Glendora Emergency Response Communications

The New Generation of Inexpensive Imported Ham Radios

May 03, 2010

May 2, 2010

Have you noticed that a lot of very inexpensive HT?’s are being sold on E-Bay by Chinese exporters these days? Curious to learn if these radios would be suitable for GERC use, I decided to investigate the whole subject of what I call ?“offshore radios?”. I found that there are more than a half dozen Chinese manufacturers of amateur radio products and prices are generally less than half of the cost of name brand amateur radios such as Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, or Alinco. But I what about the quality? As a trial I purchased a 2 meter FD-160 HT from the Feidauxin Company in Hong Kong for just $39.95. I was pleasantly surprised with the features and performance and ease of programming of this 5 watt HT. The radio has several inexpensive accessories available such as a high gain antenna, car charger, extra batteries etc. which I subsequently purchased later. The shipping and handling fees are reasonable, and the delivery time is just six days from Hong Kong. There are no customs fees and the package comes through the U.S. mail as a registered package.
I have posted a detailed PDF report on this website comparing these offshore radios to their name brand counter-parts. This should allow you to make your own decisions about these imports .
Subsequently to the April 2010 GERC meeting, two GERC hams have purchased Chinese HT?’s, and they have reported that they are very satisfied.

I am recommending offshore radios as great starter radios for new hams and great backup radios for those of us who have been in the hobby for a while.

73,
Mark, N7YLA