8 Watt TD-H8 GMRS Radio Handheld (2nd Gen) with Bluetooth Programming, Repeater Capable, NOAA, 5 Watt Long Range Two Way Radios Walkie Talkies with 771 GMRS Antenna, 2500mAh Rechargeable Battery

Great radio! As an amateur operator I was looking for something a bit better than a UV-5R, but that still was affordable. I'm very happy with this radio. Here is a brief comparison as I own both the TD-H8 and several UV-5Rs. In my opinion (just opinions, I haven't performed tests with instrumentation): This radio has MUCH better receive filtering. The sound is better, and you can hear weak signals better. The transmit is better - I can hit my local UHF repeater MUCH better with this radio (and the included long antenna) than I can from a UV-5R and its long antenna.The menu system is very easy and much like that of a UV-5R. It does have a few features like mic gain, that the UV does not. Of course, the Bluetooth is really great and works with no issues on my iPhone 15.The screen on this radio is fantastic as well. Battery life also seems good!Downsides:1. The manual that comes with the radio isn't "great". As is frequently the case with these import radios. But you shouldn't have problems getting up and running.2. The radio doesn't seem to currently support the use of CHIRP programming software. It does have its own software (phone app) that is pretty easy to use. Easier still, you can use their website -- which is pretty "CHIRP-like" and then that will automatically sync down to your phone. Once on your phone, you can push it via Bluetooth to your radio.2a. I will say you can import a CHIRP file on their website and then save that to your radio. I tried this and it wasn't perfect. It was failing on one of the import lines and the error message was useless at telling me which line was a problem. I ended up importing the file one line at a time until I found the bad line. Once I corrected that it imported. However, it marked every channel to narrow FM. Not sure why... So they have some kinks to work out on the CHIRP import.3. The manual says you have to disconnect the battery from the radio (or turn the radio off) to charge it. This isn't ideal in some situations but isn't a huge problem as they provide two batteries. So, you can be charging one and using one.I have not yet tried this radio with my digirig lite, and will provide an update if I have issues.

These are solid, modern GMRS radios. They have the ability to pump out 10w, which is handy to push the signal when there’s a lot of obstructions. I like the fact that they offer an easy app to customize program the radios, though, they come preprogrammed with all the standard GMRS channels and the NOAA weather channels. Batter capacity is 2500mw, so plenty of battery there. They also use USB-C for charging.I chose these over the TD-H3 as my first GMRS radios because of the 10w power output. They have worked very well for me.I’m very happy with these radios. I now have 3 available for my family to use.

Advertised as an 8-watt radio, but I don't believe that is true. More like 5-watt. But, I knew this prior to purchase. The radio is well-reviewed on YouTube. I like the Bluetooth programming feature, even though I haven't actually used it, yet. My primary motivation for purchase was to get a HT with a removable antenna so I can run it mobile in my car, with an external antenna. I have some Motorola FRS/GMRS radios, but going car-to-car without an external antenna is less than ideal, compromising distance of signal. This feels like a robust, well-built radio, for it's market level.

I bought this radio as GMRS before I knew it would switch to Ham Radio (or open radio).It only does 5 watts in GMRS mode, but in open mode, it will do more than 10watts on GMRS. In Ham mode, the power seems to range from about 9-11+ watts depending on the frequency.It is a good radio. I especially like the option to program it from my phone via blue tooth.But, it has one drawback. When testing the radio against one of my local ham repeaters, it does not appear to get in as clearly as my Anytone 878. The 878 only does about 6-7 watts, but it gets in more clearly than the TIDRadio.That's a little bothersome. I swapped antennas between the two radios so I have a fair comparison. The rubber duck came with the TID GMRS radio. The other antenna is the Airtron 3 band antenna for 2m, 1 1/4m, and 70cm bands. With the rubber duck, the H8 needs full power to be full quieting. The 878 gets in full quieting on medium power. With the Airtron, the 878 is full quieting on low power, but the H8 need to have full power.This is troubling because the H8 actually shows a higher output.That being said, the H8 has a lot going for it, for which I really love the radio.It can be programmed on my Android phone. It can be programmed by chirp. I found it convenient to save my 878 channels in to a CSV file for reference. Then, use the BlueTooth software to add the first five channels as 1 simplex 2m, 1 simplex 70cm, 1 2 meter repeater with a negative offset, 1 2 meter repeater with a positive offset (one of these two without a tone, the other with a tone), and 1 7cm repeater with a 5Mhz positive offset.After manually entering these five, upload them to the radio and use Chirp to download the radio into the computer. Use Chirp to create a CSV file. Use that file as the master and copy all the corresponding columns from the CSV file of the 878 to the H8 spreadsheet. Save it as a CSV and upload it to Chirp and upload that to the H8. Finally, upload it to the phone and save the data.When I did that with 48 frequencies, I found 4 of them did not upload properly, so I just manually added them to the radio and downloaded it to the phone, and to Chirp on the laptop.To me, everything is the best of the best about this radio... except that it is scratchy into the repeater when my other radio is full quieting at lower power. I just don't understand that part.I found for just a few dollars more, during Black Friday, I can get the ham version, with an extra battery and speaker mic, as well as the ham versions of the antennas for only about $12 more. So, I'm planning to return this version and order the ham version with the ham specific antennas.Because my 878 does everything this radio does, except go into part 95 mode for GMRS, I'm thinking of using it instead. It's a much more expensive radio engineered for a completely different purpose than the H8, so it's a completely different category. Again, it comes to that signal quality issue getting into the local repeater. (I'm only 3 miles in a crow's flight away.)I still feel like the H8 is the best bang for your money if you need either a ham or GMRS radio, and more so if you are a ham or working to get your license and use GMRS. You can convert it and keep using the same radio.Having the programming on the phone is almost enough reason for me to hold on to it as well. That function, alone, makes it worth the cost to me.Regardless of my mystery scratchiness with the repeater, I would still highly, and I do mean, highly recommend the purchase of this radio over any other budget GMRS or ham HT. If you do DMR, Fusion or D-Star, you need a more specialized HT. Otherwise, this radio knocks the socks off any other HT under $100.I would love to see a DMR version of this radio. That would be interesting, indeed.I don't think you will go wrong buying this radio for GMRS and/or Ham radio. Get the ham version if you want the ham specific antennas, and GMRS if you need the GMRS antenna. Or you could get the ham version and buy an additional Negoya 771GMRS antenna.The radio is the same, whether it is GMRS or ham version, it is only the sticker pointing out the GMRS and antennas that make one version different from the other.If you just want a GMRS radio, or an affordable Ham radio, this is, in my opinion, the best budget radio to get.BTW, i've owned 8 Baofeng radios and all of them died within the year. Others have had better results, and I know many other hams who have had the same results. It is well worth the difference to get a more quality HT, not to mention, if you get it for GMRS, to be fully legal.With the Negoya, the