AnyTone AT-D868UV UHF and VHF DMR radio is now here!

Visit to AnyTone in China on 10/26/17

I had the opportunity to pay a visit to AnyTone in Quanzhou in China last Thursday. I was met by the owner Mr. Ken. As this was my second visit with AnyTone, we did not need the customary introductions, but rather started to talk about the new DMR radio AT-D868UV and several other DMR radios coming in the near future.

The AT-868UV was recently introduced on the world market, and have received a lot of very positive comments. The first hundred units made included an internal jumper wire on the circuit card to make the programming work without having to unplug the USB cable between programming updates. I personally have owned a few pre-production radios for several months, and I had to unplug, and plug back in the USB cable for repetitive programming of the radio.

AnyTone is continuously working on product improvements for their radios as a result of comments they receive from around the world. So now that the AT-D868UV is in full production, the internal circuit board was updated to include the path where there was a previous jumper wire, and to include a small sub-connector on the board such that optional functions can be installed – the first one being a separate memory card to allow recordings of all DMR voice transmissions. Because of this added feature, the firmware for the current production version is different than the initial production version, and starts with a 2.xx.

So for most users the version 1 and the version 2 are identical, except that version 2 will allow up to 300 hours of voice recording, and version 1 a much shorter time with the fixed built-in memory. It should be noted that the DMR repeater system also records all traffic, so the need to make personal recordings are actually not a requirement for Amateur use. It has been added for commercial use.

AnyTone will continue to look for future enhancements to their DMR radios. During my visit we discussed several interesting options. The voice transmission for Analog radios is limited by FCC to a very narrow audio frequency band. For DMR, where the voice is converted to a digital format, to fit into a specified bandwidth, AnyTone may try to widen the audio frequency reception for even more clarity in a voice transmission. Many other future enhancements may also be worked on and included in future Firmware updates to both versions.

AnyTone is also working on a couple of mobile DMR and Analog radios. The features of these radios, which we discussed at the meeting, were quite impressive. There may be a LTE SIM card Radio included in the mobile radio. Many other features were also discussed and I do not think I can share all of them as some may not be included up front. We may have situations where the first radio will contain some of them, and as time allows additional features will be added later on. Some new functions may require AnyTone to increase the cost for the newer versions or to change the model number.

As part of the visit, I also walked through their production facility, and saw many new state-of-the-art manufacturing machines, one being a new fully automated surface-mount-technology machine with new automatic photographic inspection machines making sure the right components had been soldered onto the circuit board in the correct position with perfect soldering joints. The human eye is not capable of seeing all those micro-components and if they are placed correctly and with adequate solder to hold them in place. Very impressive to see.

The production lines were making several different radios, and several of them for major US well-known name brands. AnyTone is their own name for a line of products they sell on the world market. They also manufacture radios for other brands we may think are US made. So AnyTone is a big company and you can see some of their buildings on their web site http://www.qx-tele.com/

So in summary – for you who are hesitant buying the Version 1 AT-D868UV radio, you are getting the same radio as the Version 2, except that version 2 can insert a memory sub-circuit card for hours of voice recording. Please note that the version number is visible in the radio Menu under Settings and Device Info. The firmware for both will be supported for years to come and is now available on the AnyTone website. There is a separate repository for all the AT-D868UV radio information and Programming help on their web site.

In summary, I was very impressed with the company, and with their owner as well as all the staff I met during my visit, including sales staff, engineering and mechanical design staff. It was a day with at times 8 or more people in our meetings.

A final note – yes AnyTone can monitor our comments and any issues about the radio on the facebook page – but please understand that if you are reporting a problem about the radio you need to write about such problem like you are writing to a child. All AnyTone engineers can only understand Chinese, so what you write has to be translated by one of their sales reps in China and explained to an engineer. Make it easily to understand so they can figure out what needs to be changed or updated. A step-by-step explanation leading up to how the problem is discovered would be a helpful method.

Respectfully submitted

Trygve Svärd

 

Good Morning Ladies and Gentleman W1CAT here I also have an anytone at-868-uv, Im really enjoying this radio BUT just got some bad news from Rocky Mountain Ham here in the Denver area it appears that it is interfering with the 2nd time slot for the first 120-150ms which im being told is long enough to interfere with the 2nd time slot. 73's

 

Simple question...can you use this radio as a scanner ? I.E. can you set up a start and stop freq step size etc and store FROM THE RADIO ?

 

Just saw an advertisement,
150,000 Contacts!

 

Yes it offers 150,000 contacts in memory. Yes it can be used as a scanner from a starting freq to a stop freq.

 

KD0PNQ (or anyone who knows), is the AnyTone AT-D868UV a superhet with the typical two down-conversion IF?

Realistically, many of us would use it not only as a portable, but also in a car or even at home, this with external antennas with some gain. It would be interesting to know if anyone has tested the AT-D868UV in presence of strong adjacent signals.

Someone else had asked this question early on, but I could not find any answer in the thread.

Thanks in advance to anyone who may answer.

 

For me between HD-1, RT-82 or the MD-2017 this is the BEST dmr radio in this moment !! great radio



KD0PNQ i have just send to you my translation in italian of the User's Guide, you have see , is ok ?


best 73 de Rudy - IW2BSF

 

..... thanks to the collegue Trygve, just arrived to me my NEW AnyTone 868


WOW a very AMAZING radio !


real VFO for ham-radio , more features and space for 150.000 ham-radio contacts , GREAT !!!!


Now is arrived the NEW AT 868S 10 watt and tri-bander 144-220-440 MHz


73 de IW2BSF Rudy

see the photo:

 

After the Update FW 2,30 of june ….



V1.31 and FW V2.31 Improvements (updated 2018-7-14)


1. In CPS->Optional Setting->Power-on, add the Default Startup Channel and zone, it will allow you

choose a startup channel, every time when you power on the radio, you will be at the start up

channel.


2. Menu->Settings->Chan Set, add Select Contact, allow to choose a Contact and save the changes

to channel.


3. Allow create a new channel on radio or delete an existing channel . Operation as below.

Create a new channel: Hold pressing MENU key, until the LCD display “Next Please Press Dial Key”,

press P1 key, the radio will enter into new channel setup.

Delete an existing channel: Turn to the channel firstly, hold pressing MENU key, until the LCD

display “Next Please Press Dial Key”, press P2 key, the radio will allow deleting the channel.



73 de IW2BSF Rudy

 

hi.... here my BOOT colour image with look " Star Trek" .... you like it ? 73