Railfan Technology > Quansheng UV-K5(8) portable radio deep dive review

Some weeks ago, I said that I would probably do a “deeper dive” review of the Quansheng UV-K5(8) portable radio.  Well, after testing 2 of these radios for several weeks, here is my review.  The Quansheng UV-K5 has been around for awhile, but this review is of its recent variant, the UV-K5(8).  Quansheng’s model designations can be confusing.  There are actually 3 Quansheng models that are essentially equivalent—the UV-K5(8), the UV-K6, and the UV-K5(99).  All three have essentially identical circuitry, factory firmware, and programming, with the UV-K5(99) variant having a slightly different case.  My test radios are the UV-K5(8) and the UV-K5(99).  One of the unusual features of the current UV-K5 variants is that their firmware is fairly “open architecture” that allows third-party modification.  This has made the radio very popular with the amateur radio community and other “radio tinkerers.”  For my radios, the best performer of modified firmware (which is free, by the way) is the Egzumer firmware (v0.22)  that is available on the internet.  My 2 UV-K5 radios were both tested with this firmware installed.
 
So, briefly the UV-K5(8) (and I include the other radios mentioned above by inference when I talk about the UV-K5(8)) is a Chinese-made 199 channel analog two-way radio that can be configured as an amateur radio, a GMRS radio, or an “open” radio with a set of key and button presses from the keypad.  The difference between the configurations are the frequency ranges over which the radio can transmit—amateur channels, GMRS channels, or all channels in the radio’s frequency range.  In any configuration, the radio will receive both the VHF and UHF railroad frequencies.
 
I would not be wasting both of our times if this radio was not a very good performer—for its relatively low price, an exceptionally good performer.  Despite the radio being a system-on-chip (SOC) radio that generally has poorer filtering of unwanted signals compared to more expensive radios (including the Uniden BC125AT) that have superheterodyne filtering, Quansheng seems to have gotten its SOC recipe right, such that the radio does a very good job of filtering out unwanted signals while remaining a very sensitive radio.  How sensitive?  As good as the BC125AT and nearly as good as some expensive commercial portable radios. 
 
The UV-K5(8) has acceptable, but not blazing scanning speed.  Channels can be added or deleted from the scan list from the keypad, and the Egzumer firmware features 2 available scan lists, in addition to an “all-channel” scan.    The radio will also do frequency-range searches and tone searches, though I have not had occasion to test those features.  In stock form, the UV-K5(8) also has NOAA weather channel functionality, but the Egzumer firmware disables this in favor of other Egzumer-added features.  The radio can be keypad programmed, however,  it’s very cumbersome, but the free CHIRP software will readily program the radio via PC and a commonly available and inexpensive “Baofeng-type” programming cable.  One nice feature of the Egzumer firmware is that it allows the maximum volume level to be adjusted in CHIRP.  The radio already has fairly loud audio at full volume in stock form—this adjustment allows the maximum volume to be adjusted even somewhat higher.
 
Unlike the now also very popular Tidradio offerings out there today, the Quansheng charger will fully charge the UV-K5(8) in a maximum of a couple of hours or, while the Tidradio chargers can take up to 2-4 times as long to charge the Tidradio batteries.  The Quansheng batteries will generally power the radio for 8-12 hours or sometimes more before needing recharging.  This is longer battery life between recharges than I have ever gotten out of the Unden BC125AT using rechargeable batteries.
 
So, do I recommend the UV-K5(8)?  Yes.  Now, if one already has a decent performing portable radio such as the Uniden BC125AT, then running out to buy this Quansheng isn’t necessary.  However, if one is looking for an affordable alternative to a BC125AT (the UV-K5(8) has a street price of about 1/3 to 1/2 of what the BC125AT costs) that will perform nearly as well—sometimes even a bit better than the BC125AT in some respects--then this radio is worth a hard look.  I like the UV-K5(8) well enough that it is now my primary railfanning portable dual-band radio that I carry. One final note, a common issue among many inexpensive Chinese radios is that performance of individual copies of the same model radio may vary considerably due to less-than-great quality control.  I can say that the UV-K5(8) and the UV-K5 (99) that I own and have extensively tested perform almost completely identical when tested side-by-side.
 
I will answer any questions that I can about these radios.
 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/24 13:41 by WW.

Will either of these 2 radios accept AA alkaline batteries?

What does the EGzoomer firmware do?

My newest scanner is a 30 year old Radio Shack programable.
I still have a Radio Shack crystal set running in the basement.

Not afraid of computers and the K5 price is right.

