Seen but not heard!! TIDRADIO H8

[Guest Paul Down Under]

Howdy all, some time ago I decided I'd like to dabble in the world of HAM radio in my retirement ...a recently engineer I found my fishing skills failed to keep me occupied in my 'golden years'. My intention is get duly licensed in the future.
I started off by purchasing a TID Radio H8 HAM. A cheap entry into this amazing world and It was fun learning how to program it with CHIRP.
I located and wrote the Australian UHF CB radio channels to my radio...I was a 'good buddy' way back :). What could go wrong.
All looked good, all 80 channels displayed, all with the correct frequencies, I must have done it correctly as  I could hear the chatter on the channels...ah, the memories

Things were not so good when I tried to chat back....as soon as I hit the PTT button the nice prompting lady yells at me..."CANCEL' she says. On all of those channels...I could TX zilch! 
Any ideas as to what I have done wrong and, more importantly how can I correct it?

Thanks
Paul
Queensland 
Australia.
RC05Q

[SteveShannon]

It sounds as though the frequencies you programmed are prohibited by firmware. 

[Socalgmrs]

Sorry to hear about the h8    I wouldn’t want to own one.    Is it a gmrs radio? Not a ham?    Might be you need to swap it to ham?   Or it’s just out of the radios band? 

[Alec]

Hi Paul,

Many radios on the market, including the Tidradio H8, ( I own one too) have the ability to receive on frequencies or bands that they do not have the ability to transmit on.  This is why you were able to program frequencies into the radio that you can only receive and not transmit and it allows the device to be used as a frequency or channel scanner. At the risk of stating things that you may already know, here is a bit more explanation.

The transmit frequency range(s) are locked by the manufacturer in the firmware or software of the radio.  This is most often done so that the radio remains compliant with the certification for that device which has been granted by the regulatory agency for your country under their respective rules.   I am not familiar with the regulatory entity in Australia so I cannot speak to that entity or their rules, but for example here in the USA frequency allocations and things such bandwidth, as how much transmitting power may be used etc. are defined and regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, aka the "FCC" and often radios sold here in the USA are FCC certified for use in a specific band that is defined by a "part" or section of the FCC rules code.   For example, a GMRS radio here in the USA would be authorized under part 95 of the US FCC code and in order for the device to be Part 95 compliant or certified the radio would be required to adhere to certain frequency restrictions, band widths and power levels, etc.  In many cases the radio might be capable of transmitting on other frequencies or bands or use more power etc., but these software imposed restrictions prevent that from happening so that the device can be compliant with those rules associated with specific uses.

Some devices can be "Unlocked" to remove these artificial, software imposed, restrictions.   You mentioned that you were considering getting your HAM radio license.  In the case of the Tidradio H8, if you purchased the HAM version of the radio and not the GMRS version, that specific device does have the ability to be unlocked (Google it).  However, while unlocking the device may allow it to transmit on the HAM frequencies and GMRS frequencies (or as you referred to the CB frequencies) that does not mean that the device is certified or authorized for such use by your communications regulatory authority, and you may or may not be licensed to use all the frequencies that the device is capable of working with, so be sure to do your homework about your local rules and requirements.