Is Wouxun the worst quality battey packs ?

[WhiteNoisePoetry]

Well over the last 10 years or so of collecting Chinese HT's, I've had a horrendous amount of battery pack
failures on the Wouxun's.

Yes I know about keeping them topped up, checking the chargers are working, and the discharge through the
power on/off system running them down. (So don;t keep them attached to the rig in storage).

But a good 70% of my packs have randomly failed.

The ones from 2012 are all knackered, and now a replacement from 2018 has failed. Utter crap.

None of my Baofengs, TYT's, Zastones,Icoms, Yaesu's,Alinco have failed in this time.

- WNP -

[ch25]

My 2012 pack is still working.

[Auldgeek]

Can't say I've noticed any problems. My Wouxun dualband handheld was the first ever non mainstream make I bought and that was just after they appeared in the UK from Martin Lynch. The original and spare battery are still going strong.

They do discharge quicker than others but it's been that way since new.

[WhiteNoisePoetry]

Glad that some of you are doing better than me

Yeah I still have a 2012 pack going strong, but one from last year just died on me too.

The discharge issue - yes this is well known, the power button always has to draw some current to work.
But they goofed and it takes far too much in off mode.

Solution is to store it detached from the HT, or just shove a bit of paper between the pack and main body
when not in use.

No current draw, plus you can still keep it in the desk charger to charge or store the whole HT.

- WNP -

[LeakyFeeder]

Yup both packs have failed on my 2/70 & 2/4m sets.. i bought a new pack to swap between em n that is ok after a couple of years. Ive managed to bung in new cells on an old pack n that seems ok aswell but yes they are crap to start off with.

[Mikel]

Maybe I have just been lucky, or perhaps I am the BATTERY LORD?

I Have 2 KG669's one KG-UVD1P and a 4M KG-699E and the first one I bought was the VHF KG669 in 2006 (you can tell the year of manufacture from the serial number) and the last one was the KG-699E in 2010.

Because the batteries on these are all interchangeable I cant remember which came with what radio and some of them have Chinese writing on them so there is no age marked on them but they are all still working reasonable well. OK they don't hold their charge for as long as they once did but they still work great considering the oldest one is 14 years old.

Yes they do run flat if you leave them connected but I just check them every few weeks and give them a charge if they have dropped on the voltage displayed when you switch them on.

They have fared better than my Yaesu handies battery wise as my VX-170 battery is totally gone and my VX-6 battery is not far behind it and struggles to take a charge without getting worryingly hot.

The oldest handie I still have though is a Linton LT-3288, bought from euroradiosales (are they still around?) probably around 2005 but possibly sooner and that still works OK on receive but doesn't have enough juice to transmit much.

I have got a couple of the Wouxun AA battery holders and modified them by putting an extra AA cell holder on the back so that I can use NIMH cells in them.

So from my limited experience Wouxuns have been fine battery wise but replacement batteries are a bit pricey mind you. Has anyone bought a £20 Baofeng and tried transplanting the battery inards from it into a wouxun pack?

I suppose you may as well keep the Baofeng but I love my Wouxuns and I may try the battery surgery some time.

[WhiteNoisePoetry]

> 4M KG-699E

I got two of those.
TX audio sounds like a sock is covering the mic but they're OK.
Certainly the audio is better than a DSTAR rig

Have you ever tried the audio compander / compressor on those rigs ?
It actually works on RX !

4m rubber duck is useless. Better off with a pair of 1980's 49Mhz Space Raiders walkie talkies.

OK when use a home rig with external antenna.
I quite like the style of those KG699's.
Wish I'd got the 70cm version too, but then I have a million other rigs for 70cm.

- WNP -

[Mikel]

The KG699 is my favourite, it has a professional feel to it in my humble opinion. You are right about the supplied antenna being useless.

There was a mod In RADCOM a few years ago, that was posted online at one time that extended the length of it and made it resonant in the 4M band.

I did the mod and it did improve things a little but even better was the GAREX (now Spectrum) centre loaded Flexi-whip for Wouxon KG699E 4m Handheld, 51cm long and supplied with SMA socket, £24.00. (see pic below)

Looks like they still make these:
http://www.spectrumcomms.co.uk/Aerials.htm

These antennas are very light as they are made from hollow plastic tube

Never tried the audio compander, assumed it was Chinese for 'tone control', I will have a play when I get time.

I always use the Wouxun speaker mic with mine and that had muffled audio but realised that there was no hole through to the mic capsule and once a tiny hole was drilled things improved a lot and I have a funny feeling the rig might suffer the same fault?