I think you did a great job sharing about it. Even though you outlined the difficulties of using some functions, it didn't disuade me from buying it. It simply told me what to expect if I did. I love Radioddity products, and I think it's cool they released this. For those CBers who are into converting these radios to 11 meters, it also gives them the FM functionality that was recently approved for CB. Thanks for sharing!
One thing I will say for Radioditty is that they have excellent customer service. My GD-77 developed a wonky screen. I e-mailed them and they suggested disassembling it and cleaning the contacts. I was surprised as usually disassembling a device voids the warranty. Anyways, I've disassembled more than enough electronic devices to be comfortable doing this, so I went ahead and did it. Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem, so I wrote back. They sent me a brand new radio at no cost right away, complete with accessories and didn't even ask for the old radio back. Yay, extra batteries, antennas, chargers, etc. and a parts radio (HTs don't take up much space, but they do tend ti breed like rabbits).
Radioddity has fantastic customer service. They repalaced a faulty TYT th9800 that I bought Open Box with a brand new one and even let me keep the dead radio. That sold me on radioddity.
This radio has a rather narrow market in the US. It's intended for the 150 old CB guys that have been "freebanding" at illegal power since 1972, but their neighbors just pinned their coax, after having asked nicely for years for them to lay off on the EMI splatter. Now that their old radio is blown up, and their nephew Kenny that used to do radio mods for them died of a Fentanyl overdose, they have to buy something new and easy to set up, so they can get back to drunkenly bellowing into a microphone at 2AM, on "channels" that they already understand...
You nailed it! you have to know about Alfa Tango and all the other European and American based CB radio freebander groups. They get together every year, have dinners. They are all over UA-cam with their meetings. This radio is an entry level to freebanding when you're starting out and can't afford a proper amateur radio. Your friends are on 27.535 and you need to be there, your old Cobra 40 channel doens't go "UP" so you buy this. At night when the band closes you use this to get away from drunks in your area so you just transmit without a license on 28.045 or whatever. There is no mystery here. It's been done for decades and will be done for decades more with zero enforcement from authorities. No surprises.
I feel like 2/3rds of the radio industry is trying to hang on to that kind of narrow (and rapidly dying off) market instead of embracing the new crop of hams who grew up in the digital age. The first company to realize that will be the only one still around in thirty years.
As a person who came to ham radio from CB, and as a tech who has only been licensed for about a year, I thought the QT40 looked fairly compelling as a purely-for-fun plaything in my classic 1986 car. A radio that "looks" like a vintage CB would go with the styling of my old buggy, but I'd actually have the ability to talk on 10m with a tuned whip and that sounded pretty good overall. In my imagination I would just be trying to make a few stray contacts on lunch breaks and the occasional longer drive. As far as the tuning goes I would honestly just pick a random frequency (within my privileges) and start calling CQ, in my mind this is a radio where "other people find me" moreso than I would ever be scanning trying to find other people calling CQ. Let the folks with the fancy yagis and band scopes tune me in, and at most I would have an SDR on the side to plug into my phone to check quick if there is *any* activity to get excited about. Seems like stuff is normally peppered around 28.4 so I'd use the software to put a bunch of presets in that range and hope for the best. Not going to lie, the ability to do 11m in a pinch appeals as well since I have CB operating friends and relatives in the area but find it annoying to install yet another radio for that occasional chat. Yes I could just have two radios but actually it would be three once you count my UHV/VHF for talking on the local repeaters and that is simply too much for one little old car. I do also like the simplicity of almost all manual controls and no/low menus, sounds just fine to me (but I would maybe want a legit frequency counter on the side I admit). The issue I am actually hung up on is the massive size of the case, I am not sure I can fit it into a traditional single-DIN radio slot in my car and that is about the only place I could potentially put it. I don't know why it has to be so massive when there is so little of anything in the case.
Update, I did ultimately go ahead an order one of these while Radioddity was having their site-wide 15% off sale. For what ended up being $170+tax this seems like a pretty darn good deal for a 10m HF radio with sideband, DSP, relatively easy manual controls without a lot of menu diving, and a cool throwback design. I know the design aspect is a little bit polarizing, but other than that all indications are that it has a pretty good receiver and nice features (some of which are never to be used, like the NPC and the echo...) and for the price as low as it is for what you get it just looked like too much fun not to have one. So, we'll see how it goes!
Hahahaha, just an Superstar 3900 with more options. I have one for severel monts now and the programming with the computer is outstanding. Also the digital noise reduction is superb. And yes I am a freebander, and yes I am licensed amateur and like the free bands.😁
Not hard to figure out who this rig is aimed at. It's meant to compete with the Galaxy and Stryker radios marketed to truck drivers. It's what's called an "import" radio. At one time, 75% of trucks had them on the dash. However, not that many drivers are even using a cb anymore, let alone an import.
My take is that is this radio is an excuse to sell a 40W CB radio in the US. Radioddity imports a 10m radio and the buyer then unlocks the 11m band. Very similar with the President Lincoln II+. This is the only marketing scenario that makes sense to me. The tuning process is a train wreck. To each his own, I guess.
That's exactly what it is, and I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with how ridiculously hard this radio is to use. The QT60 is a much easier radio to use, is easy to convert to 11 meters, and puts out 60 watts. I don't need/want either one of them, I have an Icom IC-728 that has had the MARS mod done, and it now transmits on 11 meters SSB with up to 100 watts. And unlike newer "radio on a chip" garbage, it has a triple conversion superheterodyne receiver that makes it much easier to pick out those distant or weak stations that you would probably not be able to hear on a more "modern" radio.
Well, even after reading the review I decided to order one. I was a huge CB fan back in the 70's when skip was a big deal. I had a legal Cobra SSB radio and made contacts all over the world. It's what made me want to get my ham license. I think that if lots of hams get this radio it will be easier to make contacts and the QSY. You could say go to D17 or E5. I do like that this can be expanded to include the CB frequencies even though I realize thats not legal. It reminds me of the good old days. In a By 2025 we will be at the top of the 11-year cycle and we will see 10 & 11 meter go off the charts. This could become a very fun addition to your radio collection.
Back in the 70s about 4 sunspot cycles ago, I bought a Sears Roadtalker SSB CB and moved it to the 10 meter band.. Channel 1 was 28.505 (voice started at 28.500) and went up in 10 Khz channels. I rewired the clarifier control to work simultaneously on transmit and receive. I lowered a bias resister to provide more voltage to the varactor to achieve a plus or minus 5 Khz swing to cover the gaps. Since CB skipped some business and RC channels there were still some gaps in the spectrum covered. At 12 Watts I still had more countries confirmed than I had states confirmed just driving to and from work.
I thought of one use-case, for the person who is very active above 50 MHz who just wants to work a couple of 10m nets a week. A bit like the HF operator who gets a 2m single band FM mobile to work a couple of nets a week. My advice for a Technician who wants to work 10m, is to pick up a used HF+6m radio so they can work 6 and 10m
new hams: just save a few more dollars and get a G90. I love mine, and when combined with a buddistick, I've gotten Cuba, Cayman Islands, London, Kuwait, and Slovenia from my backyard in Michigan.
All those stations are running huge towers with beams. No merit in that. They are doing all the heavy lifting. Learn to patient and work the weak signals that are in your noise. Those 50 watt Chilean stations running a piece of wire. THAT is radio communication. You have to learn to work weak signals.
Well it's certainly an oddity. They could have made this so much better if they used the big knob as a rough tuning, and then a smaller knob for fine tuning. Also they could have made the display better so it could show everything after the 28 mhz or 29mhz. Such as 29---- (.600). Or better yet... make it a mono band 20 meter radio so it is more useful to the wider community at large. A good cheap 20 meter car radio would be kinda awesome.
@@vhfgamer yeah that's more manageable for sure. Is that a 1/8 wave or does it have a loading coil to make it electrically a longer antenna ? Wondering what the radiation pattern on that antenna looks like ? Just curious
@@seanwood8043 I would imagine it probably has a loading coil in it. They sell hamsticks that go all the way up to 75 meters. As for the radiation pattern, I haven't a clue.
@@vhfgamer I have heard that a antenna that is electrically correct with a loading coil may have a comprised radiation pattern compared to the actual resonant length on a 1/4 , 1/2 , 5/8 wave ect. But as long as it's swr is good if it talks it talks in the end. I have no experience with those type of antennas. At any rate enjoy your equipment Sir
This radio is not much removed from my now ancient Cobra 148 GTL (1993) with "extra channels". It, too required a chart to know what frequency you were transmitting on. I now have a President Lincoln II ver3 that does what the 148 did but a lot more. This radio here is only meant for the "freebander" market, nothing else.
