Best Mid-Priced Ham Radio Handheld? VGC VR-N76 (APRS & SSTV!)
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- Опубликовано: 7 окт 2024
- Lets test the VGC VN-N76. Once I put it through its paces, I'll give you my thoughts.
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This is an affiliate code and the radio was sent to me for free to review.
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This radio looks identical to the RADIODDITY GA-5WB, even down to the phone app. The GA-5WB doesn't seem to have an accessory speaker Mic. I cannot comment on "which radio came first", as I don't have a GA-5WB. I cannot comment further other than what I have seen of the GA-5WB videos here on RUclips.
Came here to leave the same comment. The VGC app may do more than Radioddity, but hard to tell.
Vero makes the radio for Radioddity - they are the same, all the way down to the app. Both are good, RO is a tad cheaper while supplies last. The RO antenna was ever so slightly longer if that's something you need bragging rights on though.
The body and battery have the shape of the Btech GMRS PRO too. Same with the Bluetooth mic.
@@xSikks (Vero makes that radio for BTech also). Vero is pretty TopNotch so far.
@@temporarilyofflineright now Radioddity is offer a 15% discount right now. Summer24 is the code and it brings it down to in the $150 range
Just picked one up with your code. An extra thing that sold me on it:
they enabled using the iphone/ipad app on Apple Silicon Macbooks(Some companies disable this on the app store). So, if you've got a M-series Macbook/Macbook Pro you can use the app on there too. Pretty impressive and versatile for the price point, even if it is a bit quirky.
You had me at Dessert Tan. I like quirky radios so this caught my attention; thanks for sharing.
It do be quirky! Thanks for watching. Keep up the good vids!
Very cool radio! I love how there are more affordable APRS radios starting to trickle onto the market. 73!
Thanks for this review Josh, this is my favorite part of VHF/UHF/GMRS, the packet radio scene. I used your order code.
Awesome! Thank you!
For me it checks all my boxes. color screen, wireless programming, uhf, vhf, none spurious, comes in many bright colors, under $200, and it has aprs which I've been curious about.
I can see using sstv for doing damage assessment after a hurricane or something wide spread where you might not want to require assessment teams to sneakernet photos.
Great idea.
First thing I thought of was CERT response in grid-down, sending UAS damage assessment images to my EOC.
Thanks Josh for taking the time to walk us thru this handheld!
Thanks for watching!
Also at Defcon conference in Las Vegas we play with SSTV pretty heavily. It's just something that is super fun and not the internet.
This would be killer for that on the go!
That's what first got me interested in all this amateur radio stuff. It's cool to see some of these little HTs start to provide some of the fun stuff OTB.
I have the app on iPad but I do not have all the features you were showing at the top. Android you get all the features, great review Josh.
Looks like the Motorola M1 plug used by some Motorola, Alinco and Radtel handhelds. Similar to the K1 Kenwood style, but the pins are closer together and the large and small pins are reversed. Arrowmax has adapters from M1 to K1 or vice versa available on Amazon. On my Alinco and Radtel rigs, I use a commercial M1 speaker mic and it works great.
This looks cool!
Thanks Lon!
I was excited to see you review this after last video. I'm ordering mine later this week. I'm excited because there is hardly any integrated APRS support in radios, unless you drop a lot of money. With your code it almost evens it out to the same as the GA-5WB. There is a breakdown video of the GA-5WB on their website (it does look like it has a speaker mic, but not sure if it's a kenwood plug). I'm going to give Radioddity a go since VGC shipping options kinda sketch me out a bit.
Nice little radio. Been looking at it for a while. Got lucky and won one from TO in a giveaway. Thanks for the info.
Digital over Bluetooth is an awesome concept. Let the Bluetooth connect device handle all the hard work. Can you imagine if portable Hf rigs did this? 818/891 like rigs with Bluetooth enabled digital would be killer!!
You mean like the IC-705? Supports bluetooth, and you can connect to internal sound card and CI-V serial port via WiFi/IP. In the field I run digital modes such as FT8 completely wirelessly.
@@danielayers I like the ruggedness and more professional feel to the Yaesu man pack style radios personally
I hope you will do a long term follow up video on this one. I am intrigued! 73, Brett
IMHO Anytone really needs to wake up and realize how the game is changing in their own country produced radios.
I really hope the next Anytone has app support in the next version.
This is a really neat radio. Thanks Josh.
What
To my knowledge BSS is the data transmission mode that handles the gsm traffic from and towards phones directly
For anyone who gets one of these, it uses a Motorola 2-Pin connector for the side connection. As noted in the video, it does NOT use a Kenwood 2-Pin connector.
UPDATE: I was wrong. I talked to Vero after having an issue, and the plug is a proprietary plug, not a normal Motorola 2-Pin. It's the same pin setup as is used in the BTech GMRS Pro. There is an adapter available from BTech to convert it to Kenwood 2-Pin.
