Thanks for the honest review Hayden. TidRadio really has promise if they take heed of these reviews and fix the important issues. It's a great looking radio and looks pretty well built.
I noticed that quirk with one of the radios I received (TidRadio H8 v2). When transmitting on FRS, I would get high pitched feedback. After some testing, I determined the battery had a bad ground. I contacted TidRadio via email and they responded IMMEDIATELY. I’m talking less than 2 minutes. After a couple questions, they sent me a completely new radio. AND included an extra battery. Now I have 3 GMRS enabled radios!
Great video! The one they sent me also made the noise on 146.520 MHz, and also caused a burn from the battery terminal. They sent me a new one which seems to have the issues corrected, but we shall see. The firmware that Tidradio told me about reduced the radio's power to about 1.6 watts on high power...
@HamRadioDX Thanks for the review Brother, The last couple months of Amazon and radios purchases has truly sucked. Used crap sold as new and this radio got hot on me and I thought I was going crazy until I googled heat issue and found your video. On it's way back, as a Hwy. guy who was also the Safety Officer on many of our crews, I care about safety as well, it's not just an Aussie thing. (Though I have long believed I should have been living over there since I was little lol.) Thanks again, great job on the review *subscribed. 🤙
Cheers mate! Yes definitely send it back and get a refund! They say they have fixed it in newer versions, but I’m not convinced yet 👍 Mate it’s a great place to live here 🇦🇺🦘
So the battery terminals are RF ground and you get a bit of RF current (which feels hot)? I remember my first hot lips experience with an older hf radio + amp..
The H8 works with the built bt and the odmaster software (sort of) the odmaster online and the app you download need a lot of work it was and is not ready for release. the unit has three modes of operation first mode grsm mode locked to the grsm bands. The second the Ham radio locked to the ham bands and the unlocked or expanded for full unlock all modes can be reached by press and hold the ptt other key and turning it on ptt8 is for expanded
Unfortunately I wrongly ordered the GMRS radio and configured for ham band operation. The issue that struck me first is noise / squeal emitted by the internal speaker during high power transmit on a frequency dependent basis. Switching antennas to a Diamond with a better match helped a little, but the didn't eliminate the problem. Then I read this review discussing the potential for what appears to be an RF current coupled out of the buttons on the back of the battery pack to the operator's hand. In fact the noise issue appeared to be effected by touching the exposed chassis on the bottom of the radio. Overall it appears that the lower output power GMRS configuration doesn't expose these issues. But at the same time I sense from reading comments here and other places that the manufacture is working to deal with these issues for the higher output power ham version of the H8. In fact if I read one comment correctly the ham radio's battery pack has the charging button on the pack isolated. Another comments suggests that high power operation was derated by something less than 2W. All that said I think there is a lot to like about the radio including the BlueTooth programming concept. I found the app somewhat finicky with importing repeaters, but once I understood tapping import on the bottom of the screen and waiting until it finished resolved that issue. Also when enabling BlueTooth in the app, again waiting until it finishes before hitting backarrow is critical otherwise an error occurs attempting to read from the radio. But updating firmware appear to require a programming cable which I no longer own. It would be easy to suggest that the manufacture throw in the programming cable or somehow enable a firmware update through BlueTooth in a future release. With respect to the review, good job...
With the battery contacts getting hot, I wonder if the metal is acting as a heatsink (unintended thermal transfer) I'm sure that the 7.4v lipo is going to get rather warm on high power, especially if one talks a lot!
@@HamRadioDX I had the tri-band UV5R that had voltage on the pads and my wedding ring shorted them, that was a rather warm experience! I tend to put electrical or kapton tape over the pads now! Mind you the battery didn't survive the dead short and caught fire! It's the only time I can say I've had that happen...
If possible, please create a step-by-step video to correctly update firmware. The only video I could find did not work and ended up bricking the radio. Thanks
I returned mine back to Amazon. Several test show this radio is dirty. Thank you for your test. ILL wait maybe third generation will be better. Took the money and bought a Yasue VX6R. I have a few cheap Chinese radios some are good others just to play with. But in the long run , you get what you pay for. I still like the leading Japanese Brands. But I hope China will clean these radios up so new people will be able to enter the hobby at a affordable price. thanks again
Great review, I honestly feel that seeing them respond to your issues is actually very encouraging. Most of the Chinese imports I have seen have little if any support.
No, the 2nd Gen didn't "fix" the audio high pitch issue. I didn't have the problem at all on the 1st Gen radio. The audio high pitch issue started (for me) on the 2nd gen version. I was able to make it less apparent and improved by changing the antenna from what shipped with it to a Signal Stick antenna and it's much less noticeable.
It’s the battery. Some of them are poorly grounded. I spoke with TiD and did some testing for them. Hopefully, they’ll get it fixed. They sent me a new free radio AND another battery, which fixed my issue.
