I recently got my hands on the Hiroyasu IC-980 Pro dual band base radio. This is pronounced as “Hiro-Yasu”. When I say, got my hands on it, the unit is so small, you only need one hand really!
This analogue radio does both 2m and 70cm and will receive more outside of the Amateur bands. I’ve heard unlocking the radio is easy, but I haven’t done this yet, but will do another post on this if and when I do this.
Having the buttons light up makes it easy to control and do what you need to do. It looks intriguing when the radio isn’t turned on, and stylish when it is on.
Some photo’s from Global Wakie Talkie Store.
The things I liked about this radio
The cost of the radio. At this cost, I don’t think you would be to upset if you were not happy with this radio,
The Radio body itself is tiny. It can easily fit in a car that hardly has any room, or a radio shack shelf that is almost full. They have also managed to get all the buttons and plugs on the back far enough away from each other so large fingers can still access them and see them.
While the body is small, the screen is a fantastic quality and clear. There is a lot of information available on the screen, and this can be customised as to what you want to display. The live signal metre and volt metre is a handy feature also.
The DTMF microphone is a good comfortable size. I am glad they didn’t go to small on this as they did the radio body. You need to be able to find the microphone, hold it comfortably and use it well. A tiny microphone would not achieve this. I love the direct input you can do with the buttons that light up as well as the shortcuts they have included, such as scan, squelch settings, and offset frequency.
I love the sound from it with the quality speaker mounted on the top of the unit. Although the body is small, it doesn’t have a small tinny speaker at all. I also like how it sounds on air. Many have said how clear the audio is when they hear me use the radio.
The mounting bracket that came with the radio contained all the screws and even a spare fuse. There were no short cuts here which was nice.
The power cord was of good quality and to have a cigarette lighter plug already installed with a led made it easier to install in the car or via a modern power supply that has the socket installed.
While the box did not contain the programming cable, they are a common cable and very fast in communicating between the radio and the computer.
For such a small radio, the output power of 25/30 watts is great. No wonder the back half of the radio is a heatsink. The fan is quiet and comes on automatically after long transmissions.
I liked how easy the programming software was and how you could give each memory a name. You could also adjust a lot of other functions via the software and find things quickly.
Being able to PTT from the unit is a bonus, especially if you can’t reach for the microphone. Though you would have to change in the settings which microphone to use. Perhaps the next firmware upgrade could use the microphone in the mic is the PTT was pressed there, and the microphone in the unit of the PTT button was pressed on the radio. This is a very minor point though.
The packaging the radio came in was well planned and kept everything save in transit. While this is a small point compared to the others, it is a good first impression when the box arrives well, and everything inside is placed well, which can later be used if you want to store the radio.
The time the radio took to arrive after ordering was amazing. It came with full tracking information, but I hardly looked at that, because it arrived before I started to wonder where it was.
The things I didn’t like about this radio
The software was hard to find. I understand if you email them, they will send it to you. I ended up finding it on a Facebook site after some searching. You also have to make sure you have the correct cord when connecting to the radio. However, once I got the software, it worked well and a far easier way to program the radio.
Using dual watch make the radio make a clicking sound like a car indicator. Bit odd, but there you go. Not really annoying me, and most don’t use dual watch anyway.
No way to control the screen brightness. This is only a minor point, but in a car at nighttime, it will be very bright if mounted close to your face. You can configure the screen / microphone and how long it lights up so maybe this is a solution if it bothers you. That said, it really doesn’t bother me, but worth noting.
Some things you may want to know
If you want to turn on commercial FM radio, press the FUN key on the microphone momentarily, then press 7. You can then change to your required station.
How to save a memory channel?
- Press V/M button on the front panel to switch your radio in VFO Mode.
- Input the desired frequency by the numeric key on the microphone.
- Press “FUN” key on the microphone momentarily, then press Numeric key “0” subsequently, and press “Up” or” Down” Key on the microphone to select your desired channel number. The LCD will display Cover->001, which means that the channel 1 is occupied, you can save your frequency to cover the previous memory channel. SAVE->234 means that the channel you selected is empty, you can directly save your frequency to it.
- Press “FUN” key on the microphone to save the frequency to channel,.When the data is stored, the word OK will be displayed.
- You can recall the memory channel in channel model.
How to delete a memory channel?
- Press FUN on the microphone, select SET (or press 3) and then submenu 3.20 “Delete Ch”.
- Use the up and down arrows to select the channel number to be deleted and press FUN to confirm.
I belive this radio will do GRMS, however as we don’t have that in Australia, I couldn’t tell you how to do it. I assume it would just require you to program the correct frequencies via the program or directly into the radio.
Frequency Range: FM:76-108MHz (Rx), VHF:136-174MHz (Tx&Rx), UHF:400-470MHz (Tx&Rx)
Output Power (H/L Power Switchable): High=25W, LOW=10W
Memory Channels: 200
Review Video
Below is a video of my full review which I highly recomend seeing and I hope helps you:
Purchacing
If you want to purchase one of these radios, the direct link below is available on the AliExpress website by Global Wakie Talkie Store.
Unlock Radio
I have since worked out how to unlock the radio. See my video below for more information
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