Thanks for the testing. If you want listen to air traffic you don’t have to be close to an airport. Planes in the air talk enroute with their 25 to 55 watt VHF AM radios, their signals travel 25-50 miles. Commercial airlines have HF 400 watt transmitters used when they cross oceans. When not talking to towers they talk to AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTERS on various frequencies. New York Center has 69 frequencies assigned to all of its coverage area including New York State, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, Grab an air chart or google ARTCC frequencies or approach frequencies in your area.
Very good information! I totally agree, it just seems that every time I try, I am not fortunate enough to hear anything. I will just keep trying! Thank for watching and commenting!!! 73
Thank you! I do agree that this radio is super cool! It may be easy to overlook harmonic problems because "hey they don't really interfere with me using the radio." For me, and the reason I do these kind of videos, we need to remember that as Amateur Radio operators, we are supposed to make sure our equipment is clean, and not dirtying up our bands, or outside our bands, with extraneous emissions. We are a self policing hobby, and we should demand that these companies that manufacture these radios provide us with equipment that is legal to operate when we receive it. Just because this radio is inexpensive and cool, it is not somehow OK for it to be illegal per Part 97 here in the U.S. We know that it's possible to create radios that are clean, even inexpensive ones like several that we have tested. It is a shame to make a radio this cool and feature packed, and skip out on the quality control that we know they are capable of. Sorry for the long winded reply. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. 73s!
Glad you're not a ham snob....I am neither. AND I worked in actual broadcasting where things like "spurious" do actually matter. Any so-called ham that is acting snotty is probably some Elmer "Fudd"-type that would be better off, digging a hole, jumping in it, and "fertilizing a tree" before they take what's left of the hobby and the importance of amateur radio down with them! In their miserable life-span, they're simply MAD/JEALOUS that your under 40 buck Chinese-made radio works just as well as their 200 BUCK Chinese-Made Radio. And for the SHTF scenario, I can setup and distribute 10 of these cheapos around my 1 mile square neighborhood for the price of only TWO of their Snob Brands! They have no life....I want to save lives. These type units give those in my fam/neighbors basic comms to give us a "shot" at that. Ham is boring and irrelevant enough now, we don't need to make it any less attractive OR necessary! My major problem is I want to Love JESUS but still want to slap people too. Anyone don't like that....Boo Hoo Hoo!. Remember, your real names and addresses are in QRZ'ed...THINK about it!
@@KC4NWKSIT down and BE QUIET "Sad Ham"!. Stop trying to be the Gatekeeper. Bet you were always the 1st one to volunteer as Hall Monitor in Grammar School!.
Good test. Appreciate the random sample tests as opposed to the mfg. comp units. TidRadio has a winner here if they clean things up a bit. Looking forward to a follow up on the harmonic issues.
Just ran across your TD-H3 video and want to thank you for going right into your presentation with all the "hoopla" that most of the other people do that just waists my time. Also, I just received my TD-H8 and am charging the battery. I'll check if you have tested the H8.
Thank you! Yes I did a video on the TD-H8 Gen2 when it was released (purchased myself.) And I also did a follow-up video on the replacement radio after they fixed the harmonics. :) Thanks again, appreciate the view and the comment! 73
There is one more (a fourth) way to program the radio if you have more than one... You can basically transfer wirelessly from one TD-H3 to another TD-H3 directly. Basically if you have one setup as you like, you can clone it's settings to another one without any connections!
Thank you for the video! Could you please compare H3 to H8? I have an H8 and I am impressed with it in several respects, including (a) audio quality, (b) RX sensitivity/selectivity, (c) little to no front end overload (basically, you can hook it up to a big antenna without having its RX "choke"). This is surprising because the H8 is built around the "infamous" 1846 chip:) I am trying to decide whether or not I should get an H3... An H3 teardown video would be awesome, too!
Thank you! I do plan on doing an H3 teardown. I do like both of these radios a lot. I'm hoping that TIDRADIO will fix up the harmonics on the H3 like they did the H8! 73!
From what I've seen in other videos the frequency copy mode, particularly the tones, are more accurate if you give them a bit more space rather than being held right next to each other.
Great video!! I just ordered one from Ali for 28.67 free shipping, bargooon!! if you do a tear down could you also check the 220 mhz for output and sa if possible. I really enjoy your videos, the production is awesome!! Thanks Again, 73's WA2TWF
That's a great price. Thank you for the kind words! I do plan on tearing one down. I'll take a look at the 1.25M band, I don't believe they specifically say TX on that band. They claim TX on 136-174 Mhz and 400-470 Mhz, so I wouldn't expect great things. Good suggestion! 73
Yes, how did I miss that? THANK YOU!! After setting this, I was able to transmit on 1.25M. I did a QUICK look at 222.5 Mhz, it put out approximately a watt (on either L or H setting) and the 2nd and 3rd harmonics were only down 34 dBm and 35 dBm respectively. So a fail on Part97. They don't claim to transmit there, but yet put an option in the menu. :-/ As someone else stated, I tend to believe these radios that are trying to put in 220 MHz are having to sacrifice some filtering, and might be why the harmonics are not as good as they should be.