This is for the op that wants a new 10/11 meter radio that looks like a classic radio. Nostalgia can be very powerful. It was common to take a 148GTL and convert them, 40 years ago it was high tec.
You simply don't get it, i have no idea what you were doing using multiple adjustments to get to where you needed to be.. First.. it says its a 10 meter band radio, i say that with a wry grin while shaking my head, like all other export radios it is formost a cb radio and a extremely good one at that.. Manufacturer's disguise these type of radios under the guise of a legal ham radio knowing they bypass all the rules and regulations to market it, i dare say they're are very few people who have bought this radio wanting to use it on 10 meters.. Once put into export mode the radio is fire.. what you dont understand is that its not aimed at the ham radio operator but those who want to use it as a cb radio that does everything and more.. This is one of the most stable sidebanders on the market and Radiodity have tweaked the board for maximum performance across 10-11-12 meters when in export mode.. there are other radios out there that look identical but have different names but the Anytone board in the QT40 has been optimized to the max and is by far the best of the bunch.. the reception is better than my Yasue FTDX10 on eleven meters.. yes i know that is hard to believe but ask any technician and they will tell you the same after they have bench tested it.. The market for this type of radio is absolutely massive for those who freeband and company's like Radiodity know this.. It is probably one of the best performing export radios that have ever been manufactured in the last thirty or so years.. Again legality aside this is one of the best for those who pirate the freeband and whether or not folks want to believe its for the ham radio hobby they are sorely mistaken it's meant for cb'rs who use AM and SSB its whole design with what it can do proves this, or it would be locked just for thr 10 meter band, I'll say again it is one of the best radios out of the box ever made.
I can see your point. The radio was sent to Josh to review. He doesn't recommend it and he went every way to explain why. As far as a CB, the only thing I can see as an advantage is the 40 watt capability. Other than that, if you have the intent to freeband - yep, I'm sure it's a great radio. Forty watts over 3.5 watts on CB is about 1.5 S-units and the ability to drive a larger linear amp. Just my opinion.
If I was in an apocalypse situation where my ability to reach someone over 10m was paramount to my survival and I came across this radio I’d give up and die.
Ehh, just hook it up to radioodity’s program software and manually type in the frequencies you want… Plus there is an substantial amount of other options on the software program as well. Waving from my tech bench‼️ 73
The king of dedicated 10 meter mobile radios on the cheap, is still the RadioShack HTX-10. Made a bunch of contacts when I worked for the Shack back in the 90's, fun days.......
I had one as well back in the early nineties. When I was temporarily apartment-bound, I'd drive to the top of a tall parking structure, plant a 10M hamstick with a mag-mount on top of my car and work DX. Eventually, the security guard would show up to kick me out and I'd move to another building or drive up into a hillside neighborhood.
I think the ranger radios are very good for 10m i have seen inside one of them QT40 radios definitely not old technology theres a few menus to set up holding the mic buttons will display the frequency on the channels display moveing left to right i see it on UA-cam
If you want to get to the frequencies like you were trying to do move the jumper to slot 2 and 3 to open up the radio and when you do that you get total control over the radio. This radio is awesome in my opinion because some Might not want to let others know that they are actually using this radio over all the others because it's just comfortable using and very easy to use in my opinion. Just saying to get the frequencies Josh was trying to get move the jumper and then you can move to whatever you want.
I’ll answer your question what’s going on. The QT40 is a 40watt 11 meter that can be used to make contacts with lot lizards. It reaches out farther than a standard CB so I can hook up with the good lot lizards before they are all taken. Knowwhatimsayin?
For mobile use, it would be good for 90+% of the time CB radio use with an occasional 10 meter band usage. The radio really should have a freq display though - even a basic one like the Galaxy 88 has.
There is a giant sea of more intuitive (than this) rigs out there, and for a radio that looks vintagey-simple, I would expect it to do finer dialing without needing an associates' degree in this specific model of radio. Good review, you just saved me $200!
When I first saw the two digit display, I couldn't sort out how someone would find frequencies and band scan easily. Now that I've seen this demo? Holy cow that's overly complicated. I passed on reviewing this radio because it didn't have CW mode. Thanks for taking a bullet for us. :) Cheers, Thomas
I saw that you were on channel 15 trying to find a signal , the way I saw it you were in the A channel between 15 and 16 , the 10 kc switch is there for the missing 5 A or RC channels on every band ......
I see what you mean. Going from band B to band C, You miss frequencies 28.300 - 28.395. I would not be able to tune to the Sunday afternoon net in my area at 28.35 lsb because an important part of 10 meter is missing.
Yeah but! For an old CBer like me......I LOVE THIS RADIO! Plus I can go a few channels above CB 40 with my pals and talk without all the garbage. Now, we don't go up to 28MHZ! We stay BELOW that. We don't want you guys getting mad at us. However, if you guys want to come down and chat with us, GREAT! Welcome! 27.425 rocks!
You are right ! In fact it is an old school cb radio for 11m Dx. (export mode). In 555 dx it is usual the 5khz step, but in 10m they do't have this simple rule, so you need more frequnsy agility and 1 khz step. Maby the modulation of the radio is good. For CB 11m 555dx can be a tool.
I have tried a few of these Chinese made radios, and each time I'm met with the same disappointment. I have one of these I just had delivered today and I am struggling to find a way to make it user friendly. It also seems very cheaply make (to be expected with the price). If you make the modification for expanded frequencies, forget about using some frequencies in the 10 meter band, you lose the call frequency 28.400. Going to work with it a little more, but I have my doubts. The NR seems to a least work a bit. The transmit audio seems to be decent and it does have good bandwidth, sounds good on AM. If you listen in headphones through a good receiver however, you will notice some distorted artifacts in the TX audio which indicates it may not have the cleanest audio after all.
Not to down your review but set the clarifer for 5kc movement. That is a must. Then your better off having the channels (frequencies) set for 10kc apart. Stock form you're seeing that your seeing 5kc jumps which is more than acceptable to run but have clarifer at 5kc not 500hz. Without a whole lotta screwing around just move the jumper inside the radio like 99% of the population the channels fall in 10kc jumps on 10m and for the ones that are missing cause of a CB standard channel plan layout use the 10kc slider. Use ch6 or 38 on cb as your propagation beacon and then goto 10m. It will remember where you left off at on 10m Upper band A ch 8 is 28.405 turn it to the left and your on the 10m call area. Really not big deal its made out to be. Im not saying transmit there but at least you can listen to know the real band conditions for reference to 10m since everyone is playing FT8 on poor performance multiband antennas. Radio is on freq no drift which is a big appeal for SSB. Ares II and QT40 are made by same manufacturer. If you want VFO live control to view where you're at this is the wrong radio to get. If you wanna have fun on 10 for cheap and not have to worry about a radio stolen from your vehicle slap this in there looks like an old CB. Thanks for your unbiased review 73 from 724 Chicago
@@HamRadioCrashCourse I agree it should be set default from factory. I do believe by letting them know what radio operators prefer in the radio they are willing to do it given they can sell that product or helps with sales. But certain things need to be tweaked and that goes without saying even if it's Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu. To a certain extent everything needs to be dialed in for audio on the individual or preferred processing level. Not saying crank it up but also not quiet mono tone stock. This is a neat radio and has potential especially when inside the programming software for instance having 140 thru 170mhz RX capabilities by modifying the WX channels or adding onto the 5 blank ones in that menu. Thanks again and 73 👍
Nice video. Thank you. I think it's a very confusing radio and nothing any beginner should use. I get lost on the minimum led digit scale/readout. They should have put a 6 digit screen on it too.
Cost to get on 10 meter radio is why it sells. 28,3-28,5 if someone is a tech it’s attractive. If general we know 40 & 20 might be our favorites but we all know best price to get on there 600-2000 more likely but when ten is open it can be so much fun.
I commented on KM9G's video too but this is now the second "review" video of this radio I've seen and neither show an actual contact made using it...I think that speaks to the radio more than the reviewers at this point, but I want my several minutes back 😂
I honestly tried!! I had that ZL station on my 7610 and was trying to match it on the QT40. I wanted to record it. In my case, I’m honestly saying, don’t get this.
This is hot garbage. It's a nostalgia grab, and that seems to be it. It doesn't seem to be very well thought out beyond "hey let's copy this design brief". It seems like the kind of thing that someone is going to buy, try to use, and then it's going to sit on a shelf until they become a silent key, then their family has to deal with it. It's more e-waste that's not needed. I'm glad you made the video to show others what it's like, so they can draw their own conclusions and (hopefully) avoid it.
