Thanks for review. I was thinking about one to upgrade my Midland radio in my truck. It looked pretty good and a guy I work with purchased one base on the wattage. Maybe I need to continue my quest. On the Radioddity site a review said it was a rebrand of a radio sold elsewhere which are $10.00 per radio if you buy 100 (I think).
Once you take the time to figure it out on your own, it's not horrible. It would take me all day to have to program all the freqs we use around here with the scrolling of each character. :-/ Let us know what you decide to go with. THANKS for watching!!!
I am looking at this radio along with a few others to set one up as a base radio with that said in your honest opinion what would be the best base radio to purchase
That's tough to answer since there are so many different needs folks have. My favorite mobile is the Btech 50X3. If you needing power and are limited on space it's a good one.
@@MCTGMRS78009 I’m a Btech man myself and will probably end up going that route I just like to get other peoples opinions on different radios before settling on one. If I could afford to and thought my wife wouldn’t kill me I would have one of everything hahahaha thanks for your reply
I recently installed it in my minivan. Consistently transmitting 45W on high power. Consistent 5W on low. I have it paired with a Nagoya UT-72G magnetic base getting 1.35 SWR out of the box. Not too hard to program with the mic. There is software and a programming cable, but the features are limited enough that it can be done without. Works well, transmits clearly. Mic has a good feel and weight. Onboard speaker a bit tinny but tolerable.
The radio seems to operate great... I'm just having a hard time getting past a few of the quirks I mentioned. Not sure I would spend almost 200 bucks for it either. THANKs for taking the time to watch and comment!!!
Looks like a pretty darn nice radio for the price. I think I’m going to pick up a couple and use for repeaters. Can you use a parrot repeater for these in case I wanted to spread them across a wide area instead of linking together?
You will need to check the connector that your "parrot" repeater comes with. The simplex repeaters I have used aren't supplied with the pin type connector this radio has. I am doubting the limited programming this unit allows would let you set this up as simplex repeater. I would do some checking before you go out and buy them.
Got mine Monday. I took a quick look at the "manual" and tossed it back into the box. After a little poking around, I managed to get it going and turned the annoying beep off first. I downloaded the CPS software and managed to "read" the radio. It brought in the default GMRS channel plan and I also got the shaded blue boxes which cannot be modified. So I entered all of my repeater channels starting at the first open slot (25 I think) and got them all programmed and wrote them to the radio. That seemed to go OK. When I saved the modified database and then re-opened it, the blue shaded boxes were gone ! I could modify all of the entries as I wished. I haven't tried writing it to the radio yet, so I don't know if the modifications will take. Adding Alpha tags to the channels is a convoluted mess. The "manual" is completely wrong and it was only after multiple tries and failures that I was able to get it done. I'm hopeful that RT Systems or Chirp will support this radio at some point. It's a nice little radio, has good audio, and the 40 watts is a plus for me since I'm working with a compromised antenna system (attic- HOA). Haven't gotten any reports on my transmitted audio yet, so can't comment on that. I agree the mic plug is a PITB.
Can I just simply plug this into the accessory outlet (cigarette symbol) socket in my car? I don’t want to start with any wiring or fuse boxes in the car…
You can add names to the channels via the handset. It's in the Manual. Mine is putting 48 watts at the highest. I like it. It performs just as good as my Wouxon 1000g plus
Oh boy, where to start. Im sorry i even asked about the backlit mic keys. Also, my comment on Facebook stands about the whole Alpha tagging, or lack thereof. From the videos ive seen of the DB-20 and DB-25, how did the company take such a big step backwards? Concerning the manual,(to coin another GMRS TH-camr, is the manual written in Chinglish, sorta Chinglish, ok English, or good English?) Were all the channels set to Narrow out of the box? I do agree with your assessment of the radio as a whole. Thanks for sharing. WRPD614. P.S. 10,000 bonus points for your soulfoul rendition of Player's song.
The back lighting on the mic is one of the 1st things I noticed. It really sucks not having it. This is definitely not what I expected from Radioddity, especially at the almost 200.00 price tag. All the freqs were set to narrow and I failed to mention that in the video... Didn't make much sense to me either. And oh by the way... THANKS for all your comments in the FB Group!!! I always get a good chuckle!!! Thought about doing a whole karaoke number on that song :-D
SOOOOOOOOOO.... make sure you check out the FB Group. I just learned the mic is back lit with almost total darkness AND you can alpha-tag with this convoluted way that is nowhere in the instruction manual. Still kinda unreal to me.
