Want To Listen To Aircraft? DON'T Buy These! Quansheng UV-K5
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- Опубликовано: 29 авг 2024
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Senhaix 8600
• I Made An 83km Long Ra...
Jianpai 8800UV
• Jianpai 8800UV VHF UHF...
Quansheng UV-K5
• Is The Quansheng UV-K5...
There is a AM air band fix via a firmware modification for the Quansheng UV K5 (8), just follow some of the links for the updates on the RUclips how to’s.
Not really related to any of these radios, but when I was growing up I got a build-it-yourself radio kit from Radio Shack that received, among other things, air band. It wasn't fancy and it used one of those weird clear plastic earphones every Radio Shack kit came with, but for a 10 year old it was awesome. It was a blue plastic console with a smoked glass plastic dust cover that you could see the electronic innards through. I had no idea what I was listening to, but the fact that I built a working radio and was listening to jetliners was so cool. I really miss Radio Shack.
The egzumer software mod has made it quite an acceptable receiver now.
Took it out in the car and compared it with my Uniden 125 and it was pulling in ground controllers from Ventnor that the 125 didn’t pick up.
I’m no radio enthusiast by any means but I love the 125. It’s perfect for the beginner and I’ve used it at airfields many times. I visit Duxford regularly and always take it with me. It has given me advance warnings and got me photos I wouldn’t have got otherwise.
I ordered my UV-K5 yesterday. I have never had an an interest in the air band, so this'll still be a happy purchase for me.
wanna bet?
Very interesting, thank you! I am a glider pilot and I have the Icom A16E, which is a brilliant airband transceiver. Line-of-sight reception with decent quality is easily 100 km. I am almost shocked that a quarter mile from MAN approach you get such abysmal reception. - Since I recently got my ham licence, I have been looking for a handheld with airband capability allowing me to listen in when not at the airfield without the risk of accidentally transmitting. After watching this, I think I remove that criterion from my list, which widens the choice of handhelds considerably. Thank you very much again, all the best from Finland! 👍😎
I run an Icom handheld as well when I’m up in the air. Audio quality/reception is WORLDS better than these 4 reviewed in the video 😎
I just got mine today. It's charging but airband is not a deal breaker, especially for the price. I have better radios to receive airband.
Thanks for the demo, everyone needs to know about real world tests like this.🍻🤠
I have a radio shack pro89 "race" scanner with all of the NASCAR frequencies preprogrammed into it. It's was a gift to me. It is a exceptionally fast scanner and good for aircraft listening. It's trunk system capable,but I've never took the time to program it for that.
I have the senhaix 8600. Its a great little radio,and recieves great on airband. Had good reports on signal and audio tests. This has replaced my ft65 for portable days
I was tempted. Thanks for helping me decide.
I live 12.miles north of Newcastle airport and get good reception on my Quansheng K5-8 using Exumer 2 and a Nagoya 771 sitting in my house. Not bragging only pointing out there are so many variables to consider.
hey mate - you need to do a update on the UV-K5 - I just brought 6 did the mod and it does a great job receiving airband
The best handheld I've personally found to be the best for listening to Airband is the Yaesu FT70D. I speak as one who lives a stone's throw away from Luton Airport.
I have this Korean TTI (TSC-3000R) wide-band scanner with a seamless range of 150 KHz - 1310 MHz. It is even smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Lots of banks and channels to group and store. If used to scan the airband I noticed that the antenna is the real heartbreaker. I connected a Moonraker Scan-king Multiband stick antenna and got excellent results. crips and fast scanning as well. But these handy tiny pocket scanners are for portable use and then it sucks. I still experiment with special antenna rods to maximize the performance with each band and until now a telescopic 1 meter simple radio antenna works best. Orientation needs to be perfect but hey it is a telescopic antenna and can be adjusted for optimal reception. These Korean sets are so weird you probably wont get a new battery for it and have to make one yourself if needed. They tend to charge very slowly (op to 12 hours) and probably for a reason. A DOD (80%) after 3 years should be achieved.
