Cheap Chinese amateur radio handhelds

In yesterday's edition, we ran an item from Ian G3ZHI, regarding cheap, Chinese-made UHF handheld transceivers.

This prompted Andy G0SFJ to contact us and pass-on his experience of buying a handheld transceiver in China.

Andy writes:

"In Jinan last year (thanks to the Jinan Amateur Radio Club) I bought a 2 metre handheld from a shop, type Pu Guang PG5118.

"For £12 (twelve) equivalent I got a 2.5 watt handheld with Nimh battery and charger, for 140-170 MHz.
It does not have ctcss or tone or dtmf, so is basically just useable as a 2m simplex or duplex. You can directly enter the frequency (including 12.5 kHz steps) and a shift if you want and it will scan from there in 25kHz steps.

"Of course it isn't CE approved nor would it be duty and VAT paid if ordered from ebay. and no service returns either.
I declared mine at the airport. Beijing Customs has restrictions on communications devices, but I was waved through.

"It represents the cheap end of the range. One shop in Beijing's Silk Market advised me to buy "Chinese Kenwoods" instead. But it does work.

"The Chinese two-square-pin plug on the charger will fit into an international 2 pin adaptor, which in turn will fit into a shaver socket."

73 de Andy G0SFJ

Our thanks to Andy for the above information