One of the big guys did an actual in depth review of the radio... and actually used it for something! So cool, mad respect for showing the inexpensive radios some love
This radio is also available as a ready-made go-kit. It's the Leixen VV-898SP with a case, a LiOn battery, all in a nice backpack. Just add power and antenna!
This video was extremely helpful! I have the Lexion branded version of this mobile radio and I was also receiving poor audio reports. Your testing and recording of the audio was well done and you also helped to steer me to a replacement microphone that has good audio quality! Thank You! 73
Thanks for putting this together, especially with the parts list. It was easy to order everything for my 11 year old who got his Tech license in August. Made a nice Xmas gift.
Thanks for the nice report. I purchased this radio earlier this year and carried it around with a DC power supply and a mag mount antenna for use in my travels. Currently it resides in my (new) car's cup holders and works admirably. Signal reports at all times have been very good. Mic seems to work well, no complaints of bad audio at all. I live on Long Island and have had very little, if any, intermod problems, it's no Yaesu but for the money it can't be beat. Never used the scan function.
Thanks for the report. It's good to hear that your's is relatively intermod resistant. For a value priced radio, I've been totally impressed with its performance so far.
I know this is an older video but I had the same problem with the mic - and I switched to an older kenwood mic and I works great. Amazingly mine runs 40 watts VHF and 20 watts UHF. I like your go box design.
I got the jetstream jt270 ( same radio) about 5 years ago to leave on 24/7, I got it for $30 at a hamfest. Didnt expect much out of it. However it has been on 24/7 the whole time and worked flawlessly. I recently bought 2 of the Lexien vv898s units off ebay. Other than difficulty with the programming software they are great too. Now I have on in the shack, the den and in the garage. It's very convenient. When these 1st came out they were $150 ; I would not pay that much but at $50 they are a great deal.
I have continued to use this rig and have to agree with you. The stock mike is unreliable in a pinch. Some 2 meter repeaters like it, most do not. So, I am going to try one of the other mikes that will work on this rig. Thanks again.
I think you are onto something. I read an article once these Chinese radios can wreak havoc in the audio quality in some repeaters that utilize pre-emphasis and de-emphasis in their audio chain. Repeaters that use a more 'flat' audio response seem to work better with these radios. That would explain the hit-or-miss aspect of the microphone audio quality. But I did my audio tests via simplex, so the low audio is a real issue. I've been using my replacement mic with the radio for 6 months now, and I'm very pleased with the operation.
I bought the Liexen VV-898E (25 watts), Dec. 2019. I have the same issue with low audio (mic mfg date, 2014). I also removed the rubber cover and opened the hole. Only very slight improvement. TNX for the substitute mic find!
you can use a Kenwood TMV71 microphone which still has the DTMF touch-tone pad and the audio quality is amazing. Arguably better than the aftermarket one shown in the vid.
I have the 25w version. It’s been in my car for 18 months. I have it on the mid power setting which I have set to 15w. I feel it would burn out at 25w as the heat sink is not good enough. Good tip about the microphone. We can get those Kenwood ones cheaply here as they are used for PMR. de GM4SVM
If I bought another one of these, I'd go with the 25 watt version. I have done 30 minute rag-chews on this radio at 10 watts and it didn't get overly warm. But I would agree with you that the heat sink isn't as good as it could be.
On my Leixen microphone I found that the mic hole is not actually a hole but just a dimple in the casing, so I used a modellers body reamer to make a hole & put some foam cut from some aftermarket SM58 interior foams on top of the condenser capsule. Getting improved audio reports
Hello Michael, nice rig. I picked up one of these last summer, 2016 and it is pretty nice for what it is, given the power output. Can get into very distant repeaters, as, I am at about 1950 feet elevation. I have plans to use a padded bag, made of a kind of ballistic nylon- type material for transport. Gotta find a relatively light battery for it. I have had favorable reports on audio quality in my area, which is very remote, hilly country, so you may have just gotten a bad mike. I have the rig in my shack, powered by a small Lafayette vintage 8 track power supply. My antenna is a homebrew 1/4 wave ground plane up in a tree near the house. Be well, 73, KC3BXZ Joe
@@KB9VBRAntennas For the remote repeater's, thinking about using a crystalline solar panel, Harbor Freight has a inexpensive panel, that will fit the build.
Nice video. As soon as I pass my test I am planing on getting the 25 watt version of this radio. I live about 35 miles Southeast of Atlanta we have a lot of repeaters one just 3 miles from me I have been listening to on my uv 5r ht. Glad to know what after market mic to get. I plan to run it as a base being my first set up on a battery hooked up to a solar panel and charge controller and of course one of your J pole antennas. Thanks for all the great info take care.