I would have to agree that for airband, you cant really beat the 125 XLT. Amazing bit of kit
Beaten by the uniden 3500
I have a Vertex Standard VXA-220 aviation radio HT. I bought it in 2011 as I thought of getting a recreational piiot license. In the event, I didn't but have used the HT at airshows. I agree a small scanner like the 125 is good. I have found when using a 325P2 the battery life when only using a small scanlist lasts all afternoon, only when you start adding more and digital then battery life dives.
I bought the quansheng whatever its called and its modulation is horrible. It picks up the airband signal but can’t unmodulate it. Sounds garbled. I asked to return the radio for a refund and i got my money back and i was told i can keep the radio. I have not even turned it on and its been months. Scanner is best. Or baofeng is good. Excellent video.
Very interesting. I do like the air band feature on my Yaesu FT5DR…
Excellent video Lewis!
Great explanation and comparison.
The only reason anyone wants to listen to airband is because it's somewhat difficult to do if you aren't a dedicated hobbyist. This radio has been really good for me personally, but I get everyone is looking for something. I recommend this.
I have a 125XLT and Agree with you it is the best for the Job. i also Have a FT 70D and that is it very good for air band. Mike.
Hi Lewis, The Quansheng sounded like it was using FM demodulation rather than AM on an air band frequency. I know the display suggested AM demodulation however it certainly did not sound true AM to me. thanks for the video.
did you turn on the AM in the menu?
@@JamesRWeber-ee1kr There's no AM detector in the radio. It's using the error output from the FM radio's demodulator (the residual AM on the FM signal). That's also why it's not hifi. I'm sitting here listening to Albuquerque ATC with no issues. OTOH, I didn't buy the radio as an AM scanner, but it's a nice (thought flawed) feature.
@@okcrum exactly
@@okcrumso can you listen to atc with this Quansheng UV-K5
The 125 is great from a usability perspective - the way you program it is relatively intuitive and there is great software support for it. But, I don't think the audio quality is *that* great on it. The gold standard of handheld airband scanners for me are the Yupiteru 125 and 225 from the 90s. Super easy to program, brilliant sensitivity and wonderful audio quality, shame Yupiteru no longer seem to make radios. If you don't need a handheld unit, I find the Airspy R2 SDR unbeatable for airband scanning - scans the entire mil airband in around 3 seconds and civ airband in a fraction of a second. One unit I can highly recommend *not* using for airband is the ICOM IC-RC6. It looks like it should be brilliant, but it's incredibly arcane to program unless you use a PC, and I found both the sensitivity and audio quality on airband to be quite poor.
I have the UBC125XLT and it is great. I am in the US and even receives 6meter ham FM repeater just fine with stock antenna. I put ABBREE 42in on it and what i can hear is amazing. The version I got has pre programmed band searches and is really great. with the 42 in antenna I hear plains from very far away . just only hear local tower on stock antenna. I also have a Alinco DJ-X11 that has great recieve as well and more coverage . and SSB as well. nice review of the UV-K5 . looking into tri band HT . 73's
What is a stock antenna?radio ham beginner from Greece .
@@thunderflower7998 the antenna you get with the radio when you buy it new
Still using my second hand baofeng uv5r to pick up the UHF relay from Birmingham Airport. It comes through really clear and for some distance which I found surprising.
One thing to consider is 8.33 kHz channel spacing. Without it one might realise that reception is problematic. I think the UBC125XLT does have 8.33k channel spacing... My old R5 doesn't...
Most airband frequencies are spaced at 25KHz from my experience
@@gano7297 Right on! In the EASA world the spacing is 8.33. The UK is the same. There are a couple exceptions like 121.500. The thing is that when the 8.33 conversion came around most 25k channels were just converted to 8.33k by redesignating the channel numbers. Thus the bandwidths switched to 8.33 (bw is actually closer to 7,5k) but the carriers frequencies remained the same.
The ubc 125 xlt is excellent !!
@@gano7297not in uk there's many both airfield and airways on actual 8. 33 freqs
@@juliussokolowski4293therss a hell of a lot 8.33 freqs in uk
Some of these sound like they don't have AM demodulators, but just rely on the slight frequency deviation of the AM signal.