What portable antenna are you using and does it need a connector?

pt199 Wrote:
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> Will either of these 2 radios accept AA alkaline
> batteries?

No.

Englewood Wrote:
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> What does the EGzoomer firmware do?
>
> My newest scanner is a 30 year old Radio Shack
> programable.
> I still have a Radio Shack crystal set running in
> the basement.
>
> Not afraid of computers and the K5 price is
> right.
>
> What portable antenna are you using and does it
> need a connector?

The Egzumer firmware adds some functionality to the UV-K5(8) and its variants.  It also supposedly improves its performance a bit, though I can't confirm that because I modified mine right of the box with Egzumer firmware.  There is a quite a bit of stuff in the Egzumer firmware that a railfan will likly not use, but there a few things in it that are pretty handy.  One is the option to display battery life in actual numerical percentage in the radio display.  The Egzumer firmware expands the menu options available from the keypad from 40-some to 60, as well.  

I really like the UV-K5(8), but I will mention a couple of "quirks" that it has that I'm not fond of.  First, a bit of background.  For whatever reason, many of the Chinese radios have a characteristic of being more sensitive to weak signals in the UHF band than they are in the VHF band.  From my testing, the UV-K5(8) is just the opposite.  At face value, that's not a bad thing--after all, a big point of carrying a radio for railfanning is hearing voice communications.  The downside is that the radio may miss some weak UHF train telemetry transmissions, and receiving those is the point of carrying a dual-band radio.  Also, the UV-K5(8) has a relatively quick scan speed, but train telemetry transmissions are so short that it may miss them at times.  This is one place where the BC125AT scanner, with what is a pretty blazing scan speed, can best most non-scanners.  

As to portable antennas, there are so many out there that narrowing it down to a "what's best list" always runs the risk of overlooking a good antenna.  My suggestion here is to get a good performing dual-band antenna if one plans to monitor both the VHF and UHF bands.  If you are using a single-band VHF radio, then I recommend getting a VHF-specific antenna tuned to the 155mHz-165mHz band--both Smiley and Laird make good single-band antennas.  As to the antenna connector, the Uniden portable scanners use the now pretty archaic BNC connector.  Most of the Chinese radios (and some Japanese radios) use the SMA-female connector.  Wouxun is the notable exception in the Chinese radios--they usually use an SMA-male connector.  

On final story, I started my journey with railfan radios with one of the first Radio Shack programmable scanners way back in the 1980's.  It was a horribly performing radio even back then.  The "Cadillac" of scanners back then was the Regency HX-1000, but it was way out of my price range in those days.  Most of the scanners from the 1980's-early 2000's were really pretty abysmal performers.  I "graduated" to using amateur and later commercial radios for railfanning by the early 1990's.  The Uniden BC125AT was the first scanner that I had bought since around 1990 when I bought it in around 2015-2017.  Radios have come a long way since those early scanner days.  That $30-$40 Quansheng UV-K5(8)'s performance will run circles around what was likely a several hundred dollar scanner from the early 1990's.  

Thanks for posting this information.  I bought the Quansheng UV-K5 based in part on your recommendation.  It definitely out-performs my old Baofeng scanner.

I previously purchased an after-market Nagoya NA-771 VHF/UHF antenna for use with the Baofeng.  I tried it on the Quansheng, and I don't pick up any chatter.  So I guess I am going to stick with the stock antenna that comes with the Quansheng.

 

Thanks for answering my questions.

billmeeker Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting this information.  I bought
> the Quansheng UV-K5 based in part on your
> recommendation.  It definitely out-performs my
> old Baofeng scanner.
>
> I previously purchased an after-market Nagoya
> NA-771 VHF/UHF antenna for use with the Baofeng. 
> I tried it on the Quansheng, and I don't pick up
> any chatter.  So I guess I am going to stick with
> the stock antenna that comes with the Quansheng.
>
>  
The stock Quansheng antenna is a fairly decent antenna, though it is physically pretty stiff.  One of the long (16"-19") "extended range"  dual-band antennas will perform a little better, but I hate carrying a radio with the one of those attached--they are just physically unwieldy.

What channel programming software works with the Quansheng radio? So far I'm finding that Chirp does not recognize the radio.

My initial view is that Trainorders rail fans will find other radios far more user-friendly and they will be frustrated with the Quanshen, no matter how well it receives. Not that it won't work well, too much button expertise and computer knowledge is needed. 

CHIRP recognizes my Quansheng radios just fine--just make sure that you are using the latest version of CHIRP.  Also, I use a Baofeng programming cable.  Oddly, some other brands of "Kenwood plug"-type cables won't communicate properly with the Quansheng.