Thank you so much for this video, I purchased the Leixen VV-898 and everyone on the repeater said my audio was a whisper with the stock mic that came with the radio but, after watching your video i ordered the kenwood mic you stated in the video and it brought my audio up great !!! :) Thanks Again !!! 73 N5CRL - Chris
I have an 898sp, the 25 watt version of your 898. I also have the upgraded DTMF mic. It seems to function OK. I get decent signal reports. The IMF problems you talked about, I also have. All in all, for the price, it's a decent radio but not top notch. I have programming issues using Chirp and stick to manually programming the 898.
I have the Jetstream version and have no bad reports. went from my yaesu ft857d mobile at 5 watts to this one at 10 watts. you are right a bought rejection, some places I get alot of intermod. but I still like the little radio
I agree the mic is trash. I got the same radio. And found others stating it is trash. Saw a good read on fixing the mic out there. Can drill the hole out some and remove that rubber around it. I ordered a new mic kenwood type also but, one I ordered has some buttons on front I will loose volume if it works but, if all else works that will be great.
Thanks sir, bought the mic and stepped the radio, right up to a nice little rig. PS, also running a 2mm groundplane made from one of your other videos. Subbed. 73
TY for the video. MIC info was great. I think will get kenwood mic. Anyways those still coming across this. I got the newer 25 watt rebrand sainsonic ebay VV 898E 53$ board is same radio same fraction of cost.
KB9VBR Antennas have you learned of a keypad mic that works on this? Would be nice. If not going get yhe kenwood mic like yours. Btw once again ty..so much. I dont have the test stuff you do. Learning about mic super helpful.
I just bought the TYT mr-390 dmr w/gps. It came with a programming cable, a working program CD, 2 antennas, speaker ear / mic Just started to program it and haven't really tested it.
Very nice. I looked at that radio, but held off buying one since there aren't any DMR repeaters in my area yet. I'd like to know your impressions of it.
Give me a few weeks to play and learn. Being off the air for 30 years all this new stuff is a whole new thing. :) I do like the quality of the way it's made. I think I'll order the uvf-10
At last a reasonably sized radio Go-Box! Most people tend to forget that you might have to actually carry one for miles before operating... FB. Now you need to add HF capabilities ;-) Look at my go-box video...
If you have the 898S/E, Do not use CHIRP, it corrupts the memory. couple hours last night restoring it, getting factory software to work with Linux and Wine
I'm thinking of a larger plastic Ammo can and building a setup similar to yours, using my Kenwood V71-A. I'll also spend a bit of money and use a 14 Amp Lithium Iron Phosphate Motorcycle Battery.
I disagree with chirp programming. I use the Leixen software. I wanted to split the VFO A/B areas and with chirp its a mess. I have all my 2m setting in VFO A, and all of 70 cm in the VFO B. My microphone works fine, and get strong sound report.
Hey Michael, awesome video first off, sorry I'm a little late to the show. I ordered a mic off of eBay for the leixen VV998s and it works pretty well. Pretty much the same radio as the Luiton UV898, just different name. The mic had a few off functions, such as the up and down buttons control the volume, and has an A and B PPT but the audio sounds great and this way you can have one mic your able to talk and change the frequency on
I have a Leixen 898 and the mike is AWFUL.... I'm ordering one of the Kenwood style mikes you suggested.. if it works, you are a LIFESAVER.. 73 my friend. Thanks for the video.
Sounds very familiar to the Yaesu MH-27. In that case there were 2 SMD caps that were bad.. Suggest checking the caps. It's not the condenser mike or hole size.
Good video Mike❗️ The only thing I just don’t consider any Radio for my GO BOX that can not be programed manually. If you have to program a frequency CPU your kind of out of luck. 73 KV5P
The UF5R goes to 480Mhz, and if you use over 470, the LT-898UV might work if it can be modified and I suspect that this feature is already in the LT-898UV, does anyone know?
Great video, I have the KT8900 with the stock mic and get great audio reports, so maybe they fixed the problem. Its good to know i can get the after market one though. Joel KB6QVI
It looks like the KT-8900 microphone has a different outside appearance, so maybe the inner workings are different too. It's good to hear you're not having audio issues with the stock mic.
As it turns out, I have the LX VV-898, I had to get the box out to see the number, as its not printed on the radio. I also ordered and received the after market mic from Amazon you mentioned for a spare. It appears to work about the same as the original. Thanks for the info.
Can you still buy these and program them with Chirp in 2021? I would like to have one in my car programable to NOAA. I didn't think programable radios that could possibly transmit over NOAA were not FCC approved.
Mike Ring for the transmissions I used two radios, my Kenwood TK5210 handheld was the control and the Luiton was the test radio. I used a simplex channel so the audio chain in a repeater wouldn't affect the quality of the audio. Everything was received on an Icom IC-2100 set at a midrange volume and a Tascam DR05 audio recorder. The levels on the recorder were set to a constant level for all three transmissions and no further processing was done other than to normalize the audio to a constant output level for the entire video. I tried to keep the test objective, as you mentioned, third party audio reports don't tell the whole story on how the microphone sounds.