This radio is marketed to ME. I love ham radio, and I love CB radio. Right now I'm using a crappy Pro-510 for CB. I'd love to buy a CB with sideband, but even a basic used Cobra 148 is $200+ on eBay these days, and most of those are untested and being sold "as is" for parts. That's how I stumbled upon this radio. It does CB, it does FM and SSB, and it doesn't cost a thousand dollars. I could mod my HF radio to do 11 meters, as many people do, but that doesn't really appeal to me. HF radios tend to sound like muffled hot garbage on 11 meter AM. Of course, I wouldn't use this radio for CB, because that would be illegal! But I definitely like the concept of this radio, and I'm thinking about buying one to play with. It reminds me a lot of the old export radios like the President Jackson, Connex 3300, etc. Very cool, but then again I grew up on the CB radio and I used to dream about radios like these.
Would love to widen the "wx" recieve so as to get commercial radio and therefor weather here in australia. As we dont get a assigned weather channel anymore. Trying to get radioddity to help expand it....
Since CB radio is legally required to be low power, this radio allows people to use more power while still operating on channelized frequencies with another unit of the same type. This might be used for communication between two vehicles, much like a walkie-talkie. Using channelized frequencies simplifies this process for this purpose I think.
More here that you're not seeing. You have to know about Alfa Tango and all the other European and American based CB radio freebander groups. They get together every year, have dinners. They are all over UA-cam with their meetings. This radio is an entry level to freebanding when you're starting out and can't afford a proper amateur radio. Your friends are on 27.535 and you need to be there, your old Cobra 40 channel doens't go "UP" so you buy this. At night when the band closes you use this to get away from drunks in your area so you just transmit without a license on 28.045 or whatever. There is no mystery here. It's been done for decades and will be done for decades more with zero enforcement from authorities. No surprises.
I think when people started freebanding their CBs into 10m radios, they never figured out how to convert a channelized radio to a frequency based band. Pretty much every export CB radio that also does 10m has some of these limitations. Sure, some of them have frequency displays but it's still so awkward to tune into a specific frequency. Nothing close to a true VFO knob. Here it looks like they prioritized CB style over any sort of functionality.
The radio has a menu option where you can select either +/- 500 Hz -or- +/-5 kHz for the clarifier range. Set on 5 kHz, it has continuous TX/RX on the entire 10m band.
Hi Josh, really interesting video Thanks a lot. I saw this radio some time ago when was advised "ready to launch", I may imagine at the field with an small radio and I supposed for me, nothing more comfortable for about that than my FT897D, yeah pretty vintage I know but cool for me. I love it. When I read about this radio I found it pretty cool, because in my opinion was a romantic reminiscence of a vintage CB radio, but been a funny Radio Amateur Rig, I thought there was a lot of CB Fan boys that surely they will love it. Mmmm... I read the manual, and first of all it say there is a CPS in which I imagine, you program channels in HF, and VHF frequencies (Rx only) in between 140Mhz and 174MHz. Mmmm... Well let me tell you an story, The citizen band had a euphoric explosion of followers in Chile, my country, but the propagation conditions were very different from those in the USA, here the local coverage was minimal, while stations in Brazil with linear amplifiers swept away any possibility of a local communication. You can hear songs, music, and even more than a few prayers where, due to the excessive echo, everyone understood nothing! What a crazy crazy thing!! Modifying synthesizers was a survival necessity for many who wanted to avoid such interference. They occupied any other switch on the panel to move segments of the synth and get out of the CB band, or to get in between two of the 40 channels. To work with these radios was a disaster, strange button sequences, notes in notebooks, no one could figure out what frequency it was on, if they weren't the one who modified it. And in many cases not even he could. LOL. Soon many of them became Radio Amateurs wanting to go out in 10mts, and history was sadly written again. Lol But today the most paradoxical and strange thing happens! I have many friends, who have come up with corpses of modified CB radios, for me to bring back to life. I have told them that it is absurd, there being much better equipment at very convenient prices out there. Many responded to me, saying that there was no modern radio to match the reception quality of their modified CB! LOL. I felt offended, when I opened one of those radios, and in a state of shock, I saw so many crimes committed against a radio equipment. It was a lot of messy wires flying between the panel and the PCB, nothing documented or labeled. It was a crime. But in the end, those people loved those monstrosities, and they firmly believed that they were the best. Others, more sane, said that operating it was like solving a puzzle, the price you win, was getting a good QSO. Anyway.. I think that's the answer to your question. Who might like this radio? I know several of them. Ha ha ha... What I think is very cool? And a great challenge, is how an Engineer at 19,618Km (12,190mi) distant of Chile, knew that there are people, who would love a radio like that. Please excuse me for the length, a cordial greeting from CE2DJA.
I'd like to address one of your concerns regarding the frequency tuning you expressed in this video. Through the programming software, you can make the radio tune in 0.00001 MHz steps per channel if you want. You have 480 channels from which to choose a range of custom frequencies. Those frequencies per channel can have a separation of anywhere between 0.00001 MHz to 5.39000 MHz. So, play around with the software and program the frequencies per channel to fit your tastes. You can also choose the bandwidth for the fine tuning from wide to narrow. The sky(wave) is the limit. For this reason, I would enthusiastically recommend this radio to hams. It is as versatile as you want to make it because the programming software opens up a unique way to virtually limitless frequencies per channel within the 10, 11 (not recommended) and 12m bands. As a side note, this radio doesn't have CW capabilities. You can eliminate those frequencies within that sub band to make them available for SSB and FM, including repeaters with +/- offsets, CTCSS and DCS.
They are awesome, i ordered two! You definitely don't understand all the features and how to use them. There are plenty of UA-cam videos that explain using a PC data cable and setting it up each user's preference. The clarifier can be set to accomplish what you were trying to do default is 5 it can be set to 500. It's all about understanding the new tech. It's hard to review something that you don't understand. Not hating, you tried. 😉
I'm from Europe. I used to have a SuperStar 360 CB radio ( 30+ years ago ) AM/FM/SSB/CW . Is looks pretty much the same and with some modification did the same frequency range. Back in that time that was ( and still it is ) an awesome modified CB radio, but not more than that. I'm not sure either who this radio for in 2023 !?
In my search for an American made walker talkie with single sideband, I came across a company called american states electronics in California(at least a few decades ago), that was used to communicate with a marine single sideband radio also from California. What I can’t find is any information about the walkie talkie or the company whose name is branded on the radio, so I don’t know if it was made in America or not. The model number is mm-2c. The antenna is labeled 5.6, so I will make an educated guess that it is 5.6 mega cycles per second. The Japan models were very well made, and this radio most likely is Japan made with only one sideband, but can’t find any walkie talkie american made with single sideband.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse thanks for the info. Didn’t think any radio equipment was American made anymore, and great specs. I am still in search of a vintage walkie talkie with single sideband, and this company might be American made to, not sure I will ever find one, or maybe this former company in California might be one.
I have something similar and like it. It lets you get hf mobile 10,11,12 meters, for way less than a full fledged vfo rig. Less loss if it gets stolen, also.
I actually thought this radio looked pretty interesting for mobile operations where you not really try to contact someone and and exact frequency, just getting some contacts in anywhere since it seems very tactile. The combination with CB, 10, and 12 meters along with the ability to just at least program in a handful of 2m repeaters for listening kind of has me interested for the price. I have an anytone 6666 so I don't really need it but some reviews said it also sounds better.
I can see this being useful for folks that want to have a cb like setup for their friends in their vehicles for off-roading/ driving. But that is about it....
I'm surprised you wasted so much time trying to understand this radio when its so obvious that this radio was designed to be a 10M radio that any purchaser could convert to 11m and load the frequencies without needing the help of a technician or opening the radio and doing tech stuff. This radio is a 40W CB with FM and SSB. It really is one of the best all around CB options out there and was not designed for or intended for the HAM market.
I built a 144 MHz converter and run qt40 in low power setting nice to be able to have all modes at an affordable price I could spend more perhaps have better performance but seems pretty good way I use it
Josh, the Anytone 5555PLUS/N I've had for six months I've been operating on 10 meters is a sleeper very good RX and TX. The "N" includes the noise reduction board the does as well or better than my Yaesu 450D. I've made numerous DX contacts on a flower pot antenna. IMHO, it's the best 10/11 export and much easier to operate than the QT40. Best deal from Moonraker in UK. By the way the QT40 is 40W on FM only. 35W SSB and 12W AM(CB), same as my Anytone. I think that they're selling a throw back look instead of ease of operation. The QT40 seems aimed at a buyer that missed buying a Radio Shack HT10 30 years ago, hihi. $200 for nostalgia? Nope
If it does 40watts on CB freqs, then perhaps it is an over powered CB radio being marketed as a 10m ham radio for regulatory camouflage? Maybe? Heck if I know.
