QYT KT-8900 20W Dual Band 2m/70cm Mobile Radios Car Transceiver with Cable

Very nice, great price works Amateur and GMRS well

I'm just getting into ham and so I'm going for the cheaper radios. I've had really good luck with all I have purchased so far. I'm starting to learn why these may be cheaper and the expensive one's aren't going anywhereMy results - I was able to hit a repeater 31 miles from my house (measured on google earth). I was on high power and it was on a DIY ground plane antenna in my attic. I don't even have an swr meter so I think that's pretty good. I've only been able to use this on 2m. The antenna I purchase is supposed to be a dual band...it is not. so for 70cm .75 of a mile on an antenna not designed for it probably is pretty good.Frequency range - there are videos on how to lock down other radios on the internet and I tried to follow those directions with this radio on chirp and they were greyed out. Looking through the manual there was a comment on holding down the fn key while powering up the radio will get you to a password screen. The password is not in the manual and I tried everything I could think of that would be a default password. I ended up emailing qyt directly and got the actual email address from their contact us site. (Don't use the form on their site and hit submit. I tried that and got no response.) After I emailed the person they gave me the password with in the hour. I asked if I could pretty much announce it to the world since we currently need it here in the US. They did not want me to do that, so that's the best I can do for you all. I attached a picture of chirp to show I indeed was able to change the frequency range and they truly are greyed out or unchangeable with chirp. Also, after setting the frequency range with the password I now have to program 147-147.999 manually. Chirp says it's out range, but you can still enter with in that range on the mic key pad. If you use the password and set the range to 148 the radio will include 148-148.999 which you don't want. Once you learn to program it, it's not too bad really.It beeps every time you press a button. You can turn it off with Chirp or with the menu. If you turn it off with Chirp it will be off every time you reprogram it. If you don't set in chirp you will have to select it from the menu every time you reprogram it. If I'm able to keep eyes directly on the radio at all times, I like it off. So driving I prefer it on. I may not know what I pressed, but I know something was pressed.Software - this radio did make me a bit nervous since the software that is supposed to be for this exact radio is pretty finicky. Chirp does work for me, I only noticed I had to have the volume up quite loud or it wouldn't go to program mode. Be aware when it restarts it will absolutely SCREAM the start up tone if you don't turn it down quickly when it restarts after programming. Additionally, before I figured out my volume was too low chirp suggested a couple different radios to try since a lot of people put their name on this radio. So your mileage may vary on that.Why I think its cheap - It's a good radio to have around it works extremely well for my purpose. The size would make a great backup radio, emergency radio, what have you. however, it's deviation is 5 khz instead of 2.5 khz so be aware of that. I haven't been able to get my yagi antenna for satellites back up, but I'm waiting to see how that's effected.

I have a bunch of handhelds, and a few different QYT transceivers. The 980 (as a counter example) is basically a giant heatsink. A heavy radio, for sure, but does a phonenonal job at pushing out high wattage - without generating heat and firing up the fans. This radio, while an excellent value, builds heat during a single transmission - and you'll having the fan going full blast within a few minutes of normal, back-to-back chatter. (No long transmits here.. I'm talking about normal usage). In addition to the fans locked on HIGH, the entire unit gets hilariously hot. This part isn't normally going to be a big issue (as you'll have this thing mounted somewhere .. not in your lap), but the fans do get annoying. They are loud, and they come on *quick*. (Check out the 980 as an alternative. More expensive, but - wow - is it well executed!!If budget is your #1 item; this is the radio for you. I don't think you can get a better $ to performance ratio. All told, what you get for the money is a *fantastic* deal.

I now have three of these and will be ordering more. The unit is easy to program using CHIRP, stable and great for POTA use or any other field application. I also have one in my shack as a primary dual band rig.Great value for the $$$ and the company was very fast to ship.With some ingenuity and two of these you can have a remote portable repeater set up ...

Just got my license and bought this as a first radio because it had good reviews and a great price. Programming is very easy if you program with CHIRP (which plays very nicely with this radio). The audio speaker is very loud and clear and I had no issues hitting local repeaters. Also no issues with the radio getting too hot. Radio is very small and easy to mount because its so compact. Two major gripes: The display is very small and if you don't mount this direct line of site (in car), you will have a hard time knowing what channel you're when you're driving. The microphone is horrible. I consistently received feedback from other stations telling me they could hardly hear me, even though the repeater signals were very clear. The issue? The microphone condenser is located behind the silicone keypad (white buttons) AND behind the circuit board! To solve for this, I drilled a slightly larger hole in the front plastic, then used an exacto knife to cut away the silicone that was obstructing the hole; and finally very carefully drilling a larger hole in the circuit board, ensuring all three enlarged holes line up directly in front of the condenser. This considerably improved my audio although the audio was still "light". Bottom line, great little starter radio to learn 2M and 70CM bands; and HAM etiquette; at a fantastic price. If you are new to HAM radio and you don't want to invest a lot of money until you know what you want, then buy this radio.

important to remember that it is what it is! do not expect a coupe de ville in a cracker jack box. PERFECT FOR A GO BOX WITH A BATTERY & WATER TIGHT AMMO BOX WITH A HT 20W ANT!