WRVE426

It is hard to compare. The KG-Q10G is a very good radio, superhet, high IP, etc. I did not compare them in any halfway serious way, but I would say that I did not notice any difference, but that does not mean much, since I did not take the time to test them on sensitivity/selectivity. I can't imagine that the hardware under the hood of the H3 would be as good as the one on the KG-Q10G, but that is just my "you get what you pay for" thing kicking in. Hopefully a better tester than myself might give you a better reply!

I discovered the company TIDRADIO when I purchased their H8 model which, as many of you know, had some very real problems but, to the surprise of many, TIDRADIO not only did not deny the problems but, instead, they tried really hard to listen to their customers and they fixed the problems which were reported. It took them two attempts, but they eventually succeeded. Not only that, but they replaced the early production models with fixed ones, at no cost to the client. Many, including myself, were very impressed with how TIDRADIO turned what could have been a major problem into a major success. Clearly, TIDRADIO listened and swiftly acted to correct the issues identified. I was so impressed by not only the company, but also by the H8 model which came packed with superb capabilities, especially for an extremely competitive price, that I contacted TIDRADIO and offered to beta-test their pre-production models. TIDRADIO quickly and kindly agreed and sent me their latest H3 which I shall review below. The TIDRADIO H3 and H8 As you can tell from the photo above, the H3 very much looks like the “smaller brother of the H8”. But that would not at all be fair to the H3 which, while being amazingly small, packs a lot of awesome features. But let’s begin with one of the features which made TIDRADIO HTs so popular: both the H8 and the H3 offer three different boot-up modes: GMRS, HAM and “unlocked”. Just to clarify, each time you change the boot-up mode, you are doing a factory reset, so if you program your radio in one mode and then boot up in a different mode, all your changes will be lost. There is, of course, an easy workaround here. Two in fact: if you use the CHIRP free and open source software or the ODMASTER app and website, you can quite easily copy your frequencies/channels into the memory banks of the H3 (which has 199 memory slots, more than enough, at least for me). Both the H8 and the H3 can also be programmed by Bluetooth using the ODMASTER app. Both CHIRP and ODMASTER offer access to repeater databases, but for me the best results were achieved by using the “query→repeaterbook” option in CHIRP. [Note: I have found it helpful to, after I am done with CHIRP, to also connect to the radio with the ODMASTER app just to double-check some buggy aspects of CHIRP which, for examples, messed up my TX power settings when cloned back to the radio. One simple “read” in ODMASTER followed by a single “write” fixed that issue for me] I should mention here that the H8 and H3 have different RX/TX capabilities: H8: 144-148 & 420-450MHz (TX) and 76-108 MHz (FM Broadcast Radio); 136-174 & 400-520MHz (RX) H3: 8 Band Receiving: ( FM )50-76MHz; ( AM )76-108MHz; 108-136MHz; ( VHF ) 136-174MHz; 174-350MHz; 350-400MHz; ( UHF ) 400-470MHz; 470-600MHz and 2 Band Transmitting: ( VHF )144-148MHz; ( UHF )420-450MHz The fact is that while both the H8 and the H3 have the same transmitting capabilities, the H3 comes with a galore of extra frequencies, including Airband! So, as you can tell already, the H3 is hardly a “little” brother to the H8 but a very capable radio in its own right. While the radio is small, which is a big advantage and very convenient, it also feels very solid and well built. All the buttons function smoothly and having them backlit keyboard is a very good choice. The only suggestion I have would be to change the color of the characters on the buttons from white on blue to bright yellow over blue as that would make it easier to read the characters. The battery has a very long life time and fits very snugly into the radio. The stock antenna seems to be of a very decent quality and it is well built. The sound of the speaker is very good. No problems here. The choice of a single top rotating power switch/volume control, a flashlight and two indicators is a very good layout, I just wish the knob was a little stiffer to rotate. The flashlight itself seems decent, but the light is too widely dispersed and should be better focused by a better lens. The H3 does not have any IP rating, but it seems very well built. Don’t go swimming with it, but it should fare just fine in light rain, dust or sand (especially if you cover the two USB-C port with a small plastic plug). I was unable to test the USB-C programming slot. While CHIRP could “see” the H3 when I used a regular programming cable, I could not get my computer to “see” the radio when connected to the internal USB-C programming slot. This might be a GNU/Linux specific issue, I don’t know. The USB-C charging, however, works very well. As I mentioned, the ability to boot into different modes is a true “killer feature” which I hope all future TIDRADIO radios will retain. I did most of my testing in the “normal” (unlocked) mode but I tested booting up in GMRS and that works very well. I tested the Odmaster and CHIRP programming with the H3 (using Android and GNU/Linux) and I have had zero problems. Both applications work really well (though in my case, only when using a regular programming cable). The ability to copy and paste between various modes (HAM to GMRS or GMRS to HAM) allows the user to configure the radio to exactly his needs. The user manual is well written and the radio’s menu system works well, but there are 3 menu items which are missing from the user manual: #52 (200 TX) #53 (350TX) AND #54 (500TX).I also suggest that option #34 (frequency hopping) should be given an explanation on how to use it and what to use it for. I find the implementation of the AM mode clumsy. Why not have it immediately activated when on the airband? The “selective scan frequency” is still very “raw”. For example, the frequency scanner seems to start on the last frequency it detected. This is not good. I also hope that future software updates will add an option to give the scanner a starting frequency. The FM radio is adequate, but it has zero ability to scan. When scanning in the FM mode, I could not get it to detect a single FM radio station. So the current firmware still could use some fixing, and I am confident that TIDRADIO will fix these issues in future updates. I admit being very impressed by the H3 which is among my top favorite radios which, considering its price, is a huge achievements. The H3 currently sells for $39.99 on Amazon. For comparison, my Wouxun KG-935G Plus now costs $149.99, my Btech GMRS Pro cost $154.89, my Wouxun KG-UV9GX $187 and my Wouxun KG-Q10G now sells for a whopping $219.99 (and it has at least as many bugs as the H3 including a basically useless GPS receiver). FYI, the 2nd Gen TIDRADIO TD-H8 now sells for $69. So for 110 bucks, you can get both the TIDRADIO H8 and the TIDRADIO H3! Then I want to return to the form factor: the H3 is really very small, fits in a pocket, yet it is very strong, it has this solid quality feel, and the color screen is superb and very well designed. And while the H3 is both smaller and cheaper than any of my other radios, it is the one I mostly carry around. Could the H3 be improved upon? I think so. First, it would need to be made “outdoors” compatible, which means a decent IP rating and a GNSS chip: the Wouxun KG-Q10G only have a GPS chip, the Btech Pro has a chip which can receive both GPS and Beidou signals, which is better, but still not the full GNSS (which combines GPS+GLONASS+Beidou+Galileo). Nowadays GNSS chips are cheap and small, and the first HAM/GMRS radio featuring a real GNSS chip would have an immense advantage over all its competitors (much faster acquisition and much superior precision). All in all, the H3 is an absolutely fantastic radio with a huge potential and TIDRADIO/ODMASTER are a company which tries really hard to offer very capable radios at unbeatable prices. I can definitely recommend both the H8 and, especially, the H3.