Old Elmer trick. Used to "receive" air band on old FM transistor radios. Retuned, of course.
Thank you Lewis. I've removed this from my shopping list ;)
Thanks Lewis.....nearly ordered one today.....but another radio ham gave me the heads up on the UV-K5.....said its terrible.....he got it today and is sending it back.
I was only looking for a new airband hand held to replace the very old Realistic I have its a bit of a brick....no 8.33 spacing with is not a problem to me as my airport has retained it 25 khz freq.
But its very sensitise and clear on airband....I bet its well over 30 years old....could do with a bit stronger audio.
XHDATA D-808 has excellent air band reception.
On the k5 you recieve narrow if you put it in wide it is beter. But you can do it only via de pc
Air band is narrow not wide
hier is wide much better
I'm not sure how useful the actual scan function would be for air band. There is so much chatter I think you'd miss a lot hopping from frequency to frequency.
I use a malahit sdr radio to listen to air band,manchester approach.The audio is great.
The *Yaesu FTM-7250* is very good in RX airband, too.
I reckon you’ve missed the point. A dedicated scanner is always going to be the best multi band receiver ahead of pretty much every handy held multi use radio. I think the fact they are capable at all of receiving atc regardless of quality is a bonus. Bottom line is no one has ever made a perfect radio. That’s why we have so many.
Don’t think I missed the point at all but cheers
Interesting video and good guide on airband reception.
Quality of the filtering and RF processing is always more critical for good AM, so air band use will always separate the good from the bad!
Having an actual AM detector (unlike some of these radios) is probably a little more important.
Not too sure. But going back to pirate radio, did anyone hear broadcasts near Manchester from the early to mid 90s from MAM fm or Radio Galaxy? Frequency was 105.45 and 105.50FM Well before Century FM???
I bought a old Aircraft Radio £50, 12 V Power supply, external speaker. Works well. 73 Chris DL7BCU
I'm attracted to the uv k5 now because of the firmware mods out there. It's really impressive. I am dying to get one that has the airband receive and it's stupid. I have a dozen scanners that pick up airband and I can't stand listening to it.
I just ordered a couple of these for marine receiving
Thanks for this. I have a UV-5R and a Realistic Pro 26 scanner that loses it’s memory when you take the batteries out. I was thinking of getting a UV-K5 to replace both, I won’t bother now.
Good informative video. Thank you!
For now I'll be using the Senhaix 8800.
Hi, thank you for the comparaison between those radios. I'm a paraglider and I would like to buy a dual-band radio which could RX/TX on VHF in FM an RX on airband in AM at the same time (dualwatch functionality). Could you tell me if the SENHAIX 8600 meets these criteria ?
Good morning Steve, how do I program the air band frequency for listening? Can you give me a step by step? thanks !
Wow, the UVK5 sounded like listening to AM signals on FM mode lol
Bloomin Terrible haha.
Thanks so much for a fantastic & informative video.
I love all of your Videos mate.
Keep up the great work ⚡🙏⚡
My thoughts exactly. I'm betting a deep dive will reveal the UVK5 is doing just that. I'll stick with my Yaesu FT-70
Sounds terrible because it was in FM mode. For some reason (still learning) it defaults to FM when it's turned off so have to go to the menu and turn of AM mode then it demodulates correctly. I think that's why it went from being good to bad, incorrect setting.
@@rexcameron414 Wow,
Ok mate,
Thanks so much for the Info ⚡🙏⚡
That's what I believe it actually does.
That's what residual AM (error) on an FM transmission sounds like. How do you think the UV-K5 is demodulating AM without an AM detector?
A: It is hearing residual FM (error) on the AM signal.
will be good if you can make a review of the RADTEL RT-470 (the one with 10W) and also test air band reception there.
Hi Lewis love the videos the radio I use bit old now yaseu FT60 has great aircraft receive agreed the Chinese radio you mentioned was the worst .
Thanks for saving my money
Interesting, I watched this video before buying the Quansheng UVK5, so I was expecting bad audio quality on the air band.
