I did a fair amount of radio stuff in the Army as an infantryman from 2002-2006. I've been wanting to get some kind of radio and after a few weeks of looking I have decided on this radio. I was gonna go with a Baofeng or a Quansheng but I think TalkPod is the way to go for me. Ordered it up in transparent crystal for that retro vibe!!
What's up my AWESOME Friend?? Now I am buying the talkpod 36plus I trust you to the MAX!!! plus you seem like a nice person!! I am 70yrs young and like all that you recommended under a 100$ I enjoy finding new stuff!! THANK YOU 😀👍👍
Legally, it's basically like Anytone/BTech selling a Part90 radio, but advertised as a ham radio, or business radio. As long as it's shipped as a GMRS radio if bought as a GMRS radio, and Part95 certified, I'd imagine it's legal.
Thank you so much for running these tests with your equipment and showing it. I don't have this equipment and frankly don't yet know how to use it. You do soo much of our work for us.
it does work in ham mode if you activate expanded mode. while radio is off hold ptt and number 8 down while turning the radio on puts it in expanded mode @Ham Radio 2.0
I purchased a Talkpod A36 Plus HT in June of 2023. Played with it a little bit but never used it much. Took it out yesterday (March 2024) and the battery won't charge or hold a charge. The radio works as expected in the charging base but the battery is dead. If I can't find a replacement, this radio is a door stop. Disappointed that the battery failed after nine months of mostly sitting in the box. I'm glad I don't have to depend on this radio in an emergency.
Those June batches of Talkpod A36Plus did have a lot of problems, the A36Plus I have here was bought in August last year, and the problems were not so much on the contrary, except for Spurious Emissions...
I bought my A36Plus from Aliexpress a few months ago and luckily got one of the new ones that transmits cleanly. I ships as a GMRS radio, but you can program any FM frequencies with Chirp. The menu is superior to any handheld I own, including Yaesu and Icom, as well as all the Chinese radios.
The menu is the same as the Baofeng 5RM and Radtel radio that I showed in this video. I wouldn't call it superior to Icom or Yaesu, but it is better than the older Chinese radios.
If you can't transmit or you want to jail brake it Press PTT +8 and turn on. Youll see "Expand 108-136AM RX RX/TX: 136-180, 200-260, 300-400, 400-520 YOU ARE WELCOME
I Got The Same Email And I was Sent 2 Of The New 8 Watt Radios And Mine Say 10 Watt on the Back of the radio there not to bad from me using them for last few days @Ham Radio 2.0
Well, they aren't wrong. Quite a few of the Anytone DMR radios are Part90, but advertised as both services on some sites. Even Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood aren't certified Part97.
There is no such thing as "Certified Part 97" because Part 97 is an experimenters license. Companies have to adhere to certain standards if they want to sell commercially but Part 97 works differently than other FCC Certifications.
I think they only see the new version. I did buy one after K8MRD did video on Talk pod showing fixed .I got one tested it and its a pass on Harmonics on 2 meters and 220 band. then Hayden did a video they fixed it. you got the one with bigger battery. I got the set with 2 antenna's and 2 battery's . but mine came locked to GMRS but hold button and un lock. K8MRD and Hayden have video on that . now my girlfriends radio . I put a Nagoya try band antenna on it. the 220 band is ok. the outher TYT you did video much better. that Talk pod does air band RX . scans PL tones and more. 73's
I think the concern on the FCC's Part was that frequency agile or FPP radios, in the hands of the general public was an unwise situation. That being said, the cheaply priced radios from China popped that bubble.
@@talkpodtech i did wasnt much a fan had trouble when programming it and all so returned it and got a tidradio but might try is again just use it for GMRS thx for interacting with the community
It's all lies anyway. If you look up that ID number I bet it's just certified to Part 15 as a noise maker. This radio can't be certified by FCC for GMRS for at least these two reasons: § 95.1761 (c) No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with the capabilities to operate in services that do not require equipment certification, such as the Amateur Radio Service. § 95.1787 (a)(4) The antenna must be a non-removable integral part of the GMRS unit.
