AnyTone AT-778UVII Transceiver Mobile Radio Dual Band 25W VHF/UHF VOX Vehicle Car Radio w/Cable

This is an inexpensive mobile unit, so know that going in and you'll probably like it. I was going back and forth on whether to get this or the 5888UV or just leave my TD-H8 hooked up in the truck. In the end I wanted a real mobile mostly for the buttons on the mic, and the better speaker in the unit. Also nice to have one less battery that might decide to melt down one day while I'm charging it. I have not gotten a chance to test this too much but here are some first impressions.The good: Easy to program. If you can program a handheld in Chirp then you can program this. Not sure what people are talking about with the volume control, I set my knob to change volume instead of channel in Chirp and it works fine. I have to push a button to switch channels with the knob now, but I mostly just use the keypad or up/down on the mic for that anyway. Seems to work quite well so far. I have to explore the menus some more but it looks like it has a lot of configuration options without hooking it to a computer.The bad: Only 6 characters for channel name? Disappointing, even cheap handhelds usually support 7-8. I have to rename a bunch of things now to make sure I can use it effectively. Screen gets hit with glare easily and makes it difficult to read, but I think mounting it at a good angle can solve this for me. Right now it's just sitting in front of my shifter while I test it out. Also what is this mic clip? It's not the standard clip I was expecting (and already have a mount for on the dash), so I'll be looking for a replacement or something I can make. I snagged one off my scanner temporarily... it's a little low on the mic body and sits tight in the mount so it might not be great long term. The mic cable could also be a little longer, but it's not a big deal.All in all I'm happy with it for the price. The others I looked at in this price range didn't seem like a good buy to me and I've heard good things about Anytone units. I'll put it through its paces and probably eventually get a 50w unit for the truck. This one is so tiny I'd like to set it up for portable use. I'm thinking I can get some quick disconnects for the power cable and take it with me in a backpack with a slim jim antenna. Maybe I can run it off a jump pack or small lithium battery, have to see what the voltage drop looks like while transmitting but I think it should be fine.

The unit has a nice, crystal-clear sound. I have it hooked up to my dual-band J-Pole antenna at my QTH; I plan to bring it to my property with thick, deep wood just to see how well it can hit a 2M meter that is about 10 - 15 miles away from my property. I have not performed any out-of-band testing. Transmitting on 25-watt will get hot after a couple of hours of usage; I think that is OK. You can use CHIRP to program the unit. Overall, I will purchase it again!

This Anytone radio fits perfectly in my little Honda, and its color screen, while on the smallish side, is bright and perfectly readable. It has a great sound through my attached Bearcat external speaker, and I am perfectly readable to other hams on our repeater.My only criticism of the radio is the delay in exiting some commands; for example, if I press the A/B button, it stays in the A/B mode for about 10 seconds - if I immediately attempt to change channels using up/down keys on the remote, the unit treats that as an A/B command and simply switches back and forth between the two bands. While you can immediately exit the function delay by pressing the "Func" button on the radio, I found I can also exit by pressing the "*" key on the microphone. All in all, I think it's a great little radio once you figure out its eccentricities.

I'm giving this five stars because it's so inexpensive compared to "fancier brands" like Icon, Yaesu, and Kenwood. I have a more expensive Yaesu, and I prefer this radio over it in many ways. However, it's not perfect. Since I gave it five stars, let me focus on what I do NOT like, so you'll know what you are getting:1) The controls are a bit clunky, specifically the lack of a dedicated volume control. I miss the smooth analog volume on my Yaesu. That said, it's not terrible - just push the designated button, spin the click knob to adjust the volume, then press function if you want to go back to using that knob for changing channels. I use this as a base station, so no big deal. If I were mobile, I'd be a bit more irritated with the extra steps.2) Audio is "cheaper" than more expensive radios. Again, not a big deal, since you're not using this to listen to classical music, but it's noticeable. I wouldn't call it bad audio, it just lacks warmth.3) Squelch tail is more noticeable, as a very short burst of static. My other radio does a better job suppressing this.4) According to the meter, everything is S9, even when it isn't. Since I usually work a local repeater, not a big deal, but if you're using this for simplex or DX, don't count on the signal strength meter to give you reliable feedback.5) Slow scan mode. I wouldn't even bother using this as a scanner, as it's too slow. My humble Baofeng HT is much faster than this.Otherwise, I love it! Check out all the reviews on YouTube, as this is a popular radio. All the reports I've gotten from other operators say my signal and audio is great, so it's doing the job, and for the fraction of the cost of radios with a fraction of the features!