M1bto Nick Chichester uk

[M1bto]

Hello , will be picking your brains soon .
Bought a cheapo dr180uv
Works well on the hotspot .
Wanted to scan dmr radio as there is a lot near me , thinking a decent radio might be in order?.

[VK3KYY]

Hello , will be picking your brains soon .
Bought a cheapo dr180uv
Works well on the hotspot .
Wanted to scan dmr radio as there is a lot near me , thinking a decent radio might be in order?.

The DR1801 is not supported by the OpenGD77 firmware

Supported Baofeng radios are the now discontinued DM-1801 and RD-5R.
And the DM-1701 which is still in production

All other radios use different chipsets

[M1bto]

Many thanks, I’ll have another look and see what’s what on the bay of plenty.

[VK3KYY]

You can also still buy the TYT MD UV380 and MD UV390 and the Retevis, which are all basically the same radio

[M1bto]

Many thank any opinions on which is the better radio?.

[VK3KYY]

Many thank any opinions on which is the better radio?.

Kinda dependa

DM-1701 is by far the cheapest, but the screen currently has some clipping because the plastic overlaps a few mm over the edge of the display.
Also the DM-1701 does not have a GPS option, and its non-trivial to attemp to retro fit a GPS to this radio.


The next cheapest option used to be the Retevis RT-3S, which is a rebranded TYT MD-UV380, but these now seem more expensive than buying the UV380

UV380 now seems to be sold as the UV380Plus, possibly becuase they put a better GPS receiver in it, there don't seem to be any other hardware differences

UV390 is the waterproof UV380

Its possible to retro-fit a GPS to the UV380 becuase it has space for a GPS receiver and space for its antenna.


You need to look around and find the prices for all of these in your locality

[G4EML]

Martin Lynch (hamradio.co.uk) has the MDUV380 (without GPS) for £74.99 at the moment. Much cheaper than you can get them on Ebay etc.

Colin G4EML

[M1bto]

Many thanks

[M1bto]

Many thanks Colin just ordered one , hopefully I won’t brick it with new firmware.

[VK3KYY]

Many thanks Colin just ordered one , hopefully I won’t brick it with new firmware.

AFIK, no one has every bricked their UV380 / 390 / RT3S while loading the firmware.