This CHEAP Dual Band Mobile Radio Is Surprisingly Good! Abbree AR-318

[@caddisguy]

Good breakdown of the Abbree AR-318. I had a couple of the Baojie BJ-318's and both would only transmit around 1W on 2 meters. 70cm was fine. Seems common with the BJ-318's. They will also go deaf / frozen requiring power cycle. Maybe these Abbree's are fixed or QA'd. I'd recommend anyone using these to keep a watch on the TX power, watch for it going off-frequency and the random deafening issue and keep us all updated here. Thanks!!

[@haxwithaxe]

Good filters also help with receiving. A radio with good filters is less likely to suffer from front end overload.

[@keithbowman8492]

I'm wondering if it can be made into a repeater

[@ZzedZed]

20watts is enough for me, i wont lose sleep over the missing watts. lovely radio. its a shame I have an icom. :) thanks Matt. 73.

[@ScuffedRadio]

20 watts is a joke

[@sm7wdg1]

@@ScuffedRadio For what reason?

[@georgebarnes8163]

Use one for PMR446, good little set

[@randykitchleburger2780]

It's the Baojie BJ-318!

[@v0n1b0]

$72.00 on the Amazons

[@ronlewis6394]

There have been a few radios similar to this one. I have the Zastone 218 was my first mobile dual band radio. I still carry it in a go kit because of how easy it is to use. Baojie and now Abbree are making them. Which I could get a light weight radio like this that is full duplex capable for working satellites. Possibly using the OpenGD77 firmware. That would be fun.

[@TWX1138]

I wouldn't be surprised if they're all coming off of the same assembly line, they have a reference design and various companies order the radio with the changes they want to reflect their own branding or other changes. Whether or not the company placing the order gets access to the firmware to tweak or even rewrite, would be interesting to say.

[@RustyX2010]

After this video prices for this radio on eBay skyrocketed!

[@Superfandangoo]

I had the Baojie BJ-318 3 years back, lasted approx 3 months then blew its final for no reasons, upon opening it up the soldering from manufacturing was terrible. Repaired it still in its box as didn't like it at all.

[@frankENZC]

Excellent review! Thanks, and 73.

[@TWX1138]

I would be interested to know if the 3.5mm jack outputs mono or stereo audio in the commercial broadcast reception band. If stereo then it could be useful as a replacement for a car stereo if a separate audio amplifier was used for volume and connection to the speakers.

[@Hank_W6IR]

As usual, the price has gone up since Matt posted the video. It's about $80 (taxes included) if you are an existing customer of Banggood (with the coupon code). You can save a couple of bucks by being a new customer.

[@FranklySpeaking73]

Good video! At what point do Amateurs get sick of these low quality junk radios? I have reached my limit. It is good to see it is at least not outputting 4 or more harmonics. 😂😂😂

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

That is a impressive little radio 8:07 audio on recive is pretty clean

[@JamesA42]

Says it does voice encryption i take it that's just like the scrambler function like on a Quansheng ?

[@mattb7406]

Do you know if this can be unlocked for GMRS and MURS?

[@randykitchleburger2780]

This IS the baojie BJ318 but rebadged. The baojie you can I know for sure.

[@terryjwood]

See: 0:33 The radio isn't locked. It can work from 136-174 and 400-490.

[@georgebarnes8163]

Not locked

[@fredwester5705]

have one of these. Just wanted to test it...TX works ok, but RX, nop, it's very deaf on both bands..

[@ChuckBigbie]

Price just went up!

[@Porco_Utah]

if I got 16 watts on VHF , it is mostly good enough. there is not that much difference in signal between 16 wts and 50 wts. but, price is very good. I probably prefer to buy inexpensive radio do 16 watts on 145MHz rather than US$300 for 50 watts. AG6JU

[@MrSmith-qu4nx]

How many frequency memory's does it have? Maybe I just missed it, but I don't see it. Thx ahead of time. 73

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Definitly sounds better with compander on 4:39

[@W8RIT1]

5A of current when transmitting??? for a 25W output??? I don't think so...

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

25 watts at 12 volts is Only 2.08 amps in a vehicle so its way under the 5amp thst most 12v accessory plugs can do

[@spareiChan]

If you're say that's low I can say it's normal for a FM radio, my yeasu only pulls 9.5A (13.8V) at 50watts. That would be hard with a low efficiency AB amp but FM can use different classes. Some 25W VHF radios can pull under 4A.

