Thanks to Retevis for offering this radio for review, and the community WORLDWIDEDX for bringing us all together. I recently received this radio while recovering from being sick, so it sat for a week until I felt well enough to look it over.
Having had the opportunity to evaluate a Retevis HT prior, and seeing first-hand the responsiveness of support, paired with a build quality that has taken my personal abuse and survived, I knew what to expect. BTW, I still use that radio daily, it has survived falls from 10+ ft, been rained on, dropped in the mud, hosed off and still works. It serves as my job site FM radio, police/fire/EMS scanner and local repeater access HT.
I intend to be just as abusive to this unit, and I suspect it will endure. I must break this review into multiple posts as this unit has a couple new features that I want to learn about before I can review their implementation. Here we go.
The box...
The unboxing...
First presentation...
The haul...
True to form, it includes everything you need including a programming cable. I immediately updated the firmware to the latest release of 1.00.07.005 and began using....
I wasn't able to import the CPS information into this new revision of software, probably my fault. I could have used chirp I think but I didn't. Instead, to get it going quickly with a few test frequencies, I utilized the Android app and Bluetooth to connect to the HT and push the data. It was surprisingly easy and intuitive, and I can easily change repeater info in it while on the go. That seems nice, we will see.
More to follow soon.
Having had the opportunity to evaluate a Retevis HT prior, and seeing first-hand the responsiveness of support, paired with a build quality that has taken my personal abuse and survived, I knew what to expect. BTW, I still use that radio daily, it has survived falls from 10+ ft, been rained on, dropped in the mud, hosed off and still works. It serves as my job site FM radio, police/fire/EMS scanner and local repeater access HT.
I intend to be just as abusive to this unit, and I suspect it will endure. I must break this review into multiple posts as this unit has a couple new features that I want to learn about before I can review their implementation. Here we go.
The box...
The unboxing...
First presentation...
The haul...
True to form, it includes everything you need including a programming cable. I immediately updated the firmware to the latest release of 1.00.07.005 and began using....
I wasn't able to import the CPS information into this new revision of software, probably my fault. I could have used chirp I think but I didn't. Instead, to get it going quickly with a few test frequencies, I utilized the Android app and Bluetooth to connect to the HT and push the data. It was surprisingly easy and intuitive, and I can easily change repeater info in it while on the go. That seems nice, we will see.
More to follow soon.