I enlarged the hole, removed the rubber and ripped the black fabric from the top. in all cases no change in audio was detected, it's shockingly bad such that it's stayed in a box here never used. cannot believe the quality of the audio with your 3rd party mic. that's incredible. do you have a recommendation for a dtmf/keypad mic?
What is the average range of these radios, I am thinking about getting one for my vehicle to have a means of communications, due to where I live we have one cell phone tower, and rarely get service. Might sound crazy, but I still have my old radio shack CB I used to use to talk to friends on back in high school. Which is 17 years old and still kicking. lol
I manually enter my first freq into channel 001 and now it receives it but none of the buttons work other than on\off. I tried a factory reset but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks
KB9VBR, Thank you for two great videos on the radio and go box. I have a few questions about the setup and the radio. 1) Does the radio have a port for an external speaker? A nice to have for field day and JOTA events. 2) What gauge of wire did you use for the go box connections? 3) I understand the Anderson connections, but that type of connections is on the battery? The picture on Amazon looks like an F-type connection? I was thinking about building a short wire rig with Anderson on one end and a F2 type on the other for the battery hookup?4) What type of charger do you use to re-charge the battery? Thanks in advance for answering all the newbie questions! KD9HBY
Great questions, I'll try to answer them in order. 1 - The radio does have an 1/8 inch plug in the back that can drive an external speaker. 2- The wire I used for the power connection is 18 gauge zip wire. The radio has a fuse on its power pigtail but I also added a 5 amp fuse on the positive wire where it connects to the battery. This is to protect the Powerpole connections. Since 18ga wire is a little small for the Powerpoles (these connectors work best with 12 -14ga wire), I stripped an extra length of wire and folded it over before I inserted it into the metal contacts. 3 - The battery has an F1 blade connection. I picked up some blade connectors that fit the battery connection at the auto parts store. I wrapped the ends of the connectors with red and black electrical tape for insulation and make it easier to differentiate the positive and negative connection. 4 - I've charged the battery a couple of different ways. I have a 2/10/25 amp smart charger that is compatible with sealed gel cell batteries. I set the charger to the lowest setting for this battery. The radio also came with a cigarette lighter plug power cable. I cut the end of the cable and installed a power pole. I plug the box into my car and the the vehicle's electrical system to charge the battery. Since the voltage coming out the car is 13.8v, it won't overcharge the battery. You could cut the end off a 12 volt wall wart power transformer to charge the battery, but then you need to monitor the charging process so that it doesn't overcharge. As the battery reaches full charge, a linear power transformer will increase it's voltage up to 17 volts as the charging amperage drops. (I'm going to do a video on using marine and sealed lead acid batteries, but with my production schedule, it won't be released until after the 1st of the year). I hope this clarifies things.
I think it depends on where you want to place it on the vehicle and how much space you have. I like Comet mobile antennas, on my current mobile setup I'm running the Comet SBB5-NMO and it seems to be doing all-right. But I've also gone as short at a Comet B-10 and as long as the SBB-7 on other vehicles.
Great video. Obviously you can't get an antenna in the ammo box so do you store that in a PVC pipe or other storage solution? Went back through your video to see if you mentioned that.
My initial thought was to use a little telescoping whip that I could attach to the UHF connector. But it didn't work too well due to the lack of an effective ground plane. I had to add a couple of 19 inch wires with alligator clips to the base of the antenna mount to get an good match. So now I either grab a dual band mobile antenna with a mag mount, or a J-Pole and a painter's pole as a mast.
I've found one of my baofengs doing the same. when it comes to audio levels. put a hand mic on it and fixed. but why? is it something I can change add or remove to make it right? it's not a problem in the mixer. if adding a hand mic makes it right. it kinda makes it useless as a handheld, if I run a mic. it stays on the belt, no hands on hand held.
Since it only affects one of your radios, I wonder if it's a quality control issue. Two things you might check, though. First make sure the radio is set to Wide deviation mode and not Narrow. Narrow deviation will result in a lower audio level when received by another radio set to Wide deviation. Second item would address the quality control issue. Maybe the mic hole is not properly aligned with the mic element. Fixing this would involve partial disassembly of the radio and drilling out the hole.
Thank you for that. I am not sure what the regulations are in the US but over here I tend to open up the programming to wide to counter the quiet audio on these little Chinese radios. Narrow is much cleaner but very much quieter. Could you share the type of 3rd party mic you used as a replacement. Thank you.
It's a decent radio for what it is, just be aware that the microphone has some issues. You'd be wise to pick something else if you believe the downsides are too substantial.
That radio is the VHF Kenwood TK-5210 P25 portable radio. I purchased it because it does P25 digital, so I use it as both a VHF scanner so I can listen to local police and fire and as an amateur radio transceiver. Buying a used P25 two way radio was cheaper than getting a new Uniden digital scanner.
Where did you get the battery and how do you charge it up? That's a great little kit. Did you ever think to run the load through a solar charge controller so you don't over discharge the battery. I have a QYT that I want to make into a kit and I think I want to use your kit as my prototype. 73 KE0OAP
I purchased the battery at the local Farm and Ranch store. It's a sealed lead acid battery that is commonly used to power fish finders, so check in the sporting goods section. I don't think I paid more than $15 for it. I'll charge it with a smart charger like this: amzn.to/2HaVwRo, although a 1 amp trickle charger will work fine too. The solar panel charge controller is a good idea too. I'd think a 20 watt panel would charge the battery in just a few hours.
The radio is still plugging along. I haven't had any issues with it yet. I did a 30 minute conversation on it and the radio didn't overheat, so that's good. It doesn't have the best front-end, so it tends to be more prone to interference and overloading than other mobile radios. I guess after I produced this video there was a firmware change that caused problems, but I think that was subsequently resolved. I'm thinking of getting a second one to put in my camper trailer. The radio is cheap enough that I can use it for occasional tasks without feeling like I'm tying up a lot of money in something.
Do NOT waste your money of this cheap Chinese junk radio. The finals will fry. Mine lasted one week. No TX. Mic is crap. The menu is terrible. Just avoid this thing.
I manually enter my first freq into channel 001 and now it receives it but none of the buttons work other than on\off. I tried a factory reset but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks
One of the big guys did an actual in depth review of the radio... and actually used it for something! So cool, mad respect for showing the inexpensive radios some love
This radio is also available as a ready-made go-kit. It's the Leixen VV-898SP with a case, a LiOn battery, all in a nice backpack. Just add power and antenna!
No repeater use too?
They are on sale with Amazon and ebay 160
This video was extremely helpful! I have the Lexion branded version of this mobile radio and I was also receiving poor audio reports. Your testing and recording of the audio was well done and you also helped to steer me to a replacement microphone that has good audio quality! Thank You! 73
Thanks for putting this together, especially with the parts list. It was easy to order everything for my 11 year old who got his Tech license in August. Made a nice Xmas gift.
Glad you enjoyed the video. A box like this is a great gift for the young technician. I'm sure it will serve him well.
Thanks for the nice report.
I purchased this radio earlier this year and carried it around with a DC power supply and a mag mount antenna for use in my travels.
Currently it resides in my (new) car's cup holders and works admirably.
Signal reports at all times have been very good. Mic seems to work well, no complaints of bad audio at all.
I live on Long Island and have had very little, if any, intermod problems, it's no Yaesu but for the money it can't be beat. Never used the scan function.
Thanks for the report. It's good to hear that your's is relatively intermod resistant. For a value priced radio, I've been totally impressed with its performance so far.
Good to see a critical review and the mic test.
I know this is an older video but I had the same problem with the mic - and I switched to an older kenwood mic and I works great. Amazingly mine runs 40 watts VHF and 20 watts UHF. I like your go box design.
DUDE ! I love the licence plate , it should be on your car man .
I'm thinking about buying a ham. I was looking at the handhelds,but I'm liking the setup here. portability is key...for me.
I got the jetstream jt270 ( same radio) about 5 years ago to leave on 24/7, I got it for $30 at a hamfest. Didnt expect much out of it. However it has been on 24/7 the whole time and worked flawlessly.
I recently bought 2 of the Lexien vv898s units off ebay. Other than difficulty with the programming software they are great too.
Now I have on in the shack, the den and in the garage.
It's very convenient.
When these 1st came out they were $150 ; I would not pay that much but at $50 they are a great deal.
I have continued to use this rig and have to agree with you. The stock mike is unreliable in a pinch. Some 2 meter repeaters like it, most do not. So, I am going to try one of the other mikes that will work on this rig. Thanks again.
I think you are onto something. I read an article once these Chinese radios can wreak havoc in the audio quality in some repeaters that utilize pre-emphasis and de-emphasis in their audio chain. Repeaters that use a more 'flat' audio response seem to work better with these radios. That would explain the hit-or-miss aspect of the microphone audio quality. But I did my audio tests via simplex, so the low audio is a real issue. I've been using my replacement mic with the radio for 6 months now, and I'm very pleased with the operation.
I bought the Liexen VV-898E (25 watts), Dec. 2019. I have the same issue with low audio (mic mfg date, 2014). I also removed the rubber cover and opened the hole. Only very slight improvement. TNX for the substitute mic find!
I heard, when it switches from Narow to Wide, then the sound is good.
