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OP what route did you go and how is it working??

I really like the h3 as well. It’s a Fantastic “beater” ht and one of of mine has been a beast taking all kinds of drops and falls and still working great. Loud speake and significantly Better RX than baofengs and easy menu editing.

They have had some spotty quality control, unfortunately. I really like mine, I have 4 of them. All tested good. But there are some that seem to just show up broken. A programming error where you couldn't transmit would get you the "YOU CAN'T DO THAT DUMMY" beep when you key up. If it's not doing that, and it's just outputting 0W, then yeah, they're probably NFG.

Thanks guys I did multiple factory resets. Switched to gmrs mode with factory programming and no output wattage. Did the same with ham mode as well no output wattage there either. Kinda at a loss at that point and just sent them back. Super weird. They worked good out of the box. But subsequent resets did not fix them. (tested into a dummy load)

I thought it was one that's been neutered

Does anyone here know about 'Battleship by Radio"? I heard some people playing the other night and it sounds fun! I'd like to get more information.

Ouch!

When I was an electrician in 1980, I bought a new Fluke hand held digital multimeter. It worked perfectly until about 2 years ago, when it was inundated with saltwater in a flood. I found it several days after, soaked/rinsed with fresh water, then 90% alcohol, but when it dried out, all the control buttons were fused with corrosion. Total loss. I bought a bench model Fluke DMM among some other used test equipment about 20 years ago. It was at least 10 years old when I got it. It too worked perfectly until about six months ago. I turned it on and the display was crazy and it would not respond to the controls. Have not yet decided what to do with it, I may send it back to Fluke because a direct replacement is over $1k. Meantime, I bought another new Fluke hand held DMM. As with the other Fluke instruments, it was pretty expensive, but if it provides the same level of service my other two Flukes did, it will outlive me by a decade or two.

Yes, good test equipment will last a very long time. Still using an old Fluke 87 (no series III or white backlight here). Leaking LCD crystal around its display.....and believe it or not, a metrology tech put the main knob on in the wrong position, had to correct that myself. (My personal fluke ended up in the work pool as it looks like many others.....has happened with a Motorola XPR7550e radio as well). Black gasket broke, so electrical tape seals the gap in places.....but still accurate and great for use in dark corners of electrical cabinets or floor board of cars. Some co-workers bought the cheaper Kelin Tools multimeters, only to find they lacked a backlight. The old expensive Fluke 87 continues to do the job (suspect mine is 30 years old or so). By once, cry once. Get good gear.

I think Steve nailed it.. Programing error. Factory reset try again.

Umm. As much as a can’t stand h3 radios I’d bet something else is going on. Normally I see a 50% fail rate not 100%. I agree they may have gone into ham mode some how so they won’t tx on gmrs or something similar in the programming. I’d reset everything and make sure they are both in gmrs mode then try again with programming. Maybe just dial up a simplex in vfo mode and see if they can communicate. I’ve never had any radio blow anything when tx,ing very close to one another.

Being within a couple feet of another should have no effect on the finals. I bet that something with the programming resulted in inhibited transmit.

Thanks I will try them.

Purchased a two pack of h3’s. Checked their power output when I opened them both were about 4.4 watts. Connected them to the antennas, and programmed them with chirp for local repeaters. Radios Wouldn’t connect to repeaters, I checked the power output and nothing. Tried the other h3 from the same pack. Nothing. wow. I’m scratching my head trying to figure out if something I did fried them or if this just happens with these cheaper ht’s? Can keying an ht next to another one fry both of them? I have 3 other cheap ht’s that work perfectly yet these two died instantly after the initial power meter test. I try not to ever key a radio when it’s within a couple feet of another one but if I’m being honest I did do this on these by accident but I’ve done this to my other ht’s a time or two and they all work fine to this day. sent them back. Hope these h3’s aren’t super fragile and pop their finals if they get any sort of rx overload from a close transmitter but that’s the only thing I can think of that might cause this?!? I would think this could damage a RX section of a radio not the transmitter section no?

Fortunately my work never involved more than 220. A lot was DC control power and 120 that was relay controlled to the equipment. But an old electrician gave me some advice early on. Have two sets of tools. One for electrical and the other for everything else. Keep them in separate tool bags and never mix them. I always bought the best tools I could afford. Retired now I still keep my electrical tools segregated from my others. Old habits die hard if you follow them, you will too.

I guess the gps would be something I’d be interested in hearing about also. I believe this would be the first we have seen this in a GMRS mobile. Does it rely on the phone app for this or does it operate on its own?

Too bad that it doesn't come with a bluetooth mic with the display. Wonder if such a mic will eventually be available.

A Fixed Station is one that's been repaired. /s

Ya ya. Just what I need. More toys

By accident. Apparently there is a 625 repeater that I know about, but he also has a 600 repeater I didn't know about. My repeater operates on 600 with a PL of 100 and apparently his is on 103.5. I can trigger his repeater on occasion when I key up. I noticed when I keyed up the other repeater would activate and it's a much stronger signal than mine. It would block out mine for a second before it released. One day I moved my TX PL and found it was only 1 click up from what I was using. Not sure if my radio PL is wobbly or the selectivity of his repeater is lax. Either way I've decided to change my PL to stop the interference.

You ought to invest in a NANO VNA. Good to have your tool box arsenal.

Interesting that it was demonstrably affected by temperature. At very specific temps. At 26ºF the problem would go away. As the temp approached and exceeded 32ºF the problem would return. Certainly sounds like a water problem to me. Cables were professionally made, doesn't make them infallible of course. All connections were tight and secure. All connections were triple sealed. 2 wraps of self fusing tape and electrical tape on top. It's not like this is my first foray into electronics, electrical or radio. Until I do some RF testing on both the coax and antenna I can't say what exactly happened. All I know is it was broke. I replaced the two components it could possibly be, and now it ain't broke lol.

I would add make sure what you think you’re testing is what you think it is before putting that meter on it also. I got called out for a blown fuse on 4160 three phase. Each leg supplied a group of transformers and the electricians (not our company) thought the high side was 480… they opened up the back, one guy put the probes on while the other held the 600 volt rated meter. They both lived but they both went to the burn ward. Be safe and pass on stories where things can go wrong so the newbies may learn and hopefully avoid bad mistakes.

For 12v dc the best investment a mechanic or hobbyist can make is a power probe. Testing grounds, relays, giving power or ground to something.