BTECH GMRS-PRO 5W Long-Range GMRS Radio – IP67 Waterproof, Bluetooth VOX, GPS, Texting, NOAA, Compass, Dual-Band Scanner, Off-Grid Location Sharing, Two-Way Walkie Talkie

Holy toledo this radio has so many features. Coupling it with a cell phone completely opens up the doors to some amazing capabilities. This is approaching digital modes for some of the features it has. First off, just using the cell phone to program the radio and share configurations is probably worth the higher price than you get for similar performance with other radios, which are most easily programmed with a computer. Second, the added features that having that cell phone connect bring opens GMRS up to some really cool uses. Texting is a breeze. It is very easy to switch channels. You leave it running and it logs all the traffic. Your saved contact names are on the list so it is easy to review the saved received traffic and you can easily pick out and listen to traffic that you want to hear. For instance, my dad is "Boomer". Each one of his broadcasts has that name attached to it. If he wants to share his location (radio has GPS), he just sends it and it shows up on the map on my cell phone. It will scan for tones, code and decode morse code and a bunch of other random stuff. I just remembered that you can send a channel group by text. I did that for my dad when I had set up a few local repeaters and all I had to do was send him a text and it popped right onto the radio. My dad is super old. I had him get this radio and he can work it just fine. There is no other GMRS radio like this on the market right now at even close to this price. I'm looking forward to them putting out a mobile unit with similar features and I'm going to set it up at home for a base. As far as performance goes, I was able to hit a repeater about 20 miles away that I don't have line-of-sight to, and my signal was reported to be quite clear. Reception was also very clear. I had a chat with someone who was 30+ miles away. I definitely upgraded the antenna. That is a must. For pure performance, there are better radios out there, I'm sure. But for good performance with features that have raised the bar considerably, this radio is the one to get (with a Nagoya 771g). Its features put it in a class of its own. Garmin Rhino has a few more features for 4x the price and probably works a little better, but I don't know. Btech has priced this right and it is the radio to get unless you have a lot of money to spare or are just looking to have cheap point to point comms, like for kids to play with. For cheap GMRS comms Baofeng just released a Part 95 compliant UV-5R that go for about $25 each. For kids to play with I'd just get them a bubble wrap FRS radio. My battery failed after about 3 months and the replacement was pretty easy to arrange and took about 10 days. No complaints there.

I don't see many radios there HAM enthusiasts all just rave about it. There never seems to be a radio that makes everyone happy and does everything they want. This radio isn't that either, but it IS a great radio for beginner to moderate users. I love the Bluetooth options, and the painting/programming you can do using the app. Additionally, I like that the firmware can be updated regularly and that the company supports updates. Not just updates that happen every few years like other radio manufacturers, but actual updates that happen frequently and expand on or improve the radio and functionality. My first radio had bugs that were never fixed over the several years I owned and used them. This radio had a bug and it was fixed in a month. I love that. Battery life is pretty good, the radio looks clean and professional, you can adjust the sounds and noise the radio makes. Audio is clear and crisp for me in the conditions I was using it, the range and power are also on the higher end of performance and distance and quality based on the conditions I was testing. And for what you get, the value in what you pay is there too. No one wants to buy a super expensive radio as their first radio as they step into the nature radio genre. They also don't want a cheap radio that won't perform and is low quality. This radio hits the mark ... That sweet spot between quality, affordability and performance. I hope this helps.

Hands down the best GMRS radio for someone who needs a serious reliable radio and values a very user friendly way to manage programming it (compared to anything else on the market). Also best GMRS radio for enthusiasts given it’s full feature set for those who want to tinker. It not the smallest or lightest GMRS radio but it’s not too heavy or bulky either. This isn’t your typical camping radio (a smaller much more simple unit would be better) it’s built for business or enthusiasts or those who have a specific want/need to communicate using Bluetooth accessories (motorcyclists for example). It’s waterproof features make it extremely durable. Throw it around, leave it outside and it’ll keep working. You’re paying for that durability. Range test in a dense suburban area yielded 1.5 miles on high power between two of these units. The text and GPS features are not worth the price alone. The app doesn’t alert you via iOS notifications if you get a text - you have to check the radio or the app proactively. In addition you can only text with someone who has the same radio. The location feature is nice though. This all said these features are a nice bonus if everyone in your party has this same radio. All in all, even without the text and GPS features this radio is all one could desire at this time, given what else is on the market. I only wish they made a HAM version of this radio because, we’ll, why not. They just need to unlock the frequencies and if they did it would be one of the best HAM radios in the price range for sure.

I would show you a picture but I'm charging my battery right now but I didn't realize I had a lot of reviews to get caught up on so I'm just going to write a review and see if this radio is very awesome. Worth the money. Just be patient in trying to learn the radio. App is a lot easier to figure out but you'll get there it's awesome you can pick up people from anywhere but just make damn well sure you got an FCC license because they're monitored and stuff and and you need a GMRS license for this it's free on that free you got to pay like 35 bucks but you don't have to you don't have to go through a course or something like that like you do with a regular FCC license for ham radios so it's real easy to get a license for it and then just talk away it's very fun to use I'm so waiting for my license so I'm just listening at the moment but I pick up people from all over