Retevis RT87: my next HT?

Now I wouldn't normally rush out to buy a radio based on a YouTube review however in this case I am tempted to after two very positive videos surrounding the Retevis RT87 by Lewis M3HHY on his 'Ringway Manchester' channel, which I watched in reverse order, the second video he did was a test on top of a local to him high spot called Werneth Low, where apparently high power transmission stations were present that should flatten the front end of any Chinese radio, particularly Baofeng radios, or even the Leixen VV-898 which I know to be terrible for this, however the video showed Lewis operating happily from the area working stations in Oldham and Stretford and other locations as well as two local repeaters, the first video being the unboxing and describing of the radio.

I found the radio on Amazon for £54 plus shipping with the data cable, the cable is needed as this radio is IP67 rated and uses a pogo-pin arrangement to make the connections (the pins are on the accessory, contacts are on the radio under a waterproof cap, my network radio has a similar connector but I believe it is not IP67 rated), otherwise I'd be spending hours programming a radio like this by hand.

So I certainly will order this radio, and put it through its paces, for £54 plus a programming cable you certainly cannot go wrong.

Probably does not work with Chirp yet so I'd have to install the Retevis software on my shack computer, it's not much different to Chirp and looks simple and easy to use compared to most Chinese radio programming software.

I'll keep you informed

73 de 2E0EIJ

The fatal flaw of cheap Chinese radios for 2m and 70cm

YouTuber 'Ringway Manchester', Lewis M3HHY, posted a video of himself and another amateur attempting to make contacts on 2-meters simplex from Blackpool Tower, something I myself wanted to do but decided against and, as Lewis revealed, I too would have failed as on the day I had only a Baofeng with me.

Radios made by Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu all have good front end filtering on them and a superheterodyne receiver, with a couple of the really cheap Yaesu radios being an exception on the latter, cheap Chinese radios tend to have a direct conversion receiver and poor filtering, as I demonstrated with my Leixen VV-898 this leads to interference from out of band signals.

Lewis had this problem from Blackpool Tower on a Baofeng UV-5R and another Baofeng which I believe was a UV-82, 10 stations came back to Lewis' calls but he was not able to hear them on either radio.

the other part of the problem is that there are antennas on Blackpool tower, to higher powered transmitters, though these are higher up than what the public are allowed and should have not caused a problem in theory, as I plan to get hold of a Yaesu HT (or an analogue Icom or Kenwood) hopefully before next year's Blackpool rally I hope to be able to give this a go myself and see if a Japanese made radio will be able to do what the Baofeng cannot do, work contacts from Blackpool Tower, also I really hope Lewis gives this another go with another radio, as that is a video I would very much enjoy seeing.

Chinese radios, you do get what you pay for, though don't get me wrong, I do advocate the Baofeng radios as they are very good starter radios for the newly licensed that cannot afford a radio by one of the big three.

Search YouTube for 'Ringway Manchester' for Lewis' video from Blackpool Tower and you'll see the difficulties he was having, after all the tower should make a very ideal place to get into the repeater on the Isle of Man, just Baofeng skimp on the filtering and use an SDR chip in the radios though all radios are prone to front end overload and desense from strong transmissions.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Forays into DMR and the Bowburn Rally

I attended the DADARS rally in Bowburn yesterday and, despite some unforeseen roadworks on the A1(M), I found the event venue with no problem and quickly concluded, due to the antennas on the top of the building, that the club hosting the rally was based there.

Now I have a sort of tradition of buying a new radio at rallies, with me buying the GT-5 at the National Hamfest one year, and buying my QYT KT-8900D from the Blackpool rally last year I carried on that tradition by picking up the latest Chinese offering for DMR, the AnyTone AT-D868UV, a 6 watts claimed dual-band HT that can also do FM as well as DMR.

My own opinion of the audio quality of DMR has not been as favourable as that of System Fusion by Yaesu, however, for reasons I need not explain, it is the only other digital voice system I will use, I won't use D-STAR at this time, again I need not explain why.

DMR coverage in my area is, for lack of a better word, poor, but that's not to say I cannot use it, and with these dual-band radios now coming out I am pretty sure that there will be 2-meter repeaters with DMR functionality coming on air at some point, though here in the North East of England the favoured digital voice system is in fact System Fusion, for which I already have the radio for.

