I like to play with new radios and own a small collection of Wouxun and Baofeng models. After my recent issues with my Wouxun HTs, I’ve been looking at trying the new AnyTone AT-3318. Has anyone here had a chance to use one?  If you get a chance to use one, come back and leave a comment to share your thoughts about it.

The specs look promising and the price is competitive ($99.00).

• 5 Watts VHF
• 4 Watts UHF
• RX & TX 136-174 MHz & 420-520 MHz
• RX FM Broadcast 79-108 MHz
• Wide Band & Narrow Band
• 2.5 kHz tuning step for splinter frequencies
• 5/Tone encode and decode
• 199 Channels with Alpha Tags
• Squelch level adjustable for each channel
• Squelch tail elimination
• CTCSS that really works – when scanning channels, radio will stop ONLY when CTCSS tone is present
• VFO Scanning – frequency limits can be set for both VHF & UHF
• Channel Scanning – scanned channels can be ADDED or REMOVED via the keypad
• Frequency Reverse button – exchanges TX & RX frequencies
• Talk Around button – sets TX frequency to repeater’s output frequency
• Programmable by computer
• EASY to manually program
• Keypad totally lockable to meet FCC Part 90 requirements

I received a note from Thomas Andersen, OZ1AA, sharing some information about his around-the-world bike trek:

This is the story of an adventure across countries, continents and cultures, enriched by the spirit of Amateur Radio.

Apart from ham radio I have been interested in cycling since I was a kid. I also love to travel so it was somewhat natural for me to combine my passions in life into a perfect match. I first did some shorter bike trips in Europe including a three week ride through the Balkans in 2007. A year later in the middle of the financial crisis, the startup company I was working for suddenly went bankrupt. I wasn’t slow to hit the internet and look for a cheap flight ticket to a warm place. I spent the next 2 months cycling from South India to Delhi and had an amazing time. After the trip I decided to plan for “The Big Ride”, but first I needed to earn more money.

When I came home from India a got a job on Faroe Islands. Apart from the fact that the beer up there is incredible expensive, I figured it would be a good place to save up some cash as there wouldn’t be a lot of other things to spend money on. During a long and dark winter I managed to make 28000 QSOs as OY3AA and save up the money I needed. In the beginning of October 2010 I came back to Denmark and one week later I was saying goodbye to friends and family on the central square in Copenhagen.

After more than 20,000 km and three years on the road, I learned that there is always a radio amateur around, ready to give a helping hand. I have now reached South America and started cycling north from Ushuaia. The goal is to reach Canada within a year.

I think it would have been possible to do what I am doing without being a radio amateur, but there is no doubt in my mind that it would be a much more boring trip. I can’t honestly think of any other hobby where you can show up in any town in any part of the world and be welcomed like I have been. I have realized this is unique because my non-radio friends simply can’t understand how I can know so many people. They think I am the world’s best networker, but all I can tell them is: Become a Ham and you will have 1 million friends around the world as well.

A sincere thank you to all hams who helped making this possible. Amateur radio spirit is alive!

Follow his ride via cyclingtheglobe.com or via Twitter. Also, if you’re on his route (the North American portion is mostly Eastern U.S./Canada), consider showing him some local ham hospitality! 🙂

In a surprise announcement tonight, Ed Griffin of Import Communications (Wouxun.us) has abruptly ended sales and support of the popular Wouxun radios.

As one of the largest Wouxun distributors, Import Communications was selling as many as 500 radios per month, according to the company.

In an email to customers, Griffin indicated that he had been having difficulty dealing with the manufacturer in China. He also claimed that all Wouxun radios contain an “internal defect” which the factory is unwilling to address.

Griffin’s description of the lost memory problem / reverting to speaking Chinese matches my experience with two of my Wouxun radios.

Griffin wrote that he would continue to sell Wouxun accessories and is in the process of importing a new dual-band HT manufactured by Anytone.

I own a Wouxun KG-UV2D from Import Communications and a KG-UV3D from HRO. They are both great radios and I honestly can’t complain too much about their small annoyances. They are extremely affordable and have proved durable and reliable. They represent a great value and I continue to recommend them.

About a year ago, however, my KG-UV2D developed an annoying habit. Out of the blue, it would lose all of its programming and revert to some kind of factory default. The condition is easy to detect as it starts talking Mandarin on power up. Really handy if you’re in the middle of something important.

At first I attributed the problem to the fact that the radio may have been dropped one too many times, and maybe I’d bent the battery contacts causing the radio to somehow reset itself. I bent the contacts out a little and things seemed to be OK for awhile. After it started happening again, I invested in a second Wouxun, the KG-UV3D, and relegated the KG-UV2D to backup status. It still worked fine, but it I had become concerned about its reliability.

Fast forward a year…. Now my KG-UV3D is exhibiting the same annoying problem. Is it due to user error? Abuse and neglect? Maybe, to some degree. But I find it strange that the same problem has now occured in both radios.