The reason I was asking about 220, was there has been a few videos stating that, I am with you, it will receive 220 but not transmit, one other thing, did you check out the 2 additional menu items that do not have a number assign to it for 50 mhz, I guess if you enable the two item it will allow to receive??, I have not checked that yet, I will have some time today, let you. Thanks.
Yes, let me know what you find out on the 50 MHz settings. As far as the 220, I just replied to the other comment thread. @NYHalfassprepper pointed out that menu item 52 allows transmit on 220 MHz! After setting this, I was able to transmit on 1.25M. I did a QUICK look at 222.5 MHz, it put out approximately a watt (on either L or H setting) and the 2nd and 3rd harmonics were only down 34 dBm and 35 dBm respectively. So a fail on Part97. They don't claim to transmit there, but yet put an option in the menu. :-/ As someone else stated, I tend to believe these radios that are trying to put in 220 MHz are having to sacrifice some filtering, and might be why the harmonics are not as good as they should be. (Repeated other reply here incase you missed the other.) 73s
@NowWeKnow , everyone makes this mistake: *** Dont plug in the K (Sp/Mic) plug) while the radio is on or/and when the other side is plugged in to your PC , because while you slide the plug into the radio it shortly makes contact with other pins in the connector ... which might lead to a momentary shortcut of something ... it doesn't have to happen but my experience is that the Chinese are not that good in their designs when it comes to plugs/batteries ...etc ... So the right order to avoid this is: 1) Radio is off ... 2) Speaker/mic plug into the radio ... 3) USB into PC ... 4) Now turn on the radio ... Also the help function in Chirp to let it find the right connection/radio by plugging out and in should be avoided ... Dont plug in out while the radio is still on ... this goes for any radio.
You are 100% correct. I should have followed that procedure when connecting the K-type connector. Not good to demonstrate a bad practice! Thank you for pointing that out and for watching and commenting! 73s
Acknowledge newbie here. tried to start simple with changing 0pening 3 Messages on ODM function menu MSG1, etc in function list then tried every which way to save/write and no go. how to you get it to appear in opening screen? Good Vid!
Thank you for the comment and question. If your radio is still showing the TIDRADIO graphic when you power on, and you want to see your power on message instead, you need to go to Menu 44 (PONMSG). The options here are OFF, Msg and Icon. "Msg" will show your power-on message, and "Icon" will show the graphic. Hope that helps! 73
As you pointed out, few other reviewers actually perform the harmonics test. Manufacturing consistency and quality control are low, but then, it is a $40 radio, and so is Baofeng with the UV-5R at $18. TD-H3 has additional features. Which is better? Coin toss.
Yes, you are right on. I've tested many other radios that are "clean" in the sub $60-70 range. We know its possible! :) Thank you for watching and commenting! 73
@NowWeKnow ..the inconsistency is probably caused by the TX endstage & frontend have fixed coils & capacities ... they cant/dont tune it once the components are in place ...we can assume the same also occurs on RX receive ... In addition dont buy radios that also have AM airband cause that needs a wider RX frontend making the 2/70 sensitivity worse.
That does make total sense! I wonder how much inconsistency I would see in multiple TD-H8 radios. You can see that the one in my TD-H8 update was nice and clean. The only comment I would add to this is that the several UV-5Rs that I tested after they became "clean" were all clean, and I highly doubt they tune either. Thank you for watching and commenting! 73s
I had the H8 and H3 on a repeater today, about 15 miles away, I was surprised that the H8 was more sensitive and maybe better SNR too. I swapped antennas but the same results. I took them both out in the yard and had the same results. I still love both of them a lot and would buy them both again. I plan to test power and spurs soon, once I make room on my bench. Lol. I'm cleaning out my lock lab for a radio shack. :) Another brilliant quality video, thank you.🍻🤠
Hey thanks for the information! So are they any better now? How much do I need to spend and what should I get as an "acceptable" radio? thanks really appreciate it
Hence why you didn't get one...Nice review.. I'm new to the radio hobby and was thinking of getting a Boafeng Gmrs GM-15 pro. Do you have any Experience with this one? I was looking for GMRS that I could hear ham channels, noa, emergency channels on it. Would you have any recommendations on something like this under 75.00. Appreciate if you could point me in some direction that I could do some research on. Thanks
Thanks for commenting! I haven't done any GMRS radios yet, but will probably look into doing some in the future. I should have a Retevis GMRS radio in a few weeks, that will be the first GMRS specific radio I take a look at. Wish I could be of more help. GMRS radios have to be certified Part 95E to be legally used in the US.
Question: my H3 makes a loud hash noise at the end of every repeater drop. Is this the same with yours? Also the mic gain control makes no difference in the outgoing mic gain. The H8 works well in this respect. What about your H3, does the mic gain actually work? Maybe I have a buggy radio, Tidradio has failed to reply to any of my emails.
What would I notice with radio harmonics being out of specs? I am not a radio engineer, and I picked up what your test readings showed. It would be great if you could explain just a little more what were looking at. Ty
Thank you for commenting! On some of these tests it’s not so much what YOU will notice, but preventing yourself from unknowingly interfering with others. Also following FCC regulations if you are in the US. 73s!!