I am awaiting confirmation of my DMR ID and have found a codeplug that has all repeaters in the UK in it as well as a few other things that would be of use in this radio, the codeplug has been written along with the system issued DMR ID, the codeplug was supplied free of charge by Moonraker, the software was elsewhere on the Internet, the radio itself was supplied by Mirfield Electronics and I got a business card off them so I could contact them should I have any issues at all, fortunately no issues yet.

The radio keys up fine, though to actually test the DMR side I'd need something that can decode DMR, my RTL-SDRs should do this no problem, also another station with DMR equipment should be fine to give me an idea of how this radio performs on DMR a bit more fairly than an RTL-SDR

Going back to the rally, it was not too big and they did have bacon rolls (which I did have one despite having a McDonald's breakfast that morning), it was also good weather so the drive to and from the rally was in an air conditioned car, complete with a short QSO with Chris G4FZN once I got back into GB3IR's range, which I noticed was definitely a couple of S points down just as the A1 goes over the Tees, my handsfree performed well as long as I was speaking at the microphone, or at least the report I got from Chris was along those lines, I mostly monitored GB3CD until I was just past Darlington on the way back, on the way out I switched to S22 (for the talk in though it didn't seem to be in operation) once out of GB3IR's range (with the control panel for the FTM-400XDE in the centre of the car dash this was achieved easy.  The rally came up in my QSO with Chris and I was surprised he was not there, however he obviously had other things to do that day.

The rally was worth the visit, not too busy and had a raffle and tombola, I didn't win anything but there's always the National Hamfest in September, but that's another story entirely, plenty of stalls at the rally, and plenty of radio gear up for grabs, I had a choice between a Bluetooth microphone for my KT-8900D or the DMR, I chose the DMR in the end as in the shack I don't really need a Bluetooth microphone.

Now time to play with the DMR, see what it can do (and if it is a "Motorola killer", I have heard plenty of DMR users are set in their ways and use Motorola MotoTRBO equipment)

73 de 2E0EIJ

Another Baofeng DMR?

With the DM-5R now being confirmed as a real radio and examples of it out there in the wild and a US$10 upgrade to make it work with Tier 2, it seems Baofeng may be releasing another DMR that will work with Tier 2 out of the box, the DMR-82UV, again dual-band, based on a UV-82, which in turn forms the basis of the GT-5.

Again this information was found on Delboy's radio blog and he had found it in turn on an external site that he had to translate from Google, the site showed a picture of a pair of these HTs, showing a vastly different display to the rest of the Baofeng range, though to me it looks much the same as a stock UV-82, though a stock UV-82 has the UV-5R display in it.

Price? Well early reports suggest less than €100, this is from Delboy's source, this one seems like a more viable alternative than the DM-5R but I would consider buying both to see how they fair, all Baofeng HTs are generally cheap, and both these are likely to get you onto DMR for sub-£100, however I still maintain the best one to go for is the well established TYT MD-380 (or the newer MD-390), though it is 70cm only whereas the Baofeng HTs are dual-band though I do not know if any DMR activity takes place on 2-metres here in the UK, though these HTs can do FM as well so all is not lost.

I suspect that as time progresses with Baofeng DMRs is that they will become popular with those wanting to use DMR and cheaply, I maintain my position as being more of a fan of System Fusion as it sounds better, is less of a hassle to set up for both repeater and station side, and it coexists with FM much better due to the AMS on the current available radios for it (all Yaesu of course but maybe one day a radio will come along by someone else that works with it), though I do want to play a little with DMR to see what's what with it, I still maintain an aversion to D-STAR to keep out of the way of Chance Callahan KD0MXN until the FCC do something about his many breaches of Part 97 of which they are aware of.

Well on this latest development from Baofeng I will let it play much like I let the DM-5R saga run it's course and I will post any notable updates

73 de M6RSQ

Baofeng DM-5R, evidence beginning to circulate around the Internet suggesting it is a real radio

Having had a search across the Internet to try and get to the bottom of the whole DM-5R saga I have found information across the Internet suggesting it exists, a Dutch Amateur operator put up an unboxing video on to YouTube and a British person had ordered one to find out if it was indeed real or not, something I will be following up in the next few days.