It only took this handheld to pick up the mobile radio, and the handheld. Love the opportunities it will create.
Wish they’d open up the TNC for use with RadioMail and WoAD
Or even have it in the app
Timing of this couldn’t be any better. Got a few buddies in Texas interested after the hurricane hit.
Mine took a little while to get adjusted in the APRS mode. Especially the gps accuracy. I got my iPhone set up perfectly. But, when operating without the iPhone the GPS in the radio is all over the place. I haven’t tried it with a headset of some kind. Bluetooth would be great. I guess I would blueTooth into the iPhone? So far, for the price, it’s amazing.
I have been playing with the standalone HT App fir this radio and it is extraordinary. The next thing I would love to see is if someone will make a LoRa integrated solution so that a user could program the radio over the air.
I totally agree on the "full battery power" for power testing a radio - how often do you run around with your radio freshly charged? If I weren't so lazy I'd test them all at 50% power.
Thanks! I’m curious to do a wider 50% test on my hts now!
Dang it Josh!!! You did such a good review I had to buy one. Lol. Impressed with the mobile as well but don't need it. Really don't need the HT but with the APRS and SSTV definatly nice additions.
SSTV gets the Nerd ⭐ of Approval
✨📻✨
Keep up the great work Josh.
Thanks for the thorough review of this new HT. That Bluetooth functionality tho!
Thanks!
Huh. That's the first Chinese radio I've seen that actually interests me. The user interface looks to be a cut above most of them, too.
It’s definitely surprising.
Btech sells a K1 adapter that would probably fit in the mic port so you can use any Kenwood/Baofeng style mic.
Josh, I see your a KNAFS fan as well! Love that brand!
I just bought the Lander 3 stepping from the 1. I really like the G10 better and blade material.
Very cool. I don't need it, but SSTV is definitely a tease. :)
daaang, they want my money. Like, really want it. Nice! Especially the SSTV feature
Great review. I look into it more.
73, N3XUS,
Gene
You are such a nerd and I love it!
Hah! Thanks!
Banana phone reminds me of Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.
Re: BSS, the only thing I could find that mentions it at all is in the VR-N76 manual where it says "BSS: Use our own BSS protocol, suitable for people who have not obtained a call sign." Maybe contact them and ask them if they have a protocol guide for BSS? They do have a "ring" bluetooth PTT button for sale, too, but I guess it isn't compatible with the Anytone variety.
Looks like a decent radio, too bad it doesn't have 1.25m support.
That "passcode" for APRS, I first had to use that for APRSISCE and UIVIEW32 back years ago, probably 2005? I haven't had to use it since until playing with this radio. I think it has to do with a confirmation that someone not some"thing" is transmitting packets, not sure.
I think it’s that and also the direct posting to APRS.fi as an iGate. Which this radio should be able to do.
I need another VHF/UHF radio like I need another hole on my head, but it does SSTV. Guess I'll have another hole in my head.
Your wife does that when new radios (guns/tools) show up at the house, too?
Thanks josh for spending my money.
The MDC on the HT app will decode MDC squawks. And since you have the HT app you can create a network channel and bind it to the radio.
Indeed! I asked Shane and it’s not used out here, so no demo this time.
You should have gotten the yellow one to color coordinate with the banana phone! On my short list of HT's to think about buying. 73
I just ordered the Yellow to match my GArmin Rinos
I just bought one of these radios. And now I need to know how to get the menu into English mode.
Excellent review with excellent info thanks!!!! Subscribed😊 73s de WP4OOI 👻🏴☠️
Another nicely done video Josh!!! I’ll stick with my D75 or FT5dr!!!😁
The blue tooth speaker mic looks dentical to the BTech BS-22 for their GMRS Pro. I thought it looked familiar. It's a good mic.
Wish I would have bought this VGC with an app for HAM and a Beaufang scanner for trains and aviation. Studying for my technical, not liking the Yaesu FT-70D interface.
I am rather surprised that a lot more radios don't offer this type of Bluetooth. I have worked in the computer industry for 30 years and the cost for Bluetooth is very low, the new standards are faster, farther, and more reliable and it is fairly easy.
Picked one of these up. Looks fun. But you did not pick the orange one? 😉Well, I did
At the time I got one, they didn’t have orange.
This firmware is on a few radios now. The issue is, without the app you cant send APRS messages to a new contact (you have to receive it first), and even when you do, they seem to be very oddly formatted. Direwolf only picks up some of them. Have you gotten full APRS working (sending and receiving messages)?