The radio spectrum allocated to amateur radios is only so big. If you have a radio that transmits powerful harmonics you are not only using the intended frequency, but you are also using the 2nd, 3rd harmonics frequencies. The intended frequency has the most power and 2nd, 3rd less. That one radios 3rd harmonic was actually higher than the 2nd. In general, you want to only send power on the intended frequency. A sign of a good rf transmitter is how low the power level of harmonic are. Another way to look at it, a radio with high level spurious emissions is a jammer... chuckle. If your intended frequency is on the edge (upper of lower edge) you could be sending your harmonics into the part of the spectrum that is outside the amateur band but in a protected spectrum used for some other service. If you interfere with that protected spectrum the FCC may well come looking for you. If your emissions occur within the Amateur band then hams will have a chat with you. hope this clarifies the importance of "Clean Radios"
It would be great if you could do these same tests with a Japanese handy in low and high power and see how it behaves handling the harmonics just to compare an expensive radio and a cheap one. Best... WP4QIB
Which number ends with the firmware of your H3? My H3's firmware ends with 240316, the latest. I bought it from their official website last week. The H3 was shipped from China and it arrived yesterday. I just had a harmonic test and it was very clean!
I hope this is a good sign! All the radios I have tested so far (I bought 2 more just to check) shipped with the 231229 firmware, all came from Amazon. I updated the radios in the video to 240229. I see I have a package coming from TIDRADIO direct now, hopefully it will be an updated version. Thanks for watching and commenting! 73
So I'm pretty new to radios like this and wondering with this radio and the results on the analyzer, what would be the problems you would come across with that?
@@KC4NWK Thanks for double checking. I don't know how these handheld radios work (I'm not a ham but I fly and would be curious to listen to ATC from time to time)...if you can't choose a STEP of 8.33 kHz, can you still manually type in an 8.33 kHz frequency?
I don't quite understand what harmonic testing corresponds to. The higher the power of the harmonics, the worse the signal? What does the 25µW line correspond to?
When a radio transmits, it can generate signals on multiples of the operating frequency. For example, in this testing the 2-meter operating frequency is 146.500 MHz, the 2nd harmonic is 293 MHz, and the 3rd harmonic is 439.5 MHz etc. The FCC requires that these extra harmonics be kept to certain levels for operation in the U.S. There are certain requirements for transmitters that operate on different frequency ranges. For the radios in this review (radios that put out less than 25W and operate between 30 and 225 MHz,) the FCC requires that the 2nd and higher harmonics (spurious emissions) be at least 40dB below the mean power of the operating frequency (fundamental emission.) In addition, none of these individual spurious emissions can be over 25 µW. (This is FCC Part 97.307 Emission standards.) Radio manufactures can use filtering in the radio to reduce or remove these spurious emissions. This requires extra time and effort, and some of these manufacturers try to skimp on this requirement. This is why some of us amateur radio operators like to test these radios to let their fellow hobbyists know if they should consider a radio for purchase. Per an article in ARRL QST magazine from 1985 "The first responsibility of an amateur operator is to make certain that the transmitter does not radiate harmonic energy." Sorry for the long winded reply!! Thank you watching and posting the question!
The 2 radio kit I ordered came with two extra "airband" antennas. I'm not sure if they really help that much. If anyone else has any suggestions, please drop them here. 73s
Thank you for the review. I am very interested in this ht. I am new to ham radio. Will this be something that tidradio can fix via firmware update or hardware fix? I am debating between this and the baofeng uv-21r. Both seem to have harmonic issues. I'm leaning toward the h3 but wondering if I should wait for them to fix it.
Well given the choice, I would choose this radio hands down. Now to be clear, the radio that I tested in my other video was labeled as a UV-21PRO and it was horrible. It looks identical to the UV-21R but I'm not 100% sure its the same radio. I have a UV-21R on the way, and I'll see if it performs as poorly as the UV-21Pro. Thank you for watching and commenting!!! 73
I just received it this afternoon. I did NOTHING more than hook it up to the Spectrum Analyzer and was immediately disappointed. This radio is IDENTICAL to my UV-21Pro... Same garbage out. If you watch my video with the UV-21Pro, those are the same harmonics I'm seeing out of this UV-21R. I ordered this radio from Amazon. It will be going straight back.
The tiny harmonic issue does not bother me when some people are making amplifies using sweep tubes with 5 harmonics all close to half a watt and they say, "look what I made!" I just say, "Good job," and think that this guy is one of the ones that throws a hissy fit about harmonics on a radio.
Good question. Yes all batteries full charged with the Drop in Charger. Plus, it seems to be a huge variance on the low-power output. The high power output is relatively close. Thank you for the question. :)
Picture in Picture makes it hard to see the radio. You should be in the small window and put the overhead large. And NEED to zoom in on the radio. Otherwise good review.
Yes, I agree! Thanks for the reminder. Since I mainly just do these unscripted, I sometimes forget to switch “scenes” to the correct view. I’m trying to still get everything down. Thanks for the view and 73!
