QYT KT-WP12 Arrival and First Impressions

My new QYT KT-WP12 transceiver arrived yesterday. 

 

Upon opening the box, the first thing I noticed was the lack of a programming cable pictured in the eBay listing. Otherwise, the box was smaller than I thought. 

I hooked it up really quick and fired it up. A couple of beeps later and it was on the air. 

Straight off the bat, the interface is as tedious as I imagined. The volume was up phenomenally high. 

To change the volume, one needs to press the Menu button, press 6, press Menu again so it changes from settings to a numeric value, then press Up or Down until the required volume is set. Then press exit. Yep. Bloody painful if you're driving. I've already ordered an external speaker with a volume control that I'll have to mount somewhere I can get to it. 

There are a lot of menu options to scroll through - one at a time. I'm not a huge fan of doing something like that when I can use a computer. 

Before we get to that...

Something I'd seen mentioned in a few videos was that people noted that the display would allow you to see three different frequencies but they were annoyed that they couldn't monitor them all. Well, you can. The first menu definition option (page 17 of the manual) talks about "TMR - Multifrequency Waiting". It doesn't actually explain what it is - but it's important. 

There are options for it, such as M+A, M+B, to M+ABC. M means that the mode is in standby. A, B and C define which frequency points it uses. 

The short version is - with my limited playing - set to M+ABC - all 3 of these frequencies seem to be monitored at once. Cool huh? I have mine set to two local repeaters.. and monitoring CB UHF40 (more on that later), and in the past 20 minutes, I've heard a local repeater indent, and a chap throwing out an expletive laden rant about staying in ones lane. 

Programming:

I have a programming cable with replaceable ends that cover a heap of radios. Mostly the name brands. None seemed to work with the QYT, which requires a single pin stereo 3.5mm plug. I recalled that the original cable for my Xiegu G90 wasn't in use, and I grabbed that. Success. 

I grabbed the latest version of Chirp and installed that (my usual programming laptop is elsewhere), and was able to download from the radio. 

I used RepeaterBook to grab repeaters within 200km (covering most of anywhere I'm likely to go), and added a few more. 

I also added the UHF CB bands (repeaters and all)!!!!! SHOCK! HORROR!!! 

CHIRP allows me to set the settings on the radio. This makes navigating that tedious interface easier. 

First off the bat - turn on the multi-receive.  You can even tell it which channel numbers to start with. Goodo. Just be mindful of monitoring multiple busy frequencies (more at the end..)

The Display modes can be set here too - useful if you want to see names rather than frequencies. I'm not really one for making random contacts, so I'm mostly interested in being able to hit a repeater if I need it. 

Other things, like colours can be set if you're so inclined. 

Under Advanced Settings, the "Static Message" allows you to set a message that stays on the bottom of the screen. I set mine to my call sign. 

A quick upload, and we're ready to go. 

Chicken Band:

So, I've done something contentious (at least in Australia), and set a non-type approved radio to use CB frequencies. Yes, yes I have.

I'm going to go back a couple of steps. I'm not a QSO chaser. It's not my thing. I do however like having capability to contact should I need it. 

Given that I plan on putting this radio into a 4WD (if it ever gets built), having access to monitor CB frequencies is a plus - being able to hear truck drivers is useful. Being able to monitor the allocated emergency channel is also useful. So far, I'm not doing anything wrong. 

If I do happen to find myself in an emergency situation, at least I'm prepared to be able to be able to get on to Channel 5. If it puts me a position to help and communicate with someone else who is in an emergency situation, then even better. It's easier to beg forgiveness after the fact if it ever comes to it. 

Reality is that I'm more likely to be telling Bob and Patsy towing their kids inheritance around the country at 85 km/hr whilst hogging the centre line that their brake lights aren't working properly.. or perhaps they have a rather flat looking tyre. Safety is far more important.

I'm not interested in putting in a CB. I'll likely never use it, and it's just more crap I have to install. I've set all of the CB channels to 5w except channel 5 - simply because the choices on the radio are either 5w or full power (which appears to be 20w on UHF). That way at least if there is a *need*, the power is appropriate to the situation. 

Testing:

This hasn't happened yet. I might get some time today. Or I might not. I'm keen to see how much power my meter thinks this radio is putting out.

So far, I guess I'd call it "OK" for a sub AU$200 radio. I'm disappointed though that it's the only HAM transceiver that I've seen in this "microphone display" format. I'd have been quite happy to spend more for an Icom or Yaesu that does the same thing (within reason). 

By far, the biggest let down of this radio is the volume control. It seems that a pair of buttons or a knob could have been added to do this rather than a tedious process involving multiple button presses that really requires you to see the screen. For a mobile radio, that's really not mobile friendly. 

Absolutely, there are concessions that we need to make to have the convenience of a small radio that has the functionality that we expect as HAMs. But, of all the things that should be really simple (and obvious) - the volume control isn't one. 

I don't really like the display that much. In the grand scheme it's probably not so bad, but it has that distinctly "Chinese" radio look to it. 

Care will need to be taken whilst driving - mostly to avoid pressing the wrong button, winding up on the wrong channel/frequency given it is kind of hard to read.

If you've got multi-receive on, whatever the last "active" channel was, the radio will stay over there for a few seconds before it will jump back to whatever channel it was set to. You can see on the display which channel it is on - 

The primary "channel" I use is configured for VK3RBA - the local VHF repeater. When the activity starts on VK3RWUU (the trailing U is to tell me its a UHF repeater), you can see that the channel name appears at the top of the screen. Once it goes quiet, it will eventually jump back to VK3RBA (about 10 seconds). Key up too early, and you'll wind up on VK3RWU. It looks like this can be controlled by the "TMR Return Time" - I see this in CHIRP as 10 seconds, so it seems like the right setting (I haven't tested this as yet).

In this case, some interference come through on VK3RBA, so that took over. 

FWIW - the repeater VK3RWU is about 100km away, and I'm receiving on an X200 mounted on the south side of the house so it's not exactly "close". RBA however I can see standing at the backdoor. 

The image doesn't look clear on the video - that's more an issue of the camera. The screen itself is perfectly clear. The font however lets it down.