It is beginning to look like it in fact does exist and Baofeng have made it, however I don't feel foolish for dismissing its existence because it looks so much like a UV-5R to be believable, most DMRs have a larger display, not the sort seen on the UV-5R, the radio is not of much use to me until of course it supports Tier 2, sure I could use analogue but I would be better off just buying another HT, which I did anyway with the GT-5 to replace my UV-5RC Plus, happily as the DM-5R is so much similar to the UV-5R I can theoretically use my battery eliminator on it and swap the battery to the UV-5RC Plus, I plan only to order this radio when the firmware is modified to support Tier 2, this could be a while.

So, it looks to me like this radio may well be real after all.

73 de M6RSQ

Update: YouTube user 'Ringway Manchester' has got hold of this radio, he has done an unboxing and also gone through the radio's menus, there are DMR related items in the menus, I am satisfied this radio exists, thus closing the saga of the Baofeng DM-5R, I will wait for the firmware to support Tier 2 before placing an order, as it is not really much use to me as Tier 1

The saga of the "non-existent" Baofeng DM-5R continues

Indeed it does, it is still advertised for sale on Radioddity, and the price has gone down to US$69.99 at time of writing and there are now "photos" of not only the radio but the contents of the box, and the radio is advertised as being only compliant with DMR Tier 1 rather than both Teir 1 and 2 as before.

I am beginning to think Radioddity are trying their hardest to convince people that this radio is real and to part with money, I have seen no evidence on other websites or YouTube that it exists, the most I found was a video of someone here in the UK finding the radio on QRZ Now and also believing it to be fake, until I see a working example in the hands of the Amateur radio community and they are not affiliated with Radioddity or QRZ Now then I will be satisfied that the radio exists, I don't imagine Baofeng would ever build a DMR into the same case as a UV-5R, and I know Wouxun have released a DMR, but I still stand by what I said about if you want a cheap DMR at this time, buy the TYT MD-380, and although I like System Fusion over the other digital systems I don't mind playing with the others (except D-STAR due to its use by Chance Callahan KD0MXN until of course the FCC revoke his licence for his many breaches of part 97) just to see how they fair over System Fusion, though I have already heard audio from both DMR and System Fusion and consider Fusion to sound better,

Anyway, I also stand by that if the radio is real there will be one in my shack, once they support Teir 2 as it would not really be good otherwise for a Teir 1 only radio when the competition already support Teir 2 along with the Motorola gear that DMR is compatible with (it's essentially MOTOTRBO).

Curiously, Baofeng is NOT listed as a manufacturer on the DMR Association website either, further making me believe the radio is fake.

73 de M6RSQ

APRS with Baofeng UV-5R, follow up

Now that I have got an ideal replacement for my Baofeng UV-5RC Plus since the battery keeps falling off it, in the form of the Pofung GT-5, I can now make progress on the UV-5R APRS project I am working on.

So, the only Bluetooth TNC I can find is the Mobilinkd TNC2 from across the pond, this would consist of the unit itself and a short jumper cable to connect it to the UV-5RC Plus, I intend to use my Samsung Galaxy S4 with APRSDroid for this as before, as there should be no audio issue over the Bluetooth like the direct connection to the radio as I previously attempted.

Already having APRS in the car I of course want to expand on where I can use it, having a UV-5R and this unit in a backpack and the spare phone (which won't be connected to the mobile network as I would not need this except for Google Maps) would work well, I sometimes walk places and sometimes have a HT with me, I don't always use the car.

Prior to this I'd need to reprogram the UV-5RC Plus to only operate on 144.800, not a difficult thing to do with CHIRP, as far as I can tell it's just a case of programming it into one of the memories and disabling the menu and a few other things.

This should be the next thing on my list, though I may also need a ferrite, as apparently some Baofeng radios have an issue where if RF gets into the mic line it can latch the PTT, which I suspect my UV-5RC Plus may have, but I can obtain ferrites locally

73 de M6RSQ

National Hamfest 2016... post Hamfest

So the National Hamfest is done for another year, and I did not come back empty handed, to replace my Baofeng UV-5RC Plus (as the battery keeps falling off it and for that reason I'm converting it to be used as an APRS radio as I can simply strap the battery on with a rubber band and deactivate the keypad) I picked up another Baofeng, this time a Pofung (Baofeng's newer name) GT-5, a radio that has a unique feature, two PTT buttons, one for each frequency/preset displayed), the RSGB Radio Communications Handbook for £20 with a free backpack, the last one they had too, a free cap off Yaesu (who were in attendance and me being me forgot to ask them about any upcoming improvements to System Fusion, and a LED badge (with blue LEDs) that I programmed with my callsign initially by hand, but since returning home I've managed to program it using the computer so it shows my callsign and name.

