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I set this radio up as a scanner to monitor my local fire department pages. We are switching over to DMR and had to turn in our radios for reprograming. This was very cheap so I decided to try it for the transition. It works surprisingly well. I have never tried to transmit on it and there are fewer agencies that are using FMR but it works well on our paging frequency and on NOAA weather frequencies. I am not a radio guy and I bought a cable and figured out how to program it using Chirp without to much trouble. It seems to be a great little starter radio.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
But the instruction manual didn't really say how to program it, so I'm having to push the numbers to enter the frequency I want. I intended to screw on a coax cable to hook it up to a bigger antenna for longer range, but Radio Shack doesn't have any couplings to fit it, so the rubber duck antenna will have to do - it's just less than I anticipated.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
A brilliant little radio. Easy to carry, easy to use. I found adding a mike/earphone also made it easy to understand and be heard over loud background noise. Easy to program from the keypad, although the small manual included was useless. Online manuals and video are widely available to help use the huge number of features of this radio.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
To say this is a bit quirky to program is an understatement. I could not find an explanation of how to program freqs. in the supplied skimpy manual. Thankfully it comes with software and cable. The software will also program several other radios. When you run install, make sure you check what com port the adapter cable is assigned to, you have to select this from a menu every time you boot up the program to read the radio. Also make sure the radio end of the cable is firmly pushed into it's pins, you will get a 'fail to comm' message that means your adapter is working, but not connected. In some municipalities, if you're an not law enforcement, having a portable or mobile radio that picks up police comm. is against the law, this one not only can be programmed to do that, it will also transmit on their freqs. When you program it, the TX freq is automatically installed when you put in the RX freq. and then click on any other column, go back and delete the TX freq and at least you won't make a mistake and call a ham buddy on 'TAC 1'. It is really a great little radio, and you can listen to your favorite FM radio stations when things are slow.Read full review
I really like this little radio.... Love how solid it feels and the speaker is real clear. my primary use is monitoring active frequencies but have them ready to go in case of an emergency. This is my 3rd unit. I have added a larger battery for longer run time and have a solar charger set up to keep them topped off. Can't beat them for the price.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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