Is the best Hand Held HT for SOTA? - Testing the Quansheng on the bench and a summit
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- The Quansheng UV-5K
This radio cost me £6, but £12 with taxes and delivery. It took six days to arrive.
I tested it on the bench:
Into a VSWR meter and dummy load - output is 4.8w, 2.5w and 2.5w on high, medium and low power respectively.
Using low power and 60dBm of attenuation, I measured it -42dBm down on the first harmonic. There are further harmonics, and the largest of these is at 420MHz. It is also 40dBm down on the fundamental frequency.
The Quansheng UV-5K has a wealth of support via different firmware providers. Don't be afraid to try one. If you brick the radio, you will be able to re-install the factory firmware to get the radio going again.
Try this for starters:
whosmatt.githu...
There is an active facebook group:
/ 2291286734508728
#SOTA #Quansheng #adventure #hamradio #uv-5k #vhf #chineseradio
Hi Fraser,
got mine for £6.83 ! I'm really impressed so far but looking forward to you testing it in an rfi rich environment
That's a great price. Have fun with it. I will be trying mine in an rfi death zone fairly soon.
Let me know how you get on.
Nice deal there!
Might be a good one to get more folk out for 145 Alive 2024
Ordered.. $22 CAD shipped to Canada... I pay more for that in coffee in a work day - should be fun to play with
That puts it into perspective. Lots of interesting firmware to play with and if you brick it, just reload the factory firmware and go again 👍
Thanks for sharing the stunning scenery and of course the wee handheld which looks great value!! 73s Gm4zji Chris
Chris, I will have a full length video of the hike out before Christmas. A little bit different in that it's mainly scenery without me spoiling it by talking. 🤣
I've ordered one. Worth a try at the price.
Absolutely. I've ended up with two! One for experiments I think. The receive is good, I was picking up weak signals today.
Have fun 😀👍
Hey Fraser, this was my very first radio, Got it over summer, also paid like 13 quid for it delivered, and it's what really got me into the hobby and I got my licence at the start of October. It's still my only handheld and my go to scanner for airband, marine, and other interesting vhf/uhf freqs. Perfect timing on the video as well as I'm going to do my very first SOTA activation in about 10 hours time (should be sleeping) at GI/AH-005, with the wee quansheng and a homemade beam. I'm glad to see it performs well on summits, as expected. Thanks for the awesome videos 73
That is excellent!! Let me know how you get on. 👍
@@theradiorover done 3 activations already, radio worked great, had a ton of fun and contacts! Things to note: bring a spare battery or a usb battery pack to recharge, I had 5% left by the end. Also avoid summits with a lot of RF noise, front end gets overloaded easily. Other than that it's quite sensitive and had no problem picking up distant stations.
@@ravyyyyyyy excellent! You may want to try a sotabeams 2m filter if you are going to be on summits with RFI, but then it costs more than the radio!
Only a true Scott could find this radio for such a great price! Do you have a link where we can order one?
John, Go to aliexpress and type in Quansheng. You'll get a cheap price if you have never ordered from there before, so use a different email address of Google ID if you have used the site before. The ones with the grey covers are sleeker looking but are the same radio inside.
Cheers, Fraser MM0EFI
I have one of these radios. Added to the HT arsenal for the same reason as yourself - if I drop it, it's a sub £20 radio. I did the S-Meter mod and used it on a fox-hunt with a fair amount of success. That summit looked awesome - great weather, too, crisp and bright.
It was a cracking day. 18 miles and had the place to myself. I will put a video of the hike out. Sometime ☺🏴
Looked stunning on this Summit for you with the snow and colours in the sky. At £12 with USB-C charging it looks a bargain and proof that portable operating doesn't have to be expensive.
73 Chris M0RSF
Yes, a cheap way into SOTA. It will never beat the VX7r though, will it Chris? 😄
@@theradiorover To compare the VX7R to a Quansheng is like comparing a Rolls Royce to a rusty old MOT failure. Though for £12 it's a bargain and I can see these been popular.
73 Chris M0RSF
That's a great analogy Chris. I activated a summit with the VX7r today. Lovely audio 😊
@@M0RSF An old rusty MOT failure? That's no way to talk about a VX-7R even if it is getting on a bit in years now!