The GT-5 radio had charge in it out of the box, it did also come with a 2-pin EU plug rather than a 3-pin UK charger plug but there was an adaptor provided to allow it to plug in, though I've not connected the charger up.

What I did note is that the ARRL (the American Amateur radio organisation) were there, their membership was £60 for one year, and being an American organisation I'd have had to pay that out in one go if I were to join them, trouble is is that Chance Callahan KD0MXN is a member of ARRL and thus receives their QST magazine, which I suspect they publish a list of new joining members in much like RSGB do in RadCom, and if my callsign appeared in there then he would again accuse me of stalking owing to his delusional beliefs about me and possibly attempt to have me ousted from the hobby as soon as possible, it is for this reason and the £60 fee that put me off signing up for a membership of the ARRL, though I may consider it if the FCC finally revoke KD0MXN once and for all after my reports to them earlier this year and several reports to them since then.

Also in attendance were Ofcom, much to my surprise, I decided not to bother them and keep out of their way, perhaps they wanted to advise on their new licencing portal, which I am not a big fan of but find it works OK.

The traders present were otherwise consistent with last year, the GT-5 was purchased from Moonraker as they had them and several other Baofeng radios (including the Intek brand one that can do 8 watts) for a reduced price, I picked the GT-5 as it seemed rugged over the GT-3 and most other UV-5R derivatives.

So, what else to report? Nothing really, another great Hamfest and I plan to do it again next year, perhaps with a little more money to spend

73 de M6RSQ

Ooops...

Well, the possibly fictitious Baofeng DM-5R apparently has a problem...

Delboy has reported on his radio blog that customers who have ordered this radio have received an email saying the supplied firmware has a bug that makes upgrading it for Tier II (which I believe is needed for DMR repeaters) may brick the radio requiring it be sent back to Baofeng for repair.

They offer the option for the customer to wait until the firmware bug has been ironed out, as well as the option to receive the radio as-is and cancel the order, needless to say I have not ordered it as I don't trust I'll get a radio as it just looks far too much like a standard UV-5R just with all the buttons coloured black except the side button above the PTT.

Sooo... I'm still not convinced it is a real radio, and Radioddity aren't convincing me either, again if it is real it will be on my YouTube and also the video will be here, I will be keeping a very close eye on this, new radios coming to the market often pass me by but this one stuck out like a sore thumb, probably because it's reportedly DMR, but also because there is the possibility it isn't real.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong in the next month or two, maybe I'll be proven right.


73 de M6RSQ

Baofeng DM-5R, the plot thickens

The price of the supposed Baofeng DM-5R has gone up in the last few days at Radioddity according to Delboy's Radio Blog  since "launch" to around the US$90 mark ($89.99 in fact), still cheaper than the well established TYT UHF DMR handheld that is known to exist.

This still does not make me believe the radio is real though, until I see a working model online, even in the hands of Simon The Wizard or Dave M0OGY as the both of them I regard with anything to do with radios, I also have regard for Delboy as he is an active member of a lot of radio forums.

Once I know the radio to be real I should have one in the shack, and then upgraded for Tier 2 so it would work with DMR repeaters (none in my locale though because of complicated reasons) as well as properly registered for use on the DMR systems, though my initial tests will probably be into a dummy load with an RTL-SDR doing the RX and decode.

73 de M6RSQ

UPDATE: At the time of writing this they are, ironically, out of stock, perhaps they are out of stock because the product does not exist? Who knows? In the next week or so we'll find out.

DMR Baofeng? Surely not...

I have learned from Delboy's Radio Blog that there may be a DMR Baofeng, that looks suspiciously like a photoshopped UV-5R, may be about to be released, Delboy found this on QRZ Now, and seemed to not be convinced it was real, and to be honest nor am I, even after seeing an alleged instruction manual and programming software for the radio from QRZ Now.

The radio is like a UV-5R in pretty much every way, except for the DMR side, it is dual-band, 5 watts, and cheap, if this radio truly exists I would consider it as I've found the normal UV-5R to be a decent radio (I have a UV-5RC Plus which is essentially a UV-5R in a different exterior), though a dual-band DMR radio isn't a lot of use in the UK as I understand all DMR activity is on 70cm, it is reportedly able to transmit analogue FM so it isn't a total loss.

