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. 

[GrouserPad]

@hxpx

[hxpx]

3 hours ago, GrouserPad said:

@hxpx

I was actually reading your thread while I was messing with mine and the SWR meter this morning. Seems I fared better than you with 3 out of 4 units working. I'm trying to file a warranty claim on the janky one (I assume they'll get back to me on Monday) since I'm outside of the Amazon return window. I'll probably hang onto mine and use them as loaners or something if I ever get nicer radios.

[GrouserPad]

14 hours ago, hxpx said:

I was actually reading your thread while I was messing with mine and the SWR meter this morning. Seems I fared better than you with 3 out of 4 units working. I'm trying to file a warranty claim on the janky one (I assume they'll get back to me on Monday) since I'm outside of the Amazon return window. I'll probably hang onto mine and use them as loaners or something if I ever get nicer radios.

Man I feel like the tdh3 IS a nice radio that would hang with radios 4x its price if the transmitter section wouldn’t crap the bed. Everything about the tdh3 is freaking awesome.  But what’s the point of having a fully featured radio if this POS doesn’t transmit. 

[RIPPER238]

On 5/10/2025 at 11:29 AM, GrouserPad said:

Man I feel like the tdh3 IS a nice radio that would hang with radios 4x its price if the transmitter section wouldn’t crap the bed. Everything about the tdh3 is freaking awesome.  But what’s the point of having a fully featured radio if this POS doesn’t transmit. 

Evry one i have actually has worked great, but i wouldn't 100% rely on it. 

 

I mainly use mine to monitor local PD/FD, NOAA and Ham channels. I guess the H3 is a great creeper radio. lol

 

[WSDY305]

On 4/25/2025 at 12:15 PM, GrouserPad said:

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) 

There's news lately that charging the battery while the unit is on may actually damage the radio/transmitter. It's an ongoing development. I have 4 TID H3s and one went bad. I have started charging the batteries while the units are off, and also I suggest NOT using the dock. The battery rarely seats well in the dock and I feel like it overcharges the battery.

On a positive note, TID replaced my H3 free of charge after I sent them a video. Even though the bad radio can no longer TX, it can RX pretty well, so I turn it on when I want to monitor more channels.

See video below:

 

[GrouserPad]

43 minutes ago, WSDY305 said:

There's news lately that charging the battery while the unit is on may actually damage the radio/transmitter. It's an ongoing development. I have 4 TID H3s and one went bad. I have started charging the batteries while the units are off, and also I suggest NOT using the dock. The battery rarely seats well in the dock and I feel like it overcharges the battery.

On a positive note, TID replaced my H3 free of charge after I sent them a video. Even though the bad radio can no longer TX, it can RX pretty well, so I turn it on when I want to monitor more channels.

See video below:

 

Well shucks that is the first I have heard of the battery situation. Thank you for that. I ever buy another TDH three which is highly unlikely. I’ll keep that in mind very good heads up.

[WSDY305]

56 minutes ago, GrouserPad said:

Well shucks that is the first I have heard of the battery situation. Thank you for that. I ever buy another TDH three which is highly unlikely. I’ll keep that in mind very good heads up.

It's still a great radio. I still recommend it to friends and family. Curious if the new TD H3 Plus will have the same issue.

[LeoG]

Still doesn't account for the radios received DOA.  Batteries only come half charged so no chance for the voltage to get that high.

[GrouserPad]

27 minutes ago, WSDY305 said:

It's still a great radio. I still recommend it to friends and family. Curious if the new TD H3 Plus will have the same issue.

My record with them is bought 5 sent 4 back for no output. The one working one is awesome though haha

[LeoG]

2 minutes ago, GrouserPad said:

My record with them is bought 5 sent 4 back for no output. The one working one is awesome though haha

Ya, that's pretty sad for QC.  Must have had a whole run of them that came off the line non functional transmit.  My record is much better but I've had 2 replaced out of 14 bought.

[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.