@@TargetAcquisition You may have gotten lucky and a battery change worked for you but not on mine. I also got new battery but radio has same bad squealing on 3 different batteries included newest one sent to fix issue.
It's a cool radio, given the 10W, but spurious emissions are a no-go for me and should be for anyone who wants to stay legal. I hope the "new version" has solved that problem too. They should send you a unit of the new ones so you can verify those claims. Otherwise, they don't look very trustworthy. IMO this should have been caught beforehand, but given that they are trying to build a radio at a low cost, I can understand the cost cutting during development..
Apparently they also have a web browser based utility for your pc. You need the account to associate the pc code plug to your phone , so you can program the radio. Nice idea, but who trusts Chinese software?
I have a smaller one and no nothing about ham radio and im 100. Percent disabled how come no discount im using mine right now for emergency channels tis radio is unbelieve able and i took the pratice test for ham radio and got 100 on practice test without picking up a book or class and this is not a paid radio or anything it would be nice that people would help me out so i can get the use out of my radio for ham
"we've solved the burning sensation" is something that on the surface should be a good thing to hear from a manufacturer, but somehow still doesn't leave you feeling good about it...
Thanks for the honest review Hayden. TidRadio really has promise if they take heed of these reviews and fix the important issues. It's a great looking radio and looks pretty well built.
Best radio that I have has can afford being disabled if you give any thing away I would love this brand
I went back and looked at my Amazon order. I bought it in 2020 so I actually burnt my hand 2 1/2 years ago and it still gives me problems
Yes I hope they take the feedback on and improve
I noticed that quirk with one of the radios I received (TidRadio H8 v2). When transmitting on FRS, I would get high pitched feedback. After some testing, I determined the battery had a bad ground.
I contacted TidRadio via email and they responded IMMEDIATELY. I’m talking less than 2 minutes. After a couple questions, they sent me a completely new radio. AND included an extra battery.
Now I have 3 GMRS enabled radios!
Great video! The one they sent me also made the noise on 146.520 MHz, and also caused a burn from the battery terminal. They sent me a new one which seems to have the issues corrected, but we shall see. The firmware that Tidradio told me about reduced the radio's power to about 1.6 watts on high power...
Thanks Craig! Yeah they are sending me a new unit
I have 2 of them, no problems at all!
Good review. I have seen others that have talked about the heat/battery problem. I am still not fully sold on the H8 because of it, and the spurs.
I bought my H8 GMRS from Amazon, it’s nice since it supports Bluetooth programming frequency via my phone.
@HamRadioDX
Thanks for the review Brother, The last couple months of Amazon and radios purchases has truly sucked. Used crap sold as new and this radio got hot on me and I thought I was going crazy until I googled heat issue and found your video.
On it's way back, as a Hwy. guy who was also the Safety Officer on many of our crews, I care about safety as well, it's not just an Aussie thing. (Though I have long believed I should have been living over there since I was little lol.)
Thanks again, great job on the review *subscribed. 🤙
Cheers mate! Yes definitely send it back and get a refund! They say they have fixed it in newer versions, but I’m not convinced yet 👍
Mate it’s a great place to live here 🇦🇺🦘
So the battery terminals are RF ground and you get a bit of RF current (which feels hot)? I remember my first hot lips experience with an older hf radio + amp..
The H8 works with the built bt and the odmaster software (sort of) the odmaster online and the app you download need a lot of work it was and is not ready for release. the unit has three modes of operation first mode grsm mode locked to the grsm bands. The second the Ham radio locked to the ham bands and the unlocked or expanded for full unlock all modes can be reached by press and hold the ptt other key and turning it on ptt8 is for expanded
Unfortunately I wrongly ordered the GMRS radio and configured for ham band operation. The issue that struck me first is noise / squeal emitted by the internal speaker during high power transmit on a frequency dependent basis. Switching antennas to a Diamond with a better match helped a little, but the didn't eliminate the problem. Then I read this review discussing the potential for what appears to be an RF current coupled out of the buttons on the back of the battery pack to the operator's hand. In fact the noise issue appeared to be effected by touching the exposed chassis on the bottom of the radio.
Overall it appears that the lower output power GMRS configuration doesn't expose these issues. But at the same time I sense from reading comments here and other places that the manufacture is working to deal with these issues for the higher output power ham version of the H8. In fact if I read one comment correctly the ham radio's battery pack has the charging button on the pack isolated. Another comments suggests that high power operation was derated by something less than 2W.
All that said I think there is a lot to like about the radio including the BlueTooth programming concept. I found the app somewhat finicky with importing repeaters, but once I understood tapping import on the bottom of the screen and waiting until it finished resolved that issue. Also when enabling BlueTooth in the app, again waiting until it finishes before hitting backarrow is critical otherwise an error occurs attempting to read from the radio.
But updating firmware appear to require a programming cable which I no longer own. It would be easy to suggest that the manufacture throw in the programming cable or somehow enable a firmware update through BlueTooth in a future release.