Off the app I'm having issues with Rx. I use a Nagoya antenna and can hear the packets come in, but it sounds like it cuts it off. I've tried with the squelch open and it doesn't pick up on APRSDroid. It's showing it Tx through APRSDroid, but I don't show up on my local Igate. On the HT app I hit the local Igate, but again, doesn't show up on APRSDroid, even with updating to the latest firmware. So in HT app it looks like it sends APRS, but I have no way to see if it does. APRS it appears to send, but packets are getting cut off both on Tx and Rx
also on the bluetooth mic it says you can pair your phone and the radio to the speaker mic but in chengrish it reads "for best communicating use phone microphone"
How readable is the color display in normal daylight conditions? I bought a Wouxun HT for 180€, full duplex, crossband, airband the whole nine yards, for doing satellite work (outdoors). The color display on this HT is completely unreadable under normal daylight conditions. I then bought a 61€ TYT TH UV8000D with most of the same features but with a monochrome display. Fully readable outdoors. I am very wary of colo displays now.
I have this radio and love it so far. One question: Do you know if there's a way to link to radio to two different phones? I'd like it to be linked to my wife's phone for emergency purposes. One of my hobbies is exploring abandoned mines and I'd like her to be able to share my location with first responders if necessary.
This is the BTech GMRS Pro app and the HT looks pretty much the same from summer '22. This looks much improved though
Like all Chinese radios, I am unsure who made it first or for how long VGC has had it.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse That Case Sod Buster on the other hand is timeless🤙🤙
Turns out VGC is the manufacturer. All others are retail licensed.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse That is very interesting. Thank you for the info
UHF 400-470MHz &136-174MHz (Rx & Tx) - website specs show uhf tx caps out at 470, have you tried gmrs tx ? tia 🙏
Would like to see if a cw decoder would work. Key board to key board cw would get me to buy.
That's pretty cool!!!!!
Thank you!
So does it decode/display inbound APRS messages directly on the built-in screen?
Can you please comment on the USB-C charging functionality and the ability for the radio and microphone to be charged with a modern USB-C wall plug. I am noticing that a lot of the Chinese radios that offer “USB-C” charging have a maximum input of 5w or 10w which is lower than a standard usb-c wall plug for a cell phone. Basically any Chinese item that ships with an obsolete USb-A to USB-C cable makes me wonder if it will charge with a modern ISB-C wall plug.
I use usb c for both radio and mike
Works fine
I look at this and compare it to my Wouxan KG-Q10H and wonder which is better?
I have been searching for a radio that has GPS, will TX & RX APRS, has duel band analog and bonus if it has digital mode.... Bluetooth and app look cool but big question for me is does it have the ability to transmit text messages to cellphones using the new SMS? Right now only radios i know have all this are the FT-3/5DRs... could this be a competitor for that??? Cheers!
Wish we had 23cm his again. This look like what I get for early Christmas maybe 2.
Hello and many thanks for your video content . I am very fond of Pota activity and when I am in isolate place I need a device that can send a spot to Pota. Can this radio do it? Have you already covered this topic? Best regards and ciao.
You’d likely need to use APRS. however I haven’t made a video on that.
Great video!
Does this radio work with the APRSdroid application?
Is the app CCP spyware that requires an internet connection and user account?
Reply. It has option but it is not required
I don't know. This looks pretty cool. I might consider trading out my FT5. I can Google around, but does this have dual receive?
How did you get your to transmitt on the American nature radio bandsm mine says out of frequency band when I try to transmitt on 70cm on 448.680 or 147.240
I received mine today and loaded the app and it updated the firmware over BT. BUTT, It will not take TX UHF above 440mhz. So far anyway. This is a big disappointment as the web specs said it would.
Does the n-7500 have an updated igate capability from when it first released??? Sorry, I know it’s slightly off topic but I’m preparing to purchase both
Love your content. Quick question: what is a high end powerful handheld digital ham radio you’d recommend?
Do they make one that covers uhf vhf and hf in a handheld ham radio?
I think the demand for this radio took off after numerous solid RUclips reviews. I just received two and unfortunately they won't turn on after being charged for 3-4 hours (display dead and no signal to phone app). Hoping they don't have quality control issues....we'll see if they send replacements
Check that you have the battery seated well. I had to push it hard.
@HamRadioCrashCourse turns out it was a tiny piece of clear tape on the battery terminals. This stuff was on so well it was invisible, but I should've known! 😂
Glad you found the issue!
Hey Josh did you get the email from VGC about the new update?
How readable is that screen in bright noon daylight?
No VOX mode so you can't use a standard bt headset with it?
Reminds me of the Btech GMRS pro
Oh no! Not more HT's! There're everywhere! There're taking over! Oh no!!!!
I like my vrn7500 which appears virtually identical except the number of frequencies/banks. The SSTV and cw is cool.
Will the HT iGate through the app the way the mobile does?
