Ok, a couple of quick observations…
I think the TX audio may not be up to many people’s standards, but I have to install it in my car and try it from the road. I think this may be the biggest complaint people might have about this radio.
It doesn’t seem to have much (if any) audio drive. It does have some VRs for ALC and AMC, but I would be very cautious about turning them. These pots are delicate and I don’t think you will see much improvement by messing with them. I think this radio is at its potential as it comes.
Volume doesn’t go low enough for my liking. A volume setting on ‘01’ is still too loud. ‘00’ will mute the audio completely. I have found this issue on other Chinese radios. Probably not so noticeable in a mobile installation.
I will say that the “AI NR” seems to be much better than the “NR” (it has both forms of noise reduction, but only one can be used at a time). The NR adds the usual “watery” sound, but the AI NR really reduces the band noise and still allows the RX audio to come in well. I am actually impressed with that feature. I am running it at ‘9’ and it reduces the white noise significantly, but still passes readable audio without that weird digital effect. The band is pretty dead this evening, but there is occasional skip coming in, and it does ok with that.
It has 3 power output levels. My Ameritron AWM-30B shows around a 2 watt/4 watt/ 6 watt carrier on the various levels. PEP seems to be around 15 watts on the highest setting. Seems like it might be a good driver for a KL-203.
The RX sensitivity seems pretty good, but most new radios have decent RX sensitivity these days. It hears what my other radios hear, and with that AI NR, it’s actually a better copy than my other radios on those weak signals.
The internal speaker is pretty small (as is the radio), so the radio can really benefit from an external speaker.
My radio has an odd jumper wire stretching across the circuit board between two surface mount components. Some sort of bodge job I guess. One of the MOSFETS doesn’t seem to have any thermal compound on it. It might be a driver ? I don’t know, but the final has compound and a sil pad. More knowledgeable folks will figure out what’s going on there.
I own an Anytone AT-5000. The LT-310SDR is no AT-5000. Don’t expect $200-400 performance out of this little radio.
Again, I need to squeeze a small radio into a tight cubby in my car. This is probably the radio for that. I am willing to accept mediocrity in exchange for size.
