Leaderboard

I dont know much about the MXT 400, I do know there are other reviews on the site, some good, some not so much. I can say the Kenwood 880 is a strong commercial and emergency service radio that was used for years. They were designed for abuse and can take it. I also found the kenwoods are a little less cost wise if you do your research correctly. I purchased all of the mobiles at about $40 per radio, one for each vehicle, one base camp radio, and 2 for a portable repeater project I am doing. The portables were about $55 each since I had to buy new batteries and antennas. Still less than the MXT400's price of $250. Kenwood 880H (the 40 watt model) usually go for around 75-100, but even those you can get deals on. The nice thing about the 880/380's is that there are extra features on them. One feature we use is the texting feature. I've programmed 14-15 status messages using fleetsync and we can use them to text one another or the entire group. Fleetsync also allowed for Radio ID, which allows me to see who's calling even if they don't talk on the radio. One last thing, if I recall, the MXT does not allow you to store repeater information on the radio. You'll need to change the settings for each repeater you may use, or each time you change the channel. The Kenwood stores the frequencies into channels so you can have 5 different repeaters on one frequency using 5 different codes, and all you do is press up or down to change between them which is nice when your driving and cant watch the radio and the road at the same time. Im sure there are some pros to the MXT400 radio, but I couldnt tell ya any off the top of my head.

The FCC has tested/certified an independent test facility report the radio used for this service meets the technical requirements for emission type, stability and power. It benefits other users of this service by ensuring radios will not cause undue interference to other users and those in adjacent services.

That FCC publication strongly implies that part 90 radios may be used on part 95 without specific certification; it also implies that 90/95 dual service certification will continue to be available. The way I see it, the golden radio is something like the GD-77s -- part 90 certified ham radios. They'll tune the whole 70cm band, and the 90 cert implies it may be used on GMRS, per that publication.

I did a short Youtube video on this. Got a lot of flak from RR defenders. They are sponsoring a bunch of off road channels on YouTube now so their re-badged overpriced stuff is getting more and more out there and gaining more supporters who IMO either dont' know any better or are getting free stuff from them anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChdwiXtukR4

They also used to (maybe the still do) sell radios preprogrammed with what they called "race channels" which were a mix of frequencies from the business and public safety pools. They did not make it clear to the consumerthat appropriate FCC licenses are required to operate, and that the risk of causing harmful interference was very high. Not a reputable company, in my opinion.

Rugged Radios is a complete rip off. I would never buy anything from them, the radios they sell are rebranded CCRs with a ridiculous markup.