Same radio, different company.

[Elkhunter521]

The Luiton UHF LT-590 appears to be the same physical radio as the Midland XMT400. I have both and opened them both up, Identical components including board markings.

 

My question is what is Luiton's relation with other Chinese mfgs? (Who makes Luiton?)

[Elkhunter521]

Interesting price break. One radio sells for $120 and the other for $250.

 

Hmmmm.

[Borgbox]

Been saying it since this Midland came out. They're just selling a Chinese radio for twice the price. At least Btech doesn't try to hide where they're from.

[WRAE660]

While browsing Midland's web site, I saw their HAM radio offering, it is the same as a lot of other CCR's with a Midland sticker.  I'm off of Midland for GMRS now because I don't want to have to deal with trying to use a narrow band radio on my local repeaters networks which are all using wide band.

[berkinet]

I think @hans also pointed out the “relationship” between the two radios a while back.

[Elkhunter521]

Hans did, I am trying to find out if Luiton is another name for Bao Feng?

[marcspaz]

Luiton owns Baofeng and a dozen other Chinese electronics companies. Not sure about the ties to Middle, though.

 

It's been a long time since I was in the retail side of things, but Midland, Cobra, Uniden have all been the same company and almost always made in China.

[Elkhunter521]

Really, I thought Beofeng would be the parent company.

[berkinet]

According to their web site (http://luiton.com/), Luiton, Baofeng and Anytone are all manufactured by Bond Telecom.

[marcspaz]

When I was a pro drag racer, my registered business was Street Jam Racing, but DBA Five Guys Racing.  100% of all business was done as Five Guys Racing.  I always assumed BOND Telecom was DBA Luiton... one and the same.  Never looking into actual registration info, though.  Didn't really seem important.  LOL

[KAB8107]

Luiton is not an owner of any Chinese manufacturer - they are a distributor (like radioddity and retevis)

 

"Bond is a wholesale provider of many quality Bluetooth products such as adapters, speakers, headsets, gadgets, watches and more.

Located in China, if you purchase from us, we offer many additional convenient services, all of which cannot be easily provided by other Walkie talkie product suppliers." - from the main page of their site

 

Luiton (bond telecom on Amazon) is simply a relabeler - much like Retevis relabels - and radioddity relabel; Chinese manufacturer's sell to wholesalers. They do not operate a direct storefront, but will sell to anyone in multiple units. Wholesalers will sell one radio at a time - and sell on Amazon/fleabay/etc

 

Actual manufacturers are Baofeng/Anytone/TYT/VGC/etc

[kidphc]

Pretty standard for multiple companies in the same industry to be owned by actually only and handful of parent companies.

 

Food in grocery stores, electronics, software etc... In the US car industry there are only really two manufacturers of battery cores, same with gas only a handful of refineries and the distribution network is becoming a monopoly at this point. The gas you buy at Shell, BP, Costco really only differ in additive packages, added at truck loading and where in the storage unit the fuel came from. The cheaper the gas the more likely the containments. Since, it is most likely coming from the bottom of that gigantic storage unit when it is almost empty.

 

I wonder if the price mark up is the distribution markup combined with FCC certification and Midland's own markup. Esentially, I wonder how much of that $130 or so price difference is markup vs added cost from FCC cert.

[Elkhunter521]

The Betech GMRS-V1 is a 62$ ht radio certified for type 95e. At 62$ there us not much charged for the Cert. (Maybe 45$ to 50$ at most)

[n4gix]

Pricing seems to be all over the place. Here is one source for half the price of others:
 

LUITON LT-898UV Dual Band Base 136-174mhz (VHF) 400-520mhz (UHF) 10Watts Two-Way Radio Mobile Transceiver Amateur Ham Radio with Free Programming Cable Black Product Details Item Weight: 11 Dual Reception/Dual Display; FM radio(87 200 memory channels;

$88.90 $73.95

https://foxandgrapesco.com/p/luiton-lt-898uv-dual-band-base-136-174mhz-vhf-400-520mhz-uhf-10watts-two/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8aiV7qXG4gIVCdbACh2fsg3WEAYYAiABEgITZ_D_BwE

[Elkhunter521]

Wow even if you have to buy 2 to get one that works........hmmmm

[berkinet]

A couple of comments related to this discussion.

 

#1) I'd be surprised if the cost per unit of certifying a radio for the FCC adds more than a dollar to the unit cost. Based on this site (and others), the cost of getting a radio certified looks like it is usually under $5000

 

#2) As to the difference between two, otherwise identical, radios. One being Part95E certified, the other Part 15 or Part90. My guess is the only difference is operational limitations to conform to the Part95E rules. I really doubt there is any difference in the actual transmitter or receiver circuitry.

 

So, If my second comment is accurate, and the two radios discussed in this topic are truly identical (other than changes to comply with Part95E). there is no way anyone listening could possibly know if you were on a Luiton LT-590 or a Midland XMT400.

 

YMMV

[Elkhunter521]

Actually, the Midland 400 is a narrow band transmitter. The Luiton lt-590 is narrow, middle or wideband depending on how you program each channel.

[marcspaz]

If the Midland and the Luiton truly have the exact same board, that means firmware is the only thing stopping the MXT400 from being wide-band capable.  Makes me wonder if I should try flashing one of my 400's with a LT-590 image?

[Borgbox]

If the Midland and the Luiton truly have the exact same board, that means firmware is the only thing stopping the MXT400 from being wide-band capable.  Makes me wonder if I should try flashing one of my 400's with a LT-590 image?

 

Report back if you do. I'd love to know how it goes!

[berkinet]

... Makes me wonder if I should try flashing one of my 400's with a LT-590 image?

 

At the risk of stating the obvious...  I am not sure what the point would be for most people, well, other than the fun of trying it. Should you actually be able to reflash the MXT400 with different firmware, it would no longer be Part95E certified. In which case, you might as well just buy the Luiton to begin with.  

 

Of course, if you don't care about running a Part95E certified radio, and you have some MXT400s that you'd rather have running wide-band... well, that makes sense.

[marcspaz]

If I were to do it... it would be for the fun of trying. There are enough CCR's on the market that it doesn't have a practical purpose.

[wrcb493]

The TYT TH-9000 Seems to be the same as the Pofeng BF-9500. However it is FCC certified it appears.  (UPDATE! However it only seems to be part 90)

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/tcb/reports/Tcb731GrantForm.cfm?mode=COPY&RequestTimeout=500&tcb_code=&application_id=E0F0to8UH2ZzxNfW%2BsdSIA%3D%3D&fcc_id=X24-MOBILE-U

I have 2 MXT-400 units but being able to program scan patterns, makes the Pofeng/Bofeng/TYT/ versatile and so much more useful.  One can use the computer spreadsheet format to include all of the menu functions on the face plate buttons.  They have 200 "channels" which frequency nicknames for the display (they don't have to be 16 or RP 16 only), coding specific repeater Tone and DCS coses  (useful in mobiles), and even change the function of the PF keys.  None of these "paramaters" allow one to program outside of the box. 

 

The 400s will be standbys for now. Always on the same channel.

Cheers