Thread: Radios/Scanners comparable to Wouxon KG-UVD1P

All my friends have been buying these little things and they seem to be pretty solid and unbeatable at $150 fully programmed from a local dealer here.

Is anyone able to recommend a similar/more worthwhile bang for your buck radio or is this thing the way to go?

(My ALS radio crapped out and the department does not want to invest in new ones, figured id get my own)

I guy I work with picked up a few of those things.He is a HAM type and really likes the dual band vhf/uhf feature of it.He got it at a Hamfest locally. A few guys warned him about
chargers catching fire while charging battery.
Cheapest way to get a dualband portable these days.

Originally Posted by wkr518

I guy I work with picked up a few of those things.He is a HAM type and really likes the dual band vhf/uhf feature of it.He got it at a Hamfest locally. A few guys warned him about
chargers catching fire while charging battery.
Cheapest way to get a dualband portable these days.

Fire :/

If you decide to get a Wouxun, be sure to get the version that is actually designed for public safety use:

KG-UV6D-2.5

WOUXUN KG-UV6D

If you want it for Amateur Radio: Yaesu VX-7R. Quad band, tough as nails.

I'd get something used that is compatible with what your department uses from Motorola if it's going to be a primarily duty radio.

i sold quite a few... the only real problems i found are #1 batteries stop taking a charge or explode after 6 months or so #2 had a few radios that kept resetting themselves and then got bricked #3 had 2 break while dropped , now i know any radio can break,but as least its easier to get replacement parts for a kenwood or motorola.....


i mostly sell them to people who listen to other agencies as a backup radio...... not to use as a means of getting help.

if i were you, i would buy a used radio for whoever you gotta talk to, if lives depend on it !

I can just as easily use my cellphone to call the dispatcher, which is almost always more reliable than any radio.

Having second thoughts on it now though I figured it can't be too well made.

Yeah, but you tie up a phone line and a dispatcher compared to being able to coordinate and crosstalk with a radio.

I have had 1 for about 2 yaers now and I have not had a problem so far. Good radio for the money.

Originally Posted by AKRLTW

Yeah, but you tie up a phone line and a dispatcher compared to being able to coordinate and crosstalk with a radio.

Its not that critical. 99 out of 100 times I don't go to the scene in my personal vehicle. I only go if the ambulance left already and they need a medic for something, or I have to pass the scene to get to the station house.

The way I see it as a firefighter is that dispatch already has to have one ear on the radio and one ear on the phone lines. Fires especially end up having enough calls that they get swamped... and using myself as an example, people are more prone to either respond period, or respond to my station vs another station if they hear me calling "XXXX responding to station XX"... Usually I'll end up having 3 other people who rate a radio respond as well, so I know how many I'm waiting momentarily for, or will already be at the station with the bay door waiting on me.

Or, if the situation changed and we have an engine out the door and I should be bringing a tanker, or scene sizeup, etc etc. The radio's the net you need to be on especially as a firefighter, calling dispatch wouldn't do me a lick of good personally, other than making them come on the radio to say I was responding.

We aren't that busy lol.

If it were at work in NYC, that's another story but the volly house does 1/2 a day.

i have 3 batteries for mine, owned for well over a yeat and no explosive batteries or fires started by chargers.

the original kg -uv1p is a good radio.. it is type 90 accepted and it is the first radio wouxun brought into the US. it scans... SLOWLY for a rdio.

the 6 is the more updated version. it has 1 extra menu option. it has 71 more memories and a repeater offset button "out of the menu" function.

if your using this for public safety you dont need a repeater offset button and the 2d or 3d woulld bebetter fopr your needs.

they are tough radios. ive dropped mine on multiple occasions. ive only had to replace the antenna once in a year, and open up the case to tighten the antenna connector because i was using multiple antenna configurations and it got loose.


thats my 2 cents froma happy owner.

Originally Posted by Jarred J.

the original kg -uv1p is a good radio.. it is type 90 accepted and it is the first radio wouxun brought into the US. it scans... SLOWLY for a rdio.

They are not narrow band, however. The new KG-UV6D-2.5 is.

Originally Posted by bwoodruff

They are not narrow band, however. The new KG-UV6D-2.5 is.

yes they are..... at least mine is. its in the menu. you click it in program software.

Originally Posted by Jarred J.

yes they are..... at least mine is. its in the menu. you click it in program software.

No, they aren't. They will not do 2.5kHz splinter frequencies. Try tuning your KG-UVD1P to 158.7675

menu 1, "step"


it has 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5 25.00 all the way to 100.

put it on the right series of step and i can get it at your freq.

beside my display it has a places for .25 .50 and .75 beside the 6 numbers.




and from qrz....

KD8DVR
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The way most of us do it is with the software. We just set the transmit and receive frequency in the appropriate cells.

Make sure you have your frequency steps set properly. If not set correctly, it will reject your programming 5 khz should be fine for all Wide Band VHF.


There IS a problem for
Narrow band, where 2.5 kHz steps are needed. This radio cannot do 2.5. A "workaround is to use 12.5 khz, and this helps in a lot of cases. Hope this helps. John KD8DVR

Did you actually try it? 12.5 is not the same as 2.5. Try programming yours for 158.7675.

It will do narrowband transmissions but it will not do 2.5 kHz splinter frequencies (even admitted in the quote from QRZ): "There IS a problem for Narrow band, where 2.5 kHz steps are needed. This radio cannot do 2.5."

If your system uses 2.5 kHz splinter frequencies you will not be able to use a UVD1P on it.

If your system uses 12.5 kHz steps (such as 155.595) you won't have any issue. But to be truly "narrow band" it has to do 2.5 kHz steps.