GD-77

Just a quick initial review of the GD-77 DMR portable.Radio Feel - The GD-77 feels good to hold. It's not bulky or large. It fits in palm of hand very well.Speaker - The speaker is very loud. This is good for noisy environments such as vehicle or outdoor use. The audiodoesn't get distorted when the volume is turned up.VHF - The analog VHF receiver is very nice. Analog transmissions are clear and easily understood. The receiversensitivity is spot on where it should be. VHF DMR seems to work really well. I've had no issues with DMRheader loss or loss of packets where it shouldn't. Emission decode seems very stable. I only lost decode onceso far compared to another radio but I think it was all environmental where I was located.UHF - UHF band seems to work very good as well. Both analog and DMR is loud and clear with appropriate sensitivity.I have used the radio primarily on UHF DMR. GD-77 seems to receive just as good as my Motorola products.This radio works very well in conjunction with a hotspot device. I receive good audio reports from users on bothamateur and commercial DMR systems.PTT - The PTT button seems to work well. Some of my other portable radios have a touchy PTT button. This is importantfor inadvertent key ups of radio.Battery - The 2200 mAh battery lasts long into day. The charging time is a little more extended than other radios butits not an issue for me. The battery release button is a little tight but once again this is a good feature.I dont have to worry about battery slipping out. The only one concern is the 12V USB charging plug. Youhave to be very careful not to use it on any other applications to avoid damage. The wall adapter mightbenefit from some sort of external marking like a Radiodiity logo or GD-77 logo.Scanning - Radio seems to scan channels fairly quick. I would like to visually see what channel is being received whena signal is heard, especially on double single mode. I'm guessing that these small items will be fixed infuture firmware updates.Promiscuous Mode - This feature is nice so far. I would eventually like to see a firmware update to allow me to seetalkgroup, time slot and radio ID information in promiscuous mode operation.Radio ID - I would like the ability to be able to select different radio ID's on different channels. I could use thisradio at my work if I had the ability to use both commercial and amatuer radio IDs for different channels.Overall this is a very nice radio with lots of useful features. The radio seems to be solid and a good performer on bothanalog and digital modes. There are obviously a very few minor bugs that others have mentioned on Facebook that will beresolved in future firmware updates. I'm impressed so far with the radio. I've shown it to several other potential userswho seems impressed as well. I would not hesitate to recommend this radio to anyone. I would definitely purchase moreof the GD-77. So far though, I really like this radio !!!

Reading many of the reviews here you would assume purchasing this item is risky. Furthermore, I have read countless negative reviews about the firmware, software, et cetera. All I can say is my experience is far from negative. Quite the opposite... I have not been this excited about a sub$100 ham radio item ever... I did update the firmware with the latest version before programming.I am new to DMR, but not new to ham radio. Having said that, the intimidation factor of configuring a DMR radio was high. People seem to complain about the "codeplugs" and the overall difficulty of getting the radios up and running. For the GD77 I recommend watching videos on codeplug creation. The process is painless and much information is available on the web. I can't believe people complain about this stuff. I was literally up and running on a hotspot in less time than it took to watch the whole video.What you get here is a digital, FM, dualband HT. No frills, easy software, works great. Maybe when the radio first hit the market there were a lot of issues, but I literally had 0 problems. From the firmware update to talking on the Brandmiester network everything went smooth. I did have one issue: Updating the radio with the DMR user IDs seems a little useless. The ID list is over 90k people, and the radio holds 10k IDs. Additionally, I received errors with the list I downloaded from DMR-MARC. This could be my fault as I am a newbie....One popular review here complains about RX quality.... Maybe that person got a bad radio, or I got a great one. Mine hears distant repeaters not heard by my FT1D on FM.If you want to get on DMR for cheap... this radio and an MMDVM board on a Pi Zero W is the way to go.I have my GD77 programmed for a HOTSPOT, DMR Repeaters, FM Repeaters, and Simplex Freqs. Works great so far. I am a fan! - KM4MLF