I would bet this radio is made for the 11 meter fans and is a way around the the fcc rules, much like the UV-5 that is used for GMRS, for a tech on a budget looking for just a 10 meter radio the AT-5555N would be a much better radio.
This is a radio for CBers who want more power or freeband. The industry calls them “export” 10m amateur radios. It’s like one wire to convert them back into the CB/freeband. Of course, the FCC don’t like that, so it’s marketed and certified as a ham radio and the CB/freeband functionality is like the innout secret menu - everyone knows about it.
Well if the company change rota switch so it could slip into continuous FRQ mode. Place a socket on the back of the radio for digital read out...yeah I know, it was just a silly thought .
This isn't made for Ham use . It is for the CB Free banders. It is Cheap glorified CB junk. When the FCC started to allow all Techs to use 10m I was driving a tuck so I went out and bought something like this. I do not remember the brand but it looked like this. I think this might be from the same manufacture in China but a different name . A pile of Chit by any other name is still a pile of Chit. 40W on CB is still Illegal . Power limits is still set at 4w carrier and 12w pep AM or ssb. FM I don't know what the limit is. more then likely not more the 12w. Radioddity is trying to make an end run around the US FCC and ITU laws to target the CB/Free Banders . There are lot of Free bander radios that have been hit with FCC fines and pulled out of the market. Every manufacture of these types of radios finds a loop hole then makes a minor change and some times rebrands then floods the market for a few years till the FCC catches up to them. If you go down to the lower end of 10M and hear some one talking on AM in the CW an data portions . These are free Banders. They are not licensed to operate there. If you remember Wouxun and other similar cheap Chinese radios got approval from FCC to market cheap handhelds as Amateur radios then they shipped them wide open then marketed to Preppers and others as FRS and GMRS . I think Radioddity sent you that to test to get some kind of Validation to show the FCC they are truly trying to market to Amateur radio market. I never bought anything from Radioddity and have held a neutral stance on their products but had a nagging feeling about the legality of some of the things they sell .
Who is marketed to? Simple Truck drivers and mobile CB guys. I ran a Connex 4400hp for 20 had external frequency counter but didn't need stare at it all day only used it occasionally to verify I was on the correct band. Set it on 11meter leave and talk on channel 1 though 40. I run president and anytone now have have built in frequency display, only use it on the side band radios.
Seems to be a way to transmit on 11 meters at 40 watts without amplifier and then be able to work freehband between 10 and 11 meters. Thier are other import CB's that do the same thing anysecu cb40 comes to mind. I think it's a prepper radio maybe where license and power conditions go out the window
I agree with you Josh. I like the price and 70’s vintage CB look, but it will drive me nuts trying to dial in a frequency. I’d like to hear from Radiodity who their target customer is.
Speaking of NZ DX stations - I used 40 and 80 a bit, but never got any from the US. I'm zl3rand (and zl3god - though the secretary balked at my second choice). Most of the time I just talked with the Home-Brew club and zl2ted (now deceased) and mr. Futter on zl2xrf). I'm driving now in Nevada through Washington and need a CB, and wanted a HAM also - I bought myself this QT40 - now I just need the programming software that runs on linux. ;-( Haven't taken the tests yet here. Disappointed that my full qualification in NZ (where I aced the big test) doesn't just simply transfer here.
Yeahhh I don’t get it either. However… I was very impressed with the Begali CW key you were leaning the rig against, so not a total waste of your UA-cam review time 👍
Loving the review! But yeah, this radio doesn't seem to fit anywhere. If CB, most people would buy a 10m ham rig (with an actual frequency display) and mod it for 11m. If it's for ham, then why does it have a CB interface and such complicated controls? The last thing I want to do when using a radio is have to use a chart to figure out what frequency I'm actually on. I just want the radio to tell me the frequency.
For either the Ham or CB crowd: I'd say to either buy the Cobra 29 for CB and a separate rig for HF (preferably), or save up a bit more and just buy something like a G90 and "edit" its functionality. (Not that I'm condoning such, but either would be a MUCH better experience than this radio)
@@joshuafletcher4963, it looks like Anytone makes radioed for Cobra so you are getting a radio that has a lot of features that the Cobra may have disabled. Same old story
It's an 11 meter radio, and the 11 meter community seems to love it . For ham radio, it's not a good option, because for a few more dollars more, you can get a real 10 meter radio.
It's for hams who have restored cars from the seventies and want something that looks period-correct on 10m. EDIT: this is so convoluted to use that I wouldn't want it even for that purpose.
Well I had high hopes until I saw the knobs and switches in their “prelaunch” adds. I’d love a 10 meter radio in a form factor like their DB-20G if that’s even possible.
you need to change some settings (using the programing software) Optional Features: tick the SWR protect box,, next notice the Fin Step, change this to 5k,, your issues should clear up and this radio just might get interesting KI5HZZ
My question is why don’t one of the big ham radio makers make a ‘real’ 10m single band radio? IMHO the President Lincoln II is a better radio for this purpose. But it’s still an export and not a dedicated 10m radio.
In Europe the President Lincoln II was available as export radio and 10 meter only radio. The Lincoln II+ as 12 and 10 meter version and as export version going from 24.715 to 30.150. The export version can be reset to 12 and 10 only and opened up again via the menu.
10 meters seems dead only because people expect it to be like 40 meters always hear someone there. Hear more on ten if they be patient same as the magic band 6 meters when open these bands can be amazing. I hear many running QRP. Plus add an interface for one of the digital modes you see actives from all over the globe. Perhaps MFG will add ports to back of the radio so we can focus our energy outside radio internals but I enjoy my hobby and who knows we may come up with more modes. Not just appliance operators… I like 10 meters always one of my favorites because it is a little elusive plus friends and family prefer digital modes and once in a while great voice contacts. Eventually they will upgrade but till they do 10 seems more like ham radio adventure I remember antennas are easy to build being smaller than 40 meters plus without adventure we all be DMR vhf/uhf. SCR has a place as well but these cheaper options should be simple and inexpensive till ham learns all they can. But I even like CW so maybe it’s just me…
I think you did a great job sharing about it. Even though you outlined the difficulties of using some functions, it didn't disuade me from buying it. It simply told me what to expect if I did. I love Radioddity products, and I think it's cool they released this. For those CBers who are into converting these radios to 11 meters, it also gives them the FM functionality that was recently approved for CB. Thanks for sharing!
Radioddity launching this on April 1st would have been the only way this made sense.
Agree
Josh. The GT40 is a rebranded AnyTone ARES II 10-meter AM/FM/SSB, also that fine-tuning you can set the knob to do 1Khz or 5Khz in the Setup
One thing I will say for Radioditty is that they have excellent customer service. My GD-77 developed a wonky screen. I e-mailed them and they suggested disassembling it and cleaning the contacts. I was surprised as usually disassembling a device voids the warranty. Anyways, I've disassembled more than enough electronic devices to be comfortable doing this, so I went ahead and did it. Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem, so I wrote back. They sent me a brand new radio at no cost right away, complete with accessories and didn't even ask for the old radio back. Yay, extra batteries, antennas, chargers, etc. and a parts radio (HTs don't take up much space, but they do tend ti breed like rabbits).
Radioddity has fantastic customer service. They repalaced a faulty TYT th9800 that I bought Open Box with a brand new one and even let me keep the dead radio. That sold me on radioddity.
This radio has a rather narrow market in the US.
It's intended for the 150 old CB guys that have been "freebanding" at illegal power since 1972, but their neighbors just pinned their coax, after having asked nicely for years for them to lay off on the EMI splatter.
Now that their old radio is blown up, and their nephew Kenny that used to do radio mods for them died of a Fentanyl overdose, they have to buy something new and easy to set up, so they can get back to drunkenly bellowing into a microphone at 2AM, on "channels" that they already understand...
Note: I am NOT anti-CB. I respect both CBers and Hams that can enjoy their pursuits without being a problem for other people...
You nailed it! you have to know about Alfa Tango and all the other European and American based CB radio freebander groups. They get together every year, have dinners. They are all over UA-cam with their meetings. This radio is an entry level to freebanding when you're starting out and can't afford a proper amateur radio. Your friends are on 27.535 and you need to be there, your old Cobra 40 channel doens't go "UP" so you buy this. At night when the band closes you use this to get away from drunks in your area so you just transmit without a license on 28.045 or whatever. There is no mystery here. It's been done for decades and will be done for decades more with zero enforcement from authorities. No surprises.
