippery little rounded off bugger. Also, the most accessed features besides channel selection, volume, and squelching adjust shouldn't require two to three steps, even more if you use the function button route. It's a good beginner radio for a compact location.
I just got this radio for my car and love it. However, WHY does the VFO shortcut NOT work if the settings are saved to display channel name? I'd much rather see Channel x, etc instead of the frequently for FRS channels.
If I set it to freq or name, it works fine, but still displays 1-22 as the frequency instead of actual name? Really not a fan of this at all. Any idea what's happening why I can't save as channel name on display if I want to use VFO at all?
I have one of these. They are excellent value for the money.
I have the Anytone version and had to stop using it because the receiver would overload and generate a loud noise when I passed through areas of high RF, which are common in Phoenix. I use an 18” dual band whip on a hatch mount. Unfortunate, as I like the radio otherwise.
It's so nice to see reviewers now starting to do testing on harmonics. Some of these Chinese radios are so bad that the second harmonic is almost the same level as the fundamental.
Might need to get one for my truck. Thanks Hayden. P.S. your resource video pushed me to get General License. Appreciate your hard work.
Awesome, congrats and great to hear that! Are you going to study for your Extra now ;)
@HamRadioDX once work calms a little. It only took a week for the General. Hopefully I can do the Extra in 2 or 3.
amazing video thanks i will change my handheald to this 25 watts radio thank you
I have this radio. I don’t love the user interface. I do have it installed in my car, though, and it works well.
This is 6 months old now, I was wondering if this is still the best option for under $150? I was looking for a 50watt and willing to go 180 but not sure what im doing lol
All fine, but can I use it for Winlink with a computer digital interface?
I have one of these in my Jeep. Bright sunlight makes the display difficult to read.
I would like a low price radio like that for only 20m ssb. Is that doable? why for 2m but for 20m not ?
If you can please make an episode about connecting this to a computer for Vara-FM. Thanks.
Can you open up the frequencies in CHIRP?
Does the Anytone branded radio also come with the programming cable?
Well, as a newly licensed HAM, I've gotten it programmed and set up in my Jeep and I hear nothing but static. I am discouraged and cannot figure out what I need to do next. I wish there were instructions that didn't use a lot of acronyms and short cut words.l for newbies.
Thanks for the video it was informative, btw!
KC3YCO in Maryland
Do you have it programmed to listen to your local repeaters? Repeaterbook is handy to look this info up - www.repeaterbook.com/index.php/en-us/
Great review, Hayden. Thanks. TO had started a project to hack in an APRS interface. I guess he got too busy to revisit that... but that would be a welcome upgrade.
TO will be revisiting that project soon I believe. Thanks for watching!
Sorry for my ignorance, but who is TO? 🤔
@@TheMicrofoxThat's Steve... better known by TO for his informative and entertaining UA-cam channel: www.youtube.com/@temporarilyoffline
@@TheMicrofox www.youtube.com/@temporarilyoffline
Hello HR-DX. Enjoyed the video sir. Question??? What mobile antennea would you suggest? Thank you. Oh, My Ford F-150 body and bed are made of aluminum. So magnet base wont work. Does an antennea have to be grounded? Thanks again.
Hey mate,
For dualband, I'd look at the Diamond series of mobile antennas. I have run the Super Gainer series for a few years - SG-7400 currently and previously SG-7900.
www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-006824
You'll need a mount for this, NMO to be drilled into the vehicle (roof is the best stop) or front bonnet/guard.
Makes me think this radio, a 3ah battery and small dualband whip all in a manpack would be fun for hiking and camping
Now that the radio is wide open 400 to 490. Whats the power out at the extreme ends? Same for VHF side
You can use it for gmrs i guess if you do the little mod you showed at the end
bought one of thees last week brand new and its not working hand set mic is not working? is it a setting i have wrong or is it busted out of the box?
Great review, vid. Nice radio.
Looks like the Px buttons can be swapped so they are up the correct way when the radio is mounted upside down.
Could you plz include a shot of the internals, like lift the hood so to speak !
I like to know what I'm buying / getting for my $s cos I don't have many to spare. Is it repairable if it goes bad post warranty !
After all, diy is the very backbone of the hobby...
I’ll have to pop the lid open and take a look
@HamRadioDX
Thanks Hayden, very much appreciated.
Does it have airband?
can you set two of the up as a repeater system??
I hope the receiver is better on this than the 578. The analog side of the 578 is terrible. I like the DMR side.
what is the HF equivalent?
Great for the price. I love mine!
selectivity is very poor on them had one in my mobile for about 12months squelch constantly breaking over anything close
Great radio! If your piggy bank is a little fuller go for the 578.
Is this a good radio for gmrs ?
I dont have any license or knowledge but like radios. Is there anything someone like me could use this for ?
I am interested in getting one of these but I would just like to find out what it's like for breakthrough ? I have heard they are as wide as a barn door ? Could anyone share any thoughts on this ?
The one I had only allowed 5 character channel names. Has this improved?
25W isn't much. I use the FT2980 for 2m and that has 80W out. Would be nice if Yaesu made a dual band 2m/70cm version, or a 70cm only version with same output. I would consider the Anytone however for 70cm only local repeaters.
I have the 2980 as well. Its my shack radio. 80W is just perfect for me. I have it tied into a 1/4 wave ground plane with 4 radials and about 12 feet in the air. Works well
perche la mia uguale a questa quando accendo l alimentatore si accende da sola insieme
Is dcs the same as dmr?
I love watching your reviews ... always very informative !!
I bought myself a AnyTone AT-778UV and i tried releasing some more frequencies by holding the F4 + Function buttons on start-up, but .... it now requires a password to be able to use the radio at all.
Any ideas ?
1234 or 0000 I think?
and thanks, I appreciate the comments about the reviews!
Great upload. Many thanks. I am still a HT newb...so how would I power this in a shack? Looks like a mobile power option only.
Thanks in advance.
The power lead comes with bare ends - I soldered on some Anderson connectors. Best to use a quality power supply capable of at least 10 amps
Thanks man. Taking advantage of the black friday sales and picking one up!
Here in Germany its a CRT
But its same Hardware
And unlock it when receiving it😉
Hi mate, Im having issues reading the radio, the cable I have is one of those 8 in 1 and Ive also got a cable to ready my kenwood mobiles. Neither cables work... Do they have a different pinout?
They might do yeah, I think this Anytone needs a special cable. You should be able to find one on Amazon or Aliexpress
The price has gone UP!!!!
Inflation?