AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus – Dual Band DMR/Analog 7W VHF, 6W UHF Handheld Radio w/FREE $97 Training Course – Bluetooth PTT, Digital/Analog APRS RX & TX - 500K Contacts Plus Great Support from BridgeCom!

The media could not be loaded. I picked up the 878 after only using baofengs for about 4-5 years. The learning curve is much steeper than baofengs but not impossible if you’ve already used programing software like chirp. My recommendation is download CPS (Anytones code plug software) and play around with it while you wait on your order. The class can be helpful if you’d rather just take the slow and easy option but be proficient by the end. It’s included regardless so it’s a good add-on. My main complaint is the analog reception, squelch is only able to be changed with a range of 0-9 zero being a full open and 1 being well, a bit more than you want. The issue I run into is the squelch will turn on and off somewhat randomly, not bad enough where you don’t hear anything but you will have to fill in some blanks if you’re not using a good repeater and antenna.You can and will pick up analog clearly but antenna choice is very important. A stock Baofeng UV5R will pick up whole transmissions at its stock 9/9 squelch will pickup more of an analog signal than the 878, but with that being said it is not the focus of the HT. Where it excels is battery life, audio clarity (receive and transmit) and customizability. A baofeng will allow you to put some text, the 878 does text or full color images. The 878 has 15 base button binds that can be changed in software or on the HT. APRS receive works but is significantly easier to setup on a pc. Reception for analog APRS seems to be more consistent than voice but transmission and a bit odd since it waits for dead air and if there’s someone talking when it would send it seems like it just waits again. So if you’re on a busy channel APRS may not transmit on the separate frequency, I do not have a second radio capable of verifying that it is the same for APRS on simplex voice frequencies but it seems to be better when APRS and voice are being used on the same frequency. The digital functions work as expected, I’ve made 100 mile line of sight contacts with my local repeater on trips on analog, so unless you are looking to spend about twice as much on a HT this is about as good as it gets. Any cheaper (besides the $250 blue button version) radio will feel a bit limited. Having the extra capacity to fit the whole DMR contact list is definitely worth the headache of making your own. The video attached is recorded 7 miles from a repeater in a parking garage with no direct line of sight and large concrete buildings between as well. Does not show the cutting in and out analog can do but that should show how picky I am about it. Build quality 9/10 analog reception 7/10 Audio quality/max volume 10/10 start up wait time for a DMR HT 9.5/10 Learning curve for new HAMs 6/10 (without using the included course) over all 8/10 for analog use 9/10 for DMR

Love this radio! If you use the programming software it is easy to setup. Watch videos on YouTube. You will have no problems. Many hours of fun.

Great radio for the money. Like any hand held, it need a better antenna for better performance

Very good radio for someone who is interested in DMR and analog at the same time. This radio has a lot of features that work well.

This is a pretty complex piece of equipment, especially if you don't already have a good understanding of radios yet. This is the radio that motivated me to go out and get my Hams license, so I thought I'd buy this while I was going through the courses. I tried to set up DMR with the video from Bridgecom, but the first step in getting a DMR ID is to enter your FCC call sign, so I can't even set it up yet, even just to listen. I have been dabbling with cheap Baofeng radios for years (just listening) and I am familiar with scanning and entering frequencies in manually in VFO mode, but I wasn't able to get any frequencies to work on the Anytone, transmit or receive, even the NOAA weather radio, station, which broadcasts 24/7 and I can pick it up any where, with any other radio. So I don't know if there is a problem with it or if its just something in the settings, but I couldn't get it to work. I need to finish my course so I have a good understating of radios in general, before trying again, to set up a complex radio like this. I didn't want to let my return period run out before I able to set up the radio and know if its working or not, so I returned it. I will probably buy it again once I'm through with my courses. I think its a good product, but I didn't have any luck with it.

I'm an IT guy of over 35 years, and I learned things quickly. This is the craziest radio to try to learn to program it set up, and I haven't even gotten to the DMR yet. I'm just trying to set it up for analog, GMRS, repeaters, etc.. however I worked with a friend of mine and once we figured this baby out it was nice. It has awesome features and options - APRS, GPS, configurable roger beep sounds, and options out the wazoo. The digital is superb! I am loving it ... that is until today!I woke up this morning and pulled it out of the desktop charger and turned it on ... my daily routine. Only this time I get a message "Book Empty!"Nothing worked right when I tried to select Zones or change channels ... it came back up with this error. I tried resetting to factory and dumping the codeplug to it again. Same thing. It's basically useless now, and I've only had it running for maybe 3 months!!!SUPPORT: non-existentI tried contacting AnyTone ... they will allow you to eMail, but no phone support or assistance, and if you did call them it's in CHINA!!! Would I get it again? Probably not ...I have a very small tolerance for things that fail easily.When this was working, it was awesome, great sound, works superb with the bluetooth features, and APRS was spectacular. The configuration choices are phenominal. BUT ... if it doesn't work, all of these are placebo ... empty, useless.DO NOT BUY ONE.