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Reviews For: Radioddity TYT GD-55 MD-398 DMR HT

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : Radioddity TYT GD-55 MD-398 DMR HT
Reviews: 3MSRP: $120.00
Description:
Radioddity GD-55 UHF Waterproof DMR Digital Radio, with GPS
Function! 10W with 2800mAh Lithium Polymer (Li-Po) Battery
Product is in production
More Info: http://qrznow.com/radioddity-gd-55-uhf-waterproof-dmr-digital-radio-with-gps-function-10w-with-2800mah-lithium-polymer-li-po-battery/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0031
KC2ZKI Rating: 2017-03-29
Single Time Slot DMR radio not for ham radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've enjoyed many cheap radios from the now famous $35 Baofeng UV-5R to the $12.50 Baofeng 888S. The Radioddity GD-55 is the worst radio I've owned to date. The RX on this radio is terrible. One word of caution....its a single time slot radio rendering it useless for ham.

Save your money on this one.
UT7UX Rating: 2017-01-08
Beware! This is NOT the MD-390! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
While it looks like the popular MD-390, this radio is NOT from that family. It looks pretty reliant with its water and dust protection. But:
- it’s CPS has no TS2 option (look for C:\Program Files (x86)\GD-55\Comb_en-US.xml and change to to enable)
- it receives worse than MD-380/MD-390 (FM&TDMA); I was told by a friend that there is RDA1846 inside but cannot confirm
- it receives both timeslots simultaneously
- and finally: it transmits both timeslots simultaneously regardless codeplug, causing huge QRM to other timeslot operators and probably causing collision on a relay while attempting access to tame talkgroup on both timeslots simultaneously (just look at Brandmeister’s Last Heard)
Of course this radio is not supported by community. However you may use it with DV4mini.

So there is no sense to buy it all: bad receiver and pretty useless in digital. For almost same price you can buy popular MD-380 or MD-390. Sure, they are far from perfection but they really shine for the price and have huge support from community.
W1ZZK Rating: 2016-10-19
Single Time Slot DMR radio not for ham radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Radioddity GD-55 is a private branded, identical TYT MD-398.

I ordered this radio from Radioddity on Sept. 17, 2016 and got it Sept. 26, 2016. Fast shipping from Hong Kong.

The Good: The radio is a very nice piece of hardware.

The bad: When I received my radio I found it could not be configured without a programming cable that wasn't even available. You can't enter the DMR Radio ID or 70 cm analog PL tones without the proprietary programming cable. Radioddity didn't have programming cables because they thought it was the same as a TYT MD-380/390. It's NOT and it's not compatible with any other radio. It's October 19, 2016 and I still don't have a programming cable but am told one is finally on the way. We'll see.

The ugly: This radio is a single Time Slot radio! No support for TS2, as confirmed to me by TYT and Radioddity. The radio will not support Time Slot 2 on ham radio DMR repeaters. TS2 is where the State/Local traffic is. Both companies indicate they don't care about the lack of TS2 support and suggest buying a two slot radio if that's what I need. Too late, I have this radio with a single slot.

This radio is very nice, appears to be commercial quality hardware. The device is fatally flaw by the lack of Time Slot 2 support. The only reason I didn't give it a 0 is because of the nice, but useless, quality hardware. TYT failed in this design and Radioddity failed by selling it.

Do not buy this radio if you are a ham radio operator and need support for both time slots.