Leixen VV-898 UHF/VHF Dual Band Mobile Two-Way Radio

Radio works great only real issues are...
1. the radio wants to pair on com 4 but it attaches to com 3. After a bunch of button pushing com 4 opened up and the radio attached.
2. When you down load to the radio it switches to vfo mode and appears nothing was down loaded. To see down load you have to switch to mem mode and chose the band you down loaded too.

It is a very hard radio to program and it dose not play well with Chirp. I have program hundreds of Radios and this one is not good!

I had a lot of problems programming this radio with the software. The section on disabling/enabling the receiver/transmitter was mis-leading. Once I figured it out on the bench and programmed it, it worked great for two days in the car. The autopsy showed the problem to be was a burned out DC power switch driver. Bypassing the driver switch, the radio was still shorted... Tossed it in the trash.. :-(

Its a 10 watt duplex capable radio. Easy channel selection from Mic. I suggest native software as I encountered issues with chirp. My primary use is 2 meter ham. 10 watts ample for repeater use. The only concern is the internal 3 volt lithium button battery. Be sure to keep backup of programming on your pc as the internal battery is for keeping memory. Fantastic for stealth install.. Ke7ajg

I communicate to the staff, Not to happy about the programing, do you have an online training video?

I use this radio for check in to a 2 meter net, once a week. It works well for that.

Hobbie

Nothing but a ham radio will not work with two way vhf radio

I love this two way radio. Highly recommend it. Its clear high sound and not tinny sounding unlike some of the other offered else where. Shipment was supper fast. Definitely would buy from again. super deal !!

The first radio failed and I returned it and got a replacement. Recently, the replacement also failed and was returned for repair I dont recomend it.

Bought this as I have a very small compact car and needed it to fit in a small space. Been approx 2 years without a problem, use it daily. Have a 5/8 wave dual band antenna.

Low audio. I increased the port size on the microphone, which seems to help. At 10 watts, it is better suited for local repeater use.

I could not get the radio to program manually and that is very important if someone needs to do so plus it will probably get hot if used for long periods of time

Bought one for in the house, and the other is in my compact car.

I have this radio, it worked for just about 37 days and just froze up. I managed to do a factory reset and it worked for another 2 days. Before it froze again. I suppose if you wanted to do a factory reset every time you wanted to change repeaters this radio could work for you.

Gift for grandson

I purchased this little rig a few months ago. I pack it in a small bag with a 5 amp power supply and a small mag mount antenna. I stick the mag mount on the roof of a rental or a curtain rod in motel room and off we go. Radio can be programmed manually or (easier) via a small laptop using CHIRP. I specifically ordered the 10 watt low power unit, for several reasons. 1, can be run off an small SLAB, and 2, power supply is smaller, lighter. If you need more range a high gain antenna would help. I have used mine in the hills of PA and had no problem getting in several repeaters with good signal reports. A nice features is that I programmed all the WX , several MURS and GMRS frequencies. I do have a portable handheld that is legal on these frequencies if I need to use them. The little mag mount antenna has a BNC connector and with an add adapter it can be used on both radios if needed. I have not had the problems that some users have reported, it worked right out of the box. Overall I am very pleased with this little rig. Rudio

I bought this radio as a back up to use around the shack. It's been nothing but trouble. The radio came with a scratched up face. I was told it must have skipped quality control. Upon using the radio I found it had an intermittent transmit issue and problems with power. The radio kept dropping the repeater. Keep in mind this wasn't happening with other rigs. When I went to return it I was told it would have to be tested and the problem duplicated in order to receive a refund. That is after they hit you with a 15 to 20 percent restock fee. You also have to cover shipping. Bottom line buy at own risk because the company doesn't care about supporting this radio. I was also told that most hams are dishonest and don't know how to program radio properly.

I live in a very rural part of the country so noise is not a problem for any radio. The local 6 or 7 repeaters are all within 10 miles and the radio works quite well. I originally bought this radio for playing with some of the FM satellites as the specifications on the receiver are quite good. I have not yet tried to use it for the intended purpose but am quite satisfied with its performance.

i bought this radio from this company as a brand new ham in the last 9 month's i have had to send it in 3 times it just quit's tx & rx and i have been through 2 hand mics the radio stay's on my desk its not in a car out in the weather its not even moved once i programmed them i'm on my 2nd radio the company will just send you another if its with in the original year and you can not pay extra to up grade to a better radio they have your money there keeping it DO NOT BUY THIS RADIO YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY.

I am new to Ham and purchased one of these basically due to the low cost. I can hit every repeater within 40 miles and a couple others out to 70 miles. The TX audio is good and all of my contacts report good clean RX audio. I have this hooked up in my truck with a TRAM 1181 fender mount antenna and I am very pleased with this little radios performance.

junk

I have only had this short time and have not used it mobile. I live in a rule setting with low noise. I bought it for its reported sensitive receiver for satellite work and was not disappointed. It can be easily program with chirp. I had no luck with the supplied program disk. The mic feels a bit cheap but works very well with good audio reports. I suspect a similar Kenwood mic might work but that mic cost more than this radio delivered. The manual programing is a bit tricky the first few times but the process is easily learned. I am running it on a bench power supply in a rule setting so I can't say how it will work in a high noise setting. The audio is a bit flat but not too bad with the internal speaker. With an external it is very good. The audio level is very loud and has a smooth response from minimum to max. The TX audio reports have all been positive. It draws very little power. I can only speak for myself. Being in a rule setting with low noise. If you are looking for a low cost radio or upgrading from an HT you will not be disappointed for the price. I would defiantly buy it again and probably will for a backup and as a duel setup for satellite work. It was shipped promptly and delivered double boxed. It arrived in an excellent condition. Customer service was excellent. Joe KA9UCN

Seems like it might be refurbished seals broke screen has some small scratches, I'm going to take the loss and sell it locally not happy. But hey whatever. It powers up but it beeps and don't make a sound until key it again kerchunking is not good. So I'll save up for a better radio before I transmit again. 73 K0CEL

no

software & data cable would not run on my window 7 laptop ,tried 3 diff comp. with no luck . Can"t comment on the radio because I have not been able to use it

As a Law Enforcement Officer it give me the opportunity to cover ept. Freq. with ease. The mic audio was a little low but was corrected by use of a Kenwood KMC35 mic. Just plug and play. It works great on the GMRS repeaters as well.

It is my base station.

* Best for 2 meter and 70 cm * Small and compact * No knobs, all pushbuttons

Use it every day and it is as good as radios costing three times as much. Hits all the repeaters in my area and audio always gets full quieting reports.

I just passed the test for my tech license and wanted a mobile radio and to not break the bank so i bought this one and have been very impressed by it no it does not have all the fancy stuff on it and programming manually is impossible but download the software and its pretty easy for a beginner. and i bought it with a free tramm antenna.

Nice small size that could easily fit in any hard to fit in car or compact. Very hard to follow the directions with the accompanying booklet both for software install and manual install. I called Cricket's 800 number and a gentlemen by the name of Patrick was kind enough to spend time with me and get it up and running. I would certainly buy from these guys again. Lousy booklet with the product...great tech support!

Good little mobile radio especially if you are tight on space in a small car or Jeep. It is low on power I guess especially compared to most other mobile units, but I'm still able to hit all of the local repeaters. If you ever really needed more power you could hook up an amplifier. I only gave it 4 stars because of it's low power output. It should also be noted that you can get a Kenwood TM-281 for about the same price but it's not quite as compact. IMO they need to drop the price about another 50 dollars. The programing software is easy enough to use but to program the radio by hand without the software is very time consuming.