TidRadio TD-H8 - A true 10 watt handheld

[WSGN535]

13 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

What did you have to do?

Well I gave up and figured I’d just not replace the battery and just charge it in place. I tossed it on the bed and the battery came off! What I was doing was trying to slide the battery off when it actually lifts up and then off. 

[WRHS279]

I head up an emergency neighborhood radio watch group in the northern California region. We use Kenwood Tk-380 HT radios operating in the 462 Mhz GMRS bands that we have obtained from various service organizations in the state. We refurbish them and make them available to our users at our cost. Due to the costs of maintaining and obtaining batteries, my research has led me to find a suitable replacement for the aging Kenwood radios. I settled on the Tidradio td-h8 GMRS version for its solid build USB C charging capabilities and ease of programming. I unlock the radios to monitor vhf Cal Fire and other emergency response frequencies for our users. After using the GMRS version of the td-h8 radio for some time now I've run tests in all three modes of operation (HAM / GMRS / Unlock) with the HAM & Unlock power measured at 5-watt maximum output when using HAM VHF frequencies. My question to those of you who have purchased the TD-H8 HAM version from Tidradio is do you get 10-watt output in the unlocked mode on VHF ham bands or do they throttle down to 5 watts as the GMRS versions do? Something is preventing the GMRS flavor of the TD-H8 from using 10 watts when configuring them for the HAM mode and Unlock modes. If the HAM & GMRS td-h8 radios are the same base radio something is causing the difference in the power output between the two units.

Thank you,

Bob Kleinbrahm - W6FYN / WRHS279

[muddysamurai]

On 1/14/2025 at 12:50 PM, WRHS279 said:

I head up an emergency neighborhood radio watch group in the northern California region. We use Kenwood Tk-380 HT radios operating in the 462 Mhz GMRS bands that we have obtained from various service organizations in the state. We refurbish them and make them available to our users at our cost. Due to the costs of maintaining and obtaining batteries, my research has led me to find a suitable replacement for the aging Kenwood radios. I settled on the Tidradio td-h8 GMRS version for its solid build USB C charging capabilities and ease of programming. I unlock the radios to monitor vhf Cal Fire and other emergency response frequencies for our users. After using the GMRS version of the td-h8 radio for some time now I've run tests in all three modes of operation (HAM / GMRS / Unlock) with the HAM & Unlock power measured at 5-watt maximum output when using HAM VHF frequencies. My question to those of you who have purchased the TD-H8 HAM version from Tidradio is do you get 10-watt output in the unlocked mode on VHF ham bands or do they throttle down to 5 watts as the GMRS versions do? Something is preventing the GMRS flavor of the TD-H8 from using 10 watts when configuring them for the HAM mode and Unlock modes. If the HAM & GMRS td-h8 radios are the same base radio something is causing the difference in the power output between the two units.

Thank you,

Bob Kleinbrahm - W6FYN / WRHS279

I just picked up an H8 HAM bundle off Amazon. I've unlocked it for all frequencies. When I tested the power output on High Power I got 11w on MURS 1, about 9w on 146.200, 8w on 446.00, 6.5w on GMRS 1  and 5.5w on 467.725. The power definitly drops as the frequencies go up.

[3cRadio]

On 1/14/2025 at 10:50 AM, WRHS279 said:

I head up an emergency neighborhood radio watch group in the northern California region. We use Kenwood Tk-380 HT radios operating in the 462 Mhz GMRS bands that we have obtained from various service organizations in the state. We refurbish them and make them available to our users at our cost. Due to the costs of maintaining and obtaining batteries, my research has led me to find a suitable replacement for the aging Kenwood radios. I settled on the Tidradio td-h8 GMRS version for its solid build USB C charging capabilities and ease of programming. I unlock the radios to monitor vhf Cal Fire and other emergency response frequencies for our users. After using the GMRS version of the td-h8 radio for some time now I've run tests in all three modes of operation (HAM / GMRS / Unlock) with the HAM & Unlock power measured at 5-watt maximum output when using HAM VHF frequencies. My question to those of you who have purchased the TD-H8 HAM version from Tidradio is do you get 10-watt output in the unlocked mode on VHF ham bands or do they throttle down to 5 watts as the GMRS versions do? Something is preventing the GMRS flavor of the TD-H8 from using 10 watts when configuring them for the HAM mode and Unlock modes. If the HAM & GMRS td-h8 radios are the same base radio something is causing the difference in the power output between the two units.

Thank you,

Bob Kleinbrahm - W6FYN / WRHS279

i too recently (April) purchased an H8 Gen 2 GMRS version that i am running unlocked.  i attached a surecom meter and did notice that on the GMRS frequencies, the power still doesn't go above 5 watts.

[NoSpam]

On 2/23/2024 at 6:03 AM, SvenMarbles said:

One last thing to add. There's one thing that was encountered and I dont know if this was only in my radio or if this happens on all of them. The lower tuner/VFO is "hotter" on VHF. Uppper and lower will do about the same on UHF, but I do MURS too on this radio also. It'll do about 10 on VHF on the upper as well, but on the lower it does 12. Just a little quirk I discovered..

Great info on this review - thank you!

[TrikeRadio]

There is now an H-8 version 3 out there now that has airband and bluetooth programming like the H3. I recently bought one. It is nice to have the extra power, and the larger kepad is nice at times. But the H-8 still does not have a usb-c programming connection like the H3. It also does not have the two PTT buttons like the H3 has. Sometimes I like the larger design and sometimes the smaller H3 is more convenient. So I like and find both to be useful. 

 Oh and I was also able to wireless transfer my codeplug in the H-3 into the H-8 very quickly and easily.