[@TalismancerM]

Watt does 5 x 12=?

[@georgebarnes8163]

@@TalismancerM what

[@mrkevin6354]

Does this do GMRS? Does this also have a Roger Beep?

[@GenoMartinez93]

My man asking the real questions

[@tincanblower]

Who wants a roger beep nowadays? Genuine question!

[@mrkevin6354]

👋👋 Beep.

[@GenoMartinez93]

@@tincanblower all the cool kids

[@TWX1138]

@@tincanblower I want a roger beep on my GMRS radios. But only if I can upload a .wav to the radio to serve as my roger beep. I would upload the Wilhelm Scream as my roger beep.

[@gmeister03]

It’ll do Gmrs too!

[@MrSabram07]

Do we have to unlock gmrs frequencies?

[@gmeister03]

@ from what I saw no. It’s already unlocked

[@winstonchurchill6506]

Abbree cadabra what no rabbit

[@jimflynn9728]

Thanks. 73

[@whiskeymike5154]

Well said Matt, and well worth repeating.

[@cimbakahn]

Tech Minds: Isn't that the same thing as a moble ham radio?

[@tincanblower]

Yes, it is.

[@Dazdigo]

GMRS supported in that range, nice. Just wish it had APRS beaconing. Though most car accessory ports are 20 amp, but most radios stop offering car adapters after 25W from what I have seen. Don't know why since there are 100W laptop adapters that use the car accessory port.

[@Steven-u5w]

It's always interesting keeping up with what's new out there. I wonder if somebody's tried this out for sota Very much appreciated for the video and new radio equipment. 73s G0HDA

[@seller559]

Can’t stand the plastic mic connection on this style of radios. I know I’m going to break it. Great video 👍

[@jVreezen]

The last abree2820 was crap

[@VeteranFitnessChannel101]

2m and 7cm FM is dire. So empty compared to what it was. Therefore, anything over a few quid is like throwing good money at the wall. Compared to The Peanut, foc for digital and these rigs are the past, I’m sorry to say.

[@Superfandangoo]

I hit 12 to 16 repeaters from my QTH, Nets 6 nights and 2 days a week and plenty going on on simplex most evenings/weekends. Speak an they will come

[@adamosity7127]

As soon as I saw it had RJ45 mic connection, it lost it's good status.

[@joshuamorin2762]

What's wrong with rj45? I see a lot of people that don't like it but a lot of radios are coming with this port lately.

[@chrissewell1608]

My Yeasu FT8800 has an RJ-45 speaker mic. Its 30 years old and still running just fine!

[@adamosity7127]

@@chrissewell1608 My listeners prefer not to hear crackle scratch crackle scratch from the jack getting wiggled.

[@3v068]

@@adamosity7127 I tend to find this happens with traditional mics far more than rj45 mics.

[@Chris-gy1hf]

My Kenmoods, my Motorolas, my Relms have them. Yeasu has them, what'd wrong with them. Maybe you need to mount your radio closer so your not pulling the mic from the backseat

[@robwalker1187]

i owned the DMR version of this radio, its absolute junk. dont waste your money, i sold mine. easily worst radio iv ever owned

[@nnasab]

My problem with this kind of radios is they have dirty frequencies, they bleed in other channels.

[@thermicdude9164]

Did you watch the video? It tested clean on the spectrum analyser....

[@tincanblower]

6:47 onwards suggests otherwise! I had an old TYT that bled everywhere, but the newer version I have doesn't have any issues.

[@petenikolic5244]

12 Vdc is NOT the correct supply cars are 13.8 to 14.6

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Yeh, thats why I tested with a 13.8v supply too. Not sure your point? Pointless no doubt

[@WX4CB]

not necessarily... for example most modern cars will turn off the alternator if it feels it's not needed (both my rav4 and chevy cruze do this) therefore it's only 13.8+ when the alternator is running, which means it's straight battery voltage (~12 volts) for a lot of the time also when the engine isnt running too :D

[@killj802]

These things are as deaf as a post, terrible receive

[@georgebarnes8163]

depends on what antenna you use, mine works fine on PMR446 perfectly on Tx and Rx