The Chinese Puxing PX-777+ and Feidaxin FD-150A
The entry of Mainland Chinese manufacturers into the commercial and amateur radio markets has started a downward spiral in pricing and healthy competition in quality and features.
This article will compare two Chinese manufactured VHF 2-meter handhelds suitable for ham radio use. Compared are the Puxing PX-777+ and the Feidaxin FD-150A.
Here is a picture of a variety of radios, to give you an idea on size"
From left to right we have:
Motorola HT-1000, a heavy duty commercial handheld converted to 2-meters.
Puxing PX-777+, reviewed here. Shortest and lightest of the five.
Yaesu/Vertex VX-150, a popular 2-meter amateur handheld.
Feidaxin FD-150A, red version, reviewed here.
Alinco DJ-196, a popular amateur 2-meter handheld.
Not shown is the popular Yaesu VX-170/VX-270 2-meter handheld. It is virtually identical in appearance and size to the Alinco DJ-196.
Brief Notes on the Radios above
The Motorola HT-1000 is easily the heaviest, it is very heavy duty, suitable for police and fire department work, where you whack suspects on the head with it. It has 16 channels, selected by a knob on top. There is no indication of frequency or channel other than the knob with a little pointer to "3" or whatever channel. This radio is rainproof, and probably submersible. You can get them on eBay for $50 to $120, plus shipping. Most come with bad batteries or no batteries, and the batteries are close to $50 a piece. There are lots of accessories available. This radio is still in use by Police and commercial users, but changes in the FCC regulations for commercial service will make these very low in price within a year. Programming cannot be done at home ... I *may* be able to program them, contact me if you are interested in these kind of radios. Expect a "shift" from the standard battery.
The VX-150 by Yaesu is discontinued, but the VX-250 is identical as far as I can tell. It is a rainproof radio, but not submersible. I have about 4000 miles on that radio and about 4 years. It has never failed me, but it is not my favorite radio because it is rather difficult to program and use. Expect about 4 hours from a standard battery. A "shift" with the extended battery (about $50).
The Yaesu VX-170/VX-270 is basically the same guts in a different, waterproof case with a larger LCD in front rather than the small LCD on top like on the VX-150. I also have a VX-170, I do not find it very easy to use either. The battery coments for the VX-150 apply here too.
The Alinco DJ-196. Alinco seems to come out with repackaged models every year, but this is their bottom-end 2-meter offering. I like this radio as it is very easy to use, and has much better sound, both transmitting and receiving, than the Yaesus. The battery seems to last a bit longer than the Yaesu's, but not by much. A variety of batteries are available, but are comparatively priced, $50 a pop.
The Feidaxin FD-150A - Red Version
This radio is available in black too, of course, but I thought ... "If I drop this thing in the snow, red is easy to spot!" There is no extra charge for the red color option, so I got it this way.
This radio has the lowest current demand from the battery of *any* handheld, commercial, amateur or otherwise. It takes 10ma in standby from a 7.2 volt lithium-ion battery. The battery is rated 1200ma, so on standby it should run 120 hours, this is about 5 days. Of course, if you transmit, or there is blabber out of the speaker, the battery will run down sooner. In normal use I would say this radio can easily go 48 hours. If you turn the radio off when you sleep, it can last close to a week on a single charge!
VHF (136-174) and UHF (420-450). This article
is for the VHF version.
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This is not to be sneezed at; there is nothing worse than running out of battery juice just when you arrive at the top of the Elias Glacier or something like that. The standard battery runs about $14 on eBay. There are EXTENDED batteries available, as is a battery eliminator. This is basically an empty battery shell with a wire and plug coming out that you connect to a 12-volt source, like the cigarette lighter in the pickup truck.
The radio is not exactly ham-friendly, but within minutes of taking it out of the box I had it transmitting on the SPARC repeater channel 146.94. Basically, you go to VFO mode, set up the radio on the frequencies and PL tone, and program that into the memory channel you want. There are 99 channels.
As far as I know, the memory channels are indicated by something like CH-001 on the LCD, and no alphanumeric names are available. This is a bummer.
