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Have you been able to perform testing? I think the quality of these Chinese radios has actually improved quite a bit over the years, and the reports I see of te

Have you been able to perform testing? I think the quality of these Chinese radios has actually improved quite a bit over the years, and the reports I see of testing UV-K5s shows them within FCC limits (well within for 2M, closer to the limit for 70cm). The situation is much worse if you transmit outside of those bands, but, well, that's not really what it's designed for anyway. You have to be cautious with harmonics reports on these radios because a lot of people seem to try to evaluate them with an SDR... and they are pretty much guaranteed to overload the SDR's front end and cause all kinds of intermodulation that people mistake for emissions of the radio. I wish ARRL still put more testing pieces in QST because it's hard to know what to make of the testing reports you see online. People end up finding all kinds of different results, and I'm sure there's variation between units, but it also seems like there's a big aspect of... random internet people unsurprisingly having inconsistent test setups.

transcriptase 3y ago
> You have to be cautious with harmonics reports on these radios because a lot of people seem to try to evaluate them with an SDR... and they are pretty much guaranteed to overload the SDR's front end and cause all kinds of intermodulation that people mistake for emissions of the radio. This is something more people should know. On the most popular USB SDRs even a local FM radio station will have the appearance of transmitting on harmonics, which I know for certain the serious hams would report within hours.
- windexh8er 3y ago
  > ...which I know for certain the serious hams would report within hours. In reality this is a myth. There are very few people who go to this length. And even the serious Hams will need some serious gear (e.g. KrakenSDR) to pinpoint quickly. Lots of Hams take themselves way too seriously. Folks like NotARubicon on YouTube do a good job of calling it like it is.
  - transcriptase 3y ago
    I’m not sure about where you are, but here the scene is littered with retired electrical engineers, former broadcast professionals, and military comms specialists with tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end transceivers, vnas, and small antenna farms. And my point was that the guys with serious gear would quickly notice if a local fm country station was actually transmitting in the amateur bands like a cheap SDR might incorrectly show.
    - windexh8er 3y ago
      Feel free to send over any fines given out by the FCC within a thousand miles of where you are. There likely aren't any any in the last decade or ever, and this is all public record. Hams are great at scaremongering. They're friendly for the most part, but there are always "some people", especially on air.
      - reaperman 3y ago
        You may be arguing a different point now? Whether or not fines have been handed out would not be a reliable indicator of whether "the serious hams would report [an issue with an FM radio station] within hours". I would expect that issues with FM stations' broadcasts would be very rare, and generally not receive a fine even if it was technically a fine-able offense. This seems like a situation where a ham would call it into the FM station and maybe into the FCC, the station would fix it, the FCC would call the station and just confirm that the station fixed it.
        transcriptase 3y ago
        Exactly what I was trying to get at, thanks!
        windexh8er 3y ago
        Not arguing a different point. If the offense was such that it would be reported then it should be acted upon in some manner. The reality is that a lot of these spurious emissions are not of any significant reason to react which was my implication with the scaremongering reference. The reality is the FCC approves these cheap Chinese devices and even when they aren't "clean" they rarely impede. Yet what you're referring to is these folks, ultimately, chasing down things that really are not consequential to the airspace however it's an all-hams-on-deck scenario to track down said offenders. Am I glad these folks are out there? For sure, but there's a fine line of being over the top that they often surpass for little reason.
windexh8er 3y ago
I own a few UV-K5s and compared to superheterodyne the actual RF capabilities of the radio isn't all that great. I own a few Wouxon (higher end Chinese radio) and they aren't even remotely in the same league. I've tried a number of more quality antenna on the Quansheng and they do help. I've even had one where the RF was clearly broken out of the box, so your mileage will really vary on these. All that being said, for the money and programability, they really are cool radios. Not legal on GMRS, but perform as expected in those bands with a better antenna. Airband on these things is pretty much next to useless though. Hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.
- mfro 3y ago
  > Airband on these things is pretty much next to useless though. I am using this firmware: https://github.com/kamilsss655/uv-k5-firmware-custom https://github.com/kamilsss655/uv-k5-firmware-custom and receiving my local air traffic very clear.
throwaway81523 3y ago
The original UV-5R had notorious spurious emissions. The slightly upgraded version GT-5R is a lot better about that. There was a test report (in QST iirc) that is linked from the GT-5R page on radioditty.com. I have been wondering whether the UV-K5 has the same improvements that the GT-5R has. If anyone cares, the fairly well regarded Yaesu FT-65R is a repackaged Baofeng with some analog tweaks. Connoisseurs tend to prefer the older FT-60, a heavier and clunkier radio that is still being sold.