Haha, sorry for the confusion! What I meant was that TIDRADIO was "waiting" to have a test unit to send me for over 3 weeks, so I went out and bought three on my own. :) They were readily available from Amazon and TIDRADIO's store.
I don't think I would be a good judge, as the requirements for an "emergency" radio can vary from person to person. I do think this is a great little radio for the price. I'm just hoping they fix their consistency issue. :)
I want to ask, what is the most important part and subject of this review? Is it you and your face, or is it the radio? The way that you are doing this video, it seems that you think it is you and your face since you and your face take up about 80% of the picture. And the radio is almost invisible. I admit that im writing this having only seen about the first 20% of the video so far.
I know this comment is 2 months later, but I wanted to add my comment I posted from a more recent comment on this video: Yes, I agree! Thanks for the reminder. Since I mainly just do these unscripted, I sometimes forget to switch “scenes” to the correct view. I’m trying to still get everything down. Thanks for the view and 73!
I think the picture in picture is an okay idea. However, switch them so that your audience can better see what you are doing. Your face should be in the small picture box and what you are doing should be in the bigger picture box.
Yep, this was addressed in a previous comment. Totally agree! I shoot these videos “real time” and I forgot to change scenes to the proper overhead shot. Still learning to get everything right. :-)
Alway this panic about harmonics. Bad harmonics on a base station you only use at home can be a problem in a city or village, but these radios are made for moving around off road, in the woods, moutains or desert. Harmonics are no problem in this case and no one will call the FCC and cry about it. Just don't use it as your main radio at home every day.
Yeah, I agree. I don’t script any of these videos and apparently my brain is filling in the empty spaces. :-( I have to be more conscious of that in the future!
I think this was the best tutorial I’ve watched so far regarding this radio , live conversation type thing, and talked slowly which was good for me ! lol 😝
These cheap Chinese radios are not worth it. None of them. You get plenty of spurs, lots of features and some may even work, constantly chasing firmware in the hope that it fixes your particular issue and only if you have a version of Windoze to run the shitty programming software on. I hope you don't brick the thing because shipping to China for you will cost more than the radio. I just find it funny that there are so many YT videos on these radios and they are all the same. Whatever you buy from China, buy 10 of them and hope 1 works for you.
Thanks for the testing. If you want listen to air traffic you don’t have to be close to an airport. Planes in the air talk enroute with their 25 to 55 watt VHF AM radios, their signals travel 25-50 miles. Commercial airlines have HF 400 watt transmitters used when they cross oceans. When not talking to towers they talk to AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTERS on various frequencies. New York Center has 69 frequencies assigned to all of its coverage area including New York State, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, Grab an air chart or google ARTCC frequencies or approach frequencies in your area.
Very good information! I totally agree, it just seems that every time I try, I am not fortunate enough to hear anything. I will just keep trying! Thank for watching and commenting!!! 73
FYI, The batteries are two 18650 cells made by EVE labeled 2.5Ah (ICR18650/26V). EVE makes some decent cells.
Appreciate the effort you went through. As for me, I could care less about the under $40 radio's spurious emissions. It's so cool.
Thank you! I do agree that this radio is super cool! It may be easy to overlook harmonic problems because "hey they don't really interfere with me using the radio." For me, and the reason I do these kind of videos, we need to remember that as Amateur Radio operators, we are supposed to make sure our equipment is clean, and not dirtying up our bands, or outside our bands, with extraneous emissions. We are a self policing hobby, and we should demand that these companies that manufacture these radios provide us with equipment that is legal to operate when we receive it. Just because this radio is inexpensive and cool, it is not somehow OK for it to be illegal per Part 97 here in the U.S. We know that it's possible to create radios that are clean, even inexpensive ones like several that we have tested. It is a shame to make a radio this cool and feature packed, and skip out on the quality control that we know they are capable of. Sorry for the long winded reply. Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. 73s!
It's OK. I prefer their $60 h8 radio lol. Can you make a comparison video with the h3?
@@Scott0220unless you have some care left, "couldn't care less" is proper usage. Yes I know you were brought up saying it the other way.
Glad you're not a ham snob....I am neither. AND I worked in actual broadcasting where things like "spurious" do actually matter. Any so-called ham that is acting snotty is probably some Elmer "Fudd"-type that would be better off, digging a hole, jumping in it, and "fertilizing a tree" before they take what's left of the hobby and the importance of amateur radio down with them! In their miserable life-span, they're simply MAD/JEALOUS that your under 40 buck Chinese-made radio works just as well as their 200 BUCK Chinese-Made Radio. And for the SHTF scenario, I can setup and distribute 10 of these cheapos around my 1 mile square neighborhood for the price of only TWO of their Snob Brands!
They have no life....I want to save lives. These type units give those in my fam/neighbors basic comms to give us a "shot" at that. Ham is boring and irrelevant enough now, we don't need to make it any less attractive OR necessary!
My major problem is I want to Love JESUS but still want to slap people too. Anyone don't like that....Boo Hoo Hoo!.
Remember, your real names and addresses are in QRZ'ed...THINK about it!
