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Reviews For: TID TD-9800

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

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Review Summary For : TID TD-9800
Reviews: 2MSRP: 180
Description:
DMR MOTOTRBO compatible UHF Handheld Transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://https://www.amazon.com/TID-Industrial-TD-9800-Military-walkie-talkie/dp/B01JU3TWG0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477923583&sr=8-1&keywords=tid+dmr
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024
KC6AGL Rating: 2017-02-26
TID TD 9800 BEST Commercial grade DMR Radio on the Market Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is the best valued all around DMR commercial grade radio on the market. It is used by local governments all around the world. It is great for commercial, business, private, government and mountaineering use. It is highly reliable and it can be used in harsh, cold and wet environments. The OLED display is viewable 175 degrees, It supports all DMR MARC contacts 50000+ contacts which can be loaded into the radio with free included CPS software, the radio comes with programming cable. I highly recommend this radio for any 2-way radio application use.
WB2JBS Rating: 2016-10-31
Great upgrade from entry level DMR radios Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently saw an ad for the TERA TR-7400 and instantly fell in love with it. But it was priced higher than what I was willing to pay for it. Knowing that it was made in China, I quickly looked for the OEM manufacturer and came across the TD-9800 which was selling for a $110 less than the TERA and included the programming cable. They looked exactly alike. Well, after programming the ‘9800, I quickly discovered there are some major differences. The hardware is exactly the same but the firmware and the programming software (CPS) are different and not interchangeable. If I had to rate the TD-9800 for what they’re advertising it to be, it deserves a 5+. If you need a reliable, DMR radio for business applications and can’t afford Motorola or Hytera prices, the TD-9800 is a good alternative. However, for a Ham Radio DMR portable, I’m deducting two stars. Yes, the build quality is even better than my Tytera MD-390. It’s not quite as good as a Motorola or Hytera but it feels great in the hand and has plenty of audio punch, even in a noisy environment. So, what’s missing? Well, to begin with, basically all the features TERA added in their firmware upgrade. For example, there is no way to download the entire DMR user database to the TD-9800 like one can with the TERA TR-7400. This means that DMR IDs have to be tediously added manually one at a time and are limited in the amount of entries. 3rd party software like N0GSG’s ‘DMR Contact Manager’ don’t support the TID- TD-9800. A number of features shown in the software simply don’t work. For example, vibrate, record and Bluetooth.
DTMF tones don’t work at all which makes this radio useless for accessing my AllStar and Echolink nodes remotely in analog mode. There is virtually no manufacturer support for the TD-9800. There is no reference to the model on the TID website, which by the way looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2011. I’ve ordered the spare battery via Amazon but other accessories for this radio are hard to come by unless you pay a premium price and order via Powerwerx.
In summary, here are the radio’s pluses and minuses:
Pros:
+Solid build quality, compact design, feels great in the hand, MIL-STD rating
+Bright OLED, high contrast display
+Programmable man-down button (I set mine to switch between Zones)
+Voice feedback on channel number (1-16)
+Loud audio output, especially in analog mode
+Adjustable MIC gain on TX (missing from TYT radios)
+Adjustable tones and levels for virtually every setting - nice touch!
+Programming cable and software (download link) included with the radio
+2500mAh battery exceeds what capacity most Chinese manufacturers are offering
+Reasonably priced for business and industrial applications
Cons:
-Better suited for commercial applications than Ham Radio use
-No DTMF support (deal breaker for most Hams who use Echolink and AllStar)
-No online help on CPS, some features not supported
-No GPS or Bluetooth support (Tytera MD-390G has GPS for less money)
-2nd, high-gain antenna not included in package (Tytera includes it)
-Obscure brand, virtually no company or online community support
-Limited choice of 3rd party accessories ($50 speaker/mic available via Powerwerx)

Bottom line:
If you’re a Ham Radio operator coming from an entry level DMR radio like a Connect Systems CS-750, TYT MD-380/390 or a Retivis RT3 and looking for something more robust, you may want to consider the TID-9800. That is, if you can overlook some of the radio's shortcomings mentioned above. If TID would upgrade the firmware and CPS to support the same features found on the TERA TR-7400, this radio would be a perfect 5!