Hi,

Just had a short chat with Ed at Import Communications about the new Chinese radios and the other handheld he's working on with his branding and feature additions.

First, he's getting a dozen of the 5-watt radios in soon, and I will get to play with one it looks like. So, will keep y'all posted on that. This radio sounds like it's tiny, almost handheld sized, but for a $300 price tag, don't expect super breat performance. For one, apparently cw receive bandwidth is still 2.2 KHz, very wide, reminds me of operating a Drake TR4 on cw. But for a grab and go radio that you can maybe use with a loaded whip or a hunk of wire or some such, could be OK. Ed's taking a poll to see if anyone who'd want such a radio would also be interested in a battery and auto tuner accessory. I'd think such a thing would almost be a must. 

This radio will, apparently, operate with the Icom command set, so perhaps using the Millennium QSYer will be possible. I may have to try to get my hands on one to find out.

The 20-watt version won't be out until the summer, and I think it might have an auto tuner. It might also have FM, judging by comments elsewhere, but no idea for sure. Ed says it will have adjustable cw bandwidth though, which the 5-watt one won't have. So it will also probably be somewhat more expensive.

Ed will be sure to get our feedback about extra voice prompts to the manufacturer of his handheld radio. Hopefully this will mean that the couple areas that this is currently deficient, at least the easiest ones, will be addressed, but we won't know until we know. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY