Quansheng UV-K6 Radio Review
I own several handheld VHF/UHF radios. Some are for Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) but all do analog or simplex frequencies. I think just about all of us cut our teeth on the Baofeng UV-5R. I’m no exception. I think I have 2 or 3 around the house here somewhere. On a whim I decided to buy a Quansheng UV-K6 radio which also is designated as UV-K5(8). FCC ID information can be found here.
I recently purchased a Wouxun KG-Q10H which I really feel is the best handheld I’ve owned so far.
The only reason I picked up this Quansheng UV-K6 was for its ability to flash open source firmware onto it. Additionally, the radio can be unlocked to transmit on a whole slew of bands.
The bad news here is that of course is against FCC Regulations. Secondly, because the radio is a VHF/UHF radio, transmitting on any band other than those will be done in milliwatts. So not only are you breaking the FCC rules, you aren’t really doing anything but spraying out weak transmissions with tons of 2nd and 3rd order harmonics. In fact I’d recommend NOT unlocking the all the frequencies. There is a difference between unlocking the radio and unlocking all frequencies. Those are two separate actions or steps. Don’t unlock the transmit frequencies so you don’t accidentally do anything illegal.
Despite all this the radio is SOOOOOO hackable as to be almost irresistible to a guy like me.
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