Wayfarer

Seems like it's just luck of the draw. This is why I don't go to Vegas.

Update: I received the TH-7800 and it was DOA. Out of the box, it continuously bleeped madly, loudly and randomly every few seconds, even with all the beep sounds turned off and the volume all the way down. The receiver would go full scale with each "bleep." I worked with the dealer and nothing we tried worked. Master reset, testing on a dummy load, etc.. So it's defective and on its way back to the dealer. Excellent customer service from them, btw. Now I'm 0 for 2. I have the second new TH-9800 still sitting in its unopened box here in my shack, but I'm getting rapidly turned off on Chinese radios. I'm contemplating just sending the TH-9800 back before I even crack the seal on the box, and starting over with a Yaesu/Icom/Kenwood. This aggravation of dealing with defective radios is not worth the savings over a Japanese radio. Even if the 9800 works initially, I have no confidence now that it will keep working for very long. Not sure I want to take a $230 gamble on this 9800 and would rather spend the extra $150 for peace of mind. It's too bad these Chinese radios have such horrible QC. Outwardly, they seem well made and have tons of nice features. Hopefully in a few years they get their manufacturing problems sorted.

I had a db20g for a few weeks and returned it because of the squelch problem. I like to scan and the db20g after it stops on traffic but the traffic ends, it would remain squelch open on that channel. Even running the squelch all the way up to 9 (max, iirc) in the menu wouldn’t reengage the squelch. It would just sit on the channel listening to static as if the monitor was on. You have to restart the scan to get it working again. That was a dealbreaker for me. Otherwise the radio is awesome in all respects. The squelch issue seems like it would be an easy firmware fix.

Wart & Admiral, good data points. My right side was defective out of the box, 2025 new radio purchase. And it had the defective left side relay, also out of the box. It seems they didn't fully address these problems with the currently new radios. Evidently, it's luck of the draw with these radios. Based on multiple recommendations here in this thread (thanks gentlemen), I ordered a TH-7800 from R&L today, not wanting to take any more chances. Still have the other new 9800 on its way that I bought before I discovered the first one was faulty, so I'll have both the 7800 and the 9800 here by the end of the week operating side by side. Wish me luck, seems I'm going to need it.

Where'd you buy yours from? I got mine from a well-known Chinese company with a small U.S. presence that is known for good service. I plan to call/email them tomorrow and start the exchange process. Good luck with your radio.

I'll try the TH-7800. When I bought the 9800 I didn't even know there was a 7800. I only need 2m/440, so the 7800 would be just fine. My buddies said I'd be frustrated with defects and questionable performance, especially coming from the Big 3 Japanese radios. It was worth a try to find out for myself. If the 7800 is more reliable, then that'll be my next experiment with Chinese radios. Kicking myself for selling my Kenwood V71A several years ago. I'm primarily an HF guy and never used that Kenwood. But now that I'm becoming more active in our local club, I'm doing more VHF/UHF now and wish I had my old Kenwood back. I'd buy another but the used prices are ridiculous, way higher than the new price was just a few years ago. The Icom 2730A looks good too, but once you add in the cost of all the brackets, separation cables, control head mounts, etc., it's as much as a V71A and I refuse to participate in the Icom accessories customer fleecing model. Let's hope the TH-7800 works out. Edit: Looking for a TH-7800, I see that there is actually a newer model, the TH-7900. Any reason not to go with the newer model? Sorry for the thread drift.

Yep, have to agree. Looks like a classic case of infant mortality. This is the first time in 30 years of hamming that I got a new radio that was defective out of the box. I wish I could get back all the time I wasted on this thinking it was somehow operator error. My ham buddies are going to be telling me a lot of "I told you so" for buying a Chinese radio.

I just discovered another problem with my 9800. The right side of the radio is almost deaf. I discovered this last night on our way to our local club meeting when I could not receive our local 2m repeater until I was practically underneath it and then I was still only getting a weak signal. I had the repeater on the right side. But when I switched to the repeater on the left side, it suddenly came in full scale and full quieting. I double checked the programming to make sure I didn't fat finger something - at first I thought I may have entered the frequency off by 5 kHz or something - but it was all good. I had the right side of the radio on scan the last few days since I got it and was wondering why there was absolutely no traffic on any local repeaters or frequencies. Now I think I know why. The right side of the radio is deaf. Without an RF gain control, is there anything I can adjust to restore the receive on the right side of the radio? Any other possible user error I am overlooking? Plus, the relay on the left side has started clattering almost continuously now on receive. I'm starting to think the radio I got is a dud and that it's soon going to be going back for an exchange.