There is very little information online about this problem, but there has been some discussion about it occurring. Some people report that it happens when you let the battery run dead. Others report that it can occur when swapping batteries. Neither of these scenarios describe my situation. My radios were fully charged and I only use the batteries supplied with each radio.

One common factor between both radios is that I use the excellent KC8UNJ KG-UV Commander programming software. I have had great luck with this and recommend it for its ease of use and intuitive memory channel management. Could there be something about the software, how I’m using it (number of memories or settings), or how it programs the radios that is causing the radio not to retain programming in some cases? This really doesn’t make sense as I know MANY people who have used this software without any problem.

Have you experienced similar problems with your Wouxun HT or heard of it happening? If so, have you had any luck tracking down the issue?

Thanks in advance!

I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for the announcement of the ten winners in our SDR receiver giveaway….

Here they are:

Peter, ZL1PWD
Ivan, KP3IV
Jerome, WB8LFO
Norm, VE1NMK
Larry, WA0JDL
Andrew, AA4XS
Edward, VA3EDO
Bob, W2RWM
Keith, ZS6TW
Paul, VK2APA

Congratulations!  Thank you to everyone who entered — all 973 of you!  We love co-sponsoring these contests, especially with a great company like NooElec.

Didn’t win?  Well, Jeff at NooElec was reading all of your great comments about their SDR products and wanted to offer everyone the opportunity to get 5% off any order (no minimum!) at NooElec.com until December 31, 2013. Use coupon code AMATEURRADIO to get your discount. It may only be used once per customer.

Check out NooElec’s USB SDR receivers and Ham It Up upconverter

Please note that we do not get a commission or other compensation from NooElec if you use this code  — we just want everyone to be able to try out these cool little receivers and save a little money, too.

Thanks again for entering and stay tuned for our next giveaway!

I was excited to see that Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, managing editor of MT, will continue to publish an e-magazine called The Spectrum Monitor. As most of you know, Monitoring Times has ceased publication with the December, 2013 edition.

The lineup looks fantastic:

Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF, “Amateur Radio Satellites”

Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY, “The Longwave Zone”

Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU “Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze”

Marc Ellis N9EWJ, “Adventures in Radio Restoration”

Dan Farber ACØLW, “Antenna Connections”

Tomas Hood NW7US, “Understanding Propagation”

Kirk Kleinschmidt NTØZ, “Amateur Radio Insight”

Cory Koral K2WV, “Aeronautical Monitoring”

Stan Nelson KB5VL, “Amateur Radio Astronomy”

Chris Parris, “Federal Wavelengths”

Doug Smith W9WI, “The Broadcast Tower”

Hugh Stegman NV6H, “Utility Planet”

Dan Veeneman, “Scanning America”

Ron Walsh VE3GO, “Maritime Monitoring”

Fred Waterer, “The Shortwave Listener”

Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL, “World of Shortwave Listening”

A charter subscription is available for the very affordable price of $20 and includes 12 issues available in a variety of digital formats.

AmateurRadio.com & NooElec have teamed up to give away
SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver packages to TEN hams!

If you haven’t had the chance to play with an SDR receiver, here’s your chance! Using freely available software (SDRSharp, HDSDR), a modest antenna, and an inexpensive USB SDR dongle (the NESDR Mini or NESDR Nano), you can tune from 25 MHz – 1750 MHz right from your PC.

If you want to listen to MF/HF, just add the inline Ham It Up upconverter to tune down as low as 500 kHz. There’s even an Android app (SDR Touch) that allows you to plug these USB SDRs into your tablet (Android 4.0+, must support USB OTG)!

These little USB SDR receivers are amazing and extremely affordable (under $20). They are a lot of fun to play with!

Prize Packages

We’re giving away TEN prizes including:

Two (2)
Complete HF sets including:
NESDR Mini receiver
Ham It Up upconverter
SMA to MCX cable
SMA to BNC adapter
SMA to PL259 adapter
SMA to F adapter

Two (2)
Complete Touch SDR sets including:
NESDR Nano receiver
SDR Touch license (for Android tablets)
USB OTG micro & mini cables

Three (3)
NESDR Mini receivers

Three (3)
NESDR Nano receivers

Eligibility

All licensed Amateur Radio Operators worldwide
(Worldwide shipping is included!)

How to Enter

It’s simple!
Leave a comment to this post.
(e-mail address will not be shared)

Entry Duration

Only 1 week!

You may enter only once from
4 December 2013 18:00 UTC
to
11 December 2013 20:00 UTC

(multiple entries from the same entrant will be discarded)

Winner Announcement

11 December 2013

We will announce the winner on AmateurRadio.com.

You can get the winner announcement by
subscribing to our free Amateur Radio Newsletter via e-mail,
following our posts via RSS feed, or via Twitter (@amatradio).

Sign up so you won’t miss our next prize drawing!

Please tell your friends about this giveaway!

Thank you to NooElec for offering these fantastic prizes!

Learn more about their cool USB SDR receivers!

Visit their website at NooElec.com / eBay store / Amazon store

For more information about SDR, check out the SDR sub-Reddit (/r/RTLSDR), Ham Radio Science and RTL-SDR.com.