QUANSHENG UV-K6 Is This The Best Modifiable Handheld Radio?

[@hotquebec]

all YT vids should be as good as this.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thank you!

[@TonyLing]

1:16 I've tested a couple of these 1600 mAh batteries for charge absorption and they do indeed exceed their rated figures.

[@omicrondec]

👊🏼

[@ravyyyyyyy]

Been using my K5 for 2 weeks now, got it to listen to satellites but quickly caught the bug and am now revising for my foundation license, Ive been hearing a lot of amateur activity on 2m in my area so I want to join in on the fun. Im pretty happy with airband, i live about 15 miles away from my local airport and from a big hill nearby with the airport just at the horizon Im getting very clear comms from airport side, and pilots can be heard even clearer. I've never had any prior experience with airband scanners but watching videos of some dedicated ones I can tell the k5 is nowhere near the quality of a dedicated one but I seem to have been lucky as mines perfectly readable, they dont seem to all be made the same. At the end of the day though it was 13 quid, its the price of a takeaway and I really feel like you cant go wrong with that.

[@norrinradd8952]

Checking out reviews like these before I jump on the Quansheng bandwagon. Looks like a pretty decent radio. I don't need another HT but it's a lot easier to buy them in the 35 dollar range and then give it away later. Thanks for sharing.

[@DeLorean58]

I picked up the UVK5 back in April and I love it. I'm really impressed with the performance of it and sadly in some ways it out performs my icom id880h. I was able to easily work a 70cm repeater from well over 20 miles away in mountainous terrain, with nothing more than a basic no name, no gain antenna mounted on my fender.

[@PotatoMasterIsaGod]

What you think of the build quality?​@@DeLorean58

[@19ct040]

Bought the UV-K5 a while ago. Im very pleased with all the functions especially the band unlock. Im using this as a handheld CB and the reception is outstanding with a simple telescopic 27mhz antenna. Tested this next to a Dynascan 10m66 (Anytone AT6666 clone) and this little Quangsheng picked up more signals every now and then!

[@sparky71a]

When you say CB are you TX on the 11 meter band?

[@crowradio5127]

Yes

[@sparky71a]

@@crowradio5127 Well if that's the case I'm getting one cheers 👍

[@ChrisBrown-ge6bm]

Can you explain how to Tx on 11m I've done the mod but unable to tx on cb mode Is there a setting I need to change? Thanks 163CT341

[@eldontyrellcorp]

The custom firmware unlocks transmitting on several bands... CB.. air...

[@thetravi1348]

I love my UV-K5. Especially since they came out with the patch to program them with the tidradio Bluetooth programmer. I just got the UV-K6 yesterday and I love it as well. It does so much more then the UV-5R. Not knocking the UV-5R at all as I have 18 of them boxed up and ready to give away this Christmas. Personally I only have 1 true UV5R but like 6 that are basically the same thing. I’m a pretty new HAM at only 3 months in. I really like the TD-H8.

[@RexorLeet]

man i'd sure love 4 of them. my dad asked me to buy them so we can use in the ranch so i've been searching. do you recommend these?

[@ramv1564]

What about the airband? Is it clear? Is there an update which will improve the airband?

[@5675492]

@@ramv1564 In other videos the recommendations for better airband are : get a airband tuned antenna egzumer firmware mod I can't personally vouch for either ( haven't tried anything yet) but that's what I saw

[@daytona1212]

It is a great little radio. Plenty of MOD's. With a small change to the battery you can put the 3200Mah battery from the Quansheng UV-5R on this radio. Great stuff. The airband sound is bad. I have an UV-K5(8) but that's the same as the K6. The firmware install methode you showed is great, But if you short press * on the keyboard and send some DTMF codes, the screen wil get distorted. It will correct itself after that.

[@David-km8in]

Hi Mat, try Exzummer 0.21 firmware .This will fix the bad audio on am. The radio doesn't have a am chip. So they use the FM and modulate it in FM in software. The problem they found was there was to much gain going into the radio and causing distortion. Egzummer reduces the gain into the radio. David M0DUU

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks David, yep I tried recently and it’s way better on AM. Cheers

[@ccoder4953]

Should have a look at the kamilsss655 fork of that firmware. It's got some pretty cool features added, including the ability to do text messaging AND a mesh network for the messages.