You know the average age of 'hammers' is 160, right?
I feel like 2/3rds of the radio industry is trying to hang on to that kind of narrow (and rapidly dying off) market instead of embracing the new crop of hams who grew up in the digital age.
The first company to realize that will be the only one still around in thirty years.
Most spot on comment Ive ever read, these CB guys are FR annoying
As a person who came to ham radio from CB, and as a tech who has only been licensed for about a year, I thought the QT40 looked fairly compelling as a purely-for-fun plaything in my classic 1986 car. A radio that "looks" like a vintage CB would go with the styling of my old buggy, but I'd actually have the ability to talk on 10m with a tuned whip and that sounded pretty good overall. In my imagination I would just be trying to make a few stray contacts on lunch breaks and the occasional longer drive. As far as the tuning goes I would honestly just pick a random frequency (within my privileges) and start calling CQ, in my mind this is a radio where "other people find me" moreso than I would ever be scanning trying to find other people calling CQ. Let the folks with the fancy yagis and band scopes tune me in, and at most I would have an SDR on the side to plug into my phone to check quick if there is *any* activity to get excited about. Seems like stuff is normally peppered around 28.4 so I'd use the software to put a bunch of presets in that range and hope for the best. Not going to lie, the ability to do 11m in a pinch appeals as well since I have CB operating friends and relatives in the area but find it annoying to install yet another radio for that occasional chat. Yes I could just have two radios but actually it would be three once you count my UHV/VHF for talking on the local repeaters and that is simply too much for one little old car. I do also like the simplicity of almost all manual controls and no/low menus, sounds just fine to me (but I would maybe want a legit frequency counter on the side I admit). The issue I am actually hung up on is the massive size of the case, I am not sure I can fit it into a traditional single-DIN radio slot in my car and that is about the only place I could potentially put it. I don't know why it has to be so massive when there is so little of anything in the case.
Update, I did ultimately go ahead an order one of these while Radioddity was having their site-wide 15% off sale. For what ended up being $170+tax this seems like a pretty darn good deal for a 10m HF radio with sideband, DSP, relatively easy manual controls without a lot of menu diving, and a cool throwback design. I know the design aspect is a little bit polarizing, but other than that all indications are that it has a pretty good receiver and nice features (some of which are never to be used, like the NPC and the echo...) and for the price as low as it is for what you get it just looked like too much fun not to have one. So, we'll see how it goes!
Hahahaha, just an Superstar 3900 with more options. I have one for severel monts now and the programming with the computer is outstanding. Also the digital noise reduction is superb. And yes I am a freebander, and yes I am licensed amateur and like the free bands.😁
This is geared toward the CB person. Cool looking for the oldschool CB. The radio needs a frequency counter.
Not hard to figure out who this rig is aimed at. It's meant to compete with the Galaxy and Stryker radios marketed to truck drivers. It's what's called an "import" radio. At one time, 75% of trucks had them on the dash. However, not that many drivers are even using a cb anymore, let alone an import.
I'd say most truck drivers that use a cb are using the export radios and not legal ones
This is also an Anytone ARES 2 radio. Anytone made things very easy to use this radio with their latest upgrades.
My take is that is this radio is an excuse to sell a 40W CB radio in the US. Radioddity imports a 10m radio and the buyer then unlocks the 11m band. Very similar with the President Lincoln II+. This is the only marketing scenario that makes sense to me. The tuning process is a train wreck. To each his own, I guess.
That's exactly what it is, and I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with how ridiculously hard this radio is to use. The QT60 is a much easier radio to use, is easy to convert to 11 meters, and puts out 60 watts. I don't need/want either one of them, I have an Icom IC-728 that has had the MARS mod done, and it now transmits on 11 meters SSB with up to 100 watts. And unlike newer "radio on a chip" garbage, it has a triple conversion superheterodyne receiver that makes it much easier to pick out those distant or weak stations that you would probably not be able to hear on a more "modern" radio.
Well, even after reading the review I decided to order one. I was a huge CB fan back in the 70's when skip was a big deal. I had a legal Cobra SSB radio and made contacts all over the world. It's what made me want to get my ham license. I think that if lots of hams get this radio it will be easier to make contacts and the QSY. You could say go to D17 or E5. I do like that this can be expanded to include the CB frequencies even though I realize thats not legal. It reminds me of the good old days. In a By 2025 we will be at the top of the 11-year cycle and we will see 10 & 11 meter go off the charts. This could become a very fun addition to your radio collection.
Back in the 70s about 4 sunspot cycles ago, I bought a Sears Roadtalker SSB CB and moved it to the 10 meter band.. Channel 1 was 28.505 (voice started at 28.500) and went up in 10 Khz channels. I rewired the clarifier control to work simultaneously on transmit and receive. I lowered a bias resister to provide more voltage to the varactor to achieve a plus or minus 5 Khz swing to cover the gaps. Since CB skipped some business and RC channels there were still some gaps in the spectrum covered. At 12 Watts I still had more countries confirmed than I had states confirmed just driving to and from work.
That would be real handy to operate in traffic
You should see hams looking down at the fish finder in their 7300s while driving. People are simply idiots.
How many hands would one need to operate the microphone, the knobs, the spreadsheet and the steering wheel!
I thought of one use-case, for the person who is very active above 50 MHz who just wants to work a couple of 10m nets a week. A bit like the HF operator who gets a 2m single band FM mobile to work a couple of nets a week. My advice for a Technician who wants to work 10m, is to pick up a used HF+6m radio so they can work 6 and 10m
new hams: just save a few more dollars and get a G90. I love mine, and when combined with a buddistick, I've gotten Cuba, Cayman Islands, London, Kuwait, and Slovenia from my backyard in Michigan.
i would beg the difference got one its a cheap build not to last
All those stations are running huge towers with beams. No merit in that. They are doing all the heavy lifting. Learn to patient and work the weak signals that are in your noise. Those 50 watt Chilean stations running a piece of wire. THAT is radio communication. You have to learn to work weak signals.
@@jeroenhashman2383 It's BEG TO DIFFER .. not beg the difference. Unbelievable ...
Well it's certainly an oddity.
They could have made this so much better if they used the big knob as a rough tuning, and then a smaller knob for fine tuning. Also they could have made the display better so it could show everything after the 28 mhz or 29mhz. Such as 29---- (.600).
Or better yet... make it a mono band 20 meter radio so it is more useful to the wider community at large. A good cheap 20 meter car radio would be kinda awesome.
20 meter mobile with a loading coil in antenna even a 1/4 wave would be a 5meters long not very vehicle friendly.
@@seanwood8043 A 20 meter hamstick from MFJ is only 7 feet long. That's no big deal.
@@vhfgamer yeah that's more manageable for sure. Is that a 1/8 wave or does it have a loading coil to make it electrically a longer antenna ? Wondering what the radiation pattern on that antenna looks like ? Just curious
@@seanwood8043 I would imagine it probably has a loading coil in it. They sell hamsticks that go all the way up to 75 meters. As for the radiation pattern, I haven't a clue.
@@vhfgamer I have heard that a antenna that is electrically correct with a loading coil may have a comprised radiation pattern compared to the actual resonant length on a 1/4 , 1/2 , 5/8 wave ect. But as long as it's swr is good if it talks it talks in the end. I have no experience with those type of antennas. At any rate enjoy your equipment Sir
This radio is not much removed from my now ancient Cobra 148 GTL (1993) with "extra channels". It, too required a chart to know what frequency you were transmitting on. I now have a President Lincoln II ver3 that does what the 148 did but a lot more. This radio here is only meant for the "freebander" market, nothing else.
exactly why I'm buying it. It's freakin' ideal for freeband and CB.
This is for the op that wants a new 10/11 meter radio that looks like a classic radio. Nostalgia can be very powerful. It was common to take a 148GTL and convert them, 40 years ago it was high tec.
You simply don't get it, i have no idea what you were doing using multiple adjustments to get to where you needed to be..
First.. it says its a 10 meter band radio, i say that with a wry grin while shaking my head, like all other export radios it is formost a cb radio and a extremely good one at that..
Manufacturer's disguise these type of radios under the guise of a legal ham radio knowing they bypass all the rules and regulations to market it, i dare say they're are very few people who have bought this radio wanting to use it on 10 meters..
Once put into export mode the radio is fire.. what you dont understand is that its not aimed at the ham radio operator but those who want to use it as a cb radio that does everything and more..
This is one of the most stable sidebanders on the market and Radiodity have tweaked the board for maximum performance across 10-11-12 meters when in export mode.. there are other radios out there that look identical but have different names but the Anytone board in the QT40 has been optimized to the max and is by far the best of the bunch.. the reception is better than my Yasue FTDX10 on eleven meters.. yes i know that is hard to believe but ask any technician and they will tell you the same after they have bench tested it..
