This is awesome! THank you for doing this review. A few questions: 1. Is there a $50 per radio fee per year?, 2. The website says you can make it international and to email for info. on that. Is there an extra fee to make it work international? 3.Can you send texts over this radio?
Thank you Tommy! This is exactly the type of information I was looking for. I won't be able to buy mine until spring/summer so hopefully they have improved the clip by then. Thanks again for the review and all you do for the victims of Helene.
Like the nextels had is there a “call” function? In other words can I send a call tone to another radiom like my wife and now she know I’m calling then she can answer it, I’m still on the fence, thanks
Was looking at these as we have 10-15 people we keep in contact with all over the country. Cheaper then a cellphone but cheap. Just wondering if we had an EMP in the country and cell towers are destroyed will they still function?
The following is meant as helpful criticism: Suggestion, when capturing video with any camera, especially a cell phone always orientate the camera horizontally (landscape), never orientate it vertically (portrait). Every TV screen, monitor screen, computer screen, movie theater screen (AKA wide screen theaters), is orientated horizontally never vertical. In videos when the camera is vertical (portrait orientation), then played back on the aforementioned devices the left one-third, and right one-third of the screen is cut off, causing the video to appear as tall and narrow stick video. We humans, maybe all lifeforms, view our surroundings more horizontally than vertically. Orientating a cellphone or regular camera vertically the video produced is similar to looking through a tight vertical narrow keyhole or wearing horse blinders, again not good nor how we experience our world. In addition, when held vertically, to view the entire scene the camera person must pan more left and right creating too much camera movement; not good. Because us humans view our world more horizontally, a video captured vertically becomes spatially disorientating.
I wish they had internet access to their system so I can create and merge groups myself in real time without having to send a form and wait for them to activate it. 24 Hours isn't terrible, but I'd imagine growth will make it so it is not possible to keep up.
Don’t they have a lifetime warranty let them know about the clip and how they were lost maybe they’ll send you two replacements I mean like you said it was the bad clip that misplaced and lost the radios. Worth a try and thank you for the information about who I can and can’t talk to now I know to contact them to add more radios to my group thank you.
Their website says they will work on cruise ships, nope. Took them on the Icon of the Seas in November 2024 and not only do they not work on the ship, they don't work out of the U.S. in any Latin America countries, very disappointed. Other than that, we still use them in the U.S. Not a deal breaker.
They DO have a plan that will let them work out of the US, but you have to let them know and have the right plan for the radio. And I can imagine a cruise ship would be a great test scenario for emergencies - absolutely ZERO cell towers in range.. .so that's good to know. In our test case it DID work smooth even when cell calls won't, but the signal wasn't totally non-existent, just very poor quality LTE coverage. These still worked great in that scenario.
Their website says "This depends on the cruise ship but YES, in most cases. Most major cruise lines offer LTE repeaters - as long as they have one, it will work." It does not say it will work on all ships in all areas, and it does not say they will work outside the US without the international plan.
Oh boy. A "radio" that just works on LTE cell.phone networks. I'm sure there are applications for this as a replacement to Nextel PTT, but there's no way I'd rely on this in a serious emergency that disrupted cell networks. If the cerl towers are down, this guy is not getting out. And the fact it is limited to call groups defined at time of purchase means it won't be able to place a general emergency call. No thanks.
Well, for the most part I agreed with everything you just said. That's why I bought some as a test. And for the whole SHTF scenario, I've got a ham station, HF, VHF, UHF and my own GMRS county-wide repeater - so I'm with you. I wouldn't consider this my only source of comms in an emergency, but it's SO very incredibly helpful during normal work that it's awesome to have. Even in the affected areas where we can't get calls out, it's been working reliably. My team can be in Green Mountain NC and I'm in Albemarle, 150 miles away and we're communicating instantly without having to make a phone call. The day-to-day usage is what has impressed me thus far.
@TommyJordan Might be a decent alternative to a commercial/business radio, cheaper than trunked systems and more private than analogue. Useful when you know beforehand the entire team you would need to contact. I'm a licensed amateur as well, and I was more concerned that folks with less understanding of how radio works would see this as an alternative for long distance comms in a real disaster when local cell towers are out of service, or out of range. I live in the Pacific Northwest. There's a bike ride called RAMROD - Ride Around Mt. Ranier in One Day. No cell service in large parts of the national park, so they depend on amateur radio teams along the route to track rider progress and report safety issues.
This is awesome! THank you for doing this review. A few questions: 1. Is there a $50 per radio fee per year?, 2. The website says you can make it international and to email for info. on that. Is there an extra fee to make it work international? 3.Can you send texts over this radio?
