Antennas: Fake Nagoya. What's Inside?

Quite an interesting test / tear down of the original stock Quansheng K5 antenna and one of the many fake Nagoya antennas that are out there for sale. Don't get me wrong, just like what's said in the video, some of the fake Nagoya's actually work very well. I should know, as I have a few which I believe are not genuine. So yes, some are excellent. But some are also terrible. Problem is, genuine Nagoya antenna's are so popular and well thought of, that every tom dick and harry is ripping them off. So its luck of the draw as to whether you end up with a good one or not. Interesting video.

 

Quansheng UV-K1 (8) Walkie Talkie

The new Quansheng UV-K1 and UV-K1 (8) are available to order on Banggood and AliExpress. There are a few people that already seem to have this radio, so pre-order deliveries shouldn't take that long to be delivered. Although on some listings it does say around 30 days. Both the Quansheng UV-K1 and  UV-K1 (8) have the same features. The only difference is, I believe, the way they look. Which isn't all that different really. I think they both look great. Under the shell they are very similar to the Quansheng UV K5 8 with the stock software. Same frequency range, TX / RX etc. The one big difference between the older models and newer models is the flash memory capacity.

 

It has been increased in these two newer models to 2mb. That might not seem a lot, but in terms of firmware text code for a little analogue Quansheng radio, that is a lot. This means that these two radios can be modified to have even more features and different types of firmware installed than the older Quansheng's were capable of having. Only problem is, those firmware's need to be developed for these radios. 

So there will be a wait for that. But the maker of the F4HWN firmware is already on the case and should have something ready to be released soon. So that will be great. And I'm sure in time other developers will follow suit. Some may already be working on it.

The battery options are a bit like what's available for the Baofeng UV-5R. You have the shorter, smaller capacity battery [1400mAh] which doesn't add any extra length to the radio. And then there's the larger capacity battery [2500mAh], which does extend the radios length.

Some radios extended batteries are just fatter, making the radio thicker. But with these two it's longer, just like with the Baofeng UV-5R. Still though, the UV-K1 and UV-K1 (8) are small radios, so even with the longer life battery the overall radio size is still not huge.

Searching Using 8.33kHz Steps

Many of the older radio scanners are quite limited in how many kHz steps they have. A lot of them just have the basic ones. So it has been quite interesting messing around with a modified Quansheng K5-8 [here] to see what can be found hiding under the many different kHz step types it has. My latest step number has been 8.33kHz. I think a lot of people, me included, always associate 8.33kHz with airband. Those who love listening to aviation frequencies always want scanners that have the 8.33kHz steps available. But I have no interest in airband, so I've been using the 8.33kHz step size to scan through all the frequencies not airband and have found some interesting "hidden" frequencies.

Don't get your hopes up, I haven't found anything top secret or anything. Just things like workplaces, people talking, etc. Still, it's interesting that if I was using a scanner that had no 8.33kHz step size, I don't think I would have ever know anyone was there. And I get the feeling that by the odd frequencies that these companies and people are using, they wanted it that way and are trying to stay undiscovered. Some of the communications are quite rare and sporadic, so I think there was some luck involved in finding them.

Anyway, if you have a radio capable of searching using 8.33kHz steps, start searching if you haven't already. A modified Quansheng can search using 8.33kHz steps, as well as many other steps. Some radio receivers can still go to frequencies that use 8.33kHz, even though they don't have that step size. 

One example is the Baofeng 1701, which is digital and analogue. I use the Quansheng to find the frequencies scanning in 8.33kHz steps, then type in the frequency on the Baofeng. 9 times out of 10 the Baofeng has been able to listen to the found frequencies if I type them in manually, even though it does not have the 8.33kHz step size / spacing.