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Try this mic out, so much better. Unfortunately I could only find the mic by itself from China so it takes almost a month to get here.
you can use a Kenwood TMV71 microphone which still has the DTMF touch-tone pad and the audio quality is amazing. Arguably better than the aftermarket one shown in the vid.
I have the 25w version. It’s been in my car for 18 months. I have it on the mid power setting which I have set to 15w. I feel it would burn out at 25w as the heat sink is not good enough. Good tip about the microphone. We can get those Kenwood ones cheaply here as they are used for PMR. de GM4SVM
If I bought another one of these, I'd go with the 25 watt version. I have done 30 minute rag-chews on this radio at 10 watts and it didn't get overly warm. But I would agree with you that the heat sink isn't as good as it could be.
On my Leixen microphone I found that the mic hole is not actually a hole but just a dimple in the casing, so I used a modellers body reamer to make a hole & put some foam cut from some aftermarket SM58 interior foams on top of the condenser capsule. Getting improved audio reports
The receive sensitivity on this radio is better than 0.05 microV at 20dB SINAD which is amazing
I use the QYT kt-8900. 25w for $70 to $80 range . Very similar.
Thank you for clear explanations. It is one of my informal but more useful classes
Hello Michael, nice rig. I picked up one of these last summer, 2016 and it is pretty nice for what it is, given the power output. Can get into very distant repeaters, as, I am at about 1950 feet elevation. I have plans to use a padded bag, made of a kind of ballistic nylon- type material for transport. Gotta find a relatively light battery for it. I have had favorable reports on audio quality in my area, which is very remote, hilly country, so you may have just gotten a bad mike. I have the rig in my shack, powered by a small Lafayette vintage 8 track power supply. My antenna is a homebrew 1/4 wave ground plane up in a tree near the house. Be well, 73, KC3BXZ Joe
We just built several radio/power boxes, going to build several remote simplex repeaters to place around the city.
That's a great idea. How do you keep the batteries charged/maintained in the go boxes.
@@KB9VBRAntennas Anker 21 watt solar panels.
@@KB9VBRAntennas For the remote repeater's, thinking about using a crystalline solar panel, Harbor Freight has a inexpensive panel, that will fit the build.
Nice video. As soon as I pass my test I am planing on getting the 25 watt version of this radio. I live about 35 miles Southeast of Atlanta we have a lot of repeaters one just 3 miles from me I have been listening to on my uv 5r ht. Glad to know what after market mic to get. I plan to run it as a base being my first set up on a battery hooked up to a solar panel and charge controller and of course one of your J pole antennas. Thanks for all the great info take care.
henrycems easy to pass as a leming.. its rewarded..
Thank you so much for this video, I purchased the Leixen VV-898 and everyone on the repeater said my audio was a whisper with the stock mic that came with the radio but, after watching your video i ordered the kenwood mic you stated in the video and it brought my audio up great !!! :) Thanks Again !!! 73 N5CRL - Chris
I have an 898sp, the 25 watt version of your 898. I also have the upgraded DTMF mic. It seems to function OK. I get decent signal reports. The IMF problems you talked about, I also have. All in all, for the price, it's a decent radio but not top notch. I have programming issues using Chirp and stick to manually programming the 898.
I have the Jetstream version and have no bad reports.
went from my yaesu ft857d mobile at 5 watts to this one at 10 watts. you are right a bought rejection, some places I get alot of intermod. but I still like the little radio
I'm glad to hear your's is working great for you. I wonder if the Jetstream version has an upgraded microphone.
My buddy bought the Lexion version of this radio I was worried about his microphone. But his sounds great
yea mine to however what is weird that when the battery i use it with is full i gotta get close but with a lower voltage it works perfect ?!
great seems to have several applications
I agree the mic is trash. I got the same radio. And found others stating it is trash. Saw a good read on fixing the mic out there. Can drill the hole out some and remove that rubber around it. I ordered a new mic kenwood type also but, one I ordered has some buttons on front I will loose volume if it works but, if all else works that will be great.
Thanks sir, bought the mic and stepped the radio, right up to a nice little rig. PS, also running a 2mm groundplane made from one of your other videos. Subbed. 73
Excellent set of reviews. Just got my ticket, in the market for a small cheap radio
TY for the video. MIC info was great. I think will get kenwood mic. Anyways those still coming across this. I got the newer 25 watt rebrand sainsonic ebay VV 898E 53$ board is same radio same fraction of cost.
Glad you found the video useful, and thanks for the info on the Sainsonics. That's a good deal.
KB9VBR Antennas have you learned of a keypad mic that works on this? Would be nice. If not going get yhe kenwood mic like yours. Btw once again ty..so much. I dont have the test stuff you do. Learning about mic super helpful.
