Wouxun KG-UVD1P Dual Band Radio Review

Grabbing the radio should feel about the same as the old UV-3D, but it doesn’t. Gone is the curved side with the PTT button that helped it stand out and up from the side. This causes me to drape my index finger right over the top of the battery release, which is just not that comfortable. It also confuses my hand, making me want to slide my finger back and try to press the battery release instead. That, in case you were wondering, doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t help that the PTT is smaller now and almost exactly the same size and shape as the battery release.

Other than that, the Wouxun KG-UVD1P is not a bad size radio. It fits in my large hands pretty well, with the clip disappearing in my palm.

One improvement over the UV-3D is the buttons on the front of the radio. The top two: A/B and TDR, now press easily and have a nice positive click. The keypad buttons feel better too, although for some reason they are actually smaller than the ones on the UV-3D. Yes, the faceplate is narrower allowing for less space, but my quandary is why they did that in the first place.

Twisting the knobs of the Wouxun KG-UVD1P shows they paid attention to these at least. The center knob has nice positive clicks as it rotates, but not enough to make it difficult to move a lot when you need to. The volume and power knob on the right is smooth and has just enough resistance.

A complaint I had with the UV-3D was that the speaker area protruded out above the LCD, making it hard to see the LCD when sitting upright on your desk at certain angles. This is not an issue with the Wouxun KG-UVD1P, as the LCD is now flush with the rest of the radio. With the LCD in the middle of the radio instead of at the top you still have a little less viewability than you would otherwise, but it isn’t bad at all.

This radio uses the standard 1A17KG-3 1700mAh battery pack, which is one of the few battery packs I have tested that has more mAh than it is rated for. I also like the way it clips in with two spring-loaded releases at the top left and right. Pull the releases down and back, the battery falls off. To reinstall, just set the bottom three pins in their respective holes, push the battery on until it clicks, done. Fast and simple.

The LCD on the Wouxun KG-UVD1P is typical of most of Wouxun’s radios, very functional, fairly easy to read, with a good backlight. Nothing special but completely serviceable.

The Wouxun KG-UVD1P is compatible with CHIRP, making it easy and fast to program. I use my same old Baofeng programming cable I bought with my first UV-5R years ago and it works perfectly. Of course, you can program the radio right from the front panel with its Baofeng like menu structure. Where it shines is that you can use the center knob at the top to scroll through the menu and menu options at high speed, making this task far easier than a lot of radios.

In the box with the radio is an above average manual, that still suffers from some poor translations, antenna, belt clip, battery, lanyard, and a really nice dual charger capable of charging the radio and battery in the front port, and a separate battery in the second port. Really nice.

Performance:

Most antennas that come with radios pretty much stink, this one is the exception. Looking at the antenna test for the Wouxun KG-UVD1P shows it is actually quite good at 2m, and average or slightly below average for 70cm. If, like most people, you primarily use 2m, then you will have little need to replace the stock antenna.

Power output reflects the same thing, with a generous 4.5 watts on 2m and 2.5 watts on 70cm. When you look at that power on the spectrum analysis, you see a little frequency shift right after keying up, but that quickly sorts itself out into a reasonably clean and stable signal.

The audio transmitted by the Wouxun KG-UVD1P is quite good as well, so you should have no problem being heard, and understood.

Images:

Radio Specifics:

Test Images:

• Dual bands, dual display, dual standby
• DTMF encode and decode
• Alphanumeric channel names
• CTCSS/DCS scan
• VOX and SOS
• Flashlight
• Digital FM radio
• Wide/Narrow bandwidth selection
• Priority scan
• 50 groups CTCSS, 105 Groups CCTCSS
• Water-resistant IP55

I like the dual LEDs on top and the fact that they fixed the button issues from the KG-UV3D which drove me crazy. It radio claims to be IP55 waterproof, which is an oxymoron since water “proof” means water can not get in, and yet IP55 is only limited to dust and spraying water, not submersion. It should protect you from problems if you get caught in the rain, but if you fall in the pool you are out of luck.

Conclusions

Would I recommend this radio? No. Not because it is necessarily bad, because actually it is a pretty good radio. The problem is the Wouxun KG-UVD1P is just too much money for what you get. There are much better value propositions out there. Heck, some of the new super-cheap Baofeng radios have improved menu structures and GPS for less than half of what this radio costs.

If you got one as a present or found a great deal on a used one, awesome! Use it and enjoy. You might not want to spend your hard-earned cash on it though.

Here are some reviews of the Wouxun KG-UVD1P!