Update: I went ahead an ordered a second TH-9800 since I was planning to buy a second one for the truck anyway, replacing my tried and true 2m-only Icom. I should get it in the next week, well within the 30 day return period for defective radios (I bought directly from Radioddity), and I can see for myself if the noise is normal or not and exchange the radio if necessary. I'll report back after I have the two radios side by side. Interesting aside, just in the 10 days since I bought the first one, the price of the radio has gone up $40, I assume to reflect the new tariffs. Even Amazon's price is suddenly up by $35. I hope our supply of Chinese radios doesn't start drying up.

Thanks for the tips on the frequency modification. If it's just software, I'll probably go ahead and do that just in case of an emergency in the backcountry. I never use 6 or 10 meter FM, so I guess I could've gotten by with the 7800 which looks identical minus 6 & 10 meters. I might put a 7800 in my Jeep. These are great little radios with conventional operation that I am familiar with from using other VHF/UHF radios from the Big 3, so it was intuitive with an easy learning curve. Much easier to me than the other Chinese radios I've seen with the color screens. Good stuff. Thanks again.

Very little gmrs activity here too. But a decent amount of 2m traffic. I'm a member of our local club here and we use three 2m repeaters to keep in touch, especially when up in the back country. My TH-9800 doesn't even transmit on gmrs channels, I assume there must be a diode to clip to make it work there. But it is nice to be able to receive GMRS channels. We have an off-road club that comes up from Boise now and again that uses gmrs out on the trail and it's useful to listen to them give reports on road conditions, for instance. My ham buddies were right, I got a lot more friendly help here on mygmrs than I did on the ham forums.

OK, I just sent a support request to TYT asking about the clicking noise inside the radio and if that's normal or indicative of a defect. I also found out on their website, the warranty is only 6 months, not the 1-year that I had thought. Let's see what happens. Thanks again.

Good suggestion. I found the schematics online but can't find a parts list. Ideally, I'd find the defective relay and replace it. My torx bit set doesn't go small enough (almost, just one more size smaller and I would have had it), so I've decided I'm just going to use the crap out of the radio and see if it fails during the warranty period. If not, I guess it was nothing to worry about after all if it makes it through the next year of heavy use. I'll just live with the sound. My Flex radios all have similar sounding relay clicking on transmit, so it's something I know I can learn to live with. Thanks for the help. I'll report back if the radio blows up.

Yes, the heat sink fan runs as normal on both 2m and 70cm. Just to make sure that wasn't the sound. I held the fan motionless with a pencil eraser and didn't make a difference. Ironically, I was sent here from my ham groups who told me most people use that radio on gmrs, not ham, and I would have better luck checking with a gmrs forum. Thanks for the quick replies. Doesn't sound like this is normal then. I'm pretty sure it's a relay. It's loud enough to hear in the shack, but probably not enough to hear in a mobile. Might just run the radio until it fails hopefully while still under warranty. The radio is a day old, so there's still 364 days of warranty remaining. I plan to use the radio heavily this summer in the Idaho backcountry, so it'll get a good workout/stress test. But I'm thinking I'd better bring a backup radio with me.

Hi all, New member here. Longtime ham but new to GMRS. I just got a new TH-9800 and so far it's great. Nice simple controls, easy to program, wideband coverage, seems to be well made. One oddity though. On 2m, the radio emits an audible chirpy clicking noise when the PTT is pushed and then another chirp/click when the PTT is released. The sound is not coming from the speaker, it's coming from some component inside the radio, likely a relay. It's loud enough to be objectionable in the shack, where I plan to use this radio. 440 transmit is quiet, no chirping noise, it's just on 2m. This happens on both my 2m/440 antenna and a dummy load, both under 1.2:1 SWR and at all TX power levels. Is this normal for this radio and not something I should worry about? In the back of my mind, I'm worried it might be a defective relay that will completely fail at some point. But this is also my first experience with Chinese radios and so maybe this is normal. I would think if this was normal relay noise, it'd be present on both 2m and 440. I've never had this on any other VHF/UHF radio I've had, but those have been Kenwood and Icom, so maybe the Chinese radios are different. The radio is brand new. Thanks, Darren WRMU706