Midland Ham Radio

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Kent R

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Looks like Midland has re-released their ham radio, has anyone tried it yet?

 
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RoarinRow

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Looks like Midland has re-released their ham radio, has anyone tried it yet?

Love the price and small form factor. So far it has good reviews too.
 

Kent R

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Which Yaesu? Folks being a "Label Snob" I'd bet the Yaesu was deemed "better."
I believe it was the 8800 but I could be wrong, all the buttons and the remote screen were exactly the same. I had the TYT and it worked fine until the screen got a blank spot on it.
 
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DRAX

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I believe it was the 8800 but I could be wrong, all the buttons and the remote screen were exactly the same. I had the TYT and it worked fine until the screen got a blank spot on it.
Not the 8800, doesn't look like any Yaesu I've seen. Also, how dare you. ;)
 

Kent R

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Not the 8800, doesn't look like any Yaesu I've seen. Also, how dare you. ;)
Prerunner figured out my eror :innocent:
 

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The TYT TH-9800 is a copy of the Yaesu FT-8900r.
Prerunner figured out my eror :innocent:
They are similar looking for sure, but the TYT and Yaesu are not the same radio. The control head's physical design is clearly a clone, but that's where it ends. There are some OK Chinese radios out there but a lot are questionable in terms of quality as well as actually meeting FCC regulations due to spurious emissions. If you want to get your feet wet on the cheap I can see how the cheap/knock-off brands are attractive, I've been tempted to pick up a cheap HT just to have as a backup or when out hiking, but I would be hesitant to use one as my primary radio, especially in an area that has a decent amount of radio traffic due to the spurious emissions as has been found to be the case with Baofeng (or whatever their name is now) and other cheap Chinese radios. Just something to keep in mind.

I have a Yaesu FTM-400XDR (duh, it's in my sig) and have been really happy with it, my only complaint isn't about the radio but where I live. I have no Wires-X nodes nearby to play with and can't bring myself to spend the money on a hotspot. I'd rather spend the money on an Icom that has D-STAR or something to play with DMR.

But I digress. That Midland (or the AnyTone) seem like a decent value and I haven't heard many complaints about them.
 

Kent R

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The TYT TH-9800 is a copy of the Yaesu FT-8900r.
I have the Icom 5100 with Dstar and it’s a nice radio
Prerunner figured out my eror :innocent:
They are similar looking for sure, but the TYT and Yaesu are not the same radio. The control head's physical design is clearly a clone, but that's where it ends. There are some OK Chinese radios out there but a lot are questionable in terms of quality as well as actually meeting FCC regulations due to spurious emissions. If you want to get your feet wet on the cheap I can see how the cheap/knock-off brands are attractive, I've been tempted to pick up a cheap HT just to have as a backup or when out hiking, but I would be hesitant to use one as my primary radio, especially in an area that has a decent amount of radio traffic due to the spurious emissions as has been found to be the case with Baofeng (or whatever their name is now) and other cheap Chinese radios. Just something to keep in mind.

I have a Yaesu FTM-400XDR (duh, it's in my sig) and have been really happy with it, my only complaint isn't about the radio but where I live. I have no Wires-X nodes nearby to play with and can't bring myself to spend the money on a hotspot. I'd rather spend the money on an Icom that has D-STAR or something to play with DMR.

But I digress. That Midland (or the AnyTone) seem like a decent value and I haven't heard many complaints about them.
 

Sparksalot

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Looks like Midland has re-released their ham radio, has anyone tried it yet?

I like the display that can rotate. But I saw the price and wondered which Chinese radio they were rebranding.
 

KM4DWS

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I have a Yaesu FTM-400XDR (duh, it's in my sig) and have been really happy with it, my only complaint isn't about the radio but where I live. I have no Wires-X nodes nearby to play with and can't bring myself to spend the money on a hotspot. I'd rather spend the money on an Icom that has D-STAR or something to play with DMR.
Have you looked into Pi-Star? Not sure about the cost to build one but it "Plays" with DMR, D-STAR, and YSF. Have not looked into it enough to know if you can still use your Pi as a normal Pi while not using it as the HotSpot. But my guess would be it would be cheaper than getting a new Radio. Later, when you get that DMR radio you have a DMR hotspot already. And then when you add D-Star you again have a hotspot for it.
 

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I run the anytone. Its ok, it could use a few more dedicated buttons. I have it memorized now, so I CAN use it, but its lacking.
 
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Have you looked into Pi-Star? Not sure about the cost to build one but it "Plays" with DMR, D-STAR, and YSF. Have not looked into it enough to know if you can still use your Pi as a normal Pi while not using it as the HotSpot. But my guess would be it would be cheaper than getting a new Radio. Later, when you get that DMR radio you have a DMR hotspot already. And then when you add D-Star you again have a hotspot for it.
I have and I've also looked into the OpenSpot 3, just can't bring myself to spend the money on those. At least an HT with DMR or D-STAR would fill 2 voids for me, but so far I haven't really felt the urge to pull the trigger. Have other priorities at the moment. :D
 
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Downs

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Looks like a decent enough radio for 150 dollars. I run a Btech UV25X2 in the XJ because of it's size. It's very similar form factor to this Midland/TYT unit, maybe a bit smaller.

Midland's MXT400 GMRS radio is a rebadged/recertified TYT TH9000D. They must have some kind of partnership with whatever factory cranks out TYTs in China.

 

M Rose

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Have you looked into Pi-Star? Not sure about the cost to build one but it "Plays" with DMR, D-STAR, and YSF. Have not looked into it enough to know if you can still use your Pi as a normal Pi while not using it as the HotSpot. But my guess would be it would be cheaper than getting a new Radio. Later, when you get that DMR radio you have a DMR hotspot already. And then when you add D-Star you again have a hotspot for it.
Pi-Star only operates as a hotspot... PiStar wipes out Rasberrian and the hat also seams the pi useless as a pi... swap sd cards and remove the MMMDVM Hat and then you can use it as a pi again... second you have to have a MMMDVM radio (Kenwood, Icom, Yasue, Or DMR) to work with the Pi-Star...