The market for this type of radio is absolutely massive for those who freeband and company's like Radiodity know this..
It is probably one of the best performing export radios that have ever been manufactured in the last thirty or so years..
Again legality aside this is one of the best for those who pirate the freeband and whether or not folks want to believe its for the ham radio hobby they are sorely mistaken it's meant for cb'rs who use AM and SSB its whole design with what it can do proves this, or it would be locked just for thr 10 meter band, I'll say again it is one of the best radios out of the box ever made.
I can see your point. The radio was sent to Josh to review. He doesn't recommend it and he went every way to explain why. As far as a CB, the only thing I can see as an advantage is the 40 watt capability. Other than that, if you have the intent to freeband - yep, I'm sure it's a great radio. Forty watts over 3.5 watts on CB is about 1.5 S-units and the ability to drive a larger linear amp. Just my opinion.
If I was in an apocalypse situation where my ability to reach someone over 10m was paramount to my survival and I came across this radio I’d give up and die.
Ehh, just hook it up to radioodity’s program software and manually type in the frequencies you want… Plus there is an substantial amount of other options on the software program as well. Waving from my tech bench‼️ 73
Yeah. You can do anything you want. It to say out of the box this is a good beginner radio is not great.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Yeah it definitely has its own learning curve for sure.
Thank you, Josh .... for your Honest and Objective Review.....Take care & 73's..
The king of dedicated 10 meter mobile radios on the cheap, is still the RadioShack HTX-10. Made a bunch of contacts when I worked for the Shack back in the 90's, fun days.......
I had one as well back in the early nineties. When I was temporarily apartment-bound, I'd drive to the top of a tall parking structure, plant a 10M hamstick with a mag-mount on top of my car and work DX. Eventually, the security guard would show up to kick me out and I'd move to another building or drive up into a hillside neighborhood.
I think the ranger radios are very good for 10m i have seen inside one of them QT40 radios definitely not old technology theres a few menus to set up holding the mic buttons will display the frequency on the channels display moveing left to right i see it on UA-cam
If you want to get to the frequencies like you were trying to do move the jumper to slot 2 and 3 to open up the radio and when you do that you get total control over the radio. This radio is awesome in my opinion because some Might not want to let others know that they are actually using this radio over all the others because it's just comfortable using and very easy to use in my opinion. Just saying to get the frequencies Josh was trying to get move the jumper and then you can move to whatever you want.
I’ll answer your question what’s going on. The QT40 is a 40watt 11 meter that can be used to make contacts with lot lizards. It reaches out farther than a standard CB so I can hook up with the good lot lizards before they are all taken. Knowwhatimsayin?
that looks exactly like the CB my dad had in his truck when I was a kid
As a truck driver I like radio's like that Cb 90 percent of the time but when parked it's fun to play around on 10m
For mobile use, it would be good for 90+% of the time CB radio use with an occasional 10 meter band usage. The radio really should have a freq display though - even a basic one like the Galaxy 88 has.
There is a giant sea of more intuitive (than this) rigs out there, and for a radio that looks vintagey-simple, I would expect it to do finer dialing without needing an associates' degree in this specific model of radio. Good review, you just saved me $200!
I have 2 of those Cobra Classics. 1980's models. My grandfather was a truck driver for 30 years.
Is it possible to program a baofang handheld ham radio to go from 8 watts to 4 watt and able to use without a license?
When I first saw the two digit display, I couldn't sort out how someone would find frequencies and band scan easily. Now that I've seen this demo? Holy cow that's overly complicated.
I passed on reviewing this radio because it didn't have CW mode. Thanks for taking a bullet for us. :) Cheers, Thomas
I saw that you were on channel 15 trying to find a signal , the way I saw it you were in the A channel between 15 and 16 , the 10 kc switch is there for the missing 5 A or RC channels on every band ......
I see what you mean. Going from band B to band C, You miss frequencies 28.300 - 28.395. I would not be able to tune to the Sunday afternoon net in my area at 28.35 lsb because an important part of 10 meter is missing.
It looks retro cool but i agree with you. It also is quite large and probably only fits in older vehicles without a full console.
You'd do what us cbers do and mount an external mount to your center console or dash
Yeah but! For an old CBer like me......I LOVE THIS RADIO! Plus I can go a few channels above CB 40 with my pals and talk without all the garbage. Now, we don't go up to 28MHZ! We stay BELOW that. We don't want you guys getting mad at us. However, if you guys want to come down and chat with us, GREAT! Welcome! 27.425 rocks!
You are right ! In fact it is an old school cb radio for 11m Dx. (export mode). In 555 dx it is usual the 5khz step, but in 10m they do't have this simple rule, so you need more frequnsy agility and 1 khz step. Maby the modulation of the radio is good. For CB 11m 555dx can be a tool.
I have tried a few of these Chinese made radios, and each time I'm met with the same disappointment. I have one of these I just had delivered today and I am struggling to find a way to make it user friendly. It also seems very cheaply make (to be expected with the price). If you make the modification for expanded frequencies, forget about using some frequencies in the 10 meter band, you lose the call frequency 28.400. Going to work with it a little more, but I have my doubts. The NR seems to a least work a bit. The transmit audio seems to be decent and it does have good bandwidth, sounds good on AM. If you listen in headphones through a good receiver however, you will notice some distorted artifacts in the TX audio which indicates it may not have the cleanest audio after all.
I am curious how easy the programming software is to use, there you should be able to program the channels you want to use on a regular.
Afaik this is a rebadge of the Anytone Ares II and the software for it is simple to use.
Not to down your review but set the clarifer for 5kc movement. That is a must. Then your better off having the channels (frequencies) set for 10kc apart. Stock form you're seeing that your seeing 5kc jumps which is more than acceptable to run but have clarifer at 5kc not 500hz. Without a whole lotta screwing around just move the jumper inside the radio like 99% of the population the channels fall in 10kc jumps on 10m and for the ones that are missing cause of a CB standard channel plan layout use the 10kc slider. Use ch6 or 38 on cb as your propagation beacon and then goto 10m. It will remember where you left off at on 10m Upper band A ch 8 is 28.405 turn it to the left and your on the 10m call area. Really not big deal its made out to be. Im not saying transmit there but at least you can listen to know the real band conditions for reference to 10m since everyone is playing FT8 on poor performance multiband antennas. Radio is on freq no drift which is a big appeal for SSB. Ares II and QT40 are made by same manufacturer. If you want VFO live control to view where you're at this is the wrong radio to get. If you wanna have fun on 10 for cheap and not have to worry about a radio stolen from your vehicle slap this in there looks like an old CB. Thanks for your unbiased review 73 from 724 Chicago
Sounds like something that should be default from the factory.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse I agree it should be set default from factory. I do believe by letting them know what radio operators prefer in the radio they are willing to do it given they can sell that product or helps with sales. But certain things need to be tweaked and that goes without saying even if it's Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu. To a certain extent everything needs to be dialed in for audio on the individual or preferred processing level. Not saying crank it up but also not quiet mono tone stock. This is a neat radio and has potential especially when inside the programming software for instance having 140 thru 170mhz RX capabilities by modifying the WX channels or adding onto the 5 blank ones in that menu. Thanks again and 73 👍
Nice video. Thank you. I think it's a very confusing radio and nothing any beginner should use. I get lost on the minimum led digit scale/readout. They should have put a 6 digit screen on it too.
Cost to get on 10 meter radio is why it sells. 28,3-28,5 if someone is a tech it’s attractive. If general we know 40 & 20 might be our favorites but we all know best price to get on there 600-2000 more likely but when ten is open it can be so much fun.
Thanks for saving my time and money on this radio.
I commented on KM9G's video too but this is now the second "review" video of this radio I've seen and neither show an actual contact made using it...I think that speaks to the radio more than the reviewers at this point, but I want my several minutes back 😂
I honestly tried!! I had that ZL station on my 7610 and was trying to match it on the QT40. I wanted to record it. In my case, I’m honestly saying, don’t get this.
This is hot garbage. It's a nostalgia grab, and that seems to be it. It doesn't seem to be very well thought out beyond "hey let's copy this design brief". It seems like the kind of thing that someone is going to buy, try to use, and then it's going to sit on a shelf until they become a silent key, then their family has to deal with it.
It's more e-waste that's not needed. I'm glad you made the video to show others what it's like, so they can draw their own conclusions and (hopefully) avoid it.
