WOUXUN KG-UV7D Amateur Handheld Transceiver, Dual Band Dual Display Dual Standby Two Way Radio

The Wouxun KG-UV7D is a nice little duel band handy-talky (HT) for use on the amateur bands with at least a Technician's license (here in the US).Overall, the operation of this HT is pretty much inline with any other HT you're likely to see out there. From my Yeasu FT3DR to my TidRadio H6, the HT operates much the same way. You can monitor more than one frequency (and more than one band) at the same time. You can transmit on one frequency, which mutes the other. You can switch between programmed channels and pure frequency mode. You can take direct control of the radio and program it to transmit to repeaters, completely manually. Or, better still, you can connect it to a programming software and get to work.Testing this radio, all the core functionality is in place. I did find that the slightly longer than normal rubber duck antenna, which on first glance appears well constructed, had a higher than expected SWR reading. I was seeing 1.4 when transmitting. Power was the advertised 5 watts. I believe that higher SWR reading explains why I saw a somewhat decreased performance from the radio. It's a shame too because the flexible antenna, kind of like a shorter Nagoya 771, seemed like a good design.I have a standard, non-digital, repeater that's about 18 miles from my house. I can reach it using standard rubber duck antenna on most of the HTs in the house (I've got several). The UV7D didn't do as good a job. While I was reaching the repeater, the sound quality on my transmission was a bit garbled and I didn't hold the repeater well. I put on a higher gain antenna (Signalstik) and transmission and reception got quite a bit better.The other behaviors of the radio went pretty much as expected. The light works. You can swap between A/B when monitoring or transmitting. It wasn't immediately obvious how to switch between channel & frequency modes, but once you learn (Menu then S/D), it's simple enough. FM radio monitoring worked well.Overall, it's a solid little radio. I like the materials used. I like the overall design. Ergonomically it feels good in the hand. The kit comes with a charger, which is necessary because evidently Wouxun doesn't use common batteries between radios (I have a KG-D901 which uses a completely different charger). I didn't knock off stars for that, but man, it sure would be handy to have more common batteries & chargers. Having a unique battery & charger for every radio just makes it a pain to try to have backups.I did find the screen to be small and crowded. It's almost identical in size to my Baofeng BF8HP. Smaller than the other Wouxun and my other HTs.That's about it. A better antenna would make all the difference here. Still, not a bad radio for the cost.

This is a solid little radio. I would consider this almost as good as a yaesu, not quite, but almost. Hands down way better than a beofeng by sound, transmit quality and even the plastic feels sturdy. The battery life is ok though

The unit itself is excellent the support is terrible especially for a new Ham.

Great devics.

I hadn't ever done anything with amateur radio before and had only seen guys who did it. Back in the day these used to be big boxes with huge setups to be able to talk to other people.... well I set this up in about 10 minutes and was able to connect to my friend who lives a little ways away from me who also happened to have a transceiver. His is a different brand and model and a whole other setup but it still just worked once we got the frequency right.Sound quality is okay but I am not sure what to expect from these units.I think that in this time period its good to have other ways to communicate in the event of emergencies so I am going to keep it to reach out to other people.I left it on for the whole day and the battery life was quite good, it lasted more than a half day at basically max everything...I'm going to try to get my parents to get one now too and see if I can reach all the way to them.

Started it up and it was usable right out of the box. Picks up plenty of signal on almost every channel. Even the built in antenna gets decent range. Volume is very good and the squelch works well. Good unit.