Quansheng UV-K1 with F4HWN Firmware

Recently got my new little HT, the Quansheng UV-K1. What separates it from the other budget Chinese HTs is that it is open to flash whatever firmware you want on it!

The current premier firmware for it is the F4HWN fork adding a TON of features and capability.

• Increases the channel count from 200 to 1024
• Super fast scanning
• Spectrum Analyzer
• Improves AM RX
• SSB RX, DSB TX
• Theoretically can RX 50 - 1000~ Mhz
• Bunch of other QoL features

Here is a picture of it receiving air-band on the arrivals frequency of my nearest airport. It is surprisingly small and the dot matrix display is surprisingly detailed! At the end of the day its still a budget Chinese radio, its prone to front end overload and not great TX/harmonics. But I think the open firmware more than makes up for that!

Previous firmware for the UV-K5 series allowed for pre-computed satellite passes to be loaded allowing for automatic Doppler correction in the field. Fingers crossed this feature comes to the UV-K1 soon. There also looks to be a Git PR that adds CAT control functionality which would be game changing for portal satellite ops! Some other firmware's also support CW and allow you to plug a paddle into the 2 pin jack on the side. Hopefully we see this soon as well.

Overall If you are looking for a budget HT, whether your starting out in the hobby or experienced and looking for a new toy, I highly recommend going with the UV-K1. Definitely worth it to spend the little extra money to get it rather than the Baofengs like the UV-5R.