Review on 📻 Black TYT TH-9800 Cross-Band Mobile Car Ham Radio - Quad Band, 50W by Ken Hamdan

This is a TYT TY9800+ (latest version 1508A) purchased from TPK Radios, another seller elsewhere. It is reported that the seller tests the radios before shipping. I believe they did, but they probably wouldn't be able to find the problem I'm having by just turning it on and doing a quick check. I struggled to give this one a 3 because I wish I could give it a 3.5. This radio works in every way, but I want to focus on the shortcomings. Error 1: The radio has a small, shrill whistle when receiving on the right side. The left hand is fine. It's not a problem for me as I only monitor the left side unless there is signal on both sides. I usually leave the right side on the simplex channel, which goes unused unless a friend shows up. Mistake 2: The microphone doesn't sound very good. A friend says I sound best when I hold it about 10 inches from my face. The three tiny microphone holes in the top right corner of the keyboard are also easy to plug with your thumb. Otherwise it would be nice to have a keyboard function on the microphone. Error 3: The radio has a compander function that is somewhat similar to a compressor. The effect is kind of useless though, ruining the sound just enough to be annoying. It's best described as: It sounds very similar to the overly aggressive Dolby C on my tapes in the 1980s. The last few milliseconds of each word are truncated. You can figure it out, but it's inconvenient. The rest of the radio's general functions work properly. I've used Crossband Repeat and it's proved unexpectedly useful, but it heats up the radio so I'm running it at low power, as the manual says. It's nice to walk around the house (or neighborhood) with my Baofeng HT and access this repeater for better transmission. I bought this radio instead of Yaesu because shipping from Yaesu to Korea has much higher import costs and fees. Local sellers are scamming us with Yaesu in Korea - branded radios are twice as expensive as in the US. I tried this because I could ship this radio for the price you would pay for it on E-Bay (about $235). If I were in the US, I would go to Yaesu without a doubt. Also the less popular Yaesu for money. But since I'm in Korea, I went with them. It does its job perfectly so I'm not upset with the purchase. I just want to be honest about its shortcomings. I hope it holds together well.