QYT KT-8900D Mobile Transceiver 25W VHF 144-148MHz UHF 420-450MHz Dual Band Quad Standby Mini Car Radio

I received this radio not expecting a lot. There is a QYT KT7900/8900 group on Facebook that was giving mixed reviews on the performance of the radio. First, make sure you get the KT8909D 2nd generation. Apparently there were some problems with earlier radios but they seem to be solved in the 2nd gen.I plugged the radio in to my 12 volt power supply and turned it on. The radio came with the programming cable but I had to download the driver from Miklor.com. I also used CHIRP software to program the radio. It's also available for free online. Once the radio was hooked up to my computer, programming was easy. It didn't take long to program in about 15 repeaters. You can also change a lot of settings on this radio. I left most of them at their defaults.There are four VFO's on this rig. You can set them to display either the frequency, channel number or give it an alpha name. Each VFO is programmable to something different so I programmed VFO A and C with the frequency and B and D with alpha names. Neat feature.I Hooke the radio up to and Ed Fong DBJ-1 dual band antenna and just placed it on my back porch. I could easily hit 5 repeaters within about 15 miles of my location. If I were to elevate it higher, I could probably hit all 15 that I programmed in.Some people in the forums complained of poor audio reports and low volume output on the built in speaker. When I contacted my first station, he told me I was overmodulating. I backed away from the microphone and was told the audio was great. Likewise, I only needed to turn the volume on the radio about 1/4 of the way up and could hear it clearly. The tone is very good and not "tinny" sounding. It may be different in a moving cat but I have not tried it out yet.For 85 bucks, you can't beat this rig. I've been licensed for almost 50 years and would put this radio up against I previously owned.

This radio does a very good job! It is easy to move from one vehicle to another and can be removed from your vehicle for security. Programing is a little challenging but write the programming from the radio, then enter your frequencies and write to radio. Con - The microphone cord should be a little longer.