[@fullmetaljacket76]

I purchased the anysecu uvk5, very similar. I used the same uvmod program as well as chirp to make changes. My main interest was in activating am everywhere, in particular uhf. It does not show that am is on in uhf, however stations come thru. Tying the radio into a dummy load and tapping into another radio via an attenuator it sounds better. My real world results were like yours. Whether my test signal was fm/am the voice is legible in either mode, just favored slightly respectively.

[@Kens1966]

PRETTY EASY FOR ME.i DID USE THE BROWSER CHROME BUT HAD TO WORK WITH IT A LITTLE THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO

[@StuartBazley]

Thanks for the review and the bad news. I purchased 3 of these radios, specifically to monitor the Air Band. 126.700Mhz. I live in a small country town in Australia and the AirCare chopper flies directly over my Quadcopter flying field. If I hear him coming in I have time to get my Quad on the ground. I leave one radio at home and my wife and I have one whilst flying. I also have 3 Baofeng UV5's but they don't have the Airband, but another new radio the Baofeng UV18 Pro which does have the airband I haven't figured out how to program it so I have no idea if it's AM reception is any better, probably the same. Actually I'm having problems entering the Airband Frequencies in the Baofeng. I've followed 3 separate videos, and all O get is the voice saying Squelch. I'll figure it out though 🙂

[@David-km8in]

Hi Matt, I brought two Quansheng radios. One for a amateur friend and one for me. I just wanted to try one out and experiment with different firmware options. But I was pleasantly surprised how good it was for so little money. And know using it everyday on a my local repeater net, while dog walking. Getting great audio reports and speaker loudness is good in noisy environments. All the best David M0DUU

[@PotatoMasterIsaGod]

Whats the build quality like if you dont mind me asking

[@BenjaminPauly]

Two things: 1) What antenna were you using for AM aircraft? A “dual-band” or one cut and tuned for air bands? 2) Text messaging - does it use APRS ,or a different protocol?

[@edwardfletcher7790]

The air band problem is it uses Freq division to do it as the chip has no native compatibility.

[@Scotscan]

Hmm, even if that says AM mode that sounds suspiciously like AM being received with an FM filter!

[@the80hdgaming]

Damn that radio is clean when it come to spurious emissions

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Surprised me too! Its great to see this imo.

[@digitalmediafan]

There is firmware for the K5 which gives SSB and extended frequency coverage down to 19 Mhz. Have you tried this assuming it works on the K6 ?

[@OntheMicwithMike]

Airband is hit & miss, but I've found when on the airband if you set it to Wide rather than Narrow on AM - to my ears anyway a slight improvement.

[@SansNeural]

I don't have the radio, but from the sound of airband in this video I figured the AM bandwidth on airband was too narrow. Seems like your experience backs my assumption up some.

[@hruskozrout]

yes, with narrow setting, you cant even set SQL to 1, with Wide SQL can be 2-3

[@C4H6As]

What a nice surprise, a good oldschool black on white LCD which is also readable without backlight! AM sounds crappy like the K5.

[@kenroberts9943]

I modified my UV-K6 using the website in your video. Everything works fine. My biggest complaint is AM aircraft band reception, which is horrible. Probably not fixable with a firmware upgrade.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Such a shame isn’t it, if AM reception was good it would be a 10/10 radio imo.

[@Marek_M79]

the chip in this HAM radio doesn't support AM, so what do you expect? The chip is Beken BK4819

[@patring620]

@@Marek_M79 OK. Thanks for setting us straight, Mr. Marconi.

[@g4wwk-k2f]

a Polish ham developed a mod changing the 100pf cap top right of the audio amp to 1nf much improved AM audio.