Important Bummer. This will be the most important show stopper for this radio: It does NOT send DTMF tones like for dialing a phone number on a repeater phone patch. The Puxing radio does, this one does NOT.
Lets talk price. The radio was $44.95 plus $12.20 from Hong Kong. I ordered it the evening of August 12, and got it via Hong Kong Air Mail today, August 29. This was 17 days in transit. The seller was "Radiogearpro", and like *all* Hong Kong or mainland China merchants I have dealt with, they are very, very good, honest and no bull. My total cost landed in Nome was $57.15.
Impressions. The radio seems well built. It gives a slightly cheap appearance with the red candy color, but the build quality seems fine. It fits the hand well, and has great receive audio with a very, very loud speaker. If you want an external speaker/mic they are available for about $10. The two pin plug is "Kenwood Compatible". PC programming software is free (compare $40 for Yaesu) and a PC USB programming cable is $13, free shipping from Hong Kong. I have not used the PC programming yet, so I cannot comment on that.
The radio does not send DTMF telephone tones from the keypad, nor does it have channel names: You need a cheat sheet if in channel mode. However in the memory channel mode, the frequency AND channel number are displayed, so this is not a show stopper. This radio has the most battery life of any radio manufactured at this time.
A final note. The Antenna connector is an SMA. Male on the radio, female on the antenna. This is standard on Kenwoods and all commercial radios with SMA antenna connectors. But Yaesu's do it different, so if you want an external antenna, you should be aware that until recently most ham SMA offererings were the Yaesu variant.
Conclusions Without DTMF tones, this radio will not be for everyone. It is a well built radio, good audio, extremely long battery life. Programming is no easier or harder than any other radio. I recommend this radio ONLY if you plan using it without the DTMF tones. No phone calls with this unit.
The Puxing PX-777+
The Puxing PX-777+ is a nice radio. It seems better built than the Feidaxin unit. I thought the battery latch was cheesy, and this is the only detractor with this radio.
Programming this radio is different than the Feidaxin, above. It has a menu system. If you go through the menu functions once with the manual to help you, you will not have much trouble finding your way around the menu later on. Some of the menu functions are not consistent. Some require PTT to accept, some the vfo/mr or the enter key to accept. There is a principal way, but there are exceptions.
To settle the issue this radio SENDS DTMF TONES also know as touch tone or dialing tones. So you can make phone calls through the repeater autopatch.
VHF (136-174) and UHF (420-450). It also
comes as a PX-777 and PX-777+(plus). Get the
VHF PLUS version as in this article.
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The regular battery lasts at least two days; extended batteries are available and should be good for 3 or 4 days. Battery eliminators are available. The batteries are about $14 for the regular and $19 for the extended.
External speaker/mics have the same pinout as the Feidaxin and Kenwood radios: the two pin plug. You can get battery eliminator/car adapters, and the SMA antenna issue is identical to the Feidaxin/Kenwood. In other words, the antenna is sexed opposite of the Yaesu. If you want a real long whip antenna, the MFJ-1717SF is the one you want.
Pricing. You have the option of getting this radio on eBay from Hong Kong. Pricing seems to be around $47 and shipping $20 to $25. Numerous accessories are available on eBay. For just the radio, the landed cost would be around $70 give or take. If you shop around, I am sure you can find cheaper shipping from Hong Kong, like I did for the Feidaxin unit.
I did not get mine from Hong Kong, but used the American Dealer, which is Argent Data price is $85 quantity one, and my shipping was $14.20. The total came to $99.20 and I had it in four business days. At this price, the radio is not as attractive, so if pricing is your sole criteria, Hong Kong is the answer for you. Batteries from Argent are $14/$19 and they have most accessories.
Conclusions. This is a nice radio, with attractive price specially if you get it from Hong Kong. Compared to a Yaesu, it is less costly. The accessories and batteries are breathtakingly cheaper than Yaesu. Since most of us end up getting some accessories, be sure to factor in the total cost when making your decision. It is the lightest radio I have ever handled, and the battery life is about double that of a Yaesu. It seems rugged and suitable for most ham use.