Is there any possibility of being able to use the Bluetooth capability and pair that with winlink somehow? I'm just getting into winlink and I'm still trying to understand what it takes to use it. I know I can use a mobilink or something like that but can I use the btech cable that some people use for APRS with a Kenwood or boefang radio and use that for winlink?
if you havnt identified the headset plug. it looks like maybe a Motorola two pin plug maybe? they are closer together than Kenwood two pin
Is that like the one on the Yaesu FT65? They are closer together
On the website it says M1 speaker mic port so I am almost positive that's a Motorola style plug.
that is what I was thinking Looks like the CP200, R2, BRP40 2 pin
Yeap, I have a couple of these radios. I uses the Motorola 2-Pin. I've tested it with my Motorola 2-Pin lapel mic and it works fine.
So does it do APRS sending messages an receiving onboard without external application?
Yes.
YQ instead of CQ was curious. :)
Yeah. That was a bit odd.
I have never understood the fascination with APRS. Can someone clue me in?
How to change default settings because it sends a tone at completion of transmitt gps and setting get reenabled at power on
The apps are not the same between Android and Apple. The Android app had more features at least for the mobile.
how readable is the color display in outdoor daylight? till now i have been deeply dissppointed in color displays.
But can it run doom?
Josh, these videos are really useful for giving hams an idea of the capabilities of a radio. However, if you are going to use a spectrum analyzer to determine whether a radio is "clean" or not can you please learn how to use and read a spectrum analyzer properly. In the 70cm test you don't know how to read the frequencies of the markers correctly. Marker 1 is the fundamental frequency (the frequency the radio is transmitting on). Markers 2 and 3 are the second and third harmonics respectively. The frequencies displayed next to markers 2 and 3 are *DELTA* frequencies (difference between that marker frequency and the fundamental) NOT the absolute frequencies of the markers. On the 2m test "the 1 and 2 spur you see there is the same fundamental frequency" - makes no sense, and is wrong. "1T" is the frequency of marker 1. "2delta1" is the difference between the frequency of marker 2 and marker 1. The delta value is similar to the fundamental frequency because the second harmonic is twice the frequency of the fundamental. Similarly on the 70cm test "Remember 2 is the same fundamental" is nonsensical. You say "3 is 806MHz harmonic" which is incorrect. Marker 3 is the third harmonic which is 860MHz (not 806MHz) higher than the fundamental - meaning it's about 1293MHz (as you already noted your TinySA is set to 0-1.3GHz so a signal right at the edge of the screen isn't going to be 800ish MHz). Further, the TinySA is not correctly calibrated for the attenuators inline. You measured the UHF output of the radio at 6w, but the TinySA says the 70cm carrier is 12.6dBm which is 329 times weaker than the 6w you measured. Also, since you want to apply to 70cm the same standard that applies below 225MHz (which is reasonable), the reading on your TinySA says the second harmonic is about 38db below the fundamental, which does not meet the -40dBc requirement for
Thanks for explaining that. I have used the used the TinySA a number of times, and I didn’t remember it displaying the deltas instead of the actual frequencies. You’re right however, those are the harmonics. I’ll do better next time. 73.
Thanks for the review! Been wanting to upgrade my HT to something like this. Curious how much different is the IOS app from the Android? Are there features that the android app has that the IOS doesn’t?
It is similar, but I didn’t make a list of differences. Let me look at it later and maybe post a short.
Has anyone else ordered this from the link in the video description? I am at the shipping screen and about to order the radio bit it is offering 17track shipping which is renowned for scamming which is making me question this brand
Can you get yours to transmit above 440 mhz?
They seem to want you to pay with only PayPal. Why is that? They lost my sale because of it. Not everyone likes PayPal. I'm totally capable of using a credit card with out PayPal.
Hi! Thanks for the vid. How did you get the APRS-password for the app? I always end up at a chinese website I do not understand. Thanks, Peter
Link to a key generator is in the description.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Thanks a lot!
But I want to use Gmrs
Add DMR
try the mic on the icom 705
Good idea!!!
I have the VR-N7500, will the bluetooth mic I already have (the simpler one, I don't have the one with extra buttons) work with this alongside the mobile? Is there any easy way to use it with both without completely unpairing?
Why are they not making full duplex HTs anymore?
My personal opinion is the brands don’t see that there is a large enough market for it.
What digital modes does it all do? Frequency range? Does it have AES-256 ?
Packet it looks like.
Can you Bluetooth connect this to an Android device to run AndFLmsg ?
Hiya lad is this radio capable of keypad DTMF natively on the device? I’ve seen it’s possible via the app but it’s something I don’t want to rely on
Is this similar to the BTech UV Pro?
Yep. VGC is the manufacturer and its licensed for sale to Btech.
Anyone have any input on the shipping methods when ordering? I have no Idea what any of the options mean.