But I just received it and set the approximation frequency of an airport 40km away from here, and was astonished at how clear the reception is. Nothing to do with what's shown in the video.
It definitely looks like yours is being overloaded by the signal, or maybe I'm receiving an FM transmission? I'm new to the air band so I'm not sure if AM is always used on approximation (AM option is turned on BTW).
After playing a bit with it in a place with stronger signal, I think mine is also overloading, even with the stock antenna.
Putting it at a 45° angle (instead of being completely vertical) sometimes helps since that will make it loose some dBs.
So unless the signal is poor and you live in an area where it isn't going to be overwhelmed by other frequencies, I would recommend to stick to the stock antenna.
@@cosstab The K5 overloads easily. AGC causes distortion. Drive out to the airport. You'll see.
@@HarryHamsterChannel yeah, I haven't been able to receive clear transmissions very often since then, most of the time they're unintelligible. Sometimes the signal is very strong and the sound is completely distorted, other times the signal is weak and the static noise gets over the voice. I hardly ever get a crystal clear transmission like I did the first time I turned it on.
Most FM portables that say they cover air band do it poorly. I had a Ham HT that did 2M + 70cms and air band and it was awful on strong signals as it
had no AGC which is a must on AM . The only HT that received airband well was the FT-530 which in my opinion was the best amateur HT ever made.
Agreed. What some people do not seem to be aware of is that airband transmissions are AM while 2m 70 cm are FM. If the radios are only including the band, and not changing the modulation, your reception will be less than satisfactory.
Absolutely agree with you about the FT-530. 30 years later and I still miss mine.
Thanks Lewis for the interesting video. BTW does the Jianpai really blank out the Rx frequency when there's activity?
Only if you set it to :)
I'm an avid air band listener and I own the UV-K5. I haven't bought it for this but to talk over the 2m and 70cm ham bands, fortunately. Because it's a really mediocre air band receiver. Not sensitive, and distorted audio. There are many alternate firmwares available for it, and one especially (can't post link here, do a search) fixes the AM audio. However, its sensitivity still is mediocre even compared to my cheap Xhdata R-108 AM/SW/air band receiver which beats it hands down.
I have a anytone hand held and I have the same problem I think on am there is no AGC and it overloads very easily !
If only Yupiteru would make a modern version of the MVT7100,
or just restart production of the original 🙏
I'd love one of these scanners. But boy they are not cheap. Flawless. My last one died from over use 🤣
It sounds like the frequency is off... Have you changed to 8.33 kHz channel width? Is the UV-K5 even capable of that?
The UV-5K sounds as if the demodulation is FM not AM. Or it is not exactlx tuned. Does it have the 6.25kHz step?
Even the portable Broadcast FM receivers that I used to DIY-convert in the 80s to receive air band had immensely better reception in the aviation band than this Quansheng thingy. What a terrible, terrible audio quality, next to unintelligible. I was considering it for the low cost, but... nope.
Good video, good information.
Almost missed the comment at the beginning about it receiving really well on 4M, I'd appreciate any more info you can give on its performance on 4 (and 6M for that matter,) comparing it to known performers on each band.
I wonder how these radios cope with out of bands signals on UHF? When I'm near 'group A' DTT TX masts both my UV-9ST and BF-F8+ are hopeless on 70CM, the overloading desenses them so severely they're not worth using.
If the hidden menu allows TX on 300MHz I can see them being popular with Satcom good buddies 😆
My Quansheng UV-5K Produces poor AM aircraft audio. On my test generator in AM mode 30% modulation, anything above 7uv's gets bad. Still, a very unique Radio that it can Rx 52.525 FM, and at low power transceive on 220 band.
ive noticed you have the N (narow band switched on) on the K5. This will greatly increase the distortion of the audio. Can this be turned off ? if so it should work better with a wider band width. It may have to be programmed by the software for it to be set correctly. There is also a setting called the AM flag option in the settings....which might improve perforamce in the aircraft band.