With respect to the review, good job...
With the battery contacts getting hot, I wonder if the metal is acting as a heatsink (unintended thermal transfer) I'm sure that the 7.4v lipo is going to get rather warm on high power, especially if one talks a lot!
Could be RF current, too..
It kind of feels more like an RF burn. The terminals don't remain hot afterwards which lends itself to RF issues
@@HamRadioDX I had the tri-band UV5R that had voltage on the pads and my wedding ring shorted them, that was a rather warm experience! I tend to put electrical or kapton tape over the pads now! Mind you the battery didn't survive the dead short and caught fire! It's the only time I can say I've had that happen...
If possible, please create a step-by-step video to correctly update firmware. The only video I could find did not work and ended up bricking the radio. Thanks
Got the same from Baofeng B5 and B6, but hand capacitance to the battery contacts
helped Ground plane.
I returned mine back to Amazon. Several test show this radio is dirty. Thank you for your test. ILL wait maybe third generation will be better. Took the money and bought a Yasue VX6R. I have a few cheap Chinese radios some are good others just to play with. But in the long run , you get what you pay for. I still like the leading Japanese Brands. But I hope China will clean these radios up so new people will be able to enter the hobby at a affordable price. thanks again
so far 2 months love the HT occassional BT connection issue sometimes
Great review, I honestly feel that seeing them respond to your issues is actually very encouraging. Most of the Chinese imports I have seen have little if any support.
I think you're right and they seem to be wanting to work through the issues and work toward a quality product.
I had the first generation one, and it burnt my hand over a year ago and it still gives me problems. It was almost like an RF burn.
Likely it was..
@@salat it was there was no surface skin damage, It was all internal.
It did take a bit of time for me to notice it... I had to hold my hand the right way as it were
will this connect to a bluetooth headset. i'm looking for something to connect to a motorcycle helmet that isn't in the 180 dollars range.
Is that audio volume checker something on a local repeater? Or how you doing that?
Node 55553 on Allstar
That was just crazy!
Hot! Hot! Hot!
No, the 2nd Gen didn't "fix" the audio high pitch issue. I didn't have the problem at all on the 1st Gen radio. The audio high pitch issue started (for me) on the 2nd gen version. I was able to make it less apparent and improved by changing the antenna from what shipped with it to a Signal Stick antenna and it's much less noticeable.
It’s the battery. Some of them are poorly grounded. I spoke with TiD and did some testing for them. Hopefully, they’ll get it fixed.
They sent me a new free radio AND another battery, which fixed my issue.
@@TargetAcquisition You may have gotten lucky and a battery change worked for you but not on mine. I also got new battery but radio has same bad squealing on 3 different batteries included newest one sent to fix issue.
god of radios
It's a cool radio, given the 10W, but spurious emissions are a no-go for me and should be for anyone who wants to stay legal. I hope the "new version" has solved that problem too. They should send you a unit of the new ones so you can verify those claims. Otherwise, they don't look very trustworthy. IMO this should have been caught beforehand, but given that they are trying to build a radio at a low cost, I can understand the cost cutting during development..
Yes I believe they are sending a new unit to see if it’s been fixed so I’ll report on that when I get it
Crystal clear I don't rember my face code for gmrs radio this radio is very very good
A bit more tweaking and I'll get one. Thanks Hayden. :)
Maybe there is something imperfect in H8, but I think tid is responsible, they will resolve after-sale issues in time...
Tid radio is very good I got the to fro about 70 usd and four batteries and charger
Apparently they also have a web browser based utility for your pc. You need the account to associate the pc code plug to your phone , so you can program the radio. Nice idea, but who trusts Chinese software?
There is a way to Unlock the radio so that it will work in all 3 modes.
Which 3 modes?
I have a smaller one and no nothing about ham radio and im 100. Percent disabled how come no discount im using mine right now for emergency channels tis radio is unbelieve able and i took the pratice test for ham radio and got 100 on practice test without picking up a book or class and this is not a paid radio or anything it would be nice that people would help me out so i can get the use out of my radio for ham
TIDRadio is really making a push on this new version.
They’re just Steve Jobs fans. “You’re holding it wrong.” Lol😂
"we've solved the burning sensation" is something that on the surface should be a good thing to hear from a manufacturer, but somehow still doesn't leave you feeling good about it...
We'll see what happens when Version 3 arrives I guess!
No pain, no gain😅
Batteries last at least 3 days
That's true
I’m the hands of a hammy
“this charger doesn’t have the black things to keep you from electrocuting yourself if you touch it, i don’t trust it”
me: laughs in north american
Yeah, it's an Aussie thing. We care about safety.
I bought one of those bluetooth programmers, but was turned off by the chinese spy software that you had to use to make it work.
You don't have to use their social features. You can still program your radio without using the social functions.