GMRS-50V2

Fifty watts.... Good StartMenu and microphone control buttons fairly easy to understand and navigate if you have programmed a communications before. The book is in English and very helpful. Enough power to talk simplex several miles and can hit several repeaters with an outdoor antenna about twenty five feet high. A taller antenna beats more power. In mobile with a Nagoya magnetic antenna it communicated well with the base. It feels solidly built.

I really like this radio for beginners. simple to operate, works very well.

Purchased radio and Browning 450 UHF antenna. Arrived on time and in good condition. Very well built with metal case. Power cables could be a couple feet longer, but easy enough to splice more wire and extend. Owners manual is clear and not being a radio tech, easy to follow directions. Took a couple of hours to wire and install in my F-150 pick-up. Was able to go on-line and find local GMRS repeaters and add the correct tones to the repeater channels via the hand mic programming. Was able to get a couple of replies back from other GMRS radio operators some 70 miles away (thru a repeater 30 miles away). I live in the Cascade foothills in Washington State near Mt. Rainier. Said the radio was loud and clear. SWR meter showing a strong 56 watts output on high power. I am still learning about all the options available to program. Radio has some great features that I am learning about. As a local CERT team member, this is a great inexpensive radio for communications. Other team members have the older version and are talking about switching up to the new version. All channels are programmable and scan-able for unlimited GMRS repeater entry's and local emergency VHF and UHF frequencies can be entered to scan and monitor. Radio does have the roger beep function, I have seen several reviews that says it doesn't......its a programmable function. Haven't found anything I don't like about the radio. Great little radio!!

This radio has everything you need for GMRS and a few things you don't (remote kill). Overall it's a great, powerful radio. With the right antenna configuration, I can trivially hit repeaters 20-30km+ away with glowing signal reports. If you need a GMRS radio, it doesn't get much better than this. If you're not able to get 40+ watts out of this unit in simplex (i.e. 462mhz) you need to review your feedline and antenna configuration.My main compliant would be the programming. Perhaps, I am spoiled by the BTECH GMRS Pro HT unit where not only can I program the entire radio with a fairly decent Android app via Bluetooth, but that app also captures all audio so I can play back transmissions I receive, among MANY other features like Morse code transcription, switching channel plans, using the phone as the microphone, etc.Sure I can download the source code for some Python app on Linux and wait for my $30 USB to 3.5mm(???) cable to arrive and plug it into my RJ45 to 3.5mm splitter dongle(@_@) and do some programming, but now that I know it's possible to have a modern, wireless programmable device without proprietary cables well, yes that's what I would want.Overall the radio UI is thought out well enough, but there are some... quirks. The is no volume meter. Think about that. When there is no one transmitting, there is no sound. And there is no volume meter. You turn the knob blindly and pray you didn't turn it to mute or turn it to levels which feel like will the case off the unit--screws and all. The manual recommends disabling the squelch (monitor mode) so you can be soothed by CMB radiation while you dial in your desired volume--which you absolutely have to do to in order to change it.The "power" meter bar plastered permanently to the top absolutely useless. I guess it's trying to be some kind of poor-mans SWR meter since it appears to show reflected power back at the transceiver as well. I already know if I'm configured to use low, medium, or high power TX. And I have already measured my VSWR and power with an appropriate meter. What I don't know is the S-unit of transmissions I am receiving. What I want here is an S-meter.The Call button needs to be the Scan button.The backlight never turns off despite being set to 1 second.There are a few cute features, though. I do like the "Star/*" button feature. When monitoring a repeater, you can switch the inputs and outputs with the "*" key to see if you would be able to make contact in simplex mode. Tone scanning could be useful for sure. I do plan on pranking my other unit with remote stun at some point.All in all, a solid radio that performs admirably despite being eclipsed by their own GMRS Pro product in almost every regard except power. However, if BTECH where to incorporate those features (minus APRS of course) into a 50 watt unit like this and clean up some of the UI, I would almost buy it again.

I have owned this radio for over a year. It is fantastic ! I've read many lower reviews and can only state that you have a crap antenna, improper coax or a bunch of inline "adapters" on the coax. One reviewer stated high SWR's and was using an HF meter NOT a UHF meter (what do you expect)?! Another cranked the modulation to 100. Anything above around 2 and you will DISTORT! There are quite a few of us on our local repeater using this radio and ALL of us get around 41 watts on the repeater side and 46-47 watts on SIMPLEX. I also own TWO Wouxan KG-1000G Plus radio's and this one outperforms them. The only difference is the sound quality on the KG's is clearer. If Btech would put a better quality speaker in their units i would recommend them OVER the KG's. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE NAY SAYERS,... this is a GOOD radio for the price point. Just make sure to have "Quality" coax, no adapters and a PROPERLY tuned QUALITY antenna,.. such as a Comet and you'll do just fine !!!!