The QT 40 is about the same size as a SSB CB radio, and it needs a dedicated freq display, like a Kenwood 520 with a DG5
This radio is marketed to ME. I love ham radio, and I love CB radio. Right now I'm using a crappy Pro-510 for CB. I'd love to buy a CB with sideband, but even a basic used Cobra 148 is $200+ on eBay these days, and most of those are untested and being sold "as is" for parts. That's how I stumbled upon this radio. It does CB, it does FM and SSB, and it doesn't cost a thousand dollars. I could mod my HF radio to do 11 meters, as many people do, but that doesn't really appeal to me. HF radios tend to sound like muffled hot garbage on 11 meter AM. Of course, I wouldn't use this radio for CB, because that would be illegal! But I definitely like the concept of this radio, and I'm thinking about buying one to play with. It reminds me a lot of the old export radios like the President Jackson, Connex 3300, etc. Very cool, but then again I grew up on the CB radio and I used to dream about radios like these.
I mean this when I say, I’m happy this is a good radio for you! Enjoy that!
Would love to widen the "wx" recieve so as to get commercial radio and therefor weather here in australia. As we dont get a assigned weather channel anymore. Trying to get radioddity to help expand it....
Since CB radio is legally required to be low power, this radio allows people to use more power while still operating on channelized frequencies with another unit of the same type. This might be used for communication between two vehicles, much like a walkie-talkie. Using channelized frequencies simplifies this process for this purpose I think.
More here that you're not seeing. You have to know about Alfa Tango and all the other European and American based CB radio freebander groups. They get together every year, have dinners. They are all over UA-cam with their meetings. This radio is an entry level to freebanding when you're starting out and can't afford a proper amateur radio. Your friends are on 27.535 and you need to be there, your old Cobra 40 channel doens't go "UP" so you buy this. At night when the band closes you use this to get away from drunks in your area so you just transmit without a license on 28.045 or whatever. There is no mystery here. It's been done for decades and will be done for decades more with zero enforcement from authorities. No surprises.
I think when people started freebanding their CBs into 10m radios, they never figured out how to convert a channelized radio to a frequency based band. Pretty much every export CB radio that also does 10m has some of these limitations. Sure, some of them have frequency displays but it's still so awkward to tune into a specific frequency. Nothing close to a true VFO knob. Here it looks like they prioritized CB style over any sort of functionality.
How hard is a 5k slider? We had them in the 80's on Super Panthers lol
The radio has a menu option where you can select either +/- 500 Hz -or- +/-5 kHz for the clarifier range. Set on 5 kHz, it has continuous TX/RX on the entire 10m band.
Hi Josh, really interesting video Thanks a lot. I saw this radio some time ago when was advised "ready to launch", I may imagine at the field with an small radio and I supposed for me, nothing more comfortable for about that than my FT897D, yeah pretty vintage I know but cool for me. I love it.
When I read about this radio I found it pretty cool, because in my opinion was a romantic reminiscence of a vintage CB radio, but been a funny Radio Amateur Rig, I thought there was a lot of CB Fan boys that surely they will love it. Mmmm... I read the manual, and first of all it say there is a CPS in which I imagine, you program channels in HF, and VHF frequencies (Rx only) in between 140Mhz and 174MHz. Mmmm...
Well let me tell you an story, The citizen band had a euphoric explosion of followers in Chile, my country, but the propagation conditions were very different from those in the USA, here the local coverage was minimal, while stations in Brazil with linear amplifiers swept away any possibility of a local communication. You can hear songs, music, and even more than a few prayers where, due to the excessive echo, everyone understood nothing! What a crazy crazy thing!!
Modifying synthesizers was a survival necessity for many who wanted to avoid such interference. They occupied any other switch on the panel to move segments of the synth and get out of the CB band, or to get in between two of the 40 channels. To work with these radios was a disaster, strange button sequences, notes in notebooks, no one could figure out what frequency it was on, if they weren't the one who modified it. And in many cases not even he could. LOL.
Soon many of them became Radio Amateurs wanting to go out in 10mts, and history was sadly written again. Lol But today the most paradoxical and strange thing happens! I have many friends, who have come up with corpses of modified CB radios, for me to bring back to life. I have told them that it is absurd, there being much better equipment at very convenient prices out there. Many responded to me, saying that there was no modern radio to match the reception quality of their modified CB! LOL.
I felt offended, when I opened one of those radios, and in a state of shock, I saw so many crimes committed against a radio equipment. It was a lot of messy wires flying between the panel and the PCB, nothing documented or labeled. It was a crime. But in the end, those people loved those monstrosities, and they firmly believed that they were the best. Others, more sane, said that operating it was like solving a puzzle, the price you win, was getting a good QSO. Anyway..
I think that's the answer to your question. Who might like this radio? I know several of them. Ha ha ha... What I think is very cool? And a great challenge, is how an Engineer at 19,618Km (12,190mi) distant of Chile, knew that there are people, who would love a radio like that.
Please excuse me for the length, a cordial greeting from CE2DJA.
Fernando! I’m glad we could determine who the potential buyers are for this radio! I hope they enjoy it. Thank you for the story!
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Thank you Sir.
I'd like to address one of your concerns regarding the frequency tuning you expressed in this video.
Through the programming software, you can make the radio tune in 0.00001 MHz steps per channel if you want. You have 480 channels from which to choose a range of custom frequencies. Those frequencies per channel can have a separation of anywhere between 0.00001 MHz to 5.39000 MHz. So, play around with the software and program the frequencies per channel to fit your tastes. You can also choose the bandwidth for the fine tuning from wide to narrow. The sky(wave) is the limit.
For this reason, I would enthusiastically recommend this radio to hams. It is as versatile as you want to make it because the programming software opens up a unique way to virtually limitless frequencies per channel within the 10, 11 (not recommended) and 12m bands.
As a side note, this radio doesn't have CW capabilities. You can eliminate those frequencies within that sub band to make them available for SSB and FM, including repeaters with +/- offsets, CTCSS and DCS.
I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t include a frequency counter; many other import style radios have that. Maybe a price limitation?
It's specifically targeted at the CB/frebander that doesn't want that. Not sure why they would think sending one to a HAM channel was a good idea.
RCI Ranger 2950 all the way! 10 & 12m, can also purchase an additional internal dongle for 11m CB.
They are awesome, i ordered two! You definitely don't understand all the features and how to use them. There are plenty of UA-cam videos that explain using a PC data cable and setting it up each user's preference. The clarifier can be set to accomplish what you were trying to do default is 5 it can be set to 500. It's all about understanding the new tech. It's hard to review something that you don't understand. Not hating, you tried. 😉
I'm from Europe. I used to have a SuperStar 360 CB radio ( 30+ years ago ) AM/FM/SSB/CW . Is looks pretty much the same and with some modification did the same frequency range. Back in that time that was ( and still it is ) an awesome modified CB radio, but not more than that. I'm not sure either who this radio for in 2023 !?
In my search for an American made walker talkie with single sideband, I came across a company called american states electronics in California(at least a few decades ago), that was used to communicate with a marine single sideband radio also from California. What I can’t find is any information about the walkie talkie or the company whose name is branded on the radio, so I don’t know if it was made in America or not. The model number is mm-2c. The antenna is labeled 5.6, so I will make an educated guess that it is 5.6 mega cycles per second. The Japan models were very well made, and this radio most likely is Japan made with only one sideband, but can’t find any walkie talkie american made with single sideband.
Elecraft KX2
@@HamRadioCrashCourse thanks for the info. Didn’t think any radio equipment was American made anymore, and great specs. I am still in search of a vintage walkie talkie with single sideband, and this company might be American made to, not sure I will ever find one, or maybe this former company in California might be one.
I have something similar and like it. It lets you get hf mobile 10,11,12 meters, for way less than a full fledged vfo rig. Less loss if it gets stolen, also.
This would be a nice CB-Radio, insẗead of 10 m Band, in competition to the Superstar 3900 😉
73 from Switzerland
I actually thought this radio looked pretty interesting for mobile operations where you not really try to contact someone and and exact frequency, just getting some contacts in anywhere since it seems very tactile. The combination with CB, 10, and 12 meters along with the ability to just at least program in a handful of 2m repeaters for listening kind of has me interested for the price. I have an anytone 6666 so I don't really need it but some reviews said it also sounds better.
I can see this being useful for folks that want to have a cb like setup for their friends in their vehicles for off-roading/ driving. But that is about it....
I'm surprised you wasted so much time trying to understand this radio when its so obvious that this radio was designed to be a 10M radio that any purchaser could convert to 11m and load the frequencies without needing the help of a technician or opening the radio and doing tech stuff. This radio is a 40W CB with FM and SSB. It really is one of the best all around CB options out there and was not designed for or intended for the HAM market.