I did look up the docs filed for that ID number. Basically Quanshun got their part 95 cert by lying in their "Attestation Letter" by declaring: "The product has locked the TX frequency to 30 Channels by firmware, and then end users could not unlock the limited band out of range neither by software programming on PC nor manually programming." And the 136 - 520 MHz range is stated as "receive only".
Hey, I like your vids - it looks much improved over the original radio. But I do think you should read up on the TinySA and how to use it, to get more accurate results. Some of the readings and measurements you saw were because of how you set the TinySA up (and the power levels, etc). It would be great to see some more testing on it.
I’ve had three of these within six months, and only one is working anymore. I’ll be honest I’m really not happy with them. One had the plastic deform on the battery holding clips on the main HT itself, and also had its battery fail. Number two had the HT itself spontaneously fail. Was mid use of it and it just went dead. Thought the battery died, and tried the other batteries on it. Won’t turn on. Radio three is going fine, for now. Talkpod was less than helpful with the 2nd radio, too saying that “moisture could have gotten into the radio” never mind it was being used dry, and has never been submerged. Mentioned that and the fact they’re sposed to be water resistant, and was told that the water resistance can’t actually be guaranteed and some radios may ship with bad seals. Stellar QC…
Kewl HT BUT unfortunatley, the closest repeator is almost 40 miles away and even then, very sporadic "bursts" of GRMS traffic. I'd prolly have to buy or make a Yagi to reach it...Really need mo' power.
Has anyone else noticed a really bad battery life on the Talkpod A36plus 8W version? I realize it has a much fancier display than the Baofeng UV-5R & UV-82HP, but I keep the back light timer at a minimum and have even tried the deep battery save mode. With little to no TX and very small amounts of RX, the 3200 mAh battery drops too quickly. I turned it on the other day and it read 7.8v. Two days later with no use at all it reads 7.2v. My Baofengs under the same conditions last a ridiculously long time. So I'm now thinking of buying the TIDRADIO TD-H3 which has even less mAh than the A36plus 8W, but not if it will drain quickly as well. Is it the colorful display causing the problem, or is Talkpod itself just a bad radio? Any ideas?
DC Indicates that the current sub-audio tone is digital. This symbol appears during transmission, signifying that digital sub-audio tone signaling is in progress.
Out of all the different makes of radios I have had I send back both my Talkpods they were terrible the batteries were loose fitting they didn't hold a charge and the output was very low, about 3.2 watts, personally I would not touch them either a barge pole
Not legal for GMRS but still cool its wide open and do agree its stupid how the law for GMRS is. Its really nice that it does come with a programming cable. My Wouxun UV9GX allows for programming thru the radio. It came preprogrammed but still had to put in the repeater Codes and I name the repeaters i use.
The link that you shared is for the 5 W that transmits and receives on hand bands. There is another link for the 8 W and it says it only transmits on GMRS
This would almost fit the bill for a GMRS / HAM vhf/uhf Rig except I am looking for a Mobile that would give me that GMRS and 2 meter/440 meter but higher power that I can finish building a dedicated go box for. 73 Vic de KE8JWE
There is no reason why you couldn't have more than one VHF radio service on one HT as long as you have the right licenses (amateur, GMRS), and clean transmissions.
These Talkpod A36Plus 8 Watt Radios Do Not Have 999 Channels They have 500 Channels i had 2 sent to me they also say 10 Watt on the back of the radio sticker I Programed mine couple days ago couldn't get any more then 500 channels @Ham Radio 2.0
@@HamRadio2 interesting thing my boxes don't say Gmrs They say Multi-functional portable transceiver on top of box and side of box says talkpod multi-band radio and TX is 462/467 and RX is 136-520 power 10Watt and the FCC ID is the same as yours 2ADQZGMRS1 I find it interesting our boxes are different but the radio specs are the same
I didn't test that. Honestly I don't care, but I know that others will so I'll make another video. The main point today was to test their spurious emissions claim
Thousands of these radios on amazon or ebay that are able to transmit anywhere are they faking the fcc tyoe approval they should all be locked onto gmrs only
Thank you for reviewing our product, Jason!
