I can't speak to the transmission quality or spurious emissions noted by other users (although apparently, Talkpod says these have been corrected,) but I love this for what I bought it for. I primarily bought this to be a little airband scanner for when I'm working close to our airport or monitoring during drone use.
The Ryobi-inspired green/yellow stands out well in a dark backpack. The color screen is a little easier to read than the backlit monochrome LCD screens on some of the other cheap import radios (Quansheng, Baofeng, et al.) I think overall, it's better-built as well. Other reviews pointed out some issues with mold lines or the battery cover not fitting correctly, but I have not had those issues with mine. Definitely feels more solid than the Quansheng K5(8).
Airband reception is pretty good, especially with the newest firmware. NOAA weather radio reception is pretty good too, especially compared with a standlone radio I have specifically for that purpose. I'm currently pairing this unit with a Diamond 2m band antenna. The stock ducky is surprisingly effective, but breaks down a little when several miles from my local aiport. If you're a spotter, it should work great. FM radio reception is decent, but if you really want to listen to music, this is a pretty poor way of doing it. The scan function is a little slow, but if you want something to scan dozens of frequencies you'd be better served with a dedicated scanner anyhow. I only have about 8 frequencies programmed in and I catch most of what I'm looking for.
Cool features: Charges via USB C (and actually works while plugged in without a battery). The included programming cable is of better quality than a lot of the Baofeng and Baofeng-clone units. It's also a standard CH340 cable and worked well with other radios that use the Baofeng standard (like the Quansheng.) The VFO display mode can be changed to show the frequency tag and is easy to read.
Biggest gripes: as others have said the manual is too small and the instructions contained therein aren't great. The firmware software is ONLY available (as of March 2024) in Chinese, so you'll need to find a video tutorial to show you how to upgrade it (although I found a couple with a quick search.) The Talkpod-provided programming software is a bit clunky, and seems like a ripoff of CHIRP, which supports this radio and works far better anyhow. The screen does work a little weird, as if it's missing a polarizer or its exceedingly cheap (which may be the case anyhow.) The colors glare a little bit, and it seems they're different from eye to eye. The scan function 'holds' a little bit at the end of the transmission before continuing to scan, and it doesn't appear this delay can be changed.
The Ryobi-inspired green/yellow stands out well in a dark backpack. The color screen is a little easier to read than the backlit monochrome LCD screens on some of the other cheap import radios (Quansheng, Baofeng, et al.) I think overall, it's better-built as well. Other reviews pointed out some issues with mold lines or the battery cover not fitting correctly, but I have not had those issues with mine. Definitely feels more solid than the Quansheng K5(8).
Airband reception is pretty good, especially with the newest firmware. NOAA weather radio reception is pretty good too, especially compared with a standlone radio I have specifically for that purpose. I'm currently pairing this unit with a Diamond 2m band antenna. The stock ducky is surprisingly effective, but breaks down a little when several miles from my local aiport. If you're a spotter, it should work great. FM radio reception is decent, but if you really want to listen to music, this is a pretty poor way of doing it. The scan function is a little slow, but if you want something to scan dozens of frequencies you'd be better served with a dedicated scanner anyhow. I only have about 8 frequencies programmed in and I catch most of what I'm looking for.
Cool features: Charges via USB C (and actually works while plugged in without a battery). The included programming cable is of better quality than a lot of the Baofeng and Baofeng-clone units. It's also a standard CH340 cable and worked well with other radios that use the Baofeng standard (like the Quansheng.) The VFO display mode can be changed to show the frequency tag and is easy to read.
Biggest gripes: as others have said the manual is too small and the instructions contained therein aren't great. The firmware software is ONLY available (as of March 2024) in Chinese, so you'll need to find a video tutorial to show you how to upgrade it (although I found a couple with a quick search.) The Talkpod-provided programming software is a bit clunky, and seems like a ripoff of CHIRP, which supports this radio and works far better anyhow. The screen does work a little weird, as if it's missing a polarizer or its exceedingly cheap (which may be the case anyhow.) The colors glare a little bit, and it seems they're different from eye to eye. The scan function 'holds' a little bit at the end of the transmission before continuing to scan, and it doesn't appear this delay can be changed.
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