Anytone AT-D878UV is a popular DMR radio model recently, I bought one set from US in January.
Let’s do a full checking.
Why Anytone AT-D878UV
For full detail specification, please refer the official website. Here is my points to buy it:
FCC certified
Support analog APRS and DMR Brand Master APRS
Can import MARC-ID global DMR user ID
Dual band (U/V)
4 stage of TX power
GUI similar to Alinco DJ-MD5T DMR radio
Battery
The bundled Li-ion battery marked 7.4V 3100mAh. I test it’s capacity by the following steps:
Fully charged the battery by the bundled charger.
Then let it discharge to battery low by scan channel for days.
repeat the step 1 & 2 again.
Then charge it by a radio control car battery charger, it shows the charging current & final capacity.
The charging current set to 1A. The battery capacity shows 8.2V 2500mAh.
Then discharge by the same step 1 & 2 twice.
Charge the battery by 1C, it means 3.1A by the RC battery charger. It shows 8.2V 2587mAh when fully charged.
However, I plug the battery to the bundled charger, the charger will continue to charge the battery to 8.3V, which near the max Li-ion voltage 8.4V .
So I will say the capacity of the battery not less than 2500mAh.
GPS
I compare the GPS of AT-D878UV with ICOM ID-31, TYT MD-380G .
First of all, I turn on the 878UV GPS on a football playground. The GPS request about 5min to lock the satellite.
It may be caused by shipped from US, and need time to cool boot. I let it run for 15min more to built up the location data.
Then I relocate to a small garden, where next behind some 30-40F tall building.
The 3 rigs turn on at the same time, with GPS function.
ICOM ID-31 located after 1min.
878UV located after ~2min.
MD-380G cannot locate the co-ordinate.
The GPS performance of 878 is average, even I expected it should better than ID-31 as it is GPS/Baidu bi-system.
Antenna characterises
Same as other China band handheld transceiver, the bundle antenna & hand strap almost same with others.
The 878UV antenna is same as my TYT-MD380 one.
Here is the frequency response diagram.
The UHF performance better than VHF.
Hand / Neck Strap hole
I compare it with ICOM ID-31 (right hand side).
The design of the 878UV strap hole is poor, it is easy to be broken. The ID-31 hole design is better because it almost hidden in the body.
Knob
There are 2 knobs, right is power + volume, left is channel selector.
Unlike the predecessor, 868UV, the 2 knobs is too smooth, and easy touch others during rotating.
The Channel selector is too tight, the feeling is not good.
And the worst is internal metal case can been seen from outside.
How come it is IP54 water proof ?
Headset cover
It use 2 plastic legs to connect to the body.
It is a good design. Some of dust cover connect to the body by a piece of rubber which easy to tear down.
Programming cord
The quality of the programming cord is poor. It is simply a rubbish. The PC always cannot detect it.
I make a one finally. Please be remind that there are some diagram from internet is incorrect (D+D- swapped).
Here is the Correct diagram.
And information from Internet told the driver is unsigned, it may face problem during installation in Win 10.
I still using Windows 7, so it is OK to me.
Opening screen
After power on, it needs ~7 sec. to boot up to the welcome screen / string.
It is too long and will cause bad feeling to the first time user.
Output Tx power
The user manual told there are 4 stage of the Tx power, they are (L)1W, (M)2.5W, (H)4W, (T)6W.
Here is my test result:
My testing result shown the Low power stage is 0.1W only. 10 times smaller then the specification.
Bug
As my YouTube channel show, a bug was found, the mode will change randomly when switching the main/sub channel.
According the comments from the YouTube, it will be random trigger the short press function of PF3 when pressing P1 / P2.
I do hope the Anytone fix the bug asap.
Overall Operation
First of all, the circle pad under the TFT screen is upper & lower key only, no left & right.
If I select a zone by the circle pad, then to select a channel to QSO, there are 2 methods.
One is enter the channel number by the number key pad directly, second is by the top channel selector.
The first method is not a common practise to ham.
But the problem of the second one is that, after you selected zone,by the circle pad, you cannot touch the top channel selector by the same hand. You need use another hand for it.
A good design handheld should be done by one hand only.
In fact, if the P1/P2 button can be set for the channels shift, whatever long/short press, it should solve the problem.
But the existing firmware no such option.
GUI
Simply to say, the GUI is clone from the Alinco DJ-MD5T.
But just the main screen only.
All the rest page are the blue style which common for the China DMR radio.
screen capture from YouTube
The sub-menu of the Alinco DJ-MD5T is in black style which same as main screen.
Channel Display
The default is dual channel mode. However, when you turn off the sub-channel, the main channel fonts will not re-size to full screen. It just left the bottom in blank.
If the frequency of the channel can be shows on the bottom blank area, it will prefect.
The programming software
If you are experienced DMR radio user, it is easy to use the software. Otherwise you may need to test the setting one by one. As no user manual for the software.
Most of the MD-380 series 3rd firmware function can be found here, although some of them the wording is difference. Say monitor, CC, TS set to Double slot, Any Any ; it will be MD-380’s promiscuous mode.
An interesting thing is a working mode was found on the software, it can toggle between amateur / professional.
I tried but did not found any difference.
Display
It can display Asian character such as Traditional Chinese, so I trust others non-English should be OK.
Multi-ID
The AT-D878UV support Multi-user ID, and mount it to a dedicated channel, e.g: DMR repeater.
Multi-mode for the Channel
Channel can be program to one of the following modes:
- Analog. analog only
- Digit, Digit only
- A+D, Dual mode monitoring, Tx by analog mode
- D-A, Dual mode monitoring, Tx by digit mode
Import MACRC-ID user database
TYT MD-380 series DMR radio support import MACRO-ID global DMR user ID database, but it request compile to bin format first.
The AT-D878UV programming software support csv file format, which can be open/edit by MS Excel.
I had upload the 4-Feb user DB to 878. From import to the software, and then upload to the radio request around 10 min.
It will not affect the radio performance (speed) afterward.
Although the user DB was uploaded to the 878, but there are no place to check the DB in the rig.
If you want to call someone, you need remember the one DMR-ID.
There is a Friends List under the digital contact list, but I do not know the purpose.
Custom opening image
The 878 programming software can handle custom opening image directly. While MD-380 series request 3rd party software to handle it.
APRS
Besides the analog aprs, it support band master digit aprs, include APRS SMS.
Analog APRS can be assign to a separate frequency, and different TX power.
Please select Motorola radio in the Band master dashboard before access to BM network.
RTC
The 878 Real Time Clock can sync with the GPS clock manually.
Bluetooth Headset
Most of the China DMR radio headset is Kenwood type. It worked with my BT headset dongle.
YouTube
It shows the 7sec delay after boot up. And then it is an audio test with MD-380.
The last test is aprs SMS test to APRSDROID.
Conclusion
In my opinion, the main point of 878 is the GUI cloned from Alinco DJ-MD5T. The hardware almost same as 868. But the price higher than 868 for $41. It is quit expensive.
However, AT-D878UV is a ham radio oriented DMR radio, all the function for ham was provided, It is suitable to an experienced user.