I just bought the TYT mr-390 dmr w/gps. It came with a programming cable, a working program CD, 2 antennas, speaker ear / mic Just started to program it and haven't really tested it.
Very nice. I looked at that radio, but held off buying one since there aren't any DMR repeaters in my area yet. I'd like to know your impressions of it.
Give me a few weeks to play and learn. Being off the air for 30 years all this new stuff is a whole new thing. :) I do like the quality of the way it's made. I think I'll order the uvf-10
Dude! I was wanting to find a suitable replacement mic!! You’re the best! 73 from OKC!
At last a reasonably sized radio Go-Box! Most people tend to forget that you might have to actually carry one for miles before operating... FB. Now you need to add HF capabilities ;-) Look at my go-box video...
If you have the 898S/E, Do not use CHIRP, it corrupts the memory.
couple hours last night restoring it, getting factory software to work with Linux and Wine
I'm thinking of a larger plastic Ammo can and building a setup similar to yours, using my Kenwood V71-A. I'll also spend a bit of money and use a 14 Amp Lithium Iron Phosphate Motorcycle Battery.
Great idea. I'd like to know how the lithium ion battery works out for you.
I disagree with chirp programming. I use the Leixen software. I wanted to split the VFO A/B areas and with chirp its a mess. I have all my 2m setting in VFO A, and all of 70 cm in the VFO B. My microphone works fine, and get strong sound report.
nice go box. and the kenwood mic is the way to go. But a slim jim roll up dual antenna would be a cats meow.fits right in the box.
Open up the origonal mic and try your test. If it is better drill out the hole that is in front of the mic element.
Nice review, nice editing/production and info on this radio
Hey Michael, awesome video first off, sorry I'm a little late to the show. I ordered a mic off of eBay for the leixen VV998s and it works pretty well. Pretty much the same radio as the Luiton UV898, just different name. The mic had a few off functions, such as the up and down buttons control the volume, and has an A and B PPT but the audio sounds great and this way you can have one mic your able to talk and change the frequency on
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If you have time..replace the 5mm inside condenser mic ,with a 7mm one.or 10mm if it fits
Nice job!
I have a Leixen 898 and the mike is AWFUL.... I'm ordering one of the Kenwood style mikes you suggested.. if it works, you are a LIFESAVER.. 73 my friend. Thanks for the video.
Sounds very familiar to the Yaesu MH-27. In that case there were 2 SMD caps that were bad.. Suggest checking the caps. It's not the condenser mike or hole size.
I would agree with you. One such mod I've seen to fix the audio issue is to change out a capacitor in the microphone housing.
I have the 580 the Mike works very well
Great video! It's on my Christmas list...
73s
Mark NØVUB
great vid
Good video Mike❗️ The only thing I just don’t consider any Radio for my GO BOX that can not be programed manually. If you have to program a frequency CPU your kind of out of luck. 73 KV5P
Enjoy your videos. I have a Leixen and have the same microphone problems. So I will be looking for a Kenwood microphone.
Check the video description above, there is a link to the microphone I used
Thank You!
The link you posted for the microphone is the same as to the radio...can you edit it in your description?
Sorry about that. Link fixed. Here is the correct one for the microphione: amzn.to/2eKacIu
The UF5R goes to 480Mhz, and if you use over 470, the LT-898UV might work if it can be modified and I suspect that this feature is already in the LT-898UV, does anyone know?
might explain why Jetstream cost more on ebay? I got mine with a small power supply so together price was ok
and with 25w (with the s modell) u cant really complain
Great vid, have been wanting to build one of these myself. This was helpful - new sub :-) 73
Great video, I have the KT8900 with the stock mic and get great audio reports, so maybe they fixed the problem. Its good to know i can get the after market one though.
Joel
KB6QVI
It looks like the KT-8900 microphone has a different outside appearance, so maybe the inner workings are different too. It's good to hear you're not having audio issues with the stock mic.
As it turns out, I have the LX VV-898, I had to get the box out to see the number, as its not printed on the radio. I also ordered and received the after market mic from Amazon you mentioned for a spare. It appears to work about the same as the original. Thanks for the info.
thanks Michael nice video nice discripcion 73 thanks and good look 2017 for you and family
the LT-898UV does not go above 470 mhz. Is there a version that goes higher up uhf?
So for about $120, you have yourself a self-contained, off grid, portable go box? I like it. 73 from San Jose California
My liexen 898 blows fuses.
I cant figure out why
what about with out a repeater..
My radio-mic bad sound, some better when i drilled a bigger hole. But, can't get the DTMF working. Somone knows how to fix the problem!
I would like to buy an end fed 2m 70cm antenna from you. To support your awesome channel.
Thank you for your support. You can find my antennas over on my website: www.jpole-antenna.com/
Can you still buy these and program them with Chirp in 2021? I would like to have one in my car programable to NOAA. I didn't think programable radios that could possibly transmit over NOAA were not FCC approved.