I did a fair amount of radio stuff in the Army as an infantryman from 2002-2006. I've been wanting to get some kind of radio and after a few weeks of looking I have decided on this radio. I was gonna go with a Baofeng or a Quansheng but I think TalkPod is the way to go for me. Ordered it up in transparent crystal for that retro vibe!!
Thank you for your trust!
What's up my AWESOME Friend?? Now I am buying the talkpod 36plus I trust you to the MAX!!! plus you seem like a nice person!! I am 70yrs young and like all that you recommended under a 100$ I enjoy finding new stuff!! THANK YOU 😀👍👍
Hope you enjoy it!
Legally, it's basically like Anytone/BTech selling a Part90 radio, but advertised as a ham radio, or business radio. As long as it's shipped as a GMRS radio if bought as a GMRS radio, and Part95 certified, I'd imagine it's legal.
Thank you so much for running these tests with your equipment and showing it. I don't have this equipment and frankly don't yet know how to use it. You do soo much of our work for us.
it does work in ham mode if you activate expanded mode. while radio is off hold ptt and number 8 down while turning the radio on puts it in expanded mode @Ham Radio 2.0
I purchased a Talkpod A36 Plus HT in June of 2023. Played with it a little bit but never used it much. Took it out yesterday (March 2024) and the battery won't charge or hold a charge. The radio works as expected in the charging base but the battery is dead. If I can't find a replacement, this radio is a door stop. Disappointed that the battery failed after nine months of mostly sitting in the box. I'm glad I don't have to depend on this radio in an emergency.
Yeah that's disappointing
Those June batches of Talkpod A36Plus did have a lot of problems, the A36Plus I have here was bought in August last year, and the problems were not so much on the contrary, except for Spurious Emissions...
I bought my A36Plus from Aliexpress a few months ago and luckily got one of the new ones that transmits cleanly. I ships as a GMRS radio, but you can program any FM frequencies with Chirp. The menu is superior to any handheld I own, including Yaesu and Icom, as well as all the Chinese radios.
The menu is the same as the Baofeng 5RM and Radtel radio that I showed in this video. I wouldn't call it superior to Icom or Yaesu, but it is better than the older Chinese radios.
If you can't transmit or you want to jail brake it
Press PTT +8 and turn on. Youll see "Expand
108-136AM RX
RX/TX:
136-180,
200-260,
300-400,
400-520
YOU ARE WELCOME
It already does all of that, so this isn't needed.
I Got The Same Email And I was Sent 2 Of The New 8 Watt Radios And Mine Say 10 Watt on the Back of the radio there not to bad from me using them for last few days @Ham Radio 2.0
Interesting that it is "labeled" for two radio services.
Thought about getting one myself.
Thanks for the video Jason!
Any time!
Well, they aren't wrong. Quite a few of the Anytone DMR radios are Part90, but advertised as both services on some sites. Even Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood aren't certified Part97.
There is no such thing as "Certified Part 97" because Part 97 is an experimenters license. Companies have to adhere to certain standards if they want to sell commercially but Part 97 works differently than other FCC Certifications.
great video as always @Ham Radio 2.0
Thanks again!
Is the AM airband receiver…actually AM, not a FM mod. Does it receive the audio clean?