The price, about £50ish but don't quote me on that, that also came from external sources.

If you want a DMR for cheap, that actually exists, then the TYT Hytera clone is the best you're going to get, though if this Baofeng radio is real, how long before Baofeng pull off something that works on D-STAR and possibly even System Fusion? Probably never but I'm sure Baofeng are aware their main market share in the west is Amateur radio operators, I've only ever once seen Baofeng radios being used outside the Amateur radio and hobby radio world, these were BF-888s owned by a karting track in Middlesbrough.

If this radio is real, expect me to get hold of one as soon as they hit UK soil and there will be a video on YouTube (and of course here) as soon as the whole DMR side is working as it is not a case of buying it, charging it up, and pressing the button.

On closing, I will be at the Hamfest this Saturday, looking for cheap radio bargains and also probably having a chat with the representatives from Yaesu to find out if there is anything new coming to System Fusion in the foreseeable future, and also, as the release date in the US for this mystery Baofeng is tomorrow, perhaps I may find it, but maybe not as it may not be real and someone out there is incredibly bored


73 de M6RSQ

Results of the Bank Holiday of radio

As mentioned in my previous post I decided to play with System Fusion and WIRES-X, with some success, I initially positioned myself close to the repeater closest to the home QTH, GB3CD, and managed to make contact with a station over near Chester, which was nice but I was hoping to make contacts in the US but I run out of time, I was also hoping for simplex contacts and through the repeater with WIRES-X disconnected, but I can try again another time, as I managed to be able to open the WIRES-X on GB3CD from my usual radio playground near the home QTH I now don't have to drive for miles to play with it all being well, and I found a couple of American nodes of interest on the WIRES-X website but one of them was offline on Sunday but I can try again

Bank Holiday Monday I decided to see if I could expand mobile RF based APRS beyond my Yaesu FTM-400XDE, so I cobbled together a cable out of the speaker mic supplied with my Wouxun as it was hopeless audio wise for Amateur radio, a piece of cable I had lying about, and a suitable connector obtained from Maplin the same day, the results of this endeavour are on YouTube and attached below to this post, this has inspired me to pick up a Bluetooth TNC to make it permanent, along with another Baofeng handheld as I still wish to keep two HTs available for voice just in case one day my significant other gets her Amateur radio licence too,

So, Yesterday's endeavours are below, I'll leave you to watch

73 de M6RSQ

GB3HG success

I am pleased to report that I am able to access GB3HG and access it well from my home QTH, had a short QSO with a station in York before the Baofeng's battery hit critical.  You may now be asking why I did not switch to the Wouxun, this was for one very good reason, my previous attempt to access GB3HG was with the Baofeng, and in the interest of a fair run I thought it best I stick to this radio for today.

Tomorrow hopefully will see another go on HG, this time the radio will be my Leixen VV-898 in the car, paired to the cheap Moonraker antenna on the roof, the rig can hear HG no problems in Richmond and Catterick, so it's only fair to see if the rig can open HG.

I will let you know how I get on.


73 de M6RSQ

Blackpool rally

In light of missing the Ripon Rally due to family commitments I made the journey over to Blackpool for the rally there, was bigger than I thought it would be but worth the trip to see what these things are all about.

The journey was fine until I approached and entered Cumbria, wherein the weather took a turn for the worse, this continued onto the M6 through Lancashire, getting better the closer to Blackpool I got,

On arrival at the venue I was spending a lot of time parking my car as there were no spots available, eventually one became available and £5 later I was in the venue, which had the vast majority of the clubs from the North West in attendance along with various sellers of amateur radio equipment, along with used equipment stands, and the RSGB, selling books and offering membership, which I took out and got a free Baofeng BF-888S UHF as well as the latest RadCom (which I shall take along to the club in case anyone wants to read it that is not a member

I was hoping to pick up a 2/70 mobile or base unit, used of course, for home that I could run on the slim-jim or some other homebrew antenna that could potentially cover both bands, I'll keep an eye out for cheap, yet still serviceable, radios for that purpose on the Internet.

So. to sum up the Blackpool rally, a good day out, but get there very early if you want a parking spot, I certainly plan to go next year but only if the weather wasn't as terrible for driving as this time.