Either way it doesn’t work Lee I tried mate
Scanner wins hands down, the radios scream for squelch control
So the moral of the story is: Don't buy a $30 FM transceiver that scans 4-6 ch/sec (with AM as an afterthought - it detects residual FM on AM signals) to replace your conventional (faster) scanner or (insert transceiver with higher price here) that scans just as slowly but sounds better???
These must be the same people who complain their $30 radio can't handle the RF environment in Manhattan. 🤣
Definately being overloaded and desensed - like when you went up Blackpool tower with one that time. Those cheap ones should never be plugged into an external antenna.
The Quansheng sounds as if it was still in FM mode. Have you activated AM in the menus for the test?
That what I thought , sounds like still in FM mode
Of course I have 😂 it says AM on the screen too!
@@RingwayManchester Maybe it's worth to test it again with AM on and off and see whether there is any difference in the tone. It could be a bug in the firmware, which only indicates but does not switch over to AM.
It’s the same both ways I tried
@@RingwayManchester Mh, that only leaves two possibilities. Either your radio is broken and does not switch on the AM module because of a hardware failure or it is "just" a software bug that does not activate the else present AM demodulator. Can anyone counter check hes UV-K5 and report the findings? I intend to get one, but also for the *casual* air band reception. So, this one is important to me.
I don't buy a mobile transceiver for air band, I am disappointed though the uv-k5 sounds so terrible on the airband. If it's going to be offered it should be acceptable or just leave the feature out. I have a week plus before mine shows up to see how it does.
Both of my K5's sound that way. Tinny sound on FM, too. I've given up on them. Impossible to program, as well.
interesting...what antenna have you used here?
I live near Hurn airport - the IC705 does everything and can pick up most things - whats really ridiclious is that for the price the IC9700 doesnt have airband. I'm sure there is a technical reason why, but its disappointing nethertheless and something I wish it did, given like what others have said a cheap SDR will pick up sats and ATC. Interesting video as ever !
RT-490 works well
Flipping love my Radtel, it's basically the same as the Jianpai. I also got the Jianpai and have had good experiences with both. Sure they don't scan fast but I usually have the frequencies programmed in for where I am such as at shows. Used the Jianpai at Blackpool airshow last year to great effect, could hear the red arrows very nicely indeed.
It almost sounded like it was configured for am narrow band, not am wide band. 2.5 khz vs 6 khz wide.
Does it have an option to change the bandwidth??
It was set to narrow as that’s what air band is. The wide setting doesn’t activate within air band
Is this because they're trying to go fm to am? So it sounds crackly with a sock in the controllers chops?
No it’s am to am
I have a new scanner, but pls what's the deal with trunk and how it works, thanks
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunked_radio_system
I think I'll be sticking to my Yaesu 991a to listen to the air band. I've had the MARS mod done. Also my friend opened up my UV-5RE so it's now a triband--yep it will RX/TX on 220 or 1.25 centimeters. I've heard others extolling the virtues of the Quansheng UVo-K5, but I'll not be getting one. Cheers & 73 from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
amazon has the Pofung (Baofeng) UV5RE for 20 dollars. Smokin' deal. I bought four. Yes, I know what it is. Don't care. Each one works as expected.
The K5 is, by comparison, unusable.
And yes, I realize the value of a much better quality radio. Just don't happen to need one. If I do, I'll buy a pair.
XDATA D-808 does airband. It's charming, bit not brilliant on civil airband.
Are there any Chinese radio scanners?
i don't blame you for not knowing, but that name is Chinese and that's not how you say sheng,its pronounced shung,like term feng shui sounds like fung shuay.
it's a strange language, lots of weird sounds.
i read lots of Chinese light novels and look up lots of Chinese names to understand how it's said.
after a couple years, i understand a decent amount of the strange parts.
What does that meen? that very brief fast text at the bottom.? 5:12
"while editing this video, this radio Quansheng K5 recived airbands perfectly"
does it meen that after you made your video and in edit process, K5 suddenly was "perfect" to recive numerous airbands? and you didnt wanna change your video, and just concluded I will just put a brief snippet below that things flipped to a verb of "perfectly" and while still having a huge bold "dont buy" in your title..
why did things changed.. you put new fw on it?
