Tidradio issue plus why are most software windows based?

[WSFT271]

Picked up my first pair of gmrs radios the tidradio h3 and have been trying to learn them however I believe I have an issue with the firmware. I’m on 240416 I believe and I’ve tried it in gmrs and open unlocked with the correct programming and I can’t get either of my h3s with that firmware to transmit to a repeater or radios around me. Can’t even get the kerchunk or sound that I’m hitting a repeater. Oddly I can hear repeaters 20 plus miles or fars from me with decent traffic but can’t get them to acknowledge  or hear my radio checks.

when I push the ptt button I get the red led and the meter across the top of the screen goes full red.

unfortunately I only have a MacBook with the last intel chips so I don’t own anything that can flash the firmware. Been messing with these for over a week and a half and will probably send them back to Amazon and possibly join the boofwang crew . Someone’s latest video on the f8pro has me interested in just going after 1 good radio as opposed to the 5rm in 10 watt packages I see for nearly half the price 

[SteveShannon]

20 minutes ago, WSFT271 said:

 

Picked up my first pair of gmrs radios the tidradio h3 and have been trying to learn them however I believe I have an issue with the firmware. I’m on 240416 I believe and I’ve tried it in gmrs and open unlocked with the correct programming and I can’t get either of my h3s with that firmware to transmit to a repeater or radios around me. Can’t even get the kerchunk or sound that I’m hitting a repeater. Oddly I can hear repeaters 20 plus miles or fars from me with decent traffic but can’t get them to acknowledge  or hear my radio checks.

when I push the ptt button I get the red led and the meter across the top of the screen goes full red.

unfortunately I only have a MacBook with the last intel chips so I don’t own anything that can flash the firmware. Been messing with these for over a week and a half and will probably send them back to Amazon and possibly join the boofwang crew . Someone’s latest video on the f8pro has me interested in just going after 1 good radio as opposed to the 5rm in 10 watt packages I see for nearly half the price 

It sounds like you’re listening and transmitting on a simplex channel. Simplex channels receive the same frequencies as repeaters transmit, but they don’t transmit on the frequency the repeater listens to. You must be on a repeater channel to transmit to a repeater. Or you have the tone wrong and the repeater is simply ignoring you.

Most software is written for Windows because the market is primarily Windows users. It’s just that simple.

[Lscott]

4 minutes ago, WSFT271 said:

unfortunately I only have a MacBook with the last intel chips

Have you considered using a VM, virtual machine, to run an older version of Windows? You can try VirtualBox.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Then for a Windows install try here.

https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems

Win 2000 might be a good pick. If you need something more recent you'll have to poke around and look for a pirate copy. Then an "activator" might be required.

VirtualBox works well. I've tried several versions of Linux, which I'm using now to post to the forum, and various versions of Windows, Win 98 up through Win 10 Pro for example. The Linux VM's are used when I'm getting software from questionable sites. The Window VM I use for testing the software. If it come with a "free" virus I just dump the VM and restore my saved clean copy. No big deal.

Some software likes to grab the network card MAC address, hard drive serial number etc. as a form of copy protection. If that software is installed on a VM you can copy the VM to a different physical computer and it doesn't know the difference. I have a friend who does that with some expensive programmable logic controller software. He's moved it to several different laptops and it still works just fine.

[WRYS709]

56 minutes ago, WSFT271 said:

unfortunately I only have a MacBook with the last intel chips so I don’t own anything that can flash the firmware. Been messing with these for over a week and a half and will probably send them back to Amazon and possibly join the boofwang crew . Someone’s latest video on the f8pro has me interested in just going after 1 good radio as opposed to the 5rm in 10 watt packages I see for nearly half the price 

I have been running both Windows XP and 10 for years on my Intel Macs either in Bootcamp, which requires a reboot each time I switch from Windows to Mac and back, or in Parallels, which can run both simultaneously.  I now also run Windows 11 in Parallels on my 2024 M4 Mac Mini.  

I have successfully used this method to program ALL of my radios that are not covered by Chirp and hence require a Windows CPS software.

[Socalgmrs]

You should not need firm ware update to transmit to a repeater.  Also you’re most likely not going to hit a repeater 20miles away with an ht.  Yes it can happen but under most circumstances it’s not going to happen.     Software/firm  issues are very common on tid radios.  Especially the h3/8 series.  If these radios can not transmit properly contact the seller and have them send you ones that work correctly out of the box as all radios should. Especially gmrs locked radios.  

[TrikeRadio]

Not hitting a repeater is not really a Firmware issue like @Socalgmrs mentioned. Even with 240416 it will still work. Your issue is more likely something else not programmed correctly.. or done on a simplex channel instead of the repeater channel of that frequency... or above memory 54 (custom transmitting channel memory slots are only lower than 55 and above 22 in the GMRS mode of the H3. or... you dont have good line of sight or alititude of antenna... or could use a better antenna than the stock one.

many variables but firmware is not the problem.

if you need to get the firmware updated (not sure exactly why you would) you may haev ot resort to finding a friend with a PC.

I understand your pain to a point. Personally I use a macbook, but I do have a windoze PC available as well for such things as this.

[LeoG]

On 11/18/2024 at 2:58 PM, Socalgmrs said:

You should not need firm ware update to transmit to a repeater.  Also you’re most likely not going to hit a repeater 20miles away with an ht.  Yes it can happen but under most circumstances it’s not going to happen.     Software/firm  issues are very common on tid radios.  Especially the h3/8 series.  If these radios can not transmit properly contact the seller and have them send you ones that work correctly out of the box as all radios should. Especially gmrs locked radios.  

I hit my repeaters at 21 and 17 miles normally.  I've hit them still at 28 miles but it's starting to get to the limit.  If you can't hit the repeater it's likely you have a small hill or lots of trees in the way diluting your signal to the repeater or you are not programming your radio correctly.  It's also possible you've gotten one of their defective output radios.  I've had two of them that would receive just fine but transmit power was nil.  I just requested a replacement and received them

I find the TD H3 radio to be a very good radio for the price.  The one real limitation it seems to have is channels above 54 only seem to be able to receive and not transmit.  I talked with them and they know about it and don't seem concerned.  It would have been nice if they documented it.