Jun 27 2013

Baojie BJ-9900 dual-band mobile

Slowly but surely more Chinese mobile radios enter the market. The latest radio is made by Baojie, and if you ever owned a Yaesu FT-8800/8900 you almost can’t miss some similarities in design. The BJ-9900 appears to be the follow-up of the BJ-UV55, which is a simpler radio. Baojie didn’t make the mistake to use the inferior SO-239 connector, but used N instead. The radio is cross-band capable.

You can select nine display colors, there’s a scrambler (voice inversion), and the must-have (cough) compander. Price indication: $300 (including shipping). A review sample is on its way.

Baojie-bj-9900

General Specifications
Frequency range 136-174MHz(144-148MHz)     400-470MHz(430-440MHz)

Air band(RX):AM109-135.995MHz
Memory channels 128
Bandwidth Wide:25KHz

Narrow: 12.5KHz
PLL channel stepping 5/6.25/10/12.5/25 KHz
Operating voltage 13.8VDC±15%
Current drain Standby: Less than0.4A

Transmit: Less than 8.0A
Operate temperature range –20°C-+60°C
Weight 1200g
Dimensions 168*41.5*140mm

Transmitter
RF output power VHF 40W/20W(144MHz)

UHF 35W/20W(440MHz)
Spurious and harmonics 70dB
Modulation Wide:16K0F3E

Narrow: 11K0F3E
FM Modulation Noise Wide:45dB  Narrow: 40dB
Audio distortion Less than 3%
Frequency Stability ±2.5ppm

Receiver
Sensitivity(12dB SINAD) Wide:0.18uV Narrow:0.22 uV
Selectivity Wide:70 dB Narrow:60dB
Intermodulation Wide:70 dB Narrow:60dB
Spurious response 75dB
Audio power output 2.0W/8Ω
Frequency Stability ±2.5ppm

22 comments on “Baojie BJ-9900 dual-band mobile”

  2. N Type? Them’s scary things.
    I wonder how many will end up with an N-to-BNC or N-to-SO239 adaptor glued on the back 🙂

    • Most European rigs have N… Even mainstream ones such as Yaesu FT-7800, 88/8900.

      I prefer them over SO-239, the ground connection is much better, as it’s clamped on the connector instead of just stuffed in 🙂

      They’re not so bad if you strip each layer of the cable to the exact length specified by the manufacturer, it fits perfectly then.

    • That would be unfortunate. We’ll have to wait and see. Specs on websites are often generic and not very precise.

  5. Pingback: Baojie BJ-9900 dual-band mobile | WVHam.com

  6. Warning: The BJ-9900 has many problems including:

    -will only receiver on FM (F3E) mode instead of AM (A3E) mode on the VHF airband
    -volume cannot be turned all the way off on either the MAIN or SUB band.

    And many other issues. I’ve had sample for more than two months. It needs many changes and improvements.

    Dan…VR2HF

    • Hi Dan. Can you please be more specific about other issues? I am seriously thinking of buying one since at $250 (actual price) it seems like a very good deal…

      Also, have you (or anyone reading this) measured actual output power and harmonics suppression?

      Thanks
      Ypatios SV1QZC

  7. I tried downloading the Baojie BJ-9900 software and after installing it, I keep getting the error: “Run Time Error: ‘339’, Component ‘SYSINFO.OCX’ or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.

    Anyone have ideas on how to get this to work?

    • What Windows version are you running? 32-bits or 64-bits? If you’re running Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/2003/Vista, try the following:

      Click the Start button. At the bottom of the start menu there is a ‘Start Search’ field. Type CMD . CMD.EXE will appear at the top of the search screen.

      Right-click CMD.EXE and select ‘Run as administrator’. Select ‘Yes’ if Windows asks for permission. This will bring you to the command prompt.

      Type ‘regsvr32 c:/windows/system32/sysinfo.ocx’ (without the quotes).

      Exit the command prompt and reboot the system.

  8. BJ UV-55 I bought one. Used it for 1 day and the finals went out in it. The radio got so hot you could not touch it. Has a Pill type final and soldered to the main board and it, plus the main board bolted to the body of the radio which is the heat sink.
    I now have a very expensive BJUV55 receiver!
    Reviewing the BJ-9900 to see if I can blow another 300 bucks!

    • I just met with the sale lady, Rose, and the engineer of Baojie here in Hong Kong at the Globalsources Electronics Show. They admit there are still many, many hardware and software problems with this radio. Now we shall see if they will fix them or leave the radio as-is. I am not hopeful. Even if they fix some or all of the problems the radio is still not very “ham friendly” with features we have come to expect from the mainstream manufacturers such as Yaesu, Icom. Alinco and Kenwood.

    • Have on my desk a BJ-UV55 from a friend who doesn’t have any output on 2m at all, but 440 is ok. After three times sending back to them with him paying the shipping cost, they keep telling him it’s ok. Was hoping to see if anyone answer yours. Haven’t found a print to help me troubleshoot it. N8QMU@arrl.net

  11. I have a baojie bj9900 and every now and then it emits a very high (loud) pitched whistle!! very odd indeed. radio appears to be ok, shame the volume button turns the squelch button too.

    • This is an ongoing problem with random oscillations in the receivers. I’ve pointed out this issue to the engineer at Baojie, but they have done nothing to fix it. It may well be due to an inherent design flaw. The BJ-9900 has many!

  12. So I just picked up one of these BJ9900’s as a spare, loaner, portable base station. Programming it by hand was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, just have to do each VFO separately. I also have 2 Yaesu FT-8800R’s. One in each car. Definitely some “queues borrowed” from that radio.

    Honestly all things considered, I only really have 2 gripes with it. Seems like the insertion power for the CTCSS tone is too high and it can be heard on the audio of the transmit side of a repeater. I haven’t tried simplex yet to hear the tone for myself. But a friend across town listened to my TX on the input side of the repeater and ran it through some kind of analyzer. He says it’s 100Hz. Thats the PL of that particular repeater.

    Anyone know if there’s a pot in the radio some place that I can turn the PL injection power down?

    Second. The radio has a TNC port on the back, apparently for show. Anybody gotten it to work? I am working on some APRS projects for use mainly with my 8800R radios.

    I know this is an old thread, but got some knowledgable people here. Thanks all.

    — J

    • The DTMF keypad mic is junk, the audio drops out while your talking and they dont offer any other mics that will fit this radio

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