Review of the Feidaxin FDC-460A ham radio

I heard some decent reviews about the Feidaxin brand of ham radios. These have been what we call 'Rice Box' Radios. They hail from parts of Asia and with that come at a very cheap price. On average a single band radio will sport about $60 USD or so. Being that they are damn cheap makes them appealing, but are you getting what you pay for?



From my experience with my FDC-460A its not completely horrible. For $60 I cant complain much.

The good:
Inexpensive.
Works great as a spare radio
Just fine for a simple radio that does repeater, CTCSS, and DCS.
Unlocked in the entire 400-460MHz band, use as FRS/GMRS (or other) Radio.
Decent solid design, I wouldnt beat it up but its not a bad radio.
Ni-MH Cells, easy to upgrade or replace if you are handy with a soldering iron.
Full 5 Watt on all frequencies. Or 1 watt in low power.
Option for programming cable for the PC and software to program the memory channels.
99 memory banks.
Can be put in "Stupid User Mode" which allows the user to cycle through the programmed. channels, like a regular 2-way radio.

The Bad:
No Alpha tags, you have to memorize your frequency list, unless you put it in "Dumb mode"
Scan speed is slow, even for an HT.
Digital Squelch.
The charge dock mashes in the bottom row of buttons on the radio, its hard to dock.
Battery charge time isnt the best.
They have a male SMA connector on the radio, which is weird.
User manual is in horrible engrish, but with some common sense its not hard to figure out.
Programming software is usable but in engrish.
Some people report having defects.
Doesnt operate the best in extreme cold, so dont keep it in the car during winter.
Programming the radio by hand is a pain in the ass, but isnt that said for all HTs?
When using a headset you cant use the PTT button on the radio, you must use the PTT on the headset... thats just weird too.
No VOX Support (I dont like VOX anyways).

General
I use mine on both ham radio bands, local security (in hindsight I should have gotten the 410-470Mhz model), FRS/GMRS, and anything else in between. The squelch control is menu driven, you may not like it. I dont mind so much but being I have been an HT and Scanner user for many years I am very accustomed to manually adjusting my squelch while in the field. The 1W / 5W power selection does seem like a small drawback especially for battery consumption, but this is common on even expensive radios. I like having a Low-Medium-High setting. The fact that it can do full 5W (closer to 4W on the upper band) is nice though. I can pop on the FRS/GMRS bands at 5 Watt. Yes, I know it is not legal to operate over 0.5W on FRS Bands. Blow me, I dont give a rats ass. When an emergency arises I can hand out a small fleet of FRS radios and use this FDC-460 as a repeater node (with some additional hardware). I have seen report of some people making low-cost, low-power mobile/portable repeaters out of these lil' buggers. This is also great for an inexpensive APRS Radio

If you just need a spare radio to hand to the kids, wife, or friend to keep in contact via simplex, or have a friend that wants to get into the hobby and you dont mind being control operator for them, this isnt a bad choice. I keep this as a backup and when I am out hand it to my lil' lady Bunnie, or even my other friends when we want to go shopping and I want to fuck off. I see crappy FRS/GMRS radios that cost just as much and dont offer the features this thing has.

It also has full PL tone (CTCSS) and DCS Support which is also used on many security fleet radios, FRS/GMRS, and Ham Radio Repeaters. Unfortunately the lack of Alpha Tags you need to memorize what all your frequencies belong to. There is a mode you can boot the radio in by holding the [F] key and turning on the radio which puts it into what I call "Dumb mode". It will list each programmed frequency as a number in a list, rather the frequency. It also locks out the ability to manually tune in a frequency, play with the offset, PL/DCS, and other settings. This way you can set it up, hand it to an inexperienced user and just tell them "Tune to channel 4" or whatever...

I would definitely recommend getting the programming cable. Programming any HT for me is a major time consuming pain in the ass. Unfortunately the software is in Engrish as well. For me it wasnt hard to get working at all, but I am an experienced hacker and technophile. I have noticed that most Hams have as much computer skill as a 4 year old child on drugs, or worse. Just make sure you get the right programming cable, if you are using XP, go for the USB one. Dont even ask for OSX or Linux support! I wouldnt consider this a major purchase factor though.

Some minor quirks
For some odd reason they put a male SMA connector on the radio. Typically you see the male connectors on the Rubber Duck Antenna or Coax. A female SMA coupler fixes this though.

(Yes, it came with a very nice antenna)

Another small quirk I noticed is that if you use a headset you cant use the PTT on the radio. It will transmit but no audio will travel from the HT. You must use the PTT on the headset. There is no VOX control, which I dont use anyway. I find that loud cars, alarms, and background noise tend to false-trigger most VOX controls since I am not a typical fat, lazy ham that hasnt seen his penis in years. I use my radio out in the field and I am very active in general, and this radio has done a pretty good job so far. For $60 shipped... I cant bitch.