I built a 144 MHz converter and run qt40 in low power setting nice to be able to have all modes at an affordable price I could spend more perhaps have better performance but seems pretty good way I use it
Josh, the Anytone 5555PLUS/N I've had for six months I've been operating on 10 meters is a sleeper very good RX and TX. The "N" includes the noise reduction board the does as well or better than my Yaesu 450D. I've made numerous DX contacts on a flower pot antenna. IMHO, it's the best 10/11 export and much easier to operate than the QT40. Best deal from Moonraker in UK. By the way the QT40 is 40W on FM only. 35W SSB and 12W AM(CB), same as my Anytone. I think that they're selling a throw back look instead of ease of operation. The QT40 seems aimed at a buyer that missed buying a Radio Shack HT10 30 years ago, hihi. $200 for nostalgia? Nope
I assumed it was for CBers who want more than 4w. 4w covers what CB was intended to do, but if you set a limit, some people want to exceed it.
If it does 40watts on CB freqs, then perhaps it is an over powered CB radio being marketed as a 10m ham radio for regulatory camouflage? Maybe? Heck if I know.
That make sense to me.
Breaka Breaka I got my knees in da breeze and I just got down! 😂
I would bet this radio is made for the 11 meter fans and is a way around the the fcc rules, much like the UV-5 that is used for GMRS, for a tech on a budget looking for just a 10 meter radio the AT-5555N would be a much better radio.
This is a radio for CBers who want more power or freeband. The industry calls them “export” 10m amateur radios. It’s like one wire to convert them back into the CB/freeband. Of course, the FCC don’t like that, so it’s marketed and certified as a ham radio and the CB/freeband functionality is like the innout secret menu - everyone knows about it.
Sure, but to send it to me to review as a "Ten meter radio", it's still confusing :D
An answer to a question no one was asking.
Looks like radioddity is getting in on the cb market. That would make a GOOD cb.
Well if the company change rota switch so it could slip into continuous FRQ mode.
Place a socket on the back of the radio for digital read out...yeah I know, it was just a silly thought .
Why does it exist? Who though it would be a good idea?
please explain
ARTIST REPRESENTING
"THE STANDARD OF DOUBLE ?"
a true story will follow
Who thought this was a viable product...
This isn't made for Ham use . It is for the CB Free banders. It is Cheap glorified CB junk. When the FCC started to allow all Techs to use 10m I was driving a tuck so I went out and bought something like this. I do not remember the brand but it looked like this. I think this might be from the same manufacture in China but a different name . A pile of Chit by any other name is still a pile of Chit. 40W on CB is still Illegal . Power limits is still set at 4w carrier and 12w pep AM or ssb. FM I don't know what the limit is. more then likely not more the 12w. Radioddity is trying to make an end run around the US FCC and ITU laws to target the CB/Free Banders . There are lot of Free bander radios that have been hit with FCC fines and pulled out of the market. Every manufacture of these types of radios finds a loop hole then makes a minor change and some times rebrands then floods the market for a few years till the FCC catches up to them. If you go down to the lower end of 10M and hear some one talking on AM in the CW an data portions . These are free Banders. They are not licensed to operate there. If you remember Wouxun and other similar cheap Chinese radios got approval from FCC to market cheap handhelds as Amateur radios then they shipped them wide open then marketed to Preppers and others as FRS and GMRS . I think Radioddity sent you that to test to get some kind of Validation to show the FCC they are truly trying to market to Amateur radio market. I never bought anything from Radioddity and have held a neutral stance on their products but had a nagging feeling about the legality of some of the things they sell .
I like it, it’s complicated to use but CB guys are use to narrow bandwidth. It’s good but it’s an outlaw radio
Who is marketed to? Simple Truck drivers and mobile CB guys. I ran a Connex 4400hp for 20 had external frequency counter but didn't need stare at it all day only used it occasionally to verify I was on the correct band. Set it on 11meter leave and talk on channel 1 though 40. I run president and anytone now have have built in frequency display, only use it on the side band radios.
It gets even worse on those when you mod them. It changes them to 10kz steps making HF nonCB contacts hard to close.
That radio with a frequency readout as a standard display,,,, fine. The way it is, nope to clunky.
Seems to be a way to transmit on 11 meters at 40 watts without amplifier and then be able to work freehband between 10 and 11 meters. Thier are other import CB's that do the same thing anysecu cb40 comes to mind. I think it's a prepper radio maybe where license and power conditions go out the window
to get to those "hidden" channels you have to hit the 10Kswitch
I agree with you Josh. I like the price and 70’s vintage CB look, but it will drive me nuts trying to dial in a frequency. I’d like to hear from Radiodity who their target customer is.
All you need to know is how to make it get down
Add a couple of pills too!
Speaking of NZ DX stations - I used 40 and 80 a bit, but never got any from the US. I'm zl3rand (and zl3god - though the secretary balked at my second choice). Most of the time I just talked with the Home-Brew club and zl2ted (now deceased) and mr. Futter on zl2xrf). I'm driving now in Nevada through Washington and need a CB, and wanted a HAM also - I bought myself this QT40 - now I just need the programming software that runs on linux. ;-( Haven't taken the tests yet here. Disappointed that my full qualification in NZ (where I aced the big test) doesn't just simply transfer here.
Yeahhh I don’t get it either. However… I was very impressed with the Begali CW key you were leaning the rig against, so not a total waste of your UA-cam review time 👍
Loving the review! But yeah, this radio doesn't seem to fit anywhere. If CB, most people would buy a 10m ham rig (with an actual frequency display) and mod it for 11m. If it's for ham, then why does it have a CB interface and such complicated controls? The last thing I want to do when using a radio is have to use a chart to figure out what frequency I'm actually on. I just want the radio to tell me the frequency.
For either the Ham or CB crowd: I'd say to either buy the Cobra 29 for CB and a separate rig for HF (preferably), or save up a bit more and just buy something like a G90 and "edit" its functionality. (Not that I'm condoning such, but either would be a MUCH better experience than this radio)
@@joshuafletcher4963, it looks like Anytone makes radioed for Cobra so you are getting a radio that has a lot of features that the Cobra may have disabled. Same
old story
This radio is made to compete with all the other 10 meter radios that are mainly designed to convert to CB radios. That's all.
They probably should have told me that when they sent it to me to review.
Puts in mind of a CB that's been hit with the golden screwdriver
It's an 11 meter radio, and the 11 meter community seems to love it . For ham radio, it's not a good option, because for a few more dollars more, you can get a real 10 meter radio.
I NEED THAT WATCH BAND !!
It's for hams who have restored cars from the seventies and want something that looks period-correct on 10m.
EDIT: this is so convoluted to use that I wouldn't want it even for that purpose.
Pass! I came into ham radio during the mid 1970s when the CB boom started and a 5 watt 23 channel CB radio, before 1977, was not appealing to me.
Well I had high hopes until I saw the knobs and switches in their “prelaunch” adds. I’d love a 10 meter radio in a form factor like their DB-20G if that’s even possible.
you need to change some settings (using the programing software) Optional Features: tick the SWR protect box,, next notice the Fin Step, change this to 5k,, your issues should clear up and this radio just might get interesting KI5HZZ
For a basement price, ten meter radio these things should have been baked into the firmware.
It's built for sideband cb'ers that like old school styling.
My question is why don’t one of the big ham radio makers make a ‘real’ 10m single band radio?
IMHO the President Lincoln II is a better radio for this purpose. But it’s still an export and not a dedicated 10m radio.
In Europe the President Lincoln II was available as export radio and 10 meter only radio. The Lincoln II+ as 12 and 10 meter version and as export version going from 24.715 to 30.150. The export version can be reset to 12 and 10 only and opened up again via the menu.
10 meters seems dead only because people expect it to be like 40 meters always hear someone there. Hear more on ten if they be patient same as the magic band 6 meters when open these bands can be amazing. I hear many running QRP. Plus add an interface for one of the digital modes you see actives from all over the globe. Perhaps MFG will add ports to back of the radio so we can focus our energy outside radio internals but I enjoy my hobby and who knows we may come up with more modes. Not just appliance operators… I like 10 meters always one of my favorites because it is a little elusive plus friends and family prefer digital modes and once in a while great voice contacts. Eventually they will upgrade but till they do 10 seems more like ham radio adventure I remember antennas are easy to build being smaller than 40 meters plus without adventure we all be DMR vhf/uhf. SCR has a place as well but these cheaper options should be simple and inexpensive till ham learns all they can. But I even like CW so maybe it’s just me…