transcriptase 3y ago

> You have to be cautious with harmonics reports on these radios because a lot of people seem to try to evaluate them with an SDR... and they are pretty much guaranteed to overload the SDR's front end and cause all kinds of intermodulation that people mistake for emissions of the radio. This is something more people should know. On the most popular USB SDRs even a local FM radio station will have the appearance of transmitting on harmonics, which I know for certain the serious hams would report within hours.

windexh8er 3y ago
> ...which I know for certain the serious hams would report within hours. In reality this is a myth. There are very few people who go to this length. And even the serious Hams will need some serious gear (e.g. KrakenSDR) to pinpoint quickly. Lots of Hams take themselves way too seriously. Folks like NotARubicon on YouTube do a good job of calling it like it is.
- transcriptase 3y ago
  I’m not sure about where you are, but here the scene is littered with retired electrical engineers, former broadcast professionals, and military comms specialists with tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end transceivers, vnas, and small antenna farms. And my point was that the guys with serious gear would quickly notice if a local fm country station was actually transmitting in the amateur bands like a cheap SDR might incorrectly show.
  - windexh8er 3y ago
    Feel free to send over any fines given out by the FCC within a thousand miles of where you are. There likely aren't any any in the last decade or ever, and this is all public record. Hams are great at scaremongering. They're friendly for the most part, but there are always "some people", especially on air.
    - reaperman 3y ago
      You may be arguing a different point now? Whether or not fines have been handed out would not be a reliable indicator of whether "the serious hams would report [an issue with an FM radio station] within hours". I would expect that issues with FM stations' broadcasts would be very rare, and generally not receive a fine even if it was technically a fine-able offense. This seems like a situation where a ham would call it into the FM station and maybe into the FCC, the station would fix it, the FCC would call the station and just confirm that the station fixed it.
      - transcriptase 3y ago
        Exactly what I was trying to get at, thanks!
      - windexh8er 3y ago
        Not arguing a different point. If the offense was such that it would be reported then it should be acted upon in some manner. The reality is that a lot of these spurious emissions are not of any significant reason to react which was my implication with the scaremongering reference. The reality is the FCC approves these cheap Chinese devices and even when they aren't "clean" they rarely impede. Yet what you're referring to is these folks, ultimately, chasing down things that really are not consequential to the airspace however it's an all-hams-on-deck scenario to track down said offenders. Am I glad these folks are out there? For sure, but there's a fine line of being over the top that they often surpass for little reason.

windexh8er 3y ago

I own a few UV-K5s and compared to superheterodyne the actual RF capabilities of the radio isn't all that great. I own a few Wouxon (higher end Chinese radio) and they aren't even remotely in the same league. I've tried a number of more quality antenna on the Quansheng and they do help. I've even had one where the RF was clearly broken out of the box, so your mileage will really vary on these. All that being said, for the money and programability, they really are cool radios. Not legal on GMRS, but perform as expected in those bands with a better antenna. Airband on these things is pretty much next to useless though. Hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.

mfro 3y ago
> Airband on these things is pretty much next to useless though. I am using this firmware: https://github.com/kamilsss655/uv-k5-firmware-custom https://github.com/kamilsss655/uv-k5-firmware-custom and receiving my local air traffic very clear.

throwaway81523 3y ago

The original UV-5R had notorious spurious emissions. The slightly upgraded version GT-5R is a lot better about that. There was a test report (in QST iirc) that is linked from the GT-5R page on radioditty.com. I have been wondering whether the UV-K5 has the same improvements that the GT-5R has. If anyone cares, the fairly well regarded Yaesu FT-65R is a repackaged Baofeng with some analog tweaks. Connoisseurs tend to prefer the older FT-60, a heavier and clunkier radio that is still being sold.