Got about halfway through this... the no backlit buttons on the handset, no naming of channels, and when I found out you can't program it with CHIRP..; nope. Don't need this radio.
You are the first review I have found of this radio. I should receive mine tomorrow or the next day. I think it sounds like a great bang for buck radio. Plus I love the orange glow. I’ll probably set it up as a base for my dad to talk to the local repeater where he’s at.
Having the DB20G cousin the Retevis RA25. I don't think this would be an upgrade. You can jailbreak your radio and talk on the FRS locked out channels, Murs, and Marine radio. In our area we finally are getting a few GMRS repeaters that no one talks on but once a week. A farmer put up a new GMRS repeater and I almost wrecked the car when he answered my monitoring announcement.
I agree... its bigger, harder to mount and can't (shouldn't) be plugged into a cigarette lighter hole. Other than a few extra watts the ra25 is just as good, if not better. Glad to hear y'all got a system going there.
I have a Retivis RA86 that I put in my wife’s Gladiator. Got it for less than $100.00. It works good. Anyone have any feedback on the RA87? It is the 40 watt Retivis radio in about the same price range as this one.
I got the same radio, to expensive, I pay $150.00 on black Friday on Amazon. I don't care for channel names, I see the channel number and the frequency on the radio. Madioddity shoud sell this radio $89.99 no more than that. is a simple radio. I will never pay $179.00. another is the power output of the radio is not 40 watts.
I have mine setup as a base unit. I love the straight forward no bells and whistles operation. Does everything I need it to.
I think that would be a great use for it. I gave mine to my son... he's still trying to alpha tag all the freqs I programmed in for him. 😩
Got mine yesterday. Easy to program my local repeater. Seems like it's just what I need.
Awesome! Glad you liked it!
Thanks for review. I was thinking about one to upgrade my Midland radio in my truck. It looked pretty good and a guy I work with purchased one base on the wattage. Maybe I need to continue my quest. On the Radioddity site a review said it was a rebrand of a radio sold elsewhere which are $10.00 per radio if you buy 100 (I think).
Once you take the time to figure it out on your own, it's not horrible. It would take me all day to have to program all the freqs we use around here with the scrolling of each character. :-/ Let us know what you decide to go with. THANKS for watching!!!
I am looking at this radio along with a few others to set one up as a base radio with that said in your honest opinion what would be the best base radio to purchase
That's tough to answer since there are so many different needs folks have. My favorite mobile is the Btech 50X3. If you needing power and are limited on space it's a good one.
@@MCTGMRS78009 I’m a Btech man myself and will probably end up going that route I just like to get other peoples opinions on different radios before settling on one. If I could afford to and thought my wife wouldn’t kill me I would have one of everything hahahaha thanks for your reply
I recently installed it in my minivan. Consistently transmitting 45W on high power. Consistent 5W on low. I have it paired with a Nagoya UT-72G magnetic base getting 1.35 SWR out of the box. Not too hard to program with the mic. There is software and a programming cable, but the features are limited enough that it can be done without. Works well, transmits clearly. Mic has a good feel and weight. Onboard speaker a bit tinny but tolerable.
The radio seems to operate great... I'm just having a hard time getting past a few of the quirks I mentioned. Not sure I would spend almost 200 bucks for it either. THANKs for taking the time to watch and comment!!!
Looks like a pretty darn nice radio for the price. I think I’m going to pick up a couple and use for repeaters. Can you use a parrot repeater for these in case I wanted to spread them across a wide area instead of linking together?
You will need to check the connector that your "parrot" repeater comes with. The simplex repeaters I have used aren't supplied with the pin type connector this radio has. I am doubting the limited programming this unit allows would let you set this up as simplex repeater. I would do some checking before you go out and buy them.
Got mine Monday. I took a quick look at the "manual" and tossed it back into the box. After a little poking around, I managed to get it going and turned the annoying beep off first. I downloaded the CPS software and managed to "read" the radio. It brought in the default GMRS channel plan and I also got the shaded blue boxes which cannot be modified. So I entered all of my repeater channels starting at the first open slot (25 I think) and got them all programmed and wrote them to the radio. That seemed to go OK. When I saved the modified database and then re-opened it, the blue shaded boxes were gone ! I could modify all of the entries as I wished. I haven't tried writing it to the radio yet, so I don't know if the modifications will take.
Adding Alpha tags to the channels is a convoluted mess. The "manual" is completely wrong and it was only after multiple tries and failures that I was able to get it done. I'm hopeful that RT Systems or Chirp will support this radio at some point.
