Hoppyjr

With voter ID required.

I’m not sure where you guys live, but there are already firearms enhancements on the books in many (all?) states and federally, but those are often not used by “soft” prosecutors (see how I avoided politics?) Good luck getting a “radio enhancement” to any crime.

Maybe watch some video reviews and user experiences on YouTube, so you can get an idea of the various features offered by different brands.

Politicians don’t tell me that, common sense does. People that don’t vote are welcome to complain, but I won’t listen because they helped enable the problem.

You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, but sitting it out has the same effect as voting for the person you disagree with the most. When you examine the issues facing the country it should be clear which path is best.

The external antenna isn’t an option with that Midland handheld, as the antenna is non-removable.

Not sure why you would waste time asking here, as the model is so new it’s clearly under warranty. Your first contact should be Midland Customer Service, who will surely resolve the issue.

A 2 hr 40 min drive and an insanely long line to get in….. [emoji631][emoji106][emoji106][emoji41]

Did you just volunteer to make that happen? Pretty sure this is a free site, so I’m not asking for anything.

It’s like the beginning of the “linked repeaters” silliness all over again. SMH

After reading all that my head hurts and I’m wondering….why?

I agree that the 771 antenna, be they Nagoya or Abree, should be all you need. For what it’s worth, I did the Nagoya 771 and 701 on some of the Baofeng handhelds I bought. The 771 outperformed the 701 as expected. Then I read about the Smiley Antenna “Slim Duck” and picked one up. I found it performed as well as the 771, but was significantly more compact. This in the foothills on the west side of the Cascade mountains in Washington State. I like the Smiley enough to have one on my Icom ID-50 too. Happy Hunting!

^ Winning friends and influencing people…..

I have one too. It’s a solid radio, but surely returned because people don’t take the time to learn how to use it. I also find less it more, so mine doesn’t get used much.

Attention seeking behavior married with arrogance. It’s what’s for dinner!

Never mind. I don’t have anything nice to say.

Maybe I’m old, but I remember when some of the walkie talkies were on channel eleven too. (Spelled out to avoid the dreaded Tapatalk bug).

As I recall, Radio Shack was “Realistic” brand. I lusted after a brand called Handic, from Sweden. They were all international orange in color, had cool rubber antenna options, and speaker mics. Out of my budget as a teen, but I found several and bought them off eBay many years ago. While they are all gone now, it was an old dream realized. Same for a pretty cool “small” unit called a “Pocket Com” walkie-talkie. Saw a pair in old magazine ads, then saw them once in person at a country store while in hunting trip in the Virginia mountains. Didn’t buy, regretted, found years later on eBay. Nostalgia is fun.

I shared this in a different thread about the same exact model radio, but here’s some info that may help - We installed the same model, current production version with the USB-C port, into a Jeep JK. Antenna was also properly grounded. We experienced the same issue: heavy static, virtually no range (maybe a block or two at best), yet the weather channels were clear. We could hear some traffic, including configured repeater channels, but transmit was a no-go. There was static on receive too. I contacted Midland customer service via their website. While a quick web search will explain that the older models of this radio (without USB-C) had issues with repeater channels, it’s not widely known that even the most recent USB-C version has a firmware issue. I don’t know if it’s just a bad production run, but I suspect that’s the case. Midland advised me to send it in and they would update the firmware, but wouldn’t even cover the shipping to them. Since I was within the Amazon return period I elected to return the radio. We installed the higher power MTX575 that was previously in my 4Runner, and it works great. To do it again, I’d go with a different brand radio altogether. I hope this helps. Hoppy

If you have the latest iPhone and latest OS you can also text via satellite. My ex wife and I did today. Works great.

Disregard - the dreaded Tapatalk iPhone emoji bomb strikes again.

I thought the point of GMRS portables was to wear them on the belt (black basketweave, duh) and have the speaker/mic? This watch definitely won’t impress the ladies like the belt worn handheld.

What exactly are you following up?

We really could go on an on, but your next move really should be to contact Midland Customer Service and explain the problem. It sounds like you are experiencing exactly what I did. I’m sure they’ll offer to update both radios. Ask them to provide the shipping label, which is the least they can do since they knew of the problem and didn’t handle before sale.