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?

[Bogieboy01]

On 4/25/2025 at 7:40 AM, 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?

Did you have either an antenna or dummy load on the power meter? If not, that could "in theory" fry them...."some people" say it will, and some say it wont.... 

[GrouserPad]

2 hours ago, Bogieboy01 said:

Did you have either an antenna or dummy load on the power meter? If not, that could "in theory" fry them...."some people" say it will, and some say it wont.... 

Yes  I have a 50watt dummy load. 

I just now downloaded new firmware, and downloaded the Tidradio CPS off their website which I created an account to use. It wrote to the radio and I updated the firmware. Still not showing any wattage on the meter. I I programmed with a baofeng kenwood cable, a mirkit brand ftdi kenwood cable still no joy. I give up. 

[Socalgmrs]

16 minutes ago, GrouserPad said:

And….now the two tdh3’s that took the place of the prior two that didn’t transmit now have the exact same problem. I think Chirp is bricking them somehow. They worked great for about 2 weeks and now zero output wattage. I’ve done nothing to them other than fiddle around chirp programming channels and repeaters. Resetting the radios did nothing. Wow. Stumped beyond belief. I’ve got two uv5g’s, 1 uv5g plus, and had 5 tdh3’s and out of 5 tdh3’s 4 of them have went to zero output wattage on my surecom meter after previously showing 3.7 watts. Gosh I hope I can sort this out. It’s not the meter because none of these tdh3’s will open local repeaters and they used to. 

And people tell me I’m nuts when I say h3s stink.   Every one I know that has fell for them has a 50-75% fail rate.  Vote me down all you want guys. This is just more evidence h3 radios are total junk.