Unlike the Quansheng. Andy
I think they only see the new version. I did buy one after K8MRD did video on Talk pod showing fixed .I got one tested it and its a pass on Harmonics on 2 meters and 220 band. then Hayden did a video they fixed it. you got the one with bigger battery. I got the set with 2 antenna's and 2 battery's . but mine came locked to GMRS but hold button and un lock. K8MRD and Hayden have video on that . now my girlfriends radio . I put a Nagoya try band antenna on it. the 220 band is ok. the outher TYT you did video much better. that Talk pod does air band RX . scans PL tones and more. 73's
Does it have memory groups/banks? A thousand memory channels is great but kind of a pain without some way to group them
Not that I saw
I think the concern on the FCC's Part was that frequency agile or FPP radios, in the hands of the general public was an unwise situation. That being said, the cheaply priced radios from China popped that bubble.
Curious about the talkpod a36SE thats on amazon its sold by talkpod but no one has done a video on it
I have one. But it's more like a 5W version changed its appearance.
I suggest you have a try.
@@talkpodtech i did wasnt much a fan had trouble when programming it and all so returned it and got a tidradio but might try is again just use it for GMRS thx for interacting with the community
My A36 Plus has the same FCC ID number on it. Bought mine sometime last year.
Yeah they recycled the number
It's all lies anyway. If you look up that ID number I bet it's just certified to Part 15 as a noise maker. This radio can't be certified by FCC for GMRS for at least these two reasons:
§ 95.1761 (c)
No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with the capabilities to operate in services that do not require equipment certification, such as the Amateur Radio Service.
§ 95.1787 (a)(4)
The antenna must be a non-removable integral part of the GMRS unit.
I did look up the docs filed for that ID number. Basically Quanshun got their part 95 cert by lying in their "Attestation Letter" by declaring:
"The product has locked the TX frequency to 30 Channels by firmware, and then end users could not unlock the limited band out of range neither by software programming on PC nor manually programming."
And the 136 - 520 MHz range is stated as "receive only".
@@SansNeuralAntenna for GMRS is fixed, only if it can transmit data. Normal radios can have a removable antenna
95.1787, section A is digital rules.
The one I bought last fall says A36 plus on it. They must be differentiating the new model by the 8w designation.
Yes I think the eight watt designation is the only difference. Kind of stupid in my opinion, they should have chosen another model number
fortunately, it didn't call A36Plus Plus haha
They now name it A36Max
We named it as A36Plus MAX
Hey, I like your vids - it looks much improved over the original radio. But I do think you should read up on the TinySA and how to use it, to get more accurate results. Some of the readings and measurements you saw were because of how you set the TinySA up (and the power levels, etc). It would be great to see some more testing on it.
We did a whole Livestream on that
I’ve had three of these within six months, and only one is working anymore. I’ll be honest I’m really not happy with them. One had the plastic deform on the battery holding clips on the main HT itself, and also had its battery fail.
Number two had the HT itself spontaneously fail. Was mid use of it and it just went dead. Thought the battery died, and tried the other batteries on it. Won’t turn on.
Radio three is going fine, for now. Talkpod was less than helpful with the 2nd radio, too saying that “moisture could have gotten into the radio” never mind it was being used dry, and has never been submerged. Mentioned that and the fact they’re sposed to be water resistant, and was told that the water resistance can’t actually be guaranteed and some radios may ship with bad seals. Stellar QC…
Does anyone know about the HAM-CON Zion in St. Georges, Utah during this July ??? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨
I'll be there
Kewl HT BUT unfortunatley, the closest repeator is almost 40 miles away and even then, very sporadic "bursts" of GRMS traffic. I'd prolly have to buy or make a Yagi to reach it...Really need mo' power.
Has anyone else noticed a really bad battery life on the Talkpod A36plus 8W version? I realize it has a much fancier display than the Baofeng UV-5R & UV-82HP, but I keep the back light timer at a minimum and have even tried the deep battery save mode. With little to no TX and very small amounts of RX, the 3200 mAh battery drops too quickly. I turned it on the other day and it read 7.8v. Two days later with no use at all it reads 7.2v. My Baofengs under the same conditions last a ridiculously long time. So I'm now thinking of buying the TIDRADIO TD-H3 which has even less mAh than the A36plus 8W, but not if it will drain quickly as well. Is it the colorful display causing the problem, or is Talkpod itself just a bad radio? Any ideas?
We are now addressing this goddamn issue.
Nice reply. You people are very professional. I'll keep it in mind for my next Talkpod purchase.
Just grabbed a clear one for myself..
My guess is the radio has a Low Pass filter that cleans up the 70cm 2nd Harmonic but passes the 2M harmonics unfiltered.
5W really do that
How do we know it's an upgrade?
Test it against the last one
We named it A36Plus MAX
What does the DC on the Display Screen mean ...?
DC Indicates that the current sub-audio tone is digital. This symbol appears during transmission, signifying that digital sub-audio tone signaling is in progress.
Does this radio actually do 8 watts?
Yes it appears to
Out of all the different makes of radios I have had I send back both my Talkpods they were terrible the batteries were loose fitting they didn't hold a charge and the output was very low, about 3.2 watts, personally I would not touch them either a barge pole
I've not had any issues with this model yet
@@HamRadio2 I could have had a bad batch maybe ?
Possibly
Not legal for GMRS but still cool its wide open and do agree its stupid how the law for GMRS is. Its really nice that it does come with a programming cable. My Wouxun UV9GX allows for programming thru the radio. It came preprogrammed but still had to put in the repeater Codes and I name the repeaters i use.
Why is it not legal for GMRS?
@@RKingis because it does more than just GMRS channels.
@@TeamTopKick Only after modification.
@@TeamTopKick😥🐷
The link that you shared is for the 5 W that transmits and receives on hand bands. There is another link for the 8 W and it says it only transmits on GMRS
That's the link they sent me, lol
They probably have it unlocked for you since you have both licenses
IDK, that's not what the label on the box said
This would almost fit the bill for a GMRS / HAM vhf/uhf Rig except I am looking for a Mobile that would give me that GMRS and 2 meter/440 meter but higher power that I can finish building a dedicated go box for. 73 Vic de KE8JWE
Perhaps check out the Anytone 778UV. 136-174MHz, 400-490MHz, 5, 15 and 25w. Small and compact as well.
Great video tnx for the info man!
There is no reason why you couldn't have more than one VHF radio service on one HT as long as you have the right licenses (amateur, GMRS), and clean transmissions.
Except for the FCC rule saying you can't, I think you are correct.
It's not a superheterodyne though is it?
Doubtful
These Talkpod A36Plus 8 Watt Radios Do Not Have 999 Channels They have 500 Channels i had 2 sent to me they also say 10 Watt on the back of the radio sticker I Programed mine couple days ago couldn't get any more then 500 channels @Ham Radio 2.0
I just got a new version from them too
@@HamRadio2 interesting thing my boxes don't say Gmrs They say Multi-functional portable transceiver on top of box and side of box says talkpod multi-band radio and TX is 462/467 and RX is 136-520 power 10Watt and the FCC ID is the same as yours 2ADQZGMRS1
I find it interesting our boxes are different but the radio specs are the same
but does it xmit at 8w?
I didn't test that. Honestly I don't care, but I know that others will so I'll make another video. The main point today was to test their spurious emissions claim
@@HamRadio2I did a quick search and all the radios that I found were only 5W. This must be too new.
check the link in the description
@@HamRadio2 now it says 8W
They probably just updated their softwares
Probably so, but if it is a clean signal, who cares
FCC rules aren't laws and everyone knows rules are made to be broken😮
Haha...for you and I, yes. For companies though, I kinda agree with the rule.
In my view you should focus on what it does and how well... too much talk about legal.
Which is why I tested the emissions in this video
Thousands of these radios on amazon or ebay that are able to transmit anywhere are they faking the fcc tyoe approval they should all be locked onto gmrs only
Yes
Agreed.