@@KC4NWKSIT down and BE QUIET "Sad Ham"!. Stop trying to be the Gatekeeper. Bet you were always the 1st one to volunteer as Hall Monitor in Grammar School!.
Good test. Appreciate the random sample tests as opposed to the mfg. comp units. TidRadio has a winner here if they clean things up a bit. Looking forward to a follow up on the harmonic issues.
Thank you! I also am hoping for an update. I do now have a package in transit from TIDRADIO. I'm hoping its an updated TD-H3. We will see! 73s
Fantastic and through test and review, that was excellent quality content. Cheers & 73.
Thank you very much! Greatly appreciate the view and comment! 73
@@matthewspeller *thorough😜
Just ran across your TD-H3 video and want to thank you for going right into your presentation with all the "hoopla" that most of the other people do that just waists my time. Also, I just received my TD-H8 and am charging the battery. I'll check if you have tested the H8.
Thank you! Yes I did a video on the TD-H8 Gen2 when it was released (purchased myself.) And I also did a follow-up video on the replacement radio after they fixed the harmonics. :) Thanks again, appreciate the view and the comment! 73
What's it doing to your waist?
There is one more (a fourth) way to program the radio if you have more than one... You can basically transfer wirelessly from one TD-H3 to another TD-H3 directly. Basically if you have one setup as you like, you can clone it's settings to another one without any connections!
Excellent point!! Thank you!
Lovely. Will have a look. Good place to start.
Thank you for the video! Could you please compare H3 to H8? I have an H8 and I am impressed with it in several respects, including (a) audio quality, (b) RX sensitivity/selectivity, (c) little to no front end overload (basically, you can hook it up to a big antenna without having its RX "choke"). This is surprising because the H8 is built around the "infamous" 1846 chip:) I am trying to decide whether or not I should get an H3... An H3 teardown video would be awesome, too!
Thank you! I do plan on doing an H3 teardown. I do like both of these radios a lot. I'm hoping that TIDRADIO will fix up the harmonics on the H3 like they did the H8! 73!
From what I've seen in other videos the frequency copy mode, particularly the tones, are more accurate if you give them a bit more space rather than being held right next to each other.
Great video!! I just ordered one from Ali for 28.67 free shipping, bargooon!! if you do a tear down could you also check the 220 mhz for output and sa if possible. I really enjoy your videos, the production is awesome!! Thanks Again, 73's WA2TWF
That's a great price. Thank you for the kind words! I do plan on tearing one down. I'll take a look at the 1.25M band, I don't believe they specifically say TX on that band. They claim TX on 136-174 Mhz and 400-470 Mhz, so I wouldn't expect great things. Good suggestion! 73
@@KC4NWK The radio does transmit on 220 mhz. I do not know how well.
Even when I select the ALL option (Not HAM, Not GMRS) I cannot transmit on 220MHz, it just beeps. Any insight on how?
@@KC4NWK Jon, in the menu, go to menu item 52 and set 200tx to on. 73
Yes, how did I miss that? THANK YOU!! After setting this, I was able to transmit on 1.25M. I did a QUICK look at 222.5 Mhz, it put out approximately a watt (on either L or H setting) and the 2nd and 3rd harmonics were only down 34 dBm and 35 dBm respectively. So a fail on Part97. They don't claim to transmit there, but yet put an option in the menu. :-/ As someone else stated, I tend to believe these radios that are trying to put in 220 MHz are having to sacrifice some filtering, and might be why the harmonics are not as good as they should be.
The reason I was asking about 220, was there has been a few videos stating that, I am with you, it will receive 220 but not transmit, one other thing, did you check out the 2 additional menu items that do not have a number assign to it for 50 mhz, I guess if you enable the two item it will allow to receive??, I have not checked that yet, I will have some time today, let you. Thanks.
Yes, let me know what you find out on the 50 MHz settings. As far as the 220, I just replied to the other comment thread. @NYHalfassprepper pointed out that menu item 52 allows transmit on 220 MHz! After setting this, I was able to transmit on 1.25M. I did a QUICK look at 222.5 MHz, it put out approximately a watt (on either L or H setting) and the 2nd and 3rd harmonics were only down 34 dBm and 35 dBm respectively. So a fail on Part97. They don't claim to transmit there, but yet put an option in the menu. :-/ As someone else stated, I tend to believe these radios that are trying to put in 220 MHz are having to sacrifice some filtering, and might be why the harmonics are not as good as they should be. (Repeated other reply here incase you missed the other.) 73s
@NowWeKnow , everyone makes this mistake: *** Dont plug in the K (Sp/Mic) plug) while the radio is on or/and when the other side is plugged in to your PC , because while you slide the plug into the radio it shortly makes contact with other pins in the connector ... which might lead to a momentary shortcut of something ... it doesn't have to happen but my experience is that the Chinese are not that good in their designs when it comes to plugs/batteries ...etc ... So the right order to avoid this is: 1) Radio is off ... 2) Speaker/mic plug into the radio ... 3) USB into PC ... 4) Now turn on the radio ... Also the help function in Chirp to let it find the right connection/radio by plugging out and in should be avoided ... Dont plug in out while the radio is still on ... this goes for any radio.
