Retevis Ailunce HA1G

[WRJZ939]

I bought an HA1G and am giving it a shake down for my blog.   So far I've noticed two odd things. 

Number 1 is that when programming the Scan Lists in the CPS the "Unselect One" and "Unselect All" buttons are visible but the corresponding "Select One" and "Select All" buttons are not.  They are there.  You can float over the area with a mouse and see the explanation box pop up but the buttons aren't visible.  Drove me nuts for a minute.

Number 2 is that my NOAA weather channel is 162.400 which is NOAA channel 1.  To hear my weather broadcast I have to set the radio to NOAA Channel 2.   I don't know if the channels are flipped in firmware or what. 

Other than that this a fine little radio and I love the menus and screen layout. 

Will publish my review on my Tech Blog in a few days. 

[WRJZ939]

More weather stuff.   The NOAA weather implementation is not well.  After digging I see that NOAA List 1 is set to 000.0000.  Also there seems to be no way to change it in firmware or by the CPS.  I can only find where you can select the NOAA List number in the CPS.

I set mine to 2, however when you open up that menu setting 2 has the check mark next to it but the selection is on channel 1.  You have to down arrow to number 2 before you hear any audio.  While it is on 1 it is just static. 

This radio needs some NOAA love but I don't think for one minute this disqualifies it as a decent GMRS radio.  Just the weather junk is buggy.  And all that stuff can be fixed.  And I bet most people don't care too much about it. 

[WRXP381]

Eerggg.  This type of thing would drive me nuts and I’d return the radio or toss it in the garbage.  It sounds broken.  Either it’s a one off or it’s a programming thing that they will all suffer from but I’d never put up with this type of issue.  But I already steer  very clear of retivis anyway.  It’s a $70ish radio why does it have these issues? 

[WRJZ939]

2 hours ago, WRXP381 said:

Eerggg.  This type of thing would drive me nuts and I’d return the radio or toss it in the garbage.  It sounds broken.  Either it’s a one off or it’s a programming thing that they will all suffer from but I’d never put up with this type of issue.  But I already steer  very clear of retivis anyway.  It’s a $70ish radio why does it have these issues? 

It does stress me a little but then I haven't really given two thoughts about Weather Alerts on other radios and just know that they are there should I want to enable them.  I'm retired and home most of the time and have a dedicated Midland weather radio.  This all works on the HA1G, albeit weirdly. 

The CPS needs work.  Not everything you can do on the radio can be done in the CPS.  It's kind of usually the other way around. 

I published my blog but not sure I can link it here.  It puts out 5.4 watts on Channel 16 and like 4.6 on a RPT channel.  I'm keeping it. 

[WRXR255]

One note on the NOAA weather radio stuff... There is no official "channel" name/number/designation.  NOAA just has these as a frequency for each.  If its preprogrammed and not changeable by the radio Manufacturer by you, they can and do call them whatever they want.  WX 1 on one brand, with the same freq. on another it might be hard coded in as NOAA 3, for example.

Edited April 6 by WRXR255
Typos

[WRJZ939]

17 hours ago, WRXR255 said:

One note on the NOAA weather radio stuff... There is no official "channel" name/number/designation.  NOAA just has these as a frequency for each.  If its preprogrammed and not changeable by the radio Manufacturer by you, they can and do call them whatever they want.  WX 1 on one brand, with the same freq. on another it might be hard coded in as NOAA 3, for example.

No argument there.  It is odd though that NOAA 1 on the radio is set to 000.0000 and I'll be darned if I can figure out how to change it.  And there are 12 NOAA channels available in the radio.  NOAA only has 7 frequencies. 

I think if they cleaned up the NOAA stuff in the radio I'd be hard pressed to have any issue with it. 

[SvenMarbles]

I frankly completely ignore the standard "baked in" weather functions on any of the radios that I have. If something was goofy about the way it's implemented, it would hardly move the needle on how I felt about the radio as a whole. It's likely I might not ever even discover it.

Here's my weather mode. VFO, punch 162.whatever and it's always right there loud and proud.. I do that regardless of it there's a weather button on the radio or not lol.

How's the radio? Does it radio well?

[WRJZ939]

3 hours ago, WSAK691 said:

I frankly completely ignore the standard "baked in" weather functions on any of the radios that I have. If something was goofy about the way it's implemented, it would hardly move the needle on how I felt about the radio as a whole. It's likely I might not ever even discover it.

Here's my weather mode. VFO, punch 162.whatever and it's always right there loud and proud.. I do that regardless of it there's a weather button on the radio or not lol.

How's the radio? Does it radio well?

Concur.  Knowing the frequency will get you there.  I have all manner of stuff in my Go bag as well.  RTL-SDR, small shortwave radio with WX, etc.  Doesn't move my needle a ton either, but I was reviewing it for my blog so I gave it a proper shake down and just wrote what I discovered. 

Output power was great.  I could listen to a repeater 40 miles away but couldn't raise anybody.  Not too surprising for a 5 watt radio (4.6 on the RPT channels) totally surrounded by trees. 

It's a great, open the box and use it radio.