I thought it might be fun to have a hand-held radio that I can take to the radio club and also take out and about with me.  I asked at the radio club and a popular radio was the Anytone AT-D878UVII.  It has more capability than the Baofeng ones which are ridiculously cheap, especially that it is both Analogue and Digital with a GPS system that enables it to latch onto the nearest repeater.

I’m aware that there are several different competing digital systems, mainly Fusion, which is Yaesu’s, D-star which is ICOM’s and DMR which seems to be more open-source, and which the Anytone uses.

I decided to go for Anytone because it is a fair price-point (slightly less than £200) and I bought mine from Moonraker, as I had some loyalty points there, they were offering a modest discount and they pre-loaded the set with a UK ‘code plug’ (which is a configuration file containing information about repeaters, ‘talk groups’, etc.)

DMR ID Number

I realised that I needed to get a DMR number, but this was simply a matter of registering with RadioId.net, which is straightforward as long as you have an Amateur Licence.

I’ve also downloaded the CPS (code plug software?) from the web and I’ve used it to customise the radio with my name, call-sign and so on. But at this point in time, I’m mystified as to how to actually use it !!!

The user manual is fine for propping up a wobbly table, but woe betide you if you’re not familiar with this sort of radio, because the manual is essentially 35 pages listing its functions.  So it has certainly got amazing functionality, but short of help on using them. The chaps at the local radio club didn’t know very much about it either.

I’m looking at some YouTube videos but I’ve a long way to go!

UPDATE 12TH JUNE 2025

It’s been 3 months since my last post about this radio. Unfortunately, I have not made great progress with it.

Getting FM Radio

I’ve been able to get commercial FM radio stations: you go to Menu>Settings>Radio Set>>Other Func>FM Radio

When you’re on FM VFO, P1 will scan through the broadcast radio channels very nicely.

The sound is good on speech channels, pop music is OK, but classical music is very ‘boxy’ due to limited frequency response and probably speaker distortion, though there’s plenty of power on the speaker – in fact a bit too much.

FM Simplex

I’ve not been able to find anything happening on the FM calling frequency 145.5 MHz. so I will keep persevering.

DMR

I’ve managed to connect to my local repeater GB3XP, but I need to connect to a TalkGroup.  I have been given one used by my local radio club, but I haven’t got time to try it properly right now.