73 de M6RSQ

Pre-DXpedition evaluation of Tan Hill

I took a ride up to Tan Hill today to evaluate how good a DX spot it really is, for PMR446 use I’d still advise on an external antenna mounted as high as possible, for CB a proper antenna would be beneficial, though I had stations incoming on a handheld, in this case the Midland Alan 42 Multi, notably some foreign stations on channel 8 midblock using AM. I did have a brief flick around on FM and also on 27/81 but AM appears to show more promise, SSB may also be very promising when I can finally give it a go, which may well be at Tan Hill.

I took some video footage on my phone and while I type this I am awaiting it to process before I upload it to YouTube, a later post will be that very video, which includes my very first call on AM, although because I was using a handheld I doubt anyone was able to hear me but with radio you just never know.

All I am left to do is sort out a shelter, build a T2LT and some suitable battery packs, acquire a pole to mount my antenna to, and hopefully I can get back to Tan Hill and keep DXing, I’d like to be up there in August on a Sunday.

So, a video is to come later one when it is finally uploaded to YouTube, and on Monday the President Grant 2 should be here on my desk.

 

73 de 26CT730

Wouxun KG-UVD1P, a good radio?

Today I took delivery of a Wouxun KG-UVD1P, part of my reasoning for buying this is so that I can use it on the Amateur bands when I pass my Foundation exam, at the moment I can use it to listen to GB3IR, the local repeater in Richmond.
This radio has the majority of features that an Amateur could possibly need, DTMF dialling for use with repeaters and the Free Radio Network if you choose to use such a radio on PMR446 or some other unlicensed service, though that is at your own risk (as some gateways are configured to support DTMF), a 1750Hz tone burst for accessing repeaters, split-frequency operation either in VHF, UHF or VHF+UHF, ideal for repeaters, an A/B button is provided to select one of the two frequencies displayed as master frequency, that frequency would be the transmit frequency. It can also be widebanded from about 118MHz to about 500MHz, possibly 520MHz, though the lower range of this is the civil airband which would be illegal and dangerous to transmit in and the upper range is in the television broadcast band, also illegal to transmit in and there’s no analogue broadcasts up there now in the UK at least.
The radio is supplied with a battery, belt clip, lanyard, SMA antenna, and a drop-in charger with LED to indicate when the battery is charged.  My radio came with a programming cable for the computer (A USB type “Prolific” cable though a serial port cable exists), a speaker microphone, and a headset, the radio microphone wiring is Kenwood wired, if you decide to use this as an FRN gateway radio and needed an interface.
The top of the radio has 3 LEDs, one serves as a torch, a green LED flashes in standby, and come on when a signal is received, a red LED comes on when you transmit, these also indicate activity when the radio is being programmed via computer, you can use the official Wouxun software (which is confusing for the most part) or the easier to use KG-UV Commander.
The manual available online for this radio is in the typical “Engrish” one would expect the Chinese to use, however the manual that came with the radio seemed to be pretty much well written, however under the charger on the label came a notice that wasn’t translated all that brilliantly into English about not dismantling it.
The radio feels solid, yet not heavy so not an issue carrying it around, underneath the battery is a die-cast metal chassis.
The radio has an adjustable transmit power, ideal to save the battery, it can transmit at 1 or 5 watts VHF, or 1 or 4 watts UHF.
The radio has a keypad and an LCD display that shows the frequency you are operating on, the second frequency if in dual mode, or a line of text, usually UVD1 though this can be changed, I changed it to UVD1P because I could.
The radio seems to receive well, with it, unlike with my Steepletone and Omega receivers, which have analogue tuning and seem a little on the drifty side, I have been able to positively identify a second repeater I could use when I get the foundation license, GB3HG, located in the market town of Thirsk, though the Wouxun can hear it, I do not know if it would be able to open it on it’s stock antenna and as I am not licensed I am not able to try it, GB3IR in Richmond I’d have no problems with accessing once licensed, I’ll give them both a shot when I get my foundation license.
I am going to put the radio to the test at some point to see just how well it can receive, if it is good enough it should be able to receive my PMR446 gateway, which transmits at 500mW, from a distance, the furthest I have managed is to just before the B6271 railway bridge in Northallerton, around about the gates to the home waste recycling centre, using an unmodified Intek MT-5050 with the monitor button pressed, though I was on a bus and that did degrade the signal somewhat.
I may write a follow up when I’ve had a chance to fully explore what this radio can actually do.

73 de 26CT730