You are 100% correct. I should have followed that procedure when connecting the K-type connector. Not good to demonstrate a bad practice! Thank you for pointing that out and for watching and commenting! 73s
Acknowledge newbie here. tried to start simple with changing 0pening 3 Messages on ODM function menu MSG1, etc in function list then tried every which way to save/write and no go. how to you get it to appear in opening screen? Good Vid!
Thank you for the comment and question. If your radio is still showing the TIDRADIO graphic when you power on, and you want to see your power on message instead, you need to go to Menu 44 (PONMSG).
The options here are OFF, Msg and Icon. "Msg" will show your power-on message, and "Icon" will show the graphic. Hope that helps! 73
As you pointed out, few other reviewers actually perform the harmonics test. Manufacturing consistency and quality control are low, but then, it is a $40 radio, and so is Baofeng with the UV-5R at $18. TD-H3 has additional features. Which is better? Coin toss.
Yes, you are right on. I've tested many other radios that are "clean" in the sub $60-70 range. We know its possible! :) Thank you for watching and commenting! 73
@ the 17 min mark.... These are a new type of antenna, they become whatever you want by just labeling it. It cuts down on inventory.
LOL, yes very convenient! To be fair, they are physically different lengths, but very confusing anyway! Thanks for watching!!
Great mini air band radio , but it lacks the output power, u could get a baofeng uv5rh for less that kicks out 6 watts
@NowWeKnow ..the inconsistency is probably caused by the TX endstage & frontend have fixed coils & capacities ... they cant/dont tune it once the components are in place ...we can assume the same also occurs on RX receive ... In addition dont buy radios that also have AM airband cause that needs a wider RX frontend making the 2/70 sensitivity worse.
That does make total sense! I wonder how much inconsistency I would see in multiple TD-H8 radios. You can see that the one in my TD-H8 update was nice and clean. The only comment I would add to this is that the several UV-5Rs that I tested after they became "clean" were all clean, and I highly doubt they tune either. Thank you for watching and commenting! 73s
The tolerance of the fixed coils and capacitors is also important for the inconsistency in the output stage.
I had the H8 and H3 on a repeater today, about 15 miles away, I was surprised that the H8 was more sensitive and maybe better SNR too. I swapped antennas but the same results. I took them both out in the yard and had the same results. I still love both of them a lot and would buy them both again.
I plan to test power and spurs soon, once I make room on my bench. Lol. I'm cleaning out my lock lab for a radio shack. :)
Another brilliant quality video, thank you.🍻🤠
@@GODAXEN good RF components are expensive as well, particularly the capacitors
Hey thanks for the information! So are they any better now? How much do I need to spend and what should I get as an "acceptable" radio? thanks really appreciate it
I use a private commercial channel, and marine, it works great. I love a throwaway dual ptt radio.
What a great review! Thanks!
Thank you for watching and dropping a comment! 73!!
I just got my TdH3 can o just use them as walkie talkie type back and forth with gmrs ?
Yes. Hold down PTT and the * while turning it on, select GMRS and hit the blue button to confirm. You can then program and use GMRS frequencies on it.
Hence why you didn't get one...Nice review.. I'm new to the radio hobby and was thinking of getting a Boafeng Gmrs GM-15 pro. Do you have any Experience with this one? I was looking for GMRS that I could hear ham channels, noa, emergency channels on it. Would you have any recommendations on something like this under 75.00. Appreciate if you could point me in some direction that I could do some research on. Thanks
Thanks for commenting! I haven't done any GMRS radios yet, but will probably look into doing some in the future. I should have a Retevis GMRS radio in a few weeks, that will be the first GMRS specific radio I take a look at. Wish I could be of more help. GMRS radios have to be certified Part 95E to be legally used in the US.
Question: my H3 makes a loud hash noise at the end of every repeater drop. Is this the same with yours? Also the mic gain control makes no difference in the outgoing mic gain. The H8 works well in this respect. What about your H3, does the mic gain actually work? Maybe I have a buggy radio, Tidradio has failed to reply to any of my emails.
Moving to a city that will fill up 199 channels. How fast does it scan?
What would I notice with radio harmonics being out of specs? I am not a radio engineer, and I picked up what your test readings showed. It would be great if you could explain just a little more what were looking at. Ty
Thank you for commenting! On some of these tests it’s not so much what YOU will notice, but preventing yourself from unknowingly interfering with others. Also following FCC regulations if you are in the US. 73s!!
The radio spectrum allocated to amateur radios is only so big. If you have a radio that transmits powerful harmonics you are not only using the intended frequency, but you are also using the 2nd, 3rd harmonics frequencies. The intended frequency has the most power and 2nd, 3rd less. That one radios 3rd harmonic was actually higher than the 2nd. In general, you want to only send power on the intended frequency. A sign of a good rf transmitter is how low the power level of harmonic are. Another way to look at it, a radio with high level spurious emissions is a jammer... chuckle.