[@Marek_M79]

@@g4wwk-k2f I did see his video, after changing it, still AM sounds terrible, the voice is very crackling. I wanted to share it over here, but KZbin is automatically deleting the comments with the links. His KZbin channel name is @gotowy_radio

[@AndrewBoughenroadrunner]

I have the K6 coming cant wait to see what I pick up on it

[@g4wwk-k2f]

a Polish ham developed a mod changing the 100pf cap top right of the audio amp to 1nf much improved AM audio.

[@daytona1212]

Do you have more info on that like a mod name so we can find it?

[@damiengirvan5020]

I want to know this also

[@ct1emj]

Do you know were we can find schematics to do that mod ?

[@g4wwk-k2f]

@@daytona1212 putting quanshang uv-k5 audio into YT produced: Quansheng UV K5 Audio Improvement Audio Fix: Gotowy

[@daytona1212]

@@g4wwk-k2f Thank you.

[@cherrysdiy5005]

I own a UV-K5, standard model. I recently modded it with Egzumer's mod, 0.20 The airband receive is so much better. Only downside is that the NOAA function was removed to make room for various features. Thankfully, Egzumer gives great instructions on how to customize the mod. So, I now have improved AM receive on Airband, and NOAA functions. For the price, this radio is worth the time it will take for you to get it suited to your needs.

[@The0nionKnight]

What did you have to give up in order to have those functions? I kinda miss having NOAA =(

[@cherrysdiy5005]

@@The0nionKnight I decided to get disable the Spectrum analyzer. Such a function is not a priority to me, but I also do not use it. I also disabled Fast Scanning, since the squelch gets weird, according to the author of the mod in the comments of the makefile. And just for fun, I enabled Alarm, disable Small Bold for the frequency mode/NOAA, and disabled Big Frequency. And of course I enabled NOAA. Upon recompiling and saving the firmware I flashed it using Egzumer's tool and it was successful.

[@TheDoug625]

Took me a few tries but it worked. Thanks!

[@gtretroworld]

I have been using one of these for a few weeks,well the k5(8) anyway which is apparently the same radio.I managed a 25 mile QSO on video but a few days ago did just short of a 40 mile trip from up the tops.Definitely clean enough on the SA but i am sure these are missing a AM Detector as it is horrendous. Excellent video..Thanks

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Very nice!

[@oasntet]

Seeing all of the crazy hacks that have come out for this over the last couple months, I kinda think Quansheng should produce a model specifically aimed at the homebrew-minded hams. One that's easier to get into, has a bunch of extra ports for talking over something faster than the audio port serial, maybe even a pad to throw in your own LPFs...

[@zingodingo2816]

No doubt airband reception depends a lot on the antenna (aerial).

[@leejenkinson5521]

got the UV5(K8) for £15.99 and have to say I am loving it, in fact, I think I may prefer it to my Baofeng UV17 Pro V2. There are more accessories and the screen is better in sunlight too!

[@73dem6vmo7]

Believe it or not, I got it for 98 p.

[@hongvietle3875]

Thank you for the video, what cable do you use for customization?

[@chrisreynolds6331]

The standard Beofeng cable works on mine.

[@robertlanteigne6481]

great video. i am unsure however which program to use as you are showing here. please let me know what to do as i am not that heavy on these kinds of procedures. regards. rob

[@RosssRoyce]

My airband sounds very clear, even with weak signals. My flying aviation radios sound more “overdrive” sounding. This one is thin but Crystalline clear.

[@Ross13ful]

Thanks For The Video Can You Possibly Review The Quansheng Uv-5r

[@t.c.2776]

because of the reviews I've seen and it's versatility... I just purchased 2 UV-K6 off of AliExpress for $13.50 each and $14 shipping... don't need two but basically bought the second one for the battery... or an emergency situation... just hoping they aren't factory rejects or seconds...

[@bob_mosavo]

How did they turn out? Were they factory rejects?

