2023-11 TYT TH-8600
This was an Amazon purchase. $129.99
Unboxing impressions.
1. the radio is fairly small especially if you are accustomed to Yaesu or Kenwood mobile radios
2. There is a lot of power cord provided. Good if you have a long routing path to a battery in a vehicle.
3. The radio feels substantial. most of the body appears to be a heat sync. label on the side of the radio advises the body of the radio will get hot with transmitting.
4. After initial power up it is not immediately obvious how to get the v/m button, to switch between VFO and Memory operation.
VFO operation
To get this working requires a small multi step operation.
1. Power off the radio.
2. Unplug the radio from power.
3. Wait 10-20 seconds.. ish..
4. Reconnect power.
5. Hold down the following buttons while the radio powers on. LO + A/B and briefly press power to turn it on.
6. Profit!
At this point if you press the V/M button you will see a small "VFO" display where the memory channel numbers were displayed. Turning the left knob will change the frequency of the selected top or bottom vfo display.
A CD ROM with programing software and drivers for the USB programing cable are provided in the box. I have not yet been able to get this to work on Windows 11. Programing from the panel is doable if not a bit tedious. No worse than the radios that came before computer aided programing was an option.
Radio performance.
What I can say so far. This radio will RX/TX FM from 136 - 174 Mhz and 400 - 480 Mhz.
Receive sensitivity is ok. You are getting what you paid for. Not as good as a well engineered superheterodyne receiver and better than a UV-5R. In my situation the UV-5R can only hear the strongest repeaters in the area the rest of the repeaters sort of or not at all, the th-8600 will hear the weaker repeaters well enough for communications needs, and a well engineered radio provides near perfect low noise copy of the weaker repeaters. Your situation and environment will dictate how well you receive a particular transmitter.
Suitable applications.
Mobile - with the small size it will fit well in many vehicles. The case is designed to resist liquid penetration this is an asset in the often dirty mobile environment.
Home - This would work fine as a home base radio.
Temporary locations/Field work - With the liquid resistance this would make a fine little radio to use out in the field for community service events at fixed locations. Expedient communications operations in support of natural disasters. etc.
This radio does not have an auxiliary audio input and has a small microphone connection. So it is not immediately suitable for digital operations however with the correct connectors and wiring I suspect 1200 baud packet would be possible along with many of the sound card modes available.
