Two TDH3’s no output wattage !

[GrouserPad]

Purchased a two pack of h3’s. Checked their power output when I opened them both were about 4.4 watts. Connected them to the antennas, and programmed them with chirp for local repeaters. Radios Wouldn’t connect to repeaters, I checked the power output and nothing. Tried the other h3 from the same pack. Nothing. 
 

wow. I’m scratching my head trying to figure out if something I did fried them or if this just happens with these cheaper ht’s? Can keying an ht next to another one fry both of them? I have 3 other cheap ht’s that work perfectly yet these two died instantly after the initial power meter test. I try not to ever key a radio when it’s within a couple feet of another one but if I’m being honest I did do this on these by accident but I’ve done this to my other ht’s a time or two and they all work fine to this day. 
 

sent them back. Hope these h3’s aren’t super fragile and pop their finals if they get any sort of rx overload from a close transmitter but that’s the only thing I can think of that might cause this?!? I would think this could damage a RX section of a radio not the transmitter section no?

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, GrouserPad said:

Purchased a two pack of h3’s. Checked their power output when I opened them both were about 4.4 watts. Connected them to the antennas, and programmed them with chirp for local repeaters. Radios Wouldn’t connect to repeaters, I checked the power output and nothing. Tried the other h3 from the same pack. Nothing. 
 

wow. I’m scratching my head trying to figure out if something I did fried them or if this just happens with these cheaper ht’s? Can keying an ht next to another one fry both of them? I have 3 other cheap ht’s that work perfectly yet these two died instantly after the initial power meter test. I try not to ever key a radio when it’s within a couple feet of another one but if I’m being honest I did do this on these by accident but I’ve done this to my other ht’s a time or two and they all work fine to this day. 
 

sent them back. Hope these h3’s aren’t super fragile and pop their finals if they get any sort of rx overload from a close transmitter but that’s the only thing I can think of that might cause this?!? I would think this could damage a RX section of a radio not the transmitter section no?

Being within a couple feet of another should have no effect on the finals.  I bet that something with the programming resulted in inhibited transmit.

[Socalgmrs]

Umm.  As much as a can’t stand h3 radios I’d bet something else is going on.  Normally I see a 50% fail rate not 100%.   I agree they may have gone into ham mode some how so they won’t tx on gmrs or something similar in the programming.    I’d reset everything and make sure they are both in gmrs mode then try again with programming.  Maybe just dial up a simplex in vfo mode and see if they can communicate.   
 

I’ve never had any radio blow anything when tx,ing very close to one another.  

[WRUE951]

I think Steve nailed it..   Programing error.  Factory reset try again.  

[GrouserPad]

Thanks guys I did multiple factory resets. Switched to gmrs mode with factory programming and no output wattage. Did the same with ham mode as well no output wattage there either. Kinda at a loss at that point and just sent them back. Super weird. They worked good out of the box. But subsequent resets did not fix them.  
 

(tested into a dummy load) 

[amaff]

They have had some spotty quality control, unfortunately. I really like mine, I have 4 of them. All tested good. But there are some that seem to just show up broken.
A programming error where you couldn't transmit would get you the "YOU CAN'T DO THAT DUMMY" beep when you key up.
If it's not doing that, and it's just outputting 0W, then yeah, they're probably NFG.

[GrouserPad]

23 minutes ago, amaff said:

They have had some spotty quality control, unfortunately. I really like mine, I have 4 of them. All tested good. But there are some that seem to just show up broken.
A programming error where you couldn't transmit would get you the "YOU CAN'T DO THAT DUMMY" beep when you key up.
If it's not doing that, and it's just outputting 0W, then yeah, they're probably NFG.

I really like the h3 as well. It’s a  Fantastic “beater” ht and one of of mine has been a beast taking all kinds of drops and falls and still working great. Loud speake and significantly Better RX than baofengs and easy menu editing. 

[LeoG]

Love mine too.  I'm up to buying 14 of them.  Had 2 bad ones that were replaced without issue.  I have 6 of them that I can use and the rest given away to family and friends.