Wouxun-KG699 – a 4m band handheld

One thing I enjoy from having the full license is that I can use all Radio Amateur bands available. I enjoy the fact that every band has its own peculiarities, almost like a living creature!

For instance the 80m band is a night creature. It comes alive in the evening and goes to bed again in the morning.

The 10m band is more of a day person and goes to bed early. Now and then, in the summer, it will stay awake a bit in the evening and can give surprising results!

In this way all the bands have their own character which makes them all nice to work, depending on your mood.

One of the bands that became available to full licensed amateurs only recently is the 4m band (70.0 – 70.5 mHz). Because of this most transceivers don’t have this band available, not even for listening only.

As a true Radio Amateur I became curious as to what the character is of this band so I decided to look around for a transceiver that also supports this band.

In the end I found the Wouxun KG-699. This one is especially for the frequenties between 66-88 mHz. It has 2 limitations; it has only 5w output and it’s only for FM. This means that it’s probably not a good option, although I found out that they sell them in China for 77 euros (postage included) so maybe I will just try it out anyway!

If anybody knows a better option to try out the 4m band please let me know, I’m open to suggestions!

The band plan for the 4m band, in region 1 by the way is like this (click on it for a larger version):

4m band plan