TIDRADIO TD-H3 Ham Radio Handheld,Type C & Wireless Programming,Multi-Band Portable Two Way Radio with AirBand Antenna&2Pcs Batteries,Frequency Match,DTMF FM NOAA SCAN Walkie Talkies-1Pack Crystal

If you're looking for a handheld ham radio, this is an excellent starter kit.First off, the Tidradio H3, while a very tiny radio, is feature packed and receives across an extremely wide band of frequencies. You can transmit on the standard 70cm and 2m bands (440mhz and 146mhz), but you also get 1.25m (220mhz), although, for that, to get the most out of 1.25, you'll need a band specific antenna, the one in the box works, but has fairly high SWR (meaning you don't get as much signal out as the radio is capable of generating). You can receive across several other bands, including satellites.For the money, the radio is incredibly well constructed out of great materials. It monitors and transmits across two sets of frequencies at the same time. In fact, you have two push-to-talk buttons, so you can transmit from VFO A or VFO B, without switching between the two. All the buttons have a very positive feel to them and work well. Signal reports on the radio are generally positive. Sound quality on received signals is also good. I also love the color screen (seen in the photo). It can wash out in direct sunlight, but it has to be very direct. You can angle it a bit and see it just fine.The radio programs within Chirp (THE open source software for programming radios). Best of all, it actually uses USB-C as a programming mechanism, no need for a specific cable. The one in the box does the job, as well as allows you to charge the radio. Further, no cables at all are necessary because the radio supports bluetooth and you can use Tidradio's software, ODMaster to program the radio from your phone or computer.You'd get all that when you purchased a Tidradio H3 in any configuration. However, this kit has some additions that set it apart. First up, you get a remote microphone/speaker (pictured). It's decent. Not great. Sound quality is good enough. Signal reports are about the same as the radio itself, so transmission is fine. The clip on the back rotates (found one of these remote mics that didn't and that was weird).What I'm most excited about though is the extra battery (something that wasn't available the first couple of months you could get this radio) and the high gain antenna (both pictured).The high gain antenna is Tidradio's version of the Nagoya 771, they even label it as 771. However, it's fully functional and had an SWR across 2m and 70cm exactly the same as a Nagoya 771. It works well to make both reception and transmission better. One tiny thing about this though, the antenna is a bit heavy, and the radio is tiny. Having the 771 antenna on the radio, it tips over easily. This isn't a ding or a problem, just a bit of physics to be aware of before your radio hits the floor.In addition to all that, the radio can be reconfigured as a GMRS radio (you'll need a different antenna to make it fully functional on GMRS) or opened up to even more frequencies so it covers more than the ham bands and GMRS (I don't do that just so I can stay within the appropriate frequencies). You can get NOAA weather on the radio (in the US of course) and regular FM transmissions.Overall, this tiny radio is filled with functionality. It's been the one I've been taking on hikes lately more than others. I really like it.

Overall I like this radio. I only ranked it 4 stars because one (short) antenna that came with it was bad. It would hear weather and Ham bands had weak reception. FM could not be heard which is unusual sine most radios will pick up many stations with their antenna folded up. When I put the long antenna on it, it worked for everything. I also have an H8 and used the antenna from it during testing and everything worked.The H3 is very small top to bottom but is a little chunky due to the battery and the belt clip. Without the belt clip it is just the right size in your hand. The belt clip attaches with screws to the battery and not the body of the radio. As such having a 2 nd batter requires you to have a screw driver with you and swap the belt clip or buy another belt clip for each spare battery.If you are using Chirp to program it you can use the USB port located by the hand mike port. Chirp recognizes the radio and seems to work well with one exception. At the writing of this review when you program the channels all will be at low power regardless of what you selected on chirp. This is a programming bug in chirp not the radio. A trouble ticket is currently open for this issue.In the manual it states it has three output power levels but only two actually on the radio.Some functions on the keypad are activated by a long press such as 3 (scan), but others like 2 (TX power) requires pressing menu then 2. It would be nice if the keypad had either a uniform method of at least two different colors.I have noticed the signal strength meter shows full scale every time the squelch opens. I find it hard to believe everything is always full signal. This is probably something that will be corrected in a firware update.The H3 has dual status indicators on top showing you clearly which side is receiving A or B. This combined with the dual PTT you can be sure you are talking to the correct side.The battery has a separate USB C connector so you can charge the battery without needing the charging cable. The battery life is fantastic. I have used it on on and off for about two days and I still show the battery still has a decent amount of power left.The color display is very nice. It is very intuitive and displays every thing you need to know at a quick glace.Overall I like the radio but it is not perfect.