Thank you all for your answers!!

A friend of mine gave me this device: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09482NSV9 which detects EMF, RF and EF emissions. My question is embarrassingly primitive: which of these emission would adversely affect the reception of radio signals both of GMRS or general SW radios? Thank you!

please remember that there is no such thing as a "small hurricane" and that even "only" a tropical storm can be very dangerous, so don't let your guard down (trust this Floridian who weathered 8 hurricanes and too many storms to count!). Also, please remember that most people die *after* the storms. And we all know that anything named "Hillary" is infinitely evil, right? Good luck and God Bless.

agreed!

I just checked the CHIRP website (https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home) and it sure looks like the KG-UV9GX is now on their list of compatible radios:

thank you, that makes perfectly good sense!

thank you Wannabe! any idea if I can use CHIRP for this model?

After a four months wait, I finally got my Wouxun UV-9GX from bettersaferadio.com and I mostly like it. I do hate the very low luminosity of the screen (especially when compared to my Wouxun KG-935G!) whose max luminosity (set at 5) truly *sucks*. I sure hope that future firmware updates will provide a semi-usable screen... But I can live with a dark screen. What I don't understand is how the Wouxun UV-9GX scans. I read that on the display's top row ALL the channels are scanned whereas on the bottom display row only VHF/UHF channels are scanned (though I don't understand why channels 15 through 22 are not scannable unless I change that manually). What baffles me is how the top display row scans. Instead of scanning all channels from 1 to 999 it seems to only scan 500 through 700. Why is that? Can I make it scan all 999 channels? Finally, since I have no Windows or Apple computer (I only run GNU/Linux), can I use CHIRP with the Wouxun UV-9GX? Thank you!

Hi By my question you can tell that I am a noob to radio issues, but here I go: I noticed in several locations in Florida (Tampa, Daytona Beach, Deland, etc.) that there is some rather powerful signal jamming channel 12. Listening to it, it just sounds like static I can remove channel 12 from my scan list, but I would prefer understanding what I am dealing with first. Any idea? Thank you!

understood, thank you, I will stick to the Nagoya ?

SUPER interesting, thank you so much!!

Thank you Borage, but, maybe that is my ignorance speaking (I am a noob!), this test was about 2m and 70cm, not the near 64cm GMRS frequences. Also, he was not using the 771G. So I really don't know, how much of this conclusions (ABREE better unfolded for reception, ABREE better folded for transmission) apply to the GMRS world? Finally, am I correct in assuming that simply using the Nagoya 15.3-Inch NA-771G is the best all around option for most situations?

The Nagoya 15.3-Inch NA-771G is widely considered one of the best antennas for GMRS HTs. Yet the 28.3 Inch Length ABBREE SMA-Female Dual Band 144/430Mhz Foldable CS Tactical Antenna is much larger. Has anybody ever directly compared the two antennas? Is the Nagoya always superior to that ABBREE or does the latter have an edge over the Nagoya in some circumstances and, if yes, which ones? I only use HTs, by the way (mostly a Wouxun 935G), so I wonder if ever should ever use the ABBREE or is the Nagoya always the best choice? Thank you!