Although the transceiver is described as "Mobile Transceiver Dual Band QUAD Standby VHF/UHF 136-174/400-480MHz Mini Car Radio Amateur (HAM) Radio", this is misleading. I'm not sure what "QUAD Standby" means or even if it's something I'd even want.The illustration show 4VFOs, but unless there's some trick I haven't discovered yet, you can't load separate bands or even band segments in the additional VFOs. I use RT Systems software and cable for downloading repeaters and radio system settings. Once I had programmed all my desired frequencies, it only took seconds to download the list to the KT-8900D.I was unable to use Chirp and the included data cable to load data. I spent about $50 more for the software from RT Systems for a radio that only cost $79.95, I guess it's worth it when the step by step procedure of loading frequencies manually is time consuming and laborious.Now, the face of the radio shows four bands; A, B, C and D. You can only scan one band at a time. The frequencies installed in the radio are the same for all bands. Whatever you load into Band A repeats in all bands. The extra 3 bands are only useful if you store different data in each VFO. For instance, load your favorite repeater into Band B, another repeater or Simplex frequency into Band C and finally the Weather into Band D.The same frequencies are loaded into all 4 bands. Really not very useful. One display band with 2M and 70cm on it is all you are really getting anyhow.CAUTION!!! If you like to monitor Public Safety Bands, transmitting outside of the Ham bands is not inhibitted. I like to monitor local fire and police freqencies and with the KT8900D, I can also transmit illegally on these frequencies.I had to order two radios. The first rig I ordered would not transmit or receive. The size of this radio is ideal for installing into my Ford Escape. I don't know of any radio with 25W out that I can hold in the palm of my hand, so I decided to take a chance and ordered another radio. This second radio has preformmed flawlessly thus far.I'm using a 5/8 wave Hustler mag mount antenna which seems good enough for mobile operation. I would like a smaller antenna that wouldn't hit the overhang on my Banks drive through, but a shorter antenna means degraded performance. I live in a rural area and can't sacrifice performance.I mentioned in my headline that the "Manual Stinks". Keeping in mind that this radio is manufactured in China and they felt it was unnecessary to spend money for a real English translation. The result is "Chienglish" with some parts undecipherable.The manual fails to describe some features contolled by menu settings and even the front panel display and microphone controls aren't described very well. I've been a Ham for a long time and I'm not afraid to experiment to find what controls do what. especially once I determined that there was a menu option for resetting to factory defaults.I guess once enough space for menu options remained after programming necessary features, the developer decided to add extra functions.It is nice to be able to customize the display colors of the screen. It doesn't really matter what you set for your color preferences, it's impossible to see the screen under bright lights or sunlight.It's possible to select displaying frequencies or channel names. It would have been helpful to program one line on the display to show the frequency and channel number on Band A and the Name of the channel on Band B. Especially since band settings don't mean much for the functioning or the rig anyway.Cryptic functions such as "SCR" permits turning on and off scrambling, (I don't know if this means scrambling your signal or scrambling the order channels are scanned) are given as much of an explanation as STEP and SQL.Another strange menu setting is TMR. This appears to be a function the programmer thought has useful since it has 15 optional settings.I'll have to play with this to see if I can figure out what it does.Don't attempt changing menu settings without having the manual in your hand and making notes of the default settings before changing. Always leave yourself some path back in case the change is not what you expected.Even the illustrations depicting the functions of each button, knob or jack are wrong (pages 5-7). Many new hams may purchase this radio and be discouraged by the poor descriptions. The labels are usually wrong.Still for $79.95 it's worth the price, especially if you are an experience Ham and have some idea of what to expect from the controls.I'm not sure, but I think the only way to start scanning is by pressing the */SCAN button. There appears to be no other way.Users Groups such as the Facebook Group, QYT KT8900 / Juentai JT-6188 Mini Mobile Dual Band Radio (US Group) may be useful for getting questions answered. The Yahoo User Group is https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/KT8900/infoThere is a Users Group and a Facebook page that might be helpful, but there doesn't seem to be much information on these pages. I'm not sure if I can use the Data input to make the radio into a dedicated Packet Radio.It helps to have some knowledge of VHF/UHF radios and to remember that you can transmit and receive on any frequencies from 136-174 MHz and from 400-480 MHz. Many interesting channel to listen to fall outside the legal Ham Bands but there is no programming stopping you from transmitting illegally in these areas reserved for other services.All in all, this is a very nice compact radio and worth the price. Besides poor manuals, the Chinese are exporting some very workable radios, just remember you are sacrificing a little for the low price.Evaluate the specifications carefully and make sure this radio will satisfy your needs. If all you need is a simple radio that doesn't take up much space, will scan your local repeaters and you don't need much support from a manual, I can safely recommend this radio. If you need more than this, look at the Kenwood, Yaesu and Icom radios which cost several times as much but have established user groups and generally well written manuals.

This may be my second review of the 8900D - couldn't locate it if I had already offerred comments. At the cost point of this radio, I and my local Amateur Radio colleages have each purchased multiple 8900Ds. We created a codeplug/program and have shared it amongst our HAM Club so we all have the same settings in our respective 8900Ds.In general, our group dedicates an 8900D for each of the vehicles we drive. Some of us have gone a step further and placed 2-3 three of these radios in our storage - very cost effective at this cost point.Recently, we were privileged to "loan" an 8900D and a power supply to one of our younger students who passed his TECHNICIAN exam. This young fellow is super excited about Amateur Radio and he's advanced quickly and is now assisting with Net Control with our weekly ARES/RACES Net. He feels pretty special to have this radio and his signal is full quieting into our local repeater.YMMV, but as for me I've purchased several of these radios and added another with today's Prime Deal Day. I'm confident these stored radios will eventually find a great home with the next student who passes their TECH exam or a family member that is ready to move beyond their 4W hand held starter radio. I have found no better value for that progression of our new Amateur Radio Operators.