AnyTone AT-778UV Dual Band Transceiver Mobile Radio VHF/UHF Ham Radio for Vehicle Car Radio

Love this radio but it's keypad locked up recently. Mic keys (except ptt) work but nothing on the unit works. Does anyone know of a place I can send this for repair? I tried to factory reset via the software etc. But no luck. This is my main home desk 2m/440 radio used on 5 watts 90% of the time with a mag mount dual band antenna on my metal frame large box fan. SWR adjusted down to 1:1. KF6YKM since late 90's. Any info appreciated.Ham since 99 - Advanced Class License - This is a REAL dual band radio in the same ballpark as the big boys. The COLOR screen is phenomenal: Full of info and very colorful which really makes it a pleasure to operate. Operation and programming is easy and simple. I ordered the cable but not felt the need for it. Others have complained about the DTMF functions. It has them but since I don't use them it doesn't affect me. It offers dual watch altho I don't really use that either. Power is nice. 5-15-25 watts. And changeable on the fly. I am repeater guy so 5 watts on a indoor j-pole is fine. I also tested it on a 1/4 wave dual band mag mount on my older fan with a metal case and works nicely as well. For $120 this little rig can't be beat. I did not read the manual at all. (it is a bit rough.) Went on youtube, watched a fellow show how to program / use it and voila! Easy. Has a logical menu system layout and intuitive interface. It feels like a rugged rig. I have had two other "mobile" style Chinese rigs. The first was was okay for $60 but hard to program manually. The second I ordered recently ($80) and returned. No transmit audio. Three bands - 2m, 220 and 440. I could key the repeaters up but no audio came thru. I tested locally with my HT's and true. No output audio. Returned it here to Amazon. It was tough to program manually as well altho CHIRP supports it and made it much easier. Often I like to program on the fly and this AnyTone rig is easy for that. BTW, CHIRP so far does not support this little rig BUT it has it own downloadable software. Not tried it but looked at it. Looks capable enough. Okay, bottom line - how does it sound: Speaker audio out is nice and clear and loud. Some have complained it takes two keys to adjust volume and squelch and that is true. I don't find it a big deal as the keys are next to the multi function rotary dial. Thumb press and turn. Voila. Had a buddy of mine check the audio on a repeater and reported it sounded good, loud and crisp. Can't ask for anything better. I had a feeling it would sound fine as I used it simplex here with the granddaughters helping and it worked and sounded fine. This rig is semi wide banded so working on MURS and GMRS is possible. Of course stay within legal guidelines and make sure your antenna is tuned for those bands. GMRS 10 year licenses are $80 last I checked and MURS is free but keep the power low. Same with FRS. So from a non technical ham that just wants to use a good rig and hear and be heard without too much hassle to work and program, I give this rig two thumbs up.

I’ve been running this radio as a base station for about 3 years. And it’s a great little radio. Excellent performance every time I fire it up. It sounds decent on receive and I get good audio reports on transmission. Easily programmed with CHIRP and the programming cable (which was an extra purchase). Considering the performance and the price, this is the best-kept secret in ham radio. Couple it with a decent antenna and you’ll be impressed with what it can do. It takes some time to become accustomed to the controls, but you’ll come to appreciate the versatility of the menu system. If you’re on a budget and hunting for a basic VHF/UHF FM radio, this is the one.

This radio is excellent. I’ve received perfect signal reports (or as close as you can get to one) and I now have one in my car and one as my “base station” in my townhome. It pulls constant 13.7 volts, runs off of my external batteries perfectly, and is super easy to program with chirp.My car radio is connected to a magnetic mount antenna and my base station radio is connected to a j pole.The settings could be a little more descriptive and the manual could do a much better job at stating what all the settings are, especially for the shortcuts. For example, it states what the dual watch setup is but never states that it will show up as “RDW”. You have to go to the specific function number it mentions to figure that out. There are lists that people have put together for this - but that shouldn’t have been needed.This is a relatively small issue compared to the great price, ease of installation, great microphone, and overall value. The manual shortcomings isn’t enough of an issue for me to take off a whole star for it.