If your intended frequency is on the edge (upper of lower edge) you could be sending your harmonics into the part of the spectrum that is outside the amateur band but in a protected spectrum used for some other service. If you interfere with that protected spectrum the FCC may well come looking for you. If your emissions occur within the Amateur band then hams will have a chat with you.
hope this clarifies the importance of "Clean Radios"
That usb adapter that comes with those radios are 5v as used with phones or Tablets.... How does it charge the 7 volt battery ?
The charger is located inside the battery, there's complicated electronics inside that make this possible. The 5V is just a power supply.
A boost converter ic inside the battery and radio
It would be great if you could do these same tests with a Japanese handy in low and high power and see how it behaves handling the harmonics just to compare an expensive radio and a cheap one. Best... WP4QIB
Good idea! I've thought about this a few times. I have several Yaesu radios that I could show.
Which number ends with the firmware of your H3? My H3's firmware ends with 240316, the latest. I bought it from their official website last week. The H3 was shipped from China and it arrived yesterday. I just had a harmonic test and it was very clean!
I hope this is a good sign! All the radios I have tested so far (I bought 2 more just to check) shipped with the 231229 firmware, all came from Amazon. I updated the radios in the video to 240229. I see I have a package coming from TIDRADIO direct now, hopefully it will be an updated version. Thanks for watching and commenting! 73
So I'm pretty new to radios like this and wondering with this radio and the results on the analyzer, what would be the problems you would come across with that?
Do you know if the airband is compatible with the 8.33 kHz spacing?
That is a good question! I don't remember seeing anything for setting a step size to 8.33kHz but I will double check.
@@KC4NWK Thanks for double checking.
I don't know how these handheld radios work (I'm not a ham but I fly and would be curious to listen to ATC from time to time)...if you can't choose a STEP of 8.33 kHz, can you still manually type in an 8.33 kHz frequency?
There is a modified firmware that has the 8.33khz step
I don't quite understand what harmonic testing corresponds to. The higher the power of the harmonics, the worse the signal? What does the 25µW line correspond to?
When a radio transmits, it can generate signals on multiples of the operating frequency. For example, in this testing the 2-meter operating frequency is 146.500 MHz, the 2nd harmonic is 293 MHz, and the 3rd harmonic is 439.5 MHz etc. The FCC requires that these extra harmonics be kept to certain levels for operation in the U.S. There are certain requirements for transmitters that operate on different frequency ranges. For the radios in this review (radios that put out less than 25W and operate between 30 and 225 MHz,) the FCC requires that the 2nd and higher harmonics (spurious emissions) be at least 40dB below the mean power of the operating frequency (fundamental emission.) In addition, none of these individual spurious emissions can be over 25 µW. (This is FCC Part 97.307 Emission standards.) Radio manufactures can use filtering in the radio to reduce or remove these spurious emissions. This requires extra time and effort, and some of these manufacturers try to skimp on this requirement. This is why some of us amateur radio operators like to test these radios to let their fellow hobbyists know if they should consider a radio for purchase. Per an article in ARRL QST magazine from 1985 "The first responsibility of an amateur operator is to make certain that the transmitter does not radiate harmonic energy." Sorry for the long winded reply!! Thank you watching and posting the question!
@@KC4NWKthank you for your reply I understand better now !
Looking for an exterior use gain antenna for this radio.. Mainly airband. Any suggestion?
The 2 radio kit I ordered came with two extra "airband" antennas. I'm not sure if they really help that much. If anyone else has any suggestions, please drop them here. 73s
I have a Signal Stuff Signal Stick antenna on my TD-H3 and it works fantastic!
Big fan of the Signal Stuff Signal Stick antenna!!! 73s
Is it a SMA / FEMALE ?
Yes, the ANTENNA is SMA Female, the radio is SMA Male. :)
Thank you for the review. I am very interested in this ht. I am new to ham radio. Will this be something that tidradio can fix via firmware update or hardware fix? I am debating between this and the baofeng uv-21r. Both seem to have harmonic issues. I'm leaning toward the h3 but wondering if I should wait for them to fix it.
Well given the choice, I would choose this radio hands down. Now to be clear, the radio that I tested in my other video was labeled as a UV-21PRO and it was horrible. It looks identical to the UV-21R but I'm not 100% sure its the same radio. I have a UV-21R on the way, and I'll see if it performs as poorly as the UV-21Pro. Thank you for watching and commenting!!! 73
@@KC4NWK looking forward to your review. How long until you get the uv-21r? I'm itching to buy a ht.
I just received it this afternoon. I did NOTHING more than hook it up to the Spectrum Analyzer and was immediately disappointed. This radio is IDENTICAL to my UV-21Pro... Same garbage out. If you watch my video with the UV-21Pro, those are the same harmonics I'm seeing out of this UV-21R. I ordered this radio from Amazon. It will be going straight back.
It's good, but some are defective and don't send the CTCSS tones. I got one of those defective ones.
The tiny harmonic issue does not bother me when some people are making amplifies using sweep tubes with 5 harmonics all close to half a watt and they say, "look what I made!" I just say, "Good job," and think that this guy is one of the ones that throws a hissy fit about harmonics on a radio.
hi i just got one of these and i was trying to get it in the AM mode for airband but when i turn am on it doesnt display AM on the screen any help?
