First off, I’d like to say that the Yaesu FT70D is an amazing hand held radio. And the results of this test / comparison are certainly not a foregone conclusion that the Quansheng is better than the Yaesu in every way. Of course not. We all know that one comparison test isn’t the absolute truth that one radio is better than another in all situations / environments. But with that out the way, I found this test quite shocking to be honest. And I think many others did also.

Would you ever have thought that a highly thought of Yaesu FT70D handheld could be beaten by a $20 “cheap Chinese radio”, or CCR for short, at anything at all. Especially at transmitting. And also on receive strength, signal and sensitivity tests. I mean, wow! To even compete with the excellent Yaesu FT70D, let alone beat it is seriously impressive for such a low priced radio.

This video is a few years old now, but still very relevant today as both radios are very popular and can still be found for sale online and have very different price tags! If you’re just getting into the hobby, or don’t have much to spend, I would definitely recommend the Quansheng K5 / K6. It’s one of my favourite cheap handheld radios. And if you’ve watched the video above, I guess its not hard to see why.

I’ve also compared the Quansheng to many of my own portable radios. Especially older scanner / receivers, such as the AOR8000 [terrible], ICOM RC6 [excellent performer but annoying to use] and the GRE-PSR 255 [excellent], and its has always impressed me. It was either just as good in most situations as the radios mentioned, or in some cases even better. The exact same can be said for the UV-5R Plus also, which is basically the same as the K5 and K6.

Avid users of brands like Yaesu will probably hate this video and try to downplay it. But results are results, and they can’t be ignored or dismissed because some people have a preference toward certain radios and brands.