TIDRADIOTD-H3 Ham Radio Type C & Wireless Programming 8-Band Long Range Walkie Talkies Rechargeable Handheld Two Way Radios Air Band, Frequency Match,Mode Switchable, NOAA FM AM- Full Kit 2Pack

This TIDRadio TD-H3 has astounded me with the way it can hear FM broadcast stations. 92.7 FM is an AM station with a 250-watt repeater on South Mountain in Phoenix. Station comes in well on car radios, but my C Crane and Baofeng HTs don't hear it. The TD-H3 can while using its aircraft band antenna. Better in the back yard than in here, of course.The AM audio on the aircraft band beats Baofeng hands down.The best part is yet to come: I live 9.8 miles from our mountain-pass repeater, which in winter can be hit with one watt on a 20-inch whip and tiger tail. I have my BF-F8HP laid on the bed, tip of the antenna pointing at the repeater, tiger tail behind it. It's running 8 watts while I am transmitting to the repeater. I am listening to the repeater on my TD-H3, lying alongside the Baofeng, and hearing the repeater full quieting on that aircraft band antenna! My usual experience is to blow away the receiver until I'm done transmitting.I know it sounds weird to have a radio lying down in the horizontal plane with the repeater off the end of the antenna, but that's what works best in this spot.Oftentimes, I might hear myself bleeding over the repeater, and I hear myself clearer than the repeater when I am standing by, but I heard no evidence of that. I do want to run a test with someone while I am transmitting and listening as above. If I hear him in there with me, I will know for sure that I am indeed hearing the repeater, not my bleedover!I charged both batteries on my USB-C cables, but I have yet to unpack the second TIDRadio HT. That's right, two for little more than the price of one!I had to go into the menu to enable transmission on the 200 MHz band, but now it will transmit on the 222 MHz ham band.From KS6SAY's YouTube review, I learned that the radio can be run in one of three modes. Hold the top PTT button and press a certain key while turning it on, and it will start with a choice of Ham Band only, GMRS only, or "normal" mode that this rig came set up to run in.It covers from 50 to 600 MHz receive in any case, but the transmitter is restricted to ham bands only, or GMRS only, or wide open on 136–174 and 400–470 MHz.This is NOT a Part 95 type-certified radio for GMRS, FRS, or MURS.I want to set my second radio to ham bands only and see if it can transmit on 222 MHz.I also want to see how my Commountain speaker mic sounds on this HT.KS6SAY notes in his review that many radios with two PTT buttons are incompatible with a speaker mic that only has one. This radio does work with his Commountain speaker mic. Speaking of which, there are two PTT buttons on the side of this radio. The top one enables the frequency in display A to transmit, while the bottom one allows the frequency in display B to transmit.I'll eventually remember the model number without constantly looking it up, as it's nowhere on the radio.The TD-H3 can be set to scan by holding the “3” key and pressing the up- or down-arrow key on the left side of the keypad. It can also be programmed using Bluetooth, a USB-C data cable on the side, or by using a data cable that plugs into the speaker-mic port. The speaker sounds great for communication. It leaves a bit to be desired for FM radio music. :)The radio is narrower than a BaoFeng UV-5R. Its battery is much bigger than that of the UV-5R, at 2500mAh. It runs from top to bottom on the rear of the radio, featuring a USB-C charging port at the bottom, apart from the USB data port in the radio.The menu system allows you to tailor many features, like the choice of Roger beeps or none. I do note that the RP STE (Repeater Squelch Tail Eliminator) menu option has no apparent effect. K6SAY had the same to say in his review of this TiDRadio model. The option should silence the crash sound at the end of the repeater's transmission.I see no use for enabling transmit in the 400 and 500 MHz bands. From 470 to 600 MHz is all digital television broadcasting on channels 14–36. And 300 MHz is the UHF aircraft band, for which this radio provides no AM reception. I want to see what the frequency stability looks like on a waterfall display. I will have to fire up my SDR on the computer and see. Baofeng is spot-on in terms of frequency stability, but it is a Part 90 type-certified radio with the Federal Communications Commission. I bring this up because I've seen some name-brand radios drift 2 kHz every time they started transmitting.

I bought a set of these for testing. Here is what I learned. The receiver is pretty good, similar results to other CCRs (Cheap Chinese Radios). I tested the transmitter on 2m and 70 cm. On 2 meters, the radio exceeded the specs, about 5.5 watts. on 70 cm, the radio pushed a little over 6 watts. Spurious radiation on 2 m was pretty bad, but good on the 70 cm band (tested using a GSP-820 spectrum analyzer). The antennas that come with the radio are interesting, one of them is marked "VHF Airband" but the frequencies marked on the antenna do not include the airband or UHF. I'm not sure why they included this antenna. Other things worth noting, the battery clips attach to the battery, not the radio, but they included clips for all of the batteries and included spare screws. There is a USB-C charging port and charging indicator on the battery - nice. The radios are easy to program with Chirp software. The radios are sturdy and look good but if you are old like me, the buttons and the manual are hard to read as the print is small. The display is nice, different than other CCRs and I think that it gives better operating information than most though the screen is a little smaller than some other radios. Unlike some other CCRs, the radio drops into the charger easily, but the charger is very lightweight so it slips around on the desk easily when trying to plant the radio in it. Tidradio needs to improve on a few things like the spurious emissions, the antennas, and maybe make the base a bit more sturdy, but what can you expect from a CCR? I have several Boofwangs, a couple Talkpods, and now these. They all have their pros & cons. Overall, I like this radio.

Super nice product. Great Value. I would buy again.

These are great radios! Easy to program and configure. Good range and sound. I’m sold on Tidradio. Very well built. Just get one if this is what you’re looking for, you won’t be sorry. I have other radios but these are my go to ones now.

Revised ReviewMy usual way of loading a TD-H3 is to take an existing Chirp format and load it onto the new radio. This has worked for years. However, this no longer works.After many trials and tribulations you will find that seemingly nothing will work to work around this error (and all the numerous suggestions on the internet, did not work either). But, here is what does work. Load OdMaster onto your phone (you will have to get a bit used to it at first). Take a radio that does work, and upload it into Odmaster. Save that file as a master.You can then disconnect that radio from bluetooth and connect the next one and load it using that master file.I changed the original review to a four star. TidRadio, of all of the inexpensive radios, has the best customer service and are genuinely nice people. Plus, they really are excellent radios. I do though feel this error should have been figured out and not left to the public to be the beta testers for what to all purposes appears to be a software bug.Original ReviewGenerally, Tidradios are excellent radios. I have many. However, this version (I note the firmware version on the radios I received is different from the other td-h3s I own) does not work. Specifically, it does not transmit, and chirp. odmaster and unlocking does not make it work. It recieves fine, but thats it. Sadly I can not recommend these any longer.