Update: 7/22Now that I have used the radio for a few weeks I have to say this is great little radio. At this size, power, and price, It would be hard to find anything comparable. The UI issues are easy to work around, and just like any other radio, once you know how to work it properly it is not a big deal. But the UI could use some tweaking in a future release. That said, the no DTMF thing still bothers, which keeps this radio out of 5 star territory.Update: 7/5I have had more time to go through the radio. I will retract the "sorry it had to be this one" comment. But I will leave it the rating at 3 stars. The primary reason for this is no DTMF capability. For amateur radio this is a real deal breaker. Other issues like the A/B selection were resolved once I received the programming cable and software. The company does not have the software somewhere you can actually get to it. You have to ask them for a link to download it. This seems fairly bizarre in this day and age as there seems no relevant reason why software that is specific to this radio would need to hidden from users in this way.Other things I was able to address in the software:..You can make the knob default to volume control instead of channel select. You can then just use the buttons on the mic to scroll channels. Or you can press the P6 (CH) button which will make the knob function to change channels again momentarily... Once there were several memories in place, the A/B and VFO issue seems to have gone away. I believe this is related to the Mem and VFO settings in the software. Once these are written to the radio the first time, it seems to behave properly. Out of the box the radio seems to behave like A is always a channel or memory, and B is always a VFO. In software you change both A and B to be memory based and the problems go away... I still really like the display.I will say that the company has answered every question I have asked, and in a timely manner, even if it did take 3 days to figure out how to send me the programming software. The important thing was they followed up to make sure I had it, and that they addressed it right away when I didn't. So they get kudos for good customer service.The AT-778UV is a cool, mini, dual watch, mobile radio, with some minor quirks, and the one major quirk of no DTMF. And for that it earns 4 stars.**** Original Post ****Nice to see a new radio from Anytone. Sorry it had to be this one. Sooo close! First let's start with aesthetics. It is a nice looking little radio. It would be a "micro" or "mini" class. As you can see, the radio is not much larger than the microphone. There are +'s and -'s of course. The screen is clear and bright, but it is small. I do like the menu system with the contextual P buttons. As you press the FUNC key, the P buttons change. You then press the appropriate P button for the function you need. There are additional menu options than can be accessed with a long press of the FUNC button. The menus can be adjusted to your liking from the larger main menu but I find the defaults are pretty good. There are also 4 programmable (PA-D) buttons on the microphone that can also be customized.The microphone is the Anytone type that has the A/B selection in the mic. There are 2 A/B indicators. The one near the A/B button tells you which VFO you are on. And the A/B at the top of the microphone indicates which VFO your receiving a signal on which is handy.Audio is loud and transmission is clear. The Microphone audio is bright and easily readable. Reports from a few QSO's are very good.The menu system is actually not to bad. To program a channel, go to VFO mode (more on this in a second) enter the frequency. Press FUNC and the P buttons will now change to show CDT, SFT, BND, and POW for CTCSS, Shift, Band (wide, narrow) and power. Change the parameters as needed and when adjusted accordingly, press FUNC to go back to the V/M key and hold it for a second. It will then bring up memory locations. Turn the knob to an available channel number and press V/M again.Back to that V/M thing. I can't get it to work. There are 2 modes for the radio - amateur, or professional. In the main menu (Long press of the FUNC button, FUNC MENU, press the knob to select.) under DSP you can change to CH, NM, or FRQ. (press the knob, turn to select, and press the knob again.) You are supposed to be able to press P2 (V/M) and go from memory to VFO mode. I cannot get it to consistently work. The radio appears to be stuck between amateur and pro modes. If you program a memory, put it in channel 1, then you should be able to press V/M to toggle from memories to VFO. This does not work.If I can work with the seller to resolve this problem, and if you don't need DTMF capabilities (which honestly I rarely use) then this is a pretty cool little radio. It certainly appears much less "toy" like than some of the other micro offerings. The audio is great, unlike the Baofengs which always seem to sound like you are talking in a cast iron bath tub.More to come...