TIDradio TD-H3 limitations

[LeoG]

I've had contact with them many times for issues and questions.  I guess I go straight to Luxi when I email them and she responds within a day or two.  So far they've been pretty reactive to my inquiries.

[nokones]

It is really amazing that people spend and waste their money and put up with all the problems and limitations of these POS CCRs.

[LeoG]

The only reason I know of this problem is because other people complained about it.  I find the H3 to be a pretty darn good radio.  If you aren't a power user you'd never find that limitation.  And remember you are paying $30 for a radio, battery, charger, cables, 2 antenna, vox setup.  I don't know how they can possible do it. 

If you want a full featured radio go out and get a $400 radio, I'm gunna stick with the CCR for now.

[WRXB215]

3 hours ago, nokones said:

It is really amazing that people spend and waste their money and put up with all the problems and limitations of these POS CCRs.

My CCRs are even cheaper and I don't have these problems. Can't imagine paying $400+ when I don't need to.

[TrikeRadio]

3 hours ago, nokones said:

It is really amazing that people spend and waste their money and put up with all the problems and limitations of these POS CCRs.

Some people can't justify $400 HT radios.

Yes, there are a few quirks for every radio. I have had my TD-H3s for about 5 months and find them to be more than I expected. Are there some things I would like to see done differently? Yes, of course. But they have surpassed my expectations – surprising me at times how well they work.

So, to each his own.

[WRDU469]

To be honest, there is a lot of good reasons to have an affordable back up radio like the H3. This is a back up for me or basically my wife to use in the event we get separated. The radio can be locked down and made easy enough for her to operate. I landed on the H3 based on many reviews and it outperformed most all of the budget radios in the power department when tested. I just cannot believe nobody highlighted the channel limitations in GMRS in any of the reviews I have watched. It still doesn't hit the advertised 5 watts but I will take 4 1/2 watts over a Baofeng 3 watt. That said, I couldn't justify spending money on another KG-935G Plus which is my main handheld.

The bottom line is TID Radio should have better disclosed the limitations of this radio which hopefully they will acknowledge in a firmware update if they listen to my feedback. We will see.

[TrikeRadio]

1 hour ago, WRDU469 said:

... I just cannot believe nobody highlighted the channel limitations in GMRS in any of the reviews I have watched...

...The bottom line is TID Radio should have better disclosed the limitations of this radio which hopefully they will acknowledge in a firmware update if they listen to my feedback.

I agree, TID should have indicated that above channel slot 54 it is RX only on the GMRS setup. It is not documented anywhere in their information that I can find. The only thing I can figure is that in GMRS mode the idea was it was "restricted" for people who are new... but that still doesn't make much sense since they could still have restricted to GMRS only frequencies but allow all "channel slots" to be RX and TX capable.

** Is there anything about getting it FCC GMRS certified about this restriction that they seem to have imposed for no reason and not documented? I don't know why there would be.

But again, there is a way around it for those who know how to properly and accurately set it up in "NORMAL" mode but... yeah, that is not the FCC GMRS "certified" mode.

I hope that TIDRADIO does decide at some point to change the Firmare to allow TX above 54 .. but ... I'm not too terribly bothered about it now that I know of it. I just wish like you said that they had DOCUMENTED it and been upfront about it from the start. (and reviewers who did not discover and mention it just means to me that they did not fully test it before their youtube review. (at least not enough to stumble across the problem. But to be fair, I think it took me a month before I noticed that it was a problem)

 

[amaff]

20 hours ago, TrikeRadio said:

I agree, TID should have indicated that above channel slot 54 it is RX only on the GMRS setup. It is not documented anywhere in their information that I can find. The only thing I can figure is that in GMRS mode the idea was it was "restricted" for people who are new... but that still doesn't make much sense since they could still have restricted to GMRS only frequencies but allow all "channel slots" to be RX and TX capable.

100%. I don't know why it's not advertised (a lot of other radios will say "22 GMRS channels + 8 repeater channels + 8 (or however many) DIY channels". Which is just as annoying, but at least they say it up front.

20 hours ago, TrikeRadio said:

** Is there anything about getting it FCC GMRS certified about this restriction that they seem to have imposed for no reason and not documented? I don't know why there would be.
 

 

Not that I'm aware of. My KG-905Gs let you put whatever GRMS frequency you want in whatever memory slot you want, and the radios enforce the rules from there.

 

 

 

[Mark97564]

On 11/8/2024 at 3:28 PM, WRDU469 said:

Does someone know what the GMRS transmit limitations are for this radio? I have the latest firmware and set to GMRS mode. I added my programming for several repeaters, etc. I noticed that I cannot transmit (only receive) on channels 55 and up. Ch 1-54 I can transmit on simplex or repeaters.

Others see this issue or is this known? I could not find anything in the manual about this unless I totally missed it.

There are not 54 GMRS channels, there are only 22 with an additional 7 repeater channels, that's how the FCC made it and the H3 can do simplex and duplex for accessing repeaters in GMRS mode.. if you can't change the settings you need with the the radio then use the odmaster app or the computer software is real nice. Well laid out.. and if you still have issues just unlock the radio and program the GMRS channels manually! Hold ptt, *, and turn the radio on then tap 3 for unlock.. then you have GMRS, and 2 ham bands.. just don't transmit on ham channels till you get a ham license but you can listen to anything and you can transmit on any GMRS frequency... Really easy to program them it took me litterly 5-10 min and I'm using 2 local repeaters and all 22 channels and even have access to all 5 MURS channels.. so no limitations! Now the TD-H8 has 1 limitation! It's a 10 watt radio but even when unlocked it still backs down to 5 watts on the GMRS channels, and 10-12 watts on the ham channels...  Oh, and with the newest firmware for the H3, you can unlock transmit for 200mhz, 300mhz, and 500mhz along with being able to listen down to 18mhz! Including cb

[WRUU653]

2 hours ago, Mark97564 said:

with an additional 7 repeater channels

Eight.

[TDM827]

On 11/14/2024 at 10:17 AM, TrikeRadio said:

Some people can't justify $400 HT radios.

Yes, there are a few quirks for every radio. I have had my TD-H3s for about 5 months and find them to be more than I expected. Are there some things I would like to see done differently? Yes, of course. But they have surpassed my expectations – surprising me at times how well they work.

So, to each his own.

Agreed,

But to me, seriously debating which one of the cheapest budget radios is far superior to others is like trying to figure out which is better between the Ford Pinto or the Chevy Vega. LoL. You are going to get what you pay for.

But when it comes down to it, inexpensive radios allowed many people get into GMRS who otherwise could never afford it and help build the user base. As long as people understand the possible limitations in quality, and how to return them, in my opinion they remain a great jumping off point into GMRS.