Overdriving the rigs ALC and producing spatter

On data modes it is very easy to overdrive the rig audio input causing the rigs ALC circuit to kick in. The result of this is to cause spatter either side of your actual transmission frequency.

When you see this on a waterfall display it looks like a ghost image of the transmission a few 100 Hz up or down.

The yellow coloured PSK-31 images are the same
transmission. The main one is centred at 1760 Hz and the spatter is around 750Hz

You will then get other hams shouting at you in CAPITAL LETTERS telling you to turn the gain down and look at your ALC meter. You can turn the gain down on your computer by simply decreasing the slider. In DM780 it is the TX slider shown below.

Transmit volume slider on Digital Master 780

ON the Yaesu FT-450D follow what I do - link here

Do yourself a favour and clean up your signal. Other hams with thank you for it.

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 8 - The volume controls

Dual concentric volume controls
are on the right hand side of the control panel

The volume controls, as there are two of them on the KG-UV950P, are appalling. Wouxun seem to have not paid any attention to the criticism that it has received both in the press (RadCOM Sept 2014 and internet forums).
The positioning of the controls are fine. They are dual concentric controls the rear larger one controls the VFO B and the smaller forward one controls VFO A.
The criticism is that it is impossible to fine control the volume especially at low settings.

Let me explain.

• The controls appear to be rotary encoders with end stops at either end to "feel" like a conventional volume control. There are no click stops like a conventional encoder reinforcing the suggestion.
• There are 16 steps reflected in the display. When going from Vol 0 to Vol 1 the output to the internal (and external) speakers is quite frankly too high. If you are operating at night time you WILL disturb others.
• Maximum volume appears to be reached at about Vol 4 or Vol 5. The other settings are unnecessary.

I know this rig is intended to be used inside motor vehicles where the ambient noise is loud anyway but most other manufacturers (that I am aware of) have no issues of giving continuously variable volume settings.

Dear Mr Wouxun,
Please fix the volume control firmware setting as it is annoying and drives this operator mad.

G8YPH

Incidently when you turn the rig to FM RADIO mode (broadcast radio) the volume is at a more acceptable and controllable setting.

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 7 - Out of band transmission WARNING

Out of the box this rig is capable of transmitting out of band, assuming you have a resonant antenna, which I found odd especially as it was of UK spec.
There is a Windows program available from a few dubious sites on the internet called KG-UV950P-FrqLmt
I downloaded a copy of this software to have a look at the system defaults on my rig.

 KG-UV950P-FrqLmt executable

As can be seen 

• on the 144M band the rig can transmit from 136 to 179MHz. 

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 5 - Scan settings

The rig is capable of scanning the VFO or any memories you may have programmed in.
As a default SCAN A (VFO A) and SCAN B (VFO B) are set to scan all channels from 001 to 999.
I changed my settings so that VFO A could scan all the memories I had  programmed and VFO B to scan VHF/UHF local repeaters near me.

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 4 - FM Broadcast settings

Wouxun KG-UV950P transceiver.

Once again when running the KG-UV905P 2.5K programming software if you click the FM Broadcast Memories tab you see this.

FM Broadcast Memories tab with a few
frequencies I have programmed.

The rig is capable of tuning broadcast FM radio channels on VFO A only. On the FM Broadcast Memories tab there is the ability of programming up to 20 channels with your favourite FM frequencies between 76MHz and 108MHz FM only.

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 3 - Configuration and VFO Programming

Maybe I should have had this section first as it is very important other wise everything defaults to Chinese.

Configuration Tab

Whilst running the KG-UV950P 2.5K software click the Configuration tab.

Out of the box settings

As can be seen there is a lot of options here but I have mine now set to this

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 2 - Memory Programming

Cable connection

The programming cable has a USB connector at one end and an RJ45 plug at the other. Plugging into the rig involves removing a protective rubber bung from the rig port and pushing the connector in. The other USB plug end is simply inserted into a spare USB socket on the PC. On Windows 7 it is recognised as a COM port with a Silicon Labs driver. On mine as seen below it is COM4. Note this can change if you subsequently plug the lead into another USB socket.

KG-UV950 2.5K software

First you connect setup the software to talk to the COM port. This is simply done by clicking Memories>Port and checking the port you have installed. Have a look in device manager in Windows if you are not sure.

Wouxun KG-UV950P review - Part 1

The Wouxun KG-UV950P has been part of the radio shack since around November 2014. In that time I have been pleasantly surprised by it.

The rig as fitted in G8YPH radio shack

Specifications

The brief specifications are:

• Quad band FM/AM transceiver for amateur bands
• 10m 10 watts output from 28-30Mhz
• 6m 50 watts output from 50-52MHz
• 2m 45 watts output from 144 to 146MHz
• 70cm 35 watts output from 430 to 440 MHz
• Dual VFO
• 8 bands receive the 4 amateur bands + 350MHz + 800MHz + Airband AM + Broadcast bands 87-108MHz
• Twin band simultaneous reception
• Duplex Communication (Cross-Band mode useful for 10m to 6m repeater work for instance)
• Same-Band repeat on to combined radios (yes 2 UV950s can be linked to become a full repeater system)
• Voice scrambler
• 999 memory channels (maybe too many)
• SOS alarms
• Full CTCSS/DCS compliant

Arrival

The radio is made in China and came boxed in a very substantial, well padded cardboard box from Martin Lynch and Sons. I paid £239.95 including a shipping charge of £10.00