[@lukasmaxa8700]

hello i would just like to say i teested the uvk6 aircraft recieving and it can do really well if ur near the atc towwer or airport radio and in the open (beter antena recomended)

[@johnnybwrlr983]

i just ordered the Quansheng UVK6 radio from Aliexpress. I am interested in receiving the hf ham bands, along with the spectrum analyzer, while also using uhf and vhf. I will likely set up the radio for hamoutube repeaters, gmrs repeaters and listening to hf while on the road. Several youtube videos led me to believe I can receive 40m and above, but what I saw in the firmware software was something like 18mhz and above. What is the real story. I of course would like 1.8mhz-30mhz, 50mz, 144-148mhz, 440-470mhz and airband. What are the actual limits?

[@knoxieman]

Super video, cheers Mat

[@JerryEricsson]

Saw a video on this set and, well, went to Ebay and found a US Seller because getting things from China is simply no longer worth the wait, last ali order took over a month to arrive. So mine is on the way I guess. I do love playing with my HAM sets, have had my ticket for 4 years now and am studying to get my HF ticket so I can play on the HF bands. Thanks for the video's I am studying to see the advantages of this over my old Baofeng sets or my ancietn Stnadard 2 meter hand held.

[@DCDura]

Do you have the information on the Tiny SA you used in the video? You mentioned you'd list it- how to use it.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Sure, I dont a video a while ago on this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5qrkmCdqtFnpKc

[@andrewmunz1639]

i got one of the malahit-DSP SDR. it has "DSB" double side band, this seemed to improve airport approach

[@lukasmaxa8700]

one thing abt listening to the aircraft radio is that in cities or closed spaces its usualy distorted but it works beter on a hill or open areas near airfeild (note: i heavent tried this personaly its just what i heard from others)

[@christophercullin9309]

it would be great to see this radio receive full shortwave on AM mode

[@tweedandbriar]

Will this actually work as a standard CB Radio?

[@g4wwk-k2f]

Ive a K5 (8) and a K6 and apart from the badge i cant find any difference The UV5Rplus version has the biggest battery, trim off a piece of plastic on the top of the UV5Plus battery and it'll fit any of the K5/6.

[@zer7637]

Uvr5 plus is better than 6 ?

[@CptSlow89]

Can I listen the airplane communication with this or not?

[@honguyeninhphuc2319]

Yes

[@skysurferboy]

Does this radio do the 8.33khz spacing on airband?

[@anthonypope8429]

Hi I have the quansheng UV-K6 and I have the same problem with the airband

[@johnwilmot5764]

You need Egzumer that has the Am fix standard radio I can almost hear Volmet 128.600 , my Egzumer v0. 22 firmware radio I can hear it

[@andybibby342]

That airband sound to me like the radio is receiving in narrow band, and the the tx is am wide band.

[@TonyLing]

I have a UV-5 and a UV-5(8) and they both have poor audio on AM airband.

[@oscarornago7419]

What is the software for SDR used for testing it?

[@lawrencewhiteside7857]

can you use the programing cable for the UV-K5 with the UV-K6?

[@bryanmoffat5198]

I bought one just so I could listen to air band it’s useless should have watched some reviews first. I just received the JIANPAI 8800UV fantastic radio AM is crystal clear.

[@3liverse]

Whats the difference between the K5 and the K6?

[@racingidh6340]

I want to buy one of these three walkys. Which is better? quasheng uv 5r plus quasheng uv-k5 quasheng uv-k6 Thanks and regards.

[@michelechiavon546]

I prefer the K5 just for the looks of it and for the bigger battery. Plus it doesn't have that horrible orange backlight

[@RADIOBUNKER73]

Nice video Matt, looks like we are connected I just upload a similar video too! all the best

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Awesome dude! :-) Thanks

[@robbnj]

I'm not a HAM enthusiast. I'm wondering if this can be used as a handheld scanner to search/listen/save frequencies of interest, Specifically, can I easily set Hi/Lo limits and have it scan between them? I bought the UV-5R, thinking it could do this, but it seems I cannot.

[@Antenna101]

I heard that rtl sdr v4 is getting released!

[@L.o.u.i.s..]

Which software has the most detailed and biggest "S" meter?

[@Pedro8k]

I dont think this radio has real am detection but for the price it is and what it can do and what you get it is ok

[@heklik]

What is the data cable use ?

[@tonyoutdoors9369]

egzumer 021 is excellent on the airband

[@m3cvfm]

If you put the rig to scan your memory you will see the back light will remain on while scanning.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

I'll check it out.

[@zer7637]

Better than uv5rplus ? Thanks

[@ramsin.]

RE: AM receive, could it be because you had it set to narrow?

[@edwardfletcher7790]

It's a HW limitations with the chipset.

[@bumblebee-mygt867]

Where can the programming lead be purchased from

[@heklik]

Does the 18mhz to 1300mhz no gap ?

[@daytonagreg8765]

The buzz is about the “K58”. Is that special in some way that the K6 is not?

[@m3hnl]

i brought 1 and yes the am airband is awful but you can recieve it on that radio. ive had a baofeng uv5s for years no airband but a realy good radio 73 mat

[@walter9724]

I want to use mine on the cb band but I don't know how to turn on duplex mode to access channel 1&2 repeaters. Any advice?

[@SuperDelphinidae]

Is there anywhere where I can download a full uk set up ChirpNext file to use this properly (uk new to this)

[@ericjanintoy6518]

can you turn off the backlight permanently?

[@Ravedaze.]

Hi do I need to have a licence or something to own these devices? I’m completely new to this

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Hi there, you do not need a license to own, or use to receive. However, if you want to transmit on the Ham Bands, then yes, you need a license.

[@tvbox6955]

Thanks for the modification information. I wonder if there is a similar modified firmware for the Radtel RT890?

[@oscarornago7419]

what's the difference with K5(8)?

[@harritkoster8654]

it is a beautiful radio but it has a problem in the Netherlands hot air balloons use 8.33 KhZ and now there is a problem example 122.255 / 122.250 - 8.33 is a problem. when the frequency is entered on grid 8.33 it indicates a problem that already indicates that the correct bandwidth is not correct that means that this walkie-talkie is not the right one which will work well and the modulation will not work correctly because it is next to modulate the frequency and the speech will not be good, but other than that it is a nice cheap walkie-talkie.

[@SuperAbel17]

Puedes modificar los saltos de frecuencia, con el mod en la página web que indican en muchos canales. No hay problema para éso 😉👌

[@TomaszBorowskiTOM124q]

Fujian Nanan Quansheng Electronics Co., Ltd. FCC Wireless Applications shows nothing about K6 model, maybe too early,,,.

[@hikingfish3]

There is an airband fix in the latest firmware from Quansheng if I got that correctly.

[@johnwilmot5764]

Egzumer v0.22 has the Am fix

[@stratocasterblue]

wow holy moly 10th vid on this radio does the uv-k6(8) recieve ssb on 40 30 and 10 meters who cares about airbands this is an amsteur radio thanks

[@onceways]

Can this RX/TX CB frequencies?

[@panplayer]

Would a programming cable from my UV5R work with this?

[@chrisreynolds6331]

Yes

[@tarp-grommet]

I tried to connect the K6 to Chirp and received the following error message "Memory download incomplete". I am using the new Chirp-next release and a Baofeng programming cable. I cannot find any other references to that message. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[@ohenekojo2561]

Try holding the baofeng cable terminal down into the radio firmly while it’s downloading.

[@christophersmith1155]

i wanted to let you know that KNIGHTS CB is closing their store. Sad times ahead.

[@circattle]

They are reducing the opening times of the shop. The store is carrying on online as usual.

[@RichMantaray]

well i got the k5 ,,, wasnt good ,,, then i got the k58 ,,, was a little better ,,,,,,, so i got the k5 uv5r plus was way better ,,,but not usb charge ,,,but the double size batt makes up 4 it i guess , it is a clear ,,,il be takign it to manchester air port soon to test it

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Yeah it is the best, it absolutely kills the Baofeng UV-5R👍 I paid only US$15 for mine ! 😲 Airband in Australia sounds much cleaner than that on 118mhz.

[@rosie9490]

I have the k6. The airband RX isn't as bad as how yours sounded in the video. It's not really good but I find it still useable. The airband on the Talkpod A36 plus is much better. I found that after doing mods the TX output on 446 Mhz was around 2.4 watts maximum, whereas prior to the mods the power output was around 4.6 watts. Has anyone else experienced this?