@@paulsengupta971Brilliant!!! 😂😂😂
Nice Fraser... Great test and worked out well..
Ok, Ill be buying one of these!
Curious where you bought it from?
Dave, Go to aliexpress and sign in with a new email or ID and you'll get a good discount. Just search for Quansheng.
Just received one from China yesterday. My plan is to use one of the alternative available firmwares.
Excellent! The firmware has developed since I made this video. I have some SOTA friends who have made morse keys to fit into the kenwood connectors and are doing CW with them!
Ok, I deserve a Christmas present
YES! 🎅🎁🌲📻
I have the Baofeng UV13 Pro which cost about the same as this and also has the handy USB-C charger. Have done all my activations on it so far. Dropped it a few times and ita still going, cant complain on the price!
Absolutely can't complain. I'm going to try mine on the Aberdeen SOTA summit Brimmond Hill. It is bristling with masts. My yaesu ft3d doesn't work at all up there, so it will be interesting to see how the Quansheng does.
I was impressed that it pulled in a very weak MM7MOX who was only running 2W into a rubber duck!!
I've activated two summits this year with my £12 Quansheng, a real bargain. I still prefer using my FT-65 though.
FT-65 is a quality radio. I definitely think that the Quansheng will be great for experimenting with. Maybe APRS, or a WSPR receiver connected to a computer.
Thanks for the video Fraser. Do you have the UK link where you bought this from please, as I can't seem to find one that cheap !
I'd recommend going onto aliExpress and signing on with an account you've not used before. Maybe a different Google account if you have one. The website gives the best prices to new customers.
Cheers, Fraser MM0EFI
great vid, cracking back drop.
Nice one Fraser
73
Cheers. I did film the entire 18 mile hike. It should make a stunning film, with no talking from me for a change 🤣
I just bought one hahaha for 12 quid its handy to keep in the car. We may get a 2m contact yet Fraser
@@theradiorover
Great video Fraser. Oooof looks fresh on that. Ive thought about getting ine of these too. A good replacement for the uv5r.
👍🏽73
Cheers Motters. Can't go wrong really, can you, for £12 😄
It was -2°C up there, but no wind. Lovely 18 mile hike.
@@theradiorover Absolutely right Fraser. Plus you can mess about with the firmware and put SMeters on them.
I've been looking into FT991a for a home rig. Even though I said I would never have a home radio only portable 🤦🏽♂️
Yes that's some trek not for the faint hearted
I’m planning on walking the coast to coast route next year from St Bees this would be ideal to take with me. Thanks
The Quansheng sounds like the perfect partner for a bit of pedestrian mobile. Lightweight, great battery life on RX and that very handy USB charging facility.
Sounds like a great expedition BTW 🙂
Im always sceptical about really cheap HTs, but this seems to be reasonably good. Might buy one! Whats the worse that can happen?
That's what I thought. For the price of a case of beer!! Worth getting for experimenting with the firmware. There's bandscopes, SSB on 2m, wide RX on HF and lots of other neat stuff.
I plan on testing this in a strong rf environment. Watch this space.
great, at last i can afford to get on 2m band. problem is, i think you said all express . been searching for the last three hours and I cannot find anything under that name, maybe iam too far south hi. 73 mate.
Try AliExpress Brian. You just sign in with a Google account or email. The price is usually only for first time buyers. GL
A tidy little radio. Seen a few videos on YT of people with these radios. For £12 makes you wonder how much the bigger manufacturers mark up their products. But for £12 you are not going to cry if you drop it on a rocky summit or in a puddle.
I think every youtuber has reviewed these on the bench, so I thought I'd give it a try up a hill. 🙂
@@theradiorover certainly a good field test
@@excossack yeah, if it can survive one of my trips, it can survive anything 🤣
Quansheng UV-K5? Or UV-5K?
Who knows? They change the names of these things every week? 😅
Yes, UV-K5. There's also the UV-5R now which is a little cheaper, has a bigger battery, but doesn't have USB charging.
@@paulsengupta971 thanks for the correction. 🙂