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 very much! Greatly appreciate the view and comment! 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!

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!.

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?

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

Thank you for watching and dropping a comment! 73!!

Excellent point!! Thank you!

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

LOL, yes very convenient! To be fair, they are physically different lengths, but very confusing anyway! Thanks for watching!!

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.

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!

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

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

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! Appreciate the view and comment! 73s

Good idea! I've thought about this a few times. I have several Yaesu radios that I could show.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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!

it picks but how gvd i dunno.

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"

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.

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 !

LOL! Dang I forgot! ;-)

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

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.

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. :)

WOW! That IS a great price!

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 👍

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. :-)

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

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!

Their latest firmware allows the radio to go down as low as 18 MHz in VFO mode. Thanks for watching! 73

Yes, the ANTENNA is SMA Female, the radio is SMA Male. :)

Um…

Oh man now that you bring it up..😮 uhh umm..

Drinking game for every uhh and um...😮..

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 😝

chinese products are decent although china's imperialism/fascism is the problem.