Home Radioddity QT80 HF Radio Review

[Pez]

Ok, Here's my take, Long Story Long
The QT80 is a neat little bugger. I will keep it. I am glad to be back on HF in any capacity after being off for a couple of years. I'm on a budget. Couldn't spend a lot right now. Will continue to save up and get an IC 7300 when I can and put my 80M Loop back up to go along with the 10-11M Vertical.
The Price Was Right for this rig and the 15 meter Gift is cool. The audio could be more punchy but very many Export Rigs benefit from power mics anyway. I'll send for the Adapter tomorrow and use my D104.

I assume you are specifically talking about AM modulation when you mention "punchy" audio? The QT80 will give you a very clean, textbook 100% modulation on AM, but it will not do any super-swinging AM stuff that lots of folks in the USA love - it's not how it was designed. It does textbook (HAM style, 100% modulated) AM well.

FYI - The AM "NPC" menu option was an experiment, designed to provide more "swing" and "punchy" audio that does not work very well. In practice, enabling this option will clip (remove) the negative peaks in AM mode, and it ONLY does this when the RF power level control is set BELOW level 20. This will give you more "swing" at lower power levels, at the expense of higher IMD (less spectral purity / more bleeding into adjacent channels.) I do not recommend using the NPC feature because I like it clean. But feel free to test the NPC menu option out for yourself.

SSB and FM TX audio is generally regarded as excellent, with plenty of on-board headroom for adjustments.

Would have been nice if they made the AM Power 50 watts to match the FM.

4:1 ratio . A 20w AM carrier, producing 80w PEP with modulation is a 100% modulated AM signal. Textbook for a 80w radio!.

I will mostly be DX'ing with the QT80 on 10, 11 & 12 SSB where it's doing 100 watts and there is more ability to make contacts.
I'd like to thank everyone kindly for all their reviews and help.
73

I hope you enjoy the new rig and welcome back to the bands!

73

 

[Wire Weasel]

I've got a total of two hours on mine and it's back in the box and for sale. It's no where near the radio the Stryker 955 is. Some folks love these, I don't.

I hear that ...... well I don't think these radios are pretending to be 955's. Perhaps the best things are the Price Point and the 15 Meter Gift.

 

[Greg T]

I hear that ...... well I don't think these radios are pretending to be 955's. Perhaps the best things are the Price Point and the 15 Meter Gift.

They ARE a very good radio for the price. Someone wanting to get into a bit more sophistication could not go wrong with these.

 

[Wire Weasel]

4-Pin Cobra/Uniden wired to 6-Pin Magnum Delta Force/Anytone AT-6666 Pro | Scott's Radios

Working well on New Anytone AT-6666 Pro and New President Washington Radios. Use your 4 Pin Cobra Microphone on a 6 Pin Delta Force Radio with this adapter I did test on a President Lincoln 2+ with an Astatic 878DM desk microphone and no issues were found when using this adapter cable. No...

www.scottsradios.com

Standard 4-Pin Cobra/Uniden to RCI Ranger 6-Pin | Scott's Radios

This adapter is perfect for those who want to use a 4-pin Cobra or Uniden CB microphone with a 6-pin RCI Ranger radio. With its compatibility with Ranger and its 6-pin and 4-pin connectivity, you can easily use your favorite microphone without any problems. The adapter is specifically designed...

www.scottsradios.com

So anywho I just ordered this Adapter from Scotts. Not many peeps seem to be carrying them. Wallcott has one with a 6 inch cord extender to it for twice the price ..... so I'm getting this Standard Adapter from Scott's ..... despite the fact that his website does not indicate In Stock or not nor does he post a phone number for contact ...... who TF Business doesn't have a phone number?

 

[Wire Weasel]

Made some good contacts today on the QT80. Upper bands opened up nicely to the west this afternoon. CA & ORE on 10 then got on the Daily HF Activities Net on 24.970 at 19:30. Worked XE1DJL in Mexico, W3FF Net Controller in CA and the famous Mr. Roger in New Zealand, ZL1XR !! all on about 50 watts into the antenna. Yay

hfqso.com | HF Radio Activity Group

hfqso.com

 

[Moleculo]

While testing power levels thru the bands - just now seeing that mine is not 21~31 straight thru. It jumps from 21.500 up to 24.715. Not that I have any use for that area .... still thought it was supposed to be straight thru? Anyone else seeing this?

The band coverage is not continuous. The 15m mod opens up just 15m as you found out.

 

[AudioShockwav]

So anywho I just ordered this Adapter from Scotts. Not many peeps seem to be carrying them. Wallcott has one with a 6 inch cord extender to it for twice the price ..... so I'm getting this Standard Adapter from Scott's ..... despite the fact that his website does not indicate In Stock or not nor does he post a phone number for contact ...... who TF Business doesn't have a phone number?

He has it posted on his YouTube page, he isn't a full time radio shop it's a second job so to speak.
Here is a screenshot

73
Jeff

 

[Justin B.]

I bought one of these from Scott's Radio in January of this year. It's a great little radio and I get great reports from contacts. I have it in my pickup with a 10M "Ham-Stick" type antenna (MFJ) on a hitch mount along with an ATU-100 tuner. I have talked coast-coast on 10 M and I have also stored all 40 CB channels in case I need to check road related stuff when traveling.

In my opinion this has got to be the "best-buy" of this class of rig. Until reading this review I didn't know about moving the jumper to enable 15M so as soon as I get motivated I will do that. With this type of frequency spread I need to get a screwdriver type antenna so I don't have to pull over and swap antennas.

 

[AudioShockwav]

I bought one of these from Scott's Radio in January of this year. It's a great little radio and I get great reports from con
,.........

With this type of frequency spread I need to get a screwdriver type antenna so I don't have to pull over and swap antennas.

I run a AT-200 Pro with a CRT 9900V4 on 10-12 with no issues, you tuner should handle 15 with a little reduced efficiency.

73
Jeff

 

[Mudfoot]

I run a AT-200 Pro with a CRT 9900V4 on 10-12 with no issues, you tuner should handle 15 with a little reduced efficiency.

73
Jeff

He'd have to disable the built-in SWR protection. That's what got me.

 

[AudioShockwav]

He'd have to disable the built-in SWR protection. That's what got me.

I forgot about that... I thought they released a patch for the swr in the last software.

73
Jeff

 

[Moleculo]

I forgot about that... I thought they released a patch for the swr in the last software.

73
Jeff

There's a setting to turn the SWR protection on/off

 

[Justin B.]

I'll have to see if I can find that. Right now if I switch to a freq that's not real close I have to "sneak up" on it!

 

[Mudfoot]

I still believe this is the best export radio I've ever owned. Haven't grown tired of using it yet.

 

[Wire Weasel]

It's a great 100W SSB radio for the money - but if you need good loud blasting AM as well ..... ya gotta pick something else.