Thank you Tommy! This is exactly the type of information I was looking for. I won't be able to buy mine until spring/summer so hopefully they have improved the clip by then. Thanks again for the review and all you do for the victims of Helene.
Glad you found it helpful!
Like the nextels had is there a “call” function? In other words can I send a call tone to another radiom like my wife and now she know I’m calling then she can answer it, I’m still on the fence, thanks
Was looking at these as we have 10-15 people we keep in contact with all over the country. Cheaper then a cellphone but cheap. Just wondering if we had an EMP in the country and cell towers are destroyed will they still function?
The following is meant as helpful criticism: Suggestion, when capturing video with any camera, especially a cell phone always orientate the camera horizontally (landscape), never orientate it vertically (portrait). Every TV screen, monitor screen, computer screen, movie theater screen (AKA wide screen theaters), is orientated horizontally never vertical. In videos when the camera is vertical (portrait orientation), then played back on the aforementioned devices the left one-third, and right one-third of the screen is cut off, causing the video to appear as tall and narrow stick video. We humans, maybe all lifeforms, view our surroundings more horizontally than vertically. Orientating a cellphone or regular camera vertically the video produced is similar to looking through a tight vertical narrow keyhole or wearing horse blinders, again not good nor how we experience our world. In addition, when held vertically, to view the entire scene the camera person must pan more left and right creating too much camera movement; not good. Because us humans view our world more horizontally, a video captured vertically becomes spatially disorientating.
Go watch a different video then!
I wish they had internet access to their system so I can create and merge groups myself in real time without having to send a form and wait for them to activate it. 24 Hours isn't terrible, but I'd imagine growth will make it so it is not possible to keep up.
Don’t they have a lifetime warranty let them know about the clip and how they were lost maybe they’ll send you two replacements I mean like you said it was the bad clip that misplaced and lost the radios. Worth a try and thank you for the information about who I can and can’t talk to now I know to contact them to add more radios to my group thank you.
One other reviewer referenced a fee of about $50 a year to keep the sim active in the rapid radios.
Their website says they will work on cruise ships, nope. Took them on the Icon of the Seas in November 2024 and not only do they not work on the ship, they don't work out of the U.S. in any Latin America countries, very disappointed. Other than that, we still use them in the U.S. Not a deal breaker.
They DO have a plan that will let them work out of the US, but you have to let them know and have the right plan for the radio. And I can imagine a cruise ship would be a great test scenario for emergencies - absolutely ZERO cell towers in range.. .so that's good to know. In our test case it DID work smooth even when cell calls won't, but the signal wasn't totally non-existent, just very poor quality LTE coverage. These still worked great in that scenario.
Their website says "This depends on the cruise ship but YES, in most cases. Most major cruise lines offer LTE repeaters - as long as they have one, it will work."
It does not say it will work on all ships in all areas, and it does not say they will work outside the US without the international plan.
Can you name the people you talk to
Oh boy. A "radio" that just works on LTE cell.phone networks. I'm sure there are applications for this as a replacement to Nextel PTT, but there's no way I'd rely on this in a serious emergency that disrupted cell networks. If the cerl towers are down, this guy is not getting out. And the fact it is limited to call groups defined at time of purchase means it won't be able to place a general emergency call. No thanks.
Well, for the most part I agreed with everything you just said. That's why I bought some as a test. And for the whole SHTF scenario, I've got a ham station, HF, VHF, UHF and my own GMRS county-wide repeater - so I'm with you. I wouldn't consider this my only source of comms in an emergency, but it's SO very incredibly helpful during normal work that it's awesome to have. Even in the affected areas where we can't get calls out, it's been working reliably.
My team can be in Green Mountain NC and I'm in Albemarle, 150 miles away and we're communicating instantly without having to make a phone call. The day-to-day usage is what has impressed me thus far.
@TommyJordan Might be a decent alternative to a commercial/business radio, cheaper than trunked systems and more private than analogue. Useful when you know beforehand the entire team you would need to contact.
I'm a licensed amateur as well, and I was more concerned that folks with less understanding of how radio works would see this as an alternative for long distance comms in a real disaster when local cell towers are out of service, or out of range. I live in the Pacific Northwest. There's a bike ride called RAMROD - Ride Around Mt. Ranier in One Day. No cell service in large parts of the national park, so they depend on amateur radio teams along the route to track rider progress and report safety issues.
My radio is always on an idle and can’t get through to my other radio
yeah but it took 24 hours
For now...but i do believe they are working on a way for the end user to add and drop without calling them