Could you explain further the receive/record process you used? Much better than a third party interpretation of audio!
Mike Ring for the transmissions I used two radios, my Kenwood TK5210 handheld was the control and the Luiton was the test radio. I used a simplex channel so the audio chain in a repeater wouldn't affect the quality of the audio. Everything was received on an Icom IC-2100 set at a midrange volume and a Tascam DR05 audio recorder. The levels on the recorder were set to a constant level for all three transmissions and no further processing was done other than to normalize the audio to a constant output level for the entire video.
I tried to keep the test objective, as you mentioned, third party audio reports don't tell the whole story on how the microphone sounds.
I enlarged the hole, removed the rubber and ripped the black fabric from the top. in all cases no change in audio was detected, it's shockingly bad such that it's stayed in a box here never used. cannot believe the quality of the audio with your 3rd party mic. that's incredible. do you have a recommendation for a dtmf/keypad mic?
Good informative vidéo!!! Thanks
Test a baojie 318
What is the average range of these radios, I am thinking about getting one for my vehicle to have a means of communications, due to where I live we have one cell phone tower, and rarely get service. Might sound crazy, but I still have my old radio shack CB I used to use to talk to friends on back in high school. Which is 17 years old and still kicking. lol
I manually enter my first freq into channel 001 and now it receives it
but none of the buttons work other than on\off. I tried a factory reset
but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks
chang the bias resistor on the mic electric mic kg6mn
Do they make a version of that Kenwood microphone with a keypad
dude you come up with some pretty good ideas..... tony t. n0amy..
Would this radio chase sota decently
I think that same 30-cal box is $5 at the big box "mart" store
I've now seen them for under $5 in the stores. Shop around and you can get a pretty good deal.
I can't get it to program......
Michael, are you still planning to make the video showing the assembly of the Anderson Powerpole cable in the video?
The Powerpole splitter video is coming up next. It should be ready next week.
I will look at your next video to see if your powerpole is in it. I do not see that it is labeled that. Thanks, Kevin
KB9VBR, Thank you for two great videos on the radio and go box. I have a few questions about the setup and the radio.
1) Does the radio have a port for an external speaker? A nice to have for field day and JOTA events.
2) What gauge of wire did you use for the go box connections?
3) I understand the Anderson connections, but that type of connections is on the battery? The picture on Amazon looks like an F-type connection? I was thinking about building a short wire rig with Anderson on one end and a F2 type on the other for the battery hookup?4) What type of charger do you use to re-charge the battery?
Thanks in advance for answering all the newbie questions!
KD9HBY
Great questions, I'll try to answer them in order.
1 - The radio does have an 1/8 inch plug in the back that can drive an external speaker.
2- The wire I used for the power connection is 18 gauge zip wire. The radio has a fuse on its power pigtail but I also added a 5 amp fuse on the positive wire where it connects to the battery. This is to protect the Powerpole connections. Since 18ga wire is a little small for the Powerpoles (these connectors work best with 12 -14ga wire), I stripped an extra length of wire and folded it over before I inserted it into the metal contacts.
3 - The battery has an F1 blade connection. I picked up some blade connectors that fit the battery connection at the auto parts store. I wrapped the ends of the connectors with red and black electrical tape for insulation and make it easier to differentiate the positive and negative connection.
4 - I've charged the battery a couple of different ways. I have a 2/10/25 amp smart charger that is compatible with sealed gel cell batteries. I set the charger to the lowest setting for this battery. The radio also came with a cigarette lighter plug power cable. I cut the end of the cable and installed a power pole. I plug the box into my car and the the vehicle's electrical system to charge the battery. Since the voltage coming out the car is 13.8v, it won't overcharge the battery.
You could cut the end off a 12 volt wall wart power transformer to charge the battery, but then you need to monitor the charging process so that it doesn't overcharge. As the battery reaches full charge, a linear power transformer will increase it's voltage up to 17 volts as the charging amperage drops. (I'm going to do a video on using marine and sealed lead acid batteries, but with my production schedule, it won't be released until after the 1st of the year).
I hope this clarifies things.
what would be a good NMO MOUNT ANTENNA FOR THIS RADIO OR THE VV898S As WELL...THANKS ..GOOD VIDEO. .MIKE FROM MINNESOTA
I think it depends on where you want to place it on the vehicle and how much space you have. I like Comet mobile antennas, on my current mobile setup I'm running the Comet SBB5-NMO and it seems to be doing all-right. But I've also gone as short at a Comet B-10 and as long as the SBB-7 on other vehicles.
Great video. Obviously you can't get an antenna in the ammo box so do you store that in a PVC pipe or other storage solution? Went back through your video to see if you mentioned that.
