Top positive review
27 people found this helpful
Almost perfect first REAL GMRF radio ......
By David P. Jebens, DVM on Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2021
UPDATE #2(6/8/21): This radio is back on Radioddity's site AND Amazon. The company told me that if a product is out of stock, they remove it from their site. Not the best way to deal with that IMHO. It is back and available, so all is good again! UPDATE: Now I don't know what to think! This radio is no longer referenced in any way on Radioddity's web site ...... almost like it never existed! Amazon says it's gone and they don't know if or when it might be available again, so it seems that this review was a waste of my time because no one is ever going to see it! I did write directly to the company and am awaiting a reply as to what's going on. As my first attempt at getting a GMRF radio that was better than my old, ancient Cobra very basic 0.5W radios, I feel the GM-30 was a super choice! The only real problem I've had is in finding and understanding certain settings. I had most of it figured out using the Radioddity software, but ran into a glitch after the firmware update I was sent after I had an inquiry right after purchasing it. BTW, customer service has been very responsive so far, and pretty quick with their answers. Anyway, the glitch was NOT with the firmware install with their cable. It was with the lack of info on the changes it made! I was looking forward to being able to toggle the channel power setting, but even though I had set all channels of GMRF to "High" in the software, I found out while trying to use the GM-30 at a car rally (of sorts), that ALL my channels were set to "Low" power according to the screen readout! PLUS, I had forgotten the toggle key and since this was a "new" feature, there was NO mention of it in the manual! Only when I got back was I able to look in the firmware notes that the toggle was a quick press on the "Lock" key! When I had "SET" all channels to "High" in the software and then uploaded those settings back into the GM-30, it didn't stick at high power. I was therefore a bit disappointed that there I was, trying to communicate in the Great Smokie Mountains and stuck on "Low" power for lack of documentation! The toggle is now written on the front of the manual! I feel that setting the power in software should have stuck when those settings were uploaded back into the radio. Also, when you tune in another channel, you have to set the power level manually EACH time you change a channel! A real pain because the radio does not "remember" you last settings for any channel! Maybe that could be upgraded on the next firmware update?? I even looked to see if an "updated" manual was available so others would not miss that critical change but have not seen one so far! Very bottom line, EVEN in low power, the GM-30 performed fantastically to the point I wasn't aware I was in "Low" power at first. It was reported that voice was clear in transmitting and my reception was great, even with the included ear piece. My new GM-30 seemed to out perform and sound better that several other's Baofeng radios and they were surprised! Great job, Raddioddity! Please make the firmware changes in a maybe NEW manual version we can download and make those power levels "stick" in the software!
Top critical review
4 people found this helpful
Could use improvement, still a great contender
By Josh b on Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2021
The biggest issue that bothered me was the screen and brightness. Backlighting: The screen is backlit. The brightness is not adjustable. It's either off or really bright. And while being really bright, it makes it excellent to read even on the brightest day at night. I found it to basically be a destroyer of night vision. Sure, you can adjust the time of the screen backlight, but I would have liked the ability to adjust the brightness itself. Furthermore, the backlight on the keypad times out way too quickly for my preference, like within one second. I would like to see the keypads backlit. At least match the screen backlight settings as far as display timeout. Again, during the day, this isn't really an issue, but at night or in low light conditions, this is. What I experienced was that the screen backlight would destroy my night vision, and by the time it was adjusted, the keypad backlighting had disappeared, making it difficult to see the key values underneath the bright screen. It doesn't come with a programming cable. a cable isn't necessary to program the radio, but it does make the task a lot quicker and easier. Not to mention If you use the programming software, you can upload the same settings to multiple radios rather than manually. You have no choice but to use a programming cable to keep your firmware up to date. It's only an extra 15 dollars at the moment, so it's not the end of the world, but it would have been nice to have had it included in the box. According to radioity, it's not water resistant, according to radioity. The radio is not water resistant, let alone waterproof. So if you plan on using this outdoors in harsher environments or inclement weather, you'll need to take care to keep this radio out of the elements. To be honest, whether using the built-in mic or the included headset, the earpiece isn't very comfortable. No matter how I adjusted the settings or the mic distance from my mouth, I found the hands-free feature to be too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Fortunately, I never really use the hands-free features of any radio, so this is no big deal for me, but if Vox is something that you plan to use a lot, I can only hope your experience is better than mine. They don't come with a spare belt clip. You see, the bell clip on the GM30 screws into the back of the battery. So if you want to swap batteries and only have one belt clip, you'll need to swap over the belt clip as well. I also wish there was an option for a charging dock to be able to just set it up and use the radio as a base station while charging. But since the charger plugs into the bottom of the battery, it can't stand up by itself while it's plugged in. Lastly, and I realize I'm nitpicking at this point, the memory or channel mode and the VFO or frequency mode apply to both VFOs at the same time. In other words, it doesn't seem like I can have VFOA in memory mode and VFOB in frequency mode. Overall, this is a great GMRS radio and really seems to be tuned well given the price point.
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