It's a nice little radio, has good audio, and the 40 watts is a plus for me since I'm working with a compromised antenna system (attic- HOA). Haven't gotten any reports on my transmitted audio yet, so can't comment on that. I agree the mic plug is a PITB.
Good stuff! It's not the worst radio I've seen but Radioddity could have made it a lot more simple, i think.
Can I just simply plug this into the accessory outlet (cigarette symbol) socket in my car? I don’t want to start with any wiring or fuse boxes in the car…
You can but i would not turn it on HIGH power or you'll start popping fuses.
I so want that radio. Send it over to me, I'll give it a great home.
It's being given to one of our REACT Team Members. I'll do a give away on the next mobile I get for sure!
You can add names to the channels via the handset. It's in the Manual. Mine is putting 48 watts at the highest. I like it. It performs just as good as my Wouxon 1000g plus
Thanks for the info.
Entering the repeater name was in an upgrade when my guy programed mine
Just got ours today. I will check it out
Let us know whatcha think.
Will do! Thanks!
Oh boy, where to start. Im sorry i even asked about the backlit mic keys. Also, my comment on Facebook stands about the whole Alpha tagging, or lack thereof. From the videos ive seen of the DB-20 and DB-25, how did the company take such a big step backwards? Concerning the manual,(to coin another GMRS TH-camr, is the manual written in Chinglish, sorta Chinglish, ok English, or good English?) Were all the channels set to Narrow out of the box? I do agree with your assessment of the radio as a whole. Thanks for sharing. WRPD614.
P.S. 10,000 bonus points for your soulfoul rendition of Player's song.
The back lighting on the mic is one of the 1st things I noticed. It really sucks not having it. This is definitely not what I expected from Radioddity, especially at the almost 200.00 price tag. All the freqs were set to narrow and I failed to mention that in the video... Didn't make much sense to me either. And oh by the way... THANKS for all your comments in the FB Group!!! I always get a good chuckle!!! Thought about doing a whole karaoke number on that song :-D
SOOOOOOOOOO.... make sure you check out the FB Group. I just learned the mic is back lit with almost total darkness AND you can alpha-tag with this convoluted way that is nowhere in the instruction manual. Still kinda unreal to me.
After this review….. I think I’ll buy 2
Let us know how you like em! Thanks for watching!
Mine came with backlit buttons on the mic. Still not impressed though...
Yours must be brighter than the one I got. It's still in the box in the shack. 😫
Got about halfway through this... the no backlit buttons on the handset, no naming of channels, and when I found out you can't program it with CHIRP..; nope. Don't need this radio.
It was a real turn off for me as well. I did find out its back lit, but very dim.
u must of recorded this before all the tornados.
We didn't have any down this way THANK GOODNESS.
Interesting. Yeah, it's okay, but I would probably go all the way and get a new Midland .. Just me though. ❤
Thanks for sharing.
Totally with you on that! 👍
Nice review. I have the DB20G and was looking to upgrade. Will stay with my unit for time being.
If they could just fix a few issues, I think it would be great.
You are the first review I have found of this radio. I should receive mine tomorrow or the next day. I think it sounds like a great bang for buck radio. Plus I love the orange glow. I’ll probably set it up as a base for my dad to talk to the local repeater where he’s at.
Having the DB20G cousin the Retevis RA25. I don't think this would be an upgrade. You can jailbreak your radio and talk on the FRS locked out channels, Murs, and Marine radio. In our area we finally are getting a few GMRS repeaters that no one talks on but once a week. A farmer put up a new GMRS repeater and I almost wrecked the car when he answered my monitoring announcement.
I agree... its bigger, harder to mount and can't (shouldn't) be plugged into a cigarette lighter hole. Other than a few extra watts the ra25 is just as good, if not better. Glad to hear y'all got a system going there.
I have a Retivis RA86 that I put in my wife’s Gladiator. Got it for less than $100.00. It works good. Anyone have any feedback on the RA87? It is the 40 watt Retivis radio in about the same price range as this one.
I got the same radio, to expensive, I pay $150.00 on black Friday on Amazon. I don't care for channel names, I see the channel number and the frequency on the radio. Madioddity shoud sell this radio $89.99 no more than that. is a simple radio. I will never pay $179.00. another is the power output of the radio is not 40 watts.
I'm with you... I wasn't impressed at all.
that radio seems kind of boring
Kinda my thoughts too, I just didn't wanna say that on the video. LOL I did just put out an update but doesn't make it much better in my opinion.