My initial thought was to use a little telescoping whip that I could attach to the UHF connector. But it didn't work too well due to the lack of an effective ground plane. I had to add a couple of 19 inch wires with alligator clips to the base of the antenna mount to get an good match. So now I either grab a dual band mobile antenna with a mag mount, or a J-Pole and a painter's pole as a mast.
Thanks for replying. Did you ever do an Anderson power pole connector video?
I've found one of my baofengs doing the same. when it comes to audio levels. put a hand mic on it and fixed. but why? is it something I can change add or remove to make it right? it's not a problem in the mixer. if adding a hand mic makes it right. it kinda makes it useless as a handheld, if I run a mic. it stays on the belt, no hands on hand held.
Since it only affects one of your radios, I wonder if it's a quality control issue. Two things you might check, though. First make sure the radio is set to Wide deviation mode and not Narrow. Narrow deviation will result in a lower audio level when received by another radio set to Wide deviation. Second item would address the quality control issue. Maybe the mic hole is not properly aligned with the mic element. Fixing this would involve partial disassembly of the radio and drilling out the hole.
Hello! Great info! What would you recommend for a cigarette lighter cable that would fit that radio? Thanks
I bought the upgraded 25w version of this radio, the vv-898, it came with a cigarette plug.
Great grab box and review, thank you. Just one question on the audio, was the programming set to wide or narrow ?
Great question as that can affect the audio quality. The radio was set to narrow.
Thank you for that. I am not sure what the regulations are in the US but over here I tend to open up the programming to wide to counter the quiet audio on these little Chinese radios. Narrow is much cleaner but very much quieter. Could you share the type of 3rd party mic you used as a replacement. Thank you.
From what your saying I think I will avoid this radio and go with something different .
It's a decent radio for what it is, just be aware that the microphone has some issues. You'd be wise to pick something else if you believe the downsides are too substantial.
Gostei
I'm running the qyt KT-8900 and evenn with a close by regional hospital it's quiet as a church mouse. have you tested the 8900???
I have not tested the KT-8900 yet. I'm looking for a little radio for my camper trailer, so I'll add it to the list.
Hey. Did I miss the splitter video you mentioned you wanted to make ?
It's been a long time coming, but the splitter video is coming next. It should drop on either Friday or Saturday.
WOW what a crap hole of a stock mic that came with the radio. ..the aftermarket Kenwood replacement mic sounds just as good as the handheld Kenwood. .
Will this radio work on Gmrs?
Yes! The frequency coverage is there, but be aware it's not legally Part 95 compliant.
Nó entendo ygles obre
What is the model on the Kenwood handheld you were using? I was going to buy one myself. Thanks in advance and 73!
-WQZH864 (Gmrs)
That radio is the VHF Kenwood TK-5210 P25 portable radio. I purchased it because it does P25 digital, so I use it as both a VHF scanner so I can listen to local police and fire and as an amateur radio transceiver. Buying a used P25 two way radio was cheaper than getting a new Uniden digital scanner.
Where did you get the battery and how do you charge it up? That's a great little kit. Did you ever think to run the load through a solar charge controller so you don't over discharge the battery. I have a QYT that I want to make into a kit and I think I want to use your kit as my prototype.
73
KE0OAP
I purchased the battery at the local Farm and Ranch store. It's a sealed lead acid battery that is commonly used to power fish finders, so check in the sporting goods section. I don't think I paid more than $15 for it. I'll charge it with a smart charger like this: amzn.to/2HaVwRo, although a 1 amp trickle charger will work fine too. The solar panel charge controller is a good idea too. I'd think a 20 watt panel would charge the battery in just a few hours.
Thank you.
I was told my audio was good with this rig.
Maybe they improved the microphone. With a decent mic it does put out good audio.
KB9VBR Antennas that could be the case. Mine is about a year old.
How is this holding up? Thanks, Have been watching your videos.
The radio is still plugging along. I haven't had any issues with it yet. I did a 30 minute conversation on it and the radio didn't overheat, so that's good. It doesn't have the best front-end, so it tends to be more prone to interference and overloading than other mobile radios. I guess after I produced this video there was a firmware change that caused problems, but I think that was subsequently resolved. I'm thinking of getting a second one to put in my camper trailer. The radio is cheap enough that I can use it for occasional tasks without feeling like I'm tying up a lot of money in something.
you really need to blink more .
i opened the hole up and made a big dif
street price, because we all know ham radio is a drug🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
quickie mount🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Do NOT waste your money of this cheap Chinese junk radio. The finals will fry. Mine lasted one week. No TX. Mic is crap. The menu is terrible. Just avoid this thing.
slow your brain down, it'll help with the staggering. message from experience. 73
I manually enter my first freq into channel 001 and now it receives it
but none of the buttons work other than on\off. I tried a factory reset
but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks