TrikeRadio

So was he

Another question.. when you ordered them.. .did you order it for GMRS or HAM... the radio is the same but comes preset to the mode you bought and comes with antenna that is compatible with the band you chose.

Did you get the 1. HAM 2. GMRS 3. NORMAL menu when you di the PTT1 & * Turn it on... ? you should have seen that menu and chosen 2... it would reset with all the default GMRS channels pre-programmed

Yep, that is what I have on my car's roof with my TD-H3 connected and a handset mich plugged in as my tiny makeshift mobile unit. It actually works well.

The only idea I ever thought about for having two live antennas at the same time on one radio... was having a general antenna plus a yagi pointing specifically at a further away repeater that your main antenna cant always hit. But that could just cause a lot of problems too ... I don't even know if that would be practical or a good idea. I will leave it to others with actual understanding of the technical aspects (which I do not have) to comment on this idea.

Not hitting a repeater is not really a Firmware issue like @Socalgmrs mentioned. Even with 240416 it will still work. Your issue is more likely something else not programmed correctly.. or done on a simplex channel instead of the repeater channel of that frequency... or above memory 54 (custom transmitting channel memory slots are only lower than 55 and above 22 in the GMRS mode of the H3. or... you dont have good line of sight or alititude of antenna... or could use a better antenna than the stock one. many variables but firmware is not the problem. if you need to get the firmware updated (not sure exactly why you would) you may haev ot resort to finding a friend with a PC. I understand your pain to a point. Personally I use a macbook, but I do have a windoze PC available as well for such things as this.

Yep... I gave up playing with it now... It was interesting to research it a bit anyway. It is still funny to me that Tidradio has this video about it... and he starts off saying, "Today we are going to be talking about two IMPORTANT FEATURES... " and yet, it does not actually work or do anything!

So here are some things I have found out about menu times 37 (PTT ID) and 39 (ANI-ID): (screenshots and descriptions are in CHIRP) MOST IMPORTANTLY ... Neither setting seems to actually send any ID to other TD-H3 radios... nor does it seem to work sending to other radios like Motorola ones that have this ability. So basically all of this is pointless except for knowing it. Menu item 37 (red circle with number 37) shows in the Memories tab and applies to eahc memory slot / "Channel" individually, so you can turn it to BOT (beginning of transmit) EOF (End of Transmit), BOTH or OFF differently on every memory slot you have saved. Menu Item 39 (red circle with number 39) shows up in the SETTINGS Tab and DTMF subtab . as ID CODE. Seems to apply to whole radio not per memory slot. Menu Item 38 (red circle with number 38) shows in the SETTINGS Tab and DTMF subtab as DTMF SIDE TONES and is a true false checkbox.. on or off. (not really related to the PTT ID.. Separate function that DOES work if you hi the * key, type in a code and hit PTT it will send tones for the characters audibly to the other radio) This turns on or off the sending radio's play back of the audio tones of the code. off it is silent for the sender but comes in on the transmission... on it plays audibly for the sender on clicking the PTT and also transmits the audible tones. - but I know no real use for this in GMRS except maybe of old ol repeaters that use this to be controlled by audible tone codes. There are other settings below in the SETTINGS Tab and DTMF subtab ( in CHIRP) which also seem to apply to the PTT id - but also do not seem to change anything, make anything work, or show up on the radio's own settings menu anywhere. The DTMF DECODE ENABLE can be checked and unchecked in CHIRP.. but will not save to the radio when uploaded... it always is UNCHECKED when you read it back in to chirp. So after all that... it seems to me that 37 and 39 and the other settings that only show in chirp are "vestigial organs" (like the appendix in your body) left over and not used elements which are reserved for future or don't actually do anything useful anymore. I would love to be proven wrong if anyone does know how to make this PTT id thing work universally or even just between two Tidradio units.. but it does not seem liike they really do anything. Like I mentioned above in point number 4.. menu 38 does control if you hear the DTMF codes you can enter using the * key... on it will audibly play them on the sending radio and the receiving... off will make it silent to the sender but transmitted to the receiver.

There is nothing on the screen display examples in the manual about where such a code would even be displayed. I have tried a few things .. on simplex.. via a repeater... to different radios. wil try some different timings of keying I guess. and no, I don't have an amateur license so, yeah won't be trying that yet.

Does anyone know anything about how the menu items 37 (PTT ID), 38 (DTMFST), and 39 (ANI-ID) work? (I am using the GMRS mode BTW) I have: 37 set to BOT (beginning of Transmission), 38 set ON 39 set to a numeric code I want to send. (I'm not absolutely sure that 38 is related to the others but I think it is) When I transmit I don't see that code show on the display of my other TD-H3. I also tried sending to a repeater and to another user with a Motorola radio, and he said my code was not showing on his radio (normally does for others who transmit to him through the repeater). Documentation in the manual is pretty minimal and only tells you how to set the features, but there is no description of how it should actually work or what you might see and where on the screen. TIDRADIO also has a video out about the menus 37 and 39 but in it, they just tell you the same thing the manual does and do not actually demonstrate it on the video. * I'm just wondering if anyone else has used this feature and if so ... what am I missing to make it work? and how does it work exactly? (smart alec responses will be chuckled at and promptly ignored - reasonable and real responses will be greatly appreciated)

I agree, TID should have indicated that above channel slot 54 it is RX only on the GMRS setup. It is not documented anywhere in their information that I can find. The only thing I can figure is that in GMRS mode the idea was it was "restricted" for people who are new... but that still doesn't make much sense since they could still have restricted to GMRS only frequencies but allow all "channel slots" to be RX and TX capable. ** Is there anything about getting it FCC GMRS certified about this restriction that they seem to have imposed for no reason and not documented? I don't know why there would be. But again, there is a way around it for those who know how to properly and accurately set it up in "NORMAL" mode but... yeah, that is not the FCC GMRS "certified" mode. I hope that TIDRADIO does decide at some point to change the Firmare to allow TX above 54 .. but ... I'm not too terribly bothered about it now that I know of it. I just wish like you said that they had DOCUMENTED it and been upfront about it from the start. (and reviewers who did not discover and mention it just means to me that they did not fully test it before their youtube review. (at least not enough to stumble across the problem. But to be fair, I think it took me a month before I noticed that it was a problem)

I agree... My experience with the stock antennas on the TD-H3... they are "Good"... but the Nagoya 771G ... and even Tidradio's GMRS tuned 771 whip are MUCH better. Actually seems like the Tidradio 771 is as good as the Nagoya 771G in my own experience.

Some people can't justify $400 HT radios. Yes, there are a few quirks for every radio. I have had my TD-H3s for about 5 months and find them to be more than I expected. Are there some things I would like to see done differently? Yes, of course. But they have surpassed my expectations – surprising me at times how well they work. So, to each his own.

You were coming in on both west and charlie for me. Not a super strong signal (as expected with an HT) but very understandable on both, with just a bit of static but nothing too bad. I am also using a TD-H3 with a 771G whip antenna and was sitting in my car with the sunroof open... sticking the antenna out the roof when I called you a few minutes ago. Adding a different antenna should help but It seems to be working on both repeaters for you right now.

Ah ok.. yes I heard your radio check and heard that "Coach" responded to you. Yes you came in to the repeater very understandable with a little static but not bad. Im in Garden Grove.. heading out to run some errands... i might try giving you a shout out in hte next hour or less.