Radioddity DB25-G GMRS Mobile Radio Long Range Repeater Capable, Quad Watch

This radio is small but works quite well. After purchasing, I tested it out by attaching it to my home base antenna. I was able to reach another radio approximately 5 to 6 miles away. This is a very good range because the person I was contacting was in the next town by the river with multiple obstructions in the way, including large, tall hills. Pros: Size - easy to fit in a small space in my vehicle so it is out of the way and easy to conceal when I am not in the vehicle. Cigarette Port Power Port Plug - You do not have to wire it directly to the battery. It is easy to swap out between different vehicles or bring it inside. Hand Mic Controls Chirp Compatible - Very easy to program. Quad Monitoring - Listen to four different channels or frequencies. (I can listen to local emergency dispatchers.) Weather Channels Cons - I measured the transmitting power at approximately 15 watts, even though it advertises 25 watts. (But I knew this before I purchased it.) Mic - It is not heavy and is kept on a hook. This could allow the mic to come off the hook and bounce around on rough terrain, Overall, I really like the radio. It has good, clear sound, is easy to use, and to program. I purchased this radio for my vehicle because of its size and the quad-monitoring feature. Plus, it is easy to move it from one vehicle to another. I recommend this for anyone who is looking for a low-cost, quality radio.

This is an awesome little radio! Really good sound quality, fairly easy to program, and has some good features. However, it's quite hard to figure out how to manually put in more than one repeater with the same frequency. And after checking the output on 3 different meters it does not put out 25, or even 20 watts of power. The best I've gotten so far is 18. I really wish they would include detailed information about manual input and adding channels. Chirp is great when you're at home with a computer but totally worthless on a mountain trail.

I started off in the GMRS world with a Midland MXT275 (great little starter radio), but it was time for an upgrade. The MXT275 is very quiet when talking to others and it's designed so it's channel numbers only for the frequencies and PL tones. Code book is needed when programming channels. There is no way to assign channel names or input multiple repeater towers running off the same 462.XXXXX frequencies. Not taking anything away from the MXT275, but it's pretty much a plug and play radio set up. The Radioditty DB25-G has a lot of features and gets very high notes from this writer on the ability to customize the radio quite a bit. The mic is very loud according to those that I have talked to on it and the mic gain most certainly needs to be turned down when using. The ability to listen up to four channels at once is very nice under the right circumstances. The speaker on the radio is quite loud and I have no problems listening to it on my base station from a distance. The display can be a bit busy when first using it, but I felt comfortable with it after minimal use. The handset feels very light and cheap but seems to function quite well with the sample that I own. I personally have been impressed enough with the radio that I have bought a second one for me truck. 4 stars due to the semi poorly written manual as well as the lack of detail within the manual. Info needed can be found though with a quick Google search. I personally could not get the native programming software to work on my computer, but I had no problems programming the radio with CHIRP. It's actually quite pleasant to program compared to my Wouxun KG905G (great radio, absolute bear to program with the native software). Overall, I think this is an outstanding budget radio with excellent features that will not break the bank. Some folks may find the handset to be aesthetically a deal breaker, but, I find it very functional and satisfactory. I feel this radio is for the person that has some experience with a bit of technical/ programming knowledge in the radio world and is looking for a good budget option.

I am enjoying using this radio. I like the interface, the size, and the program-ability. It is a good size for a 25 watt radio (tested at 19 watts on UHF). It fits well in my vehicle, and seems to deliver a strong signal. For mobile use, I have paired it with a Tram 1181, which seems to work quite well (SWR around 1.4). I used a Bingfu lip mount for the antenna. Almost everything about the radio itself feels quite solid and well built, however, the mic feels cheap and "plastic-y." The button layout is OK, but I would have preferred the "up" and "down" buttons to be on the top like other mobile radios I have tried. UPDATE: Now supported by Chirp! The programming software is about on par with other terribly written software for these inexpensive Chinese radios. It works, however, the windows are all fixed sizes. Make sure you select the correct com port before reading or writing, because it will hang for a long time. I wish these companies would outsource this work if they don't have the ability to write quality programming software. Oh well, perhaps it will be supported by Chirp some day. Having said that, the very best feature of this radio (and the software) is the ability to program ANY channel with GMRS frequencies, be they simplex or duplex channels. As long as they are GMRS channels, you can receive and transmit. I have not seen any other GMRS radio do this. Split tones are also supported. It has a lot of other features I am not familiar with, but perhaps will figure out over time. Very configurable. I did a range test using this radio connected to an Ed Fong J-pole antenna on my roof (GMRS version). My wife traveled nearly 40 miles to my daughter's house using the DB-20G mobile