Leaderboard

'Tone' transmits the tone to open the repeater receiver, but your radio doesn't require the tone to be transmitted back in order to open your squelch. 'Tone Squelch' will open the receiver of the repeater and require the tone to be embedded in signals you receive in order to open your squelch. Normally, I don't use tone squelch so I can hear everyone, instead of just repeater traffic... assuming the repeater passes or transmits a tone to begin with.

Got the radio today, genuinely impressed with it. It is certainly a huge step up from the AT-878 I tested (and returned). I would say its closer to Hytera territory in terms of RF performance; except this one is a tribander (rather than a single band radio). I think the specs printed on the brochure, based on quick testing, appear to be worse what the radio is capable of: Sensitivity is probably closer to the 0.16uV @ 12dB SINAD mark than the advertised 0.25 uV @ 12dB SINAD. It also doesn't seem to be hammered as bad as the TM-V71a on VHF with intermod, and the NOAA station that pops in and out of whatever channel I am parked at on the TM-v71a doesn't seem to be an issue with this radio, so that is huge. I will bench this radio vs the EVX-5300, hopefully tomorrow, so I can see how well it receives. So, it has true dual receive, crossband repeat, and a single frequency repeater in DMR... which is awesome, so you can use a single frequency to link multiple radios... nifty little toy. You can have the audio come from the microphone, rather than the radio body, which is very nice too. So for my velomobile I can hide the radio and just leave the microphone. I will probably link the radio to my helmet Senna Bluetooth intercom, see how well it works. (haven't tried that yet) Radio is fairly small, when compared to the XPR5550e this thing is a little radio; while not as short as the EVX-5300, its about the same width and height. fan is dead silent. No faceplate relocation kit as of yet, but it seems it might be coming since its just a ribbon cable with a small GPS micro coax connector, similar to the XPR radios. The included Bluetooth PTT is super nice, but requires disabling the single frequency repeater, not sure if this will change down the road. In my TYT8000E the Crossband repeater mode allows for using the radio as well, so not sure why the radio won't transmit on the band its selected. There were a couple of bugs on the software that crashed to desktop, but other than that, the software seems to work well, wish it was as versatile as the Vertex CE142 CPS for some of the input stuff. I had the codeplug made from the 878 I tested (and returned) a few months ago. I changed the band mode to allow for GMRS operation, with no front panel programming, nor VFO. Want to keep this like a commercial radio. However, if need be I can re-enable that functionality back with the software, but needs a PC to do that. For GMRS is probably a bit overkill, but for ham and/or commercial usage its a great radio. Wish it had airband too, and there is room in the PCB for a third receiver, which is unimplemented ATM, but when that happens I will be selling both my TM-v71A radios... listening to airband is the only reason why I am keeping those Kenwoods around. Being able to hear all the Mototrbo traffic from nearby business in both VHF and UHF is super cool; can't do that with the TM-v71a anymore... most of the stuff I hear around my house is all DMR these days... G.

The problem I see with some of the Zello channels, be it "radio" related or not is owner/admins that spend way more time on air barking at people, asking who is xxx and who "trusted" them in. I can't even log in to Zello on my PC without 3 seconds later some admin yelling my handle wanting to know what I am doing on the channel. Well...you "trusted" me in....that's why I'm here. I really laugh at the ones that are setup as "anyone can listen" but they still get all bent when you appear online. I don't spend 10 hours a day on Zello, so no, you probably haven't talked to me. When I log on to see what's being discussed, stop acting like I'm an intruder. You let me in. In one case you emailed me a password. Today some dude went in a level 13 panic calling people trying to find out who I was and who let me on....I never had a chance to answer, so I just let him go on sounding like he thinks he is so important, if he wants to play radio cop...have fun spazing out! There is nothing that ruins human interaction, like.....human interaction!