I purchased a couple of Anytone AT-5189 4m FM radios at a flea market. As the radio is of Chinese origin I was interested in seeing how the chinese engineers is coming along regarding design, waterproofing / IP degree, PCB layout, internal shielding, component selection and general workmanship.
Summary: the radio is surprisingly well designed. A cast alu chassis is made with milled grooves for O rings, professional layed out PCB, proper ground vias and compartmentization, no stray cabling inside. The integrated chips used in the design are LMX1511 synthesizer, MC3311 compander, M62364 DA, KIA278 LDO, RDO7MVS18 driver. Well known integrated circuits.
Some pictures:
the chassis is very similar to a Kenwood
Compre.esta radio en la banda 220mhz,y mis primeras experiencias no fueron de lo mejor,un ruido muy fuerte en la transmisión ,como que faltara tierra.la radio bebía desalineada y muy poca información para poder hacerle una reparación.
This radio is not a 220 MHz version, but the 70 MHz version. At least the 70 MHz version is ok for the money and for being China radio it is surprisingly well engineered (but its NOT a Motorola or even close to something designed by Western engineers…)
I bought one of the System M230 220mHz models off of eBay. It was described as NOS and shipped in a white box. The radio came in smelling of mold. After contacting the seller, I found out he had bought them at a liquidation sale. He said they were stored improperly and he wiped the mold off them the best he could and put them in new white boxes. Mine showed water spots underneath the display window. I popped the head off the body of the radio to discover the display board had white oxidation around the solder pads. The inside my radio looks just like AT5189. Mine will not receive a signal. It has a QRM sticker on the main circuit board. I guess it was made by Anytone? Thanks for posting the pictures!
Sadly mine is a boat anchor, but I was impressed on how well it was made. I guess being stored in warehouse in moisture conditions that destroyed the original boxes was too much for the radio. The sticker on the radio does not list the company name nor where it was manufactured.
Perhaps the TX HAS been a Boat Anchor ?? Ahh !!!
Hi Jim,
just read your comments. I got my 5189 on ebay from a Welsh operator two years ago.Terrible smell of mold from the rig as well when I got it. As if the rig had been in a cellar for years.
There is one big problem with it I only discovered 4 weeks ago. The TRX has no tone filter. So if you are talking to another station which has the tone code activated you only here a terrible humming noise.
Get one of your neighbours to activate the tone code on their rig and see if you have the same problem on your Anytone 5189 as I have!
73 de Michael/ei3gyb