Would be nice if you informed what fw you tested with.?
what other walkie to 12 to 15 US delivered will do a better job.?
- as it goes without saying that more expensive items tends to perform better and Jianpai 8800+ is like 3 to 4x more expensive and the SenhaiX8600 is even more, atleast from an EU perspective incl. 25% VAT..
thx for the video
Well other reviews had better results with the UV-K5 so there is that. For $35 US vs $250 for the Uniden Bearcat UBC-125XLT if is sh!t's the bed on air band it's no biggie for a causal air band listener
Looks like uv-k5 receives in fm
Wow, my RTL-SDR seems to do a heaps better job. They’re incredibly versatile too.
Yeah same here.
That's because there's a software AM detector, unlike these radios.
I have a scanner that sounds as smooth as a Cadillac
Faltou um filtro de frequências...🫣
Icom is the best, but they are transceivers.
No surprise here....
To my ears, the Quan Sheng doesn't even sound like it's demodulating AM. Sounds more like AM via an FM demodulator. It's so distorted, like it's off frequency or the filtering is too narrow for the AM. I don't know how the company can say it even receives AM. Something is seriously wrong with that audio. The other cheap radios weren't too great either. I'm just shocked how bad that was trying to receive Airband. SMH !! KB1UIF&G6JVS.
What you are listening to is the residual AM on the FM transmitter, i.e. the error output from the FM detector. There's no AM detector in the Beken transceiver chip used in the UV-K5. My experience with the AM is it's intelligible, but certainly not hifi.
@okcrum That's basically what I said, the AM received via an FM demodulator. Not good. It's not worth using for AM.
@@KB1UIF You might also note that airborne transmissions will generally sound better than ground-based ones, since residual FM in transmitters is almost entirely dependent on regulation of the power supply. I find the AM reception perfectly readable. Obviously YMMV.
@@okcrum My mileage does vary considerably, I've monitored aircraft for the last 55 years and I've never heard such poor audio. The problem is these manufacturers are cutting corners so much to keep their price down it reduces performance. Without a real AM detector you can't expect people to monitor AM transmissions. They are trying to add a specification that in reality does not exist. An AM detector is a simple circuit but as they are using a device that is designed for FM only its makes a joke of saying it receives AM. Yes receives AM but does not properly detect for listening to. An antenna receives all modes of transmission but without the remainder of the radio its just a piece of wire.
Well, I've heard worse over David Clark headsets in aircraft, so there you go. We agree to disagree.
La banda aérea es la más aburrida de todas... En la mayoría de los casos uno tiene la esperanza de escuchar comunicados asombrosos , pero la realidad es que es totalmente inutil escuchar esa banda salvo que uno trabaje como controlador o sea piloto, cuyo caso es necesario y tener equipos de "verdad". Yo escucho a través de un SDR donde se escucha óptimo... Sin embargo no gasto más de 5 minutos a la escucha. Consejo... No gasten plata en equipos para escuchar esa banda... Mejor es invertir en un SDR USB.
Keep your useless opinions to yourself. Airband makes for great listening once you understand the terminology. This transceiver and its clones are unfortunately complete trash on the VHF airband as they don't demodulate AM correctly.
If pilots had such poor reception, planes would be falling like raindrops.
Screw China, buy a KENWOOD or Alinco made in Japan with proper xmit band limits!
Wow the uniden was miles better. Seemed the rubbish one was off frequency
全盛 quán shèng: flourishing at the peak in full bloom.
Ahhhh.. righto... Chinese are weird.
You don't need any of these. A 25 dollar SDR will do just fine. In fact you can even receive satellite imagery. Something none of those can do.
Ya, SDR can do literally everything. But, fitting it in your pocket with ease of use, not so much. Not that it CANT be done.
@@B.Murphy a phone and a dongle the size of my finger?? Why would I not when I already do?
There is no 'ch' in "amateur". I'm unaware of any word in the English language "am ach a".
Bruce… shut up will you
That sounds like S***.
First to add a thumb up !
whats the best cheap option for listening to number stations
A SDR unit paired with a good antenna