[@crack_squirrels]

Would you recommend the Talkpod A36 Plus for a decent entry-level HT for the price?

[@olegsergeyevitch]

Use 27 firmware

[@rosie9490]

@@crack_squirrels Because of the reports of bad harmonics, I wouldn't recommend the Talkpod as a first HT. If listening to airband isn't important to you, I would suggest one of the Baofeng UV5R versions. I have about 22 HT radios so if one is spurious, I still have lots of other radios to use.

[@rosie9490]

@@olegsergeyevitch Thank you. I tried it but still same problem. I'll try again in case there has been an update.

[@michaelw8509]

hello i have this model and previous model and this model i have updated version egzumer v0.22...and both radio's exhibit very poor receive signals. i have a local 2mtr rptr close and even with outside antenna i am not able to hear it. transmits just fine, both models. there is no tone for receive but for transmit only. almost seems like there is no antenna connection or function enabled that adds attenuation. not sure.....but recv for me is horrible. maybe have bad radio's? anyone?

[@gerddijkstra7339]

nice are the scan list , and you can TX-off using the shift function , so you cant TX on not ham freq , good handheld for the money

[@DJTonyBee]

I must agree, the AM mode on both the UV5 and UV6 stinks! It's like really distorted :(

[@DJTonyBee]

Never Mind Turn Off and Hold the PPT and turn on lol

[@kb3svj]

Does anybody know why reverse SMA antennas are used on these Chi-Comm HTs?

[@earlyadapter643]

It is not RP-SMA but the male is on the HT whereas the female is on the antenna. The good reason for this is that mounting the antenna is done exactly the way you are not supposed to tighten a SMA connection: you are supposed to rotate the nut only and hold the part with the pin, which is not possible since the antenna is one piece. The good news is that this "abusive" mounting prematurely wears the female connector. Since it is in the antenna, the cure is to get a new antenna for 5 bucks, rather than spending half a day changing the connector of the HT.

[@kb3svj]

The pin is in the chassis jack of the radio; freeze vid at 3:30 mark. It is a RP-SMA.

[@coriscotupi]

As a user of proper air band portable transceivers for many years, I find the Quasheng air band audio quality utter cr@p, outright unusable, nothing more than a marketing gimmick. It seems that instead of a proper AM demodulator, they implemented that few KHz detuning trick, and call it "AM". Even broadcast FM "pocket" receivers that I used to convert to air band in the early 80s had much better audio when receiving aircraft than this.

[@devondetroit2529]

It can send text messages? Cool radio

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Apparently with the custom firmware. :-)

[@kenharvey9714]

It's well reported that air band on this transceiver sounds really bad. I have this radio and air band does not interest me, so it's not a negative. The good news is that you can pick one up from Ali for only £13 All in.

[@zyrppa]

Does it support PMR446?

[@circattle]

Yes, but the output power is > 500mW and the antenna is not fixed, so it is not legal.

[@zyrppa]

@@circattle But i can listen PMR446? We use that at work, so i'd like to try my own radio there

[@timothybrown7792]

According to Quansheng its the same radio as the K5/8

[@rohnkd4hct260]

The Air Band sounds a few hz off frequency.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

That's what I though, but I tried all of the steps, trying to dial it in, nothing made it sound better.

[@esuccessoveramente]

best video

[@ryanten6475]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@mim8173]

I think that the am aviation band sounds crappy because the right antenna is not used.

[@Hank_W6IR]

Seems like every day China is cranking out a new model HT. Kind of hard to keep up!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Tel me about it..! My storage cupboard it literally bursting with radios right now..! ;-)

[@BusDriverRFI]

Doesn't sound like an AM detector.

[@programings]

It is not, they use ugly DSP hacks to achieve AM.

[@crhonda500]

yes AM is really bad

[@Horse-l9b]

use new sofware they fixxed

[@hoggif]

That one seems no good for aircraft band. Lots of chinese radios seem to have that feature, one day we'll get probably one with no spurious transmissions and good AM receiver. One day.