Btech GMRS 50v2

[PRadio]

The Wouxun may have a more sensitive receiver, but I cannot confirm that. I have the first generation of the BTECH, but if I were buying new today, I would go with the Wouxun. I bought the BTECH at a good price from someone here on the forum. It is well worth the price I paid, but the Wouxun wasn't on my radar at the time. 

Keep in mind the Wouxun has a detachable faceplate, giving it more installation options. 

Phil

 

[OffRoaderX]

1 hour ago, PRadio said:

The Wouxun may have a more sensitive receiver, but I cannot confirm that.

It does, but in most cases most normal people would not notice.. It is MUCH better at filtering out noise/static/bleed-over though, which you WILL notice.

[PRadio]

11 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

It does, but in most cases most normal people would not notice.. It is MUCH better at filtering out noise/static/bleed-over though, which you WILL notice.

Good to know, thanks!

[WRZE684]

I have two BTECH-50V2's. One mobile with a Midland 6BD Gain Antenna and also one as a Base station.

They work very well and I get good reports on audio etc with limited antenna height due to HOA.

[CudjoeCane]

My wife just bought me one for Christmas.  I'm happy with the unit.  I've programmed plenty of channels into it, but wound up using it more as a base.  It is not even two months old, but it has not disappointed. 

[CudjoeCane]

On 7/21/2023 at 4:48 PM, WRVB889 said:

So I just tested the Betec 50v2 power and SWR with a Surecom SW-102 meter and 2' RG 8x patch cable and connected to LMR 400 to my j-pole antenna. Here are my results across several channels: 

Low Power 6.4 watts

Medium Power 24.6 watts

High Power 55.7 Watts

My first test was with a 12' rg8x patch cable and the numbers were considerably lower (eg 38.4 watts high power) then I used a 2' patch cable and got the higher above numbers.

RG8X is pretty lossy at GMRS frequencies.  I'm using RG213 for GMRS patch cables.  

[WRVM238]

I purchase a BTECH 50v2 last July and it has been nothing but problems. I am, admittedly, not a radio guy. I just wanted a good, powerful radio for my Jeep. The first one I received didn’t have an internal speaker that worked. I returned it through Amazon and got a new one. I really didn’t have an opportunity to use it the rest of the summer and then had some health issues that kept me from using my jeep until the end of December. When I tried to use the radio, it would not power on. BTECH RMAed it and I was sent another unit. This unit powered up, but, using the mic they provided, it would not transmit. When the PTT button was pressed, you could only hear static on the other end. But when you used the RJ45 to K1 adapter provided with the radio and I plugged in a microphone I have for my handheld, it transmitted beautifully. I contacted BTECH and they RMAed the microphone. The microphone they sent back had the same issue. When I contacted them, they said “I misdiagnosed the problem” and sent me another RMA. I sent back both the radio and the microphone and I received replacements back last week. Same problem. They claim both bench tested as okay and it must be “environmental” on my end. I asked if someone could just call me so we could try to figure out what is causing this. They refused. Instead they sent me radio new in the box saying that they were done helping me and this new radio wouldn’t be warranted. They did not even ask for the old one back. I just hooked it up and it has the same issue. The factory microphone will just transmit static when you push the PTT button but using the adapter and my microphone from my handheld it works fine. There is one more thing I feel is weird. When I plug the RJ45 to K1 adapter into the unit with my handheld mic, I can plug the microphone that came with it into the RJ45 outlet on the adapter and it works great as long as the other microphone is plugged into K1 outlet but stops working through the adapter when the handheld mic is disconnected. (See the photo) I don’t understand enough about how this works to even guess why that would happen. 
 

Any ideas?  

[WRXB215]

4 hours ago, WRVM238 said:

Any ideas?

Bad engineering.

This radio used to be on my list for a possible future purchase. Not any more after all the complaints I keep seeing. Thanks for the info. Sorry you have had to go through so much with it.

[WSGI404]

Bought a Btech GMRS-50V2 recently and am trying to get a phone number at Btech in South Dakota that I can talk to a live support person.  So far I have only been able to find online fill out forms, of which I did fill out one and stated the following issues:

Several issues: 1. The radio seems to heat up rather quickly, even on medium power. 2. The cooling fan is extremely loud. 3. The microphone seems live all the time because it is picking up sounds near the mic, which is indicated in the on screen Mic section, numbers vary even when not transmitting. 4. Upon using a swr/power meter, I find that the powers of 5,20,50 Watts are not showing this in the meter on all frequencies, much less output power is showing.

I got an automated response almost immediately of which the first line of the email stated: "Send a video of the setup and each issue".  They have got to be kidding me!  Can't even get a number to talk about this.  I will probably be sending this back to Baofang Tech via Amazon.  Disappointed in this whole thing.

[OffRoaderX]

43 minutes ago, WSGI404 said:

They have got to be kidding me!  Can't even get a number to talk about this.

Welcome to the 21st century and purchasing low-cost/low quality stuff.

ALSO:

Welcome to the 21st century and buying stuff on Amazon which makes it super easy to return stuff for any reason.

[WRKR852]

Bought a GMRS50V2 from myGMRS on Ebay.  It worked for 6 hours the first day and would not power on the second day.  After much haggling with Btech and Ebay, after Btech first told me that they have no authorized resellers on Ebay, I was asked by myGMRS to buy a second radio, return the defective radio wait for a refund.

I received an RMA and prepaid return label from myGMRS and shipped it the defective unit. I also bought a second unit and waited for it to arrive.

It arrived couple days ago. Yesterday I hooked the radio up to my antenna via my Sure-Com SWR meter and discovered that right out of the box the radio would not put out more than 5 to 6 watts on high power on any GMRS channel. My BF-F8+ radios put out 6.5 to 6.9 watts using the same antenna and SWR meter so that is not the problem.

I contacted Btech via email who emailed me an RMA, asking me to return the unit, at my expense and then wait for this brand-new unit to be returned at which point they will send the unit back to me. I'm not doing that. I tried calling Btech on their customer support line, 605-983-1060.  They had me listening to music for a few minutes, after that I was transferred to their support tech line which in reality was a recording telling me they're too busy with other customers and I should email them, which I had already done before trying to get them on the phone.

I am at this point waiting for myGMRS to answer my request to ship another unit to me without asking me to pay for a third radio and wait for my refund for the first two radios.

Not a happy camper.
 

[LeoG]

I don't blame you.  That's a streak of bad luck.

[SteveShannon]

13 minutes ago, LeoG said:

I don't blame you.  That's a streak of bad luck.

No, that’s bad quality control. The GMRS50 v2 is frequently returned on Amazon. 

[LeoG]

I don't think there is really any QC testing of batches.  Likely how they keep prices so low.  They'd rather just replace them

[WRKR852]

I just received my third copy of this model from Amazon, after the first two from Ebay both were defective.  So far so good.  This copy puts out an unbelievable 62 watts!

 

[RoadApple]

21 hours ago, WRKR852 said:

I just received my third copy of this model from Amazon, after the first two from Ebay both were defective.  So far so good.  This copy puts out an unbelievable 62 watts!

 

Good Luck!!  Keeping our collective fingers crossed for you!