Jig

BTech Support reached back out to me and let me know that they were mistaken. They retested my radio and were able to get a fix on a GPS signal. I'm not sure how long they waited for the unit to connect to GPS but I will be testing it again once they send it back to me. I'll update the OP with this information.

My first walkie hearie was a UV-5R and my first walkie talkie was a BTech GMRS-Pro. Since then I've also got a midland mobile 275. got a dipole antenna coming in to finish my SDR build. I'm still super new to GMRS and treat it like a hobby at the moment, only joined one local repeater group so far as a SHTF assist.

Thank you for checking, that's interesting. I have to wonder if I got a misinformed rep and my radio is defective, or if there was different production runs/versions of this radio. It stands to reason that with the GMRS-Pro being a new radio and the surge of people ordering it there could have been QA inconsistencies... FWIW, during my original support request with btech we went through the process of trying to gain a signal. I spent 10 minutes outside with a clear view of the sky trying to get a fix to no avail. Once I get a more concrete response I'll update the original post so as I'm not the one misinforming people.

My gmrs-pro kept last fix data for at least 20 minutes after my phone was turned off. It wasn't able to refresh that data until the phone was turned back on (can't recall if I had to launch the app to resync GPS data)

Hey there! They actually have not. This was the reason for the original support request, to determine if my radio was bad because I was not getting altitude or speed data without the Bluetooth connection. Their response indicates that there is no built-in GPS antenna and that data is solely provided to the radio via the cell phone's built-in GPS sensors. I've requested a response from them and will update the thread once one is received. I was actually quite more forward with them in my response that I did not include here - but your understanding matches mine, and that was conveyed. Brass tacks - the manual is wrong and describes a feature that some may trust in a SHTF scenario.

EDIT: Awaiting response from BTECH Support for more clarification EDIT2: Response from BTech explains they were initially mistaken and were able to get my unit working I got the GMRS-Pro from BTech and one of the listed features is a built-in GPS antenna (manual page 37, screenshot attached). My assumption was this feature would be able to receive GPS signal and display it in a meaningful way (gps cooridinates or position overlaid on a downloaded map image). Mine seemed not to work as I could not get a valid GPS fix without connecting it to my cell phone. I opened a support ticket, described my issue and was asked to open an RMA request and then paid to ship off my radio. After they received my radio they contacted me to help correct a misunderstanding that the GPS feature is not built into the radio but rather piggybacks off the cell phones GPS. This is a slight difference in the documented feature, but since some (like me) might make assumptions about the radios capabilities I wanted to share my experience.