Did you enable AM_BAND in menu 48?
Once this is enabled, when I tune to the air band, it says AM in the upper right corner.
Hope this helps! 73
Does it pick airband? If so, how good?
it picks but how gvd i dunno.
Are all 3 radios 100% charged? Wouldn't the low and high power wattage vary as well?
Good question. Yes all batteries full charged with the Drop in Charger. Plus, it seems to be a huge variance on the low-power output. The high power output is relatively close. Thank you for the question. :)
Thank you ...
Thank you! Appreciate the view and comment! 73s
Picture in Picture makes it hard to see the radio.
You should be in the small window and put the overhead large. And NEED to zoom in on the radio.
Otherwise good review.
Yes, I agree! Thanks for the reminder. Since I mainly just do these unscripted, I sometimes forget to switch “scenes” to the correct view. I’m trying to still get everything down. Thanks for the view and 73!
I personally tuned out as soon as you said it's tough to get one and then you clearly showed that you have three ???
Haha, sorry for the confusion! What I meant was that TIDRADIO was "waiting" to have a test unit to send me for over 3 weeks, so I went out and bought three on my own. :) They were readily available from Amazon and TIDRADIO's store.
@@KC4NWK thanks for the clarification 👍
Are these walkie talkie’s also ? With long range ? I’m new
Yes, they are either GMRS or HAM two-way radios. Either requires a license from the FCC to operate in the U.S.
@@KC4NWK thanks for the reply , I’m thinking of purchasing this model, I wasn’t aware I needed a license however , is it also a good emergency radio.?
I don't think I would be a good judge, as the requirements for an "emergency" radio can vary from person to person. I do think this is a great little radio for the price. I'm just hoping they fix their consistency issue. :)
@@KC4NWKalso what would you recommend for just long range walkie talkie use ? The best for range and clarity ?Thanks so much
As far as emergency radio : weather , news , in the event of the world ending lol - thanks again
nice Kershaw
On the youtube channel pu4bla I saw this radio on 27 Mhz how did he do that?
Their latest firmware allows the radio to go down as low as 18 MHz in VFO mode. Thanks for watching! 73
Yesterday I bought it for $24. Good deal, huh? 🙃
WOW! That IS a great price!
You forgot to add you can program it from the keypad to😂
LOL! Dang I forgot! ;-)
Tone 2 roger beep actually sounds nice.kinda like a knock off motorola Squawk.
Is the antenna SMA FEMALE?
Yes, the ANTENNA is SMA Female, the radio is SMA Male. :)
I want to ask, what is the most important part and subject of this review? Is it you and your face, or is it the radio? The way that you are doing this video, it seems that you think it is you and your face since you and your face take up about 80% of the picture. And the radio is almost invisible. I admit that im writing this having only seen about the first 20% of the video so far.
I know this comment is 2 months later, but I wanted to add my comment I posted from a more recent comment on this video:
Yes, I agree! Thanks for the reminder. Since I mainly just do these unscripted, I sometimes forget to switch “scenes” to the correct view. I’m trying to still get everything down. Thanks for the view and 73!
I think the picture in picture is an okay idea. However, switch them so that your audience can better see what you are doing. Your face should be in the small picture box and what you are doing should be in the bigger picture box.
Yep, this was addressed in a previous comment. Totally agree! I shoot these videos “real time” and I forgot to change scenes to the proper overhead shot. Still learning to get everything right. :-)
Please sort your sound out, it's uncomfortable to listen to due to squelch muting.
I agree 100% I think I fixed this after this video, but I'll make sure to check it! 73
Alway this panic about harmonics. Bad harmonics on a base station you only use at home can be a problem in a city or village, but these radios are made for moving around off road, in the woods, moutains or desert. Harmonics are no problem in this case and no one will call the FCC and cry about it. Just don't use it as your main radio at home every day.
Can't buy yet. Haympnocs bad.
Why do the "uhh"s and "umms"s sound edited in?
Um…
Oh man now that you bring it up..😮 uhh umm..
Drinking game for every uhh and um...😮..
It’s thirty bucks! Who cares.. a cup of coffee is twelve dollars these days the thing is free not 1200 dollars…..
Next time show the screen what we need to see it and reduce your own view .This split screen not good
Too many hums and arrs with the commentary put me right off. Sorry
Yeah, I agree. I don’t script any of these videos and apparently my brain is filling in the empty spaces. :-( I have to be more conscious of that in the future!
I think this was the best tutorial I’ve watched so far regarding this radio , live conversation type thing, and talked slowly which was good for me ! lol 😝
These cheap Chinese radios are not worth it. None of them. You get plenty of spurs, lots of features and some may even work, constantly chasing firmware in the hope that it fixes your particular issue and only if you have a version of Windoze to run the shitty programming software on. I hope you don't brick the thing because shipping to China for you will cost more than the radio. I just find it funny that there are so many YT videos on these radios and they are all the same. Whatever you buy from China, buy 10 of them and hope 1 works for you.
chinese products are decent although china's imperialism/fascism is the problem.