Puxing PX-888K – First Impressions
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August 2, 2012 - Posted by Hans | Amateur Radio, HAM Gear, HAM Radio | Puxing PX-888K, Review
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About me
I’m just one of the many radio amateurs in the world and live in Almere, the Netherlands. I started building transmitters at the age of 8 and this hobby stayed with me ever since. I love to use and maintain classic equipment such as the FT-901, the FT-7B and the FT-225RD.
Currently most of my spare time is spent on acquiring and reviewing the latest radios from Chinese origin.
Common monitor frequencies:
- 144.5125 (simplex FM)
- 145.6625 (PI3ZDM repeater, -600KHz shift)
- 430.2875 (PI2FLD repeater, +1.6MHz shift)
- 14.178 MHz, USB
- 28.520 MHz, all modes
73′s,
Hans / PD0AC
Note: I maintain this blog in English. Please bear in mind that English is not my native language, so mistakes are inevitable. Comments on spelling and/or grammar are always welcome. I’m willing to learn.
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Thank you for this review! I have one of these on order and am looking forward to try it out.
Push and hold the ENTER button. This will give you the dual display.
Hi John,
thanks. I’ll have a look at it tomorrow!
[...] View the original article here Posted in Amateur Articles | Tags: First, Impressions, Puxing, PX888K, Review [...]
Pingback by Review Puxing PX-888K Part I – First Impressions | Banbury Amateur Radio Society | August 2, 2012 |
Hi, man thanks for the review!
Did you try the radio with some other antennas (NA-666 or NA-701)? How do they compare to the stock antenna?
Also I tried the NA-666 with a weierwei vev-v16 and it doesn’t seem to screw fully (there is a tiny gap at the base). Is it also the case with the PX-888k?
Oh man, you’re way ahead of me. I didn’t try that yet, and it will take a while before I have the time to take a look at that.
Thanks for an interesting review I am looking forward for part 2!
Waiting for Chirp to include support for Px-888K
http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home
I’m waiting for part 2
There are so many writeups and reviews on Baofeng UV-5R that I start to feel
Puxing is a dying product and I’m surprised that you bought the PX-888K.
My PX-777 UHF is a nice HT, love the encoder knob, hence making it more user
friendly than Baofeng UV-5R. I’m at a loss whether to get the new UV-5R or stick
with my PX-777?
Testing and buying/owning various HT’s are two different things
I must confess though that I kinda collect HT’s.
The PX-777 is a mono band trx, the UV-5R is dual band. Owning both isn’t such a bad idea. Both have their strengths and weaknesses,
I am surprised the px-888K hasn’t had a bigger following. It seems to have slipped under the radar. I think it is a fabulous radio. They haven’t (puxing) been coming out with new radios on a (seems like) monthly basis like other makers have. Also, they are slow to get on the FCC approval bandwagon, although the PX-888k does have fcc approval. I’ve been doing writeups and stuff on the px-888k; but it takes a while for web propagation.
There’s a lot to like about the PX-888K. The poor TX audio is a shame. If I decide to keep this one, I’ll have to look into mods for sure.
Next week I will finish the review, which was delayed by unforeseen circumstances. This will include spectrum analysis.
All I noticed on the px-888k audiowise is it seemed to be a bit bassy. Otherwise, it seemed fine. Loud enough, clear enough. I am very interested on the spectrum analysis.
For part 2 of the review on PX-888k, would you be making comparison against Baofeng UV-5R too?
Hello! Nice review! Thanks a bunch.
I have the Puxing 358 which is very similar in the menu interface and feel of a yaesu ft-60 or such.
Definitely will consider trying this one too. Most of these Chinese manufactured radios are awesome, you can’t beat the price. 2 of my top favorite things about them is: 1 the outstanding battery life. Days of just listening/scanning, and hours of talk time. And 2: the nice amount of audio output. You just have to crack the volume on these a little ways and you will have plenty enough in a normal environment. Even in the car I have used them on local repeaters and some icom/yaesu radios die quickly and you have to turn them all the way up putting more strain on the radio.
Thanks again!
-Tom
Does the MDC1200 work?
I have no equipment to test this.
The PX-888K does NOT have mdc-1200. It uses an MSK databurst, which is not compatible.
Hello and good day!
I am also fortunate enough to have two Puxing PX-888K. In manual programming work alls well. Also the Software programming is good so far and cann even at 5-tone encode / decode with professional Motorola PMR communicate. But if I want to program the frequency by software, the last 3 digits are always converted only zeros. So instead of 439.225 MHz, 439.000 always appears. Similarly, the saved file on your computer, the call appears again with three zeros.
Maybe someone knows the problem or a solution?
The following components are used:
- I used Windows XP (64bit), together with suitable USB driver.
(About the Win7 computer is unfortunately no port access to the radio)
- The software I use PX 888_UV
Greeting Bruno
Hi Bruno,
I didn’t test that yet, but there’s a chance that the problem is similar to the one I experienced with the Baofeng BF-480 software. Try (temporarily) to set your local Windows settings to USA instead of European. In the case of the Baofeng software, the problem was caused by the fact that we use commas instead of periods (and vice versa) when we write down numbers.
After I changed the settings on one of my computers, the problem was gone.
Hi Hans, Thanks for the tip!
Indeed, the acquisition of the decimal point on standard U.S. to respond.
I will envisage this solution times and try!
So far I could feststetzen with a trick between PC programming and manual setting the frequencies.
Though I can not read the data correctly from the PX-888K on the computer but then goes back post only to said source of error.
Once I habem the results, I’ll post them!
Hi Bruno, use this software: http://www.maintradingcompany.com/main/page_downloads.html
Marian
Puxing still haven’t fixed the muffled audio problem!
Unbelievable. It makes me wonder if they care at all.
Evidently not.
Thanks for the great review.
I have a single band 888 (VHF). When trying to program via the supplied software, the comport setup box only allows me to select between Comports 1 and 3. Comports 2 and 4 do show up in the setup box but are dimmed or greyed out and cannot be selected. But on my computer my 4 USB ports are numbered 5 to 8. Anybody got any suggestions??
Hey guys I just bought a puxing px-888k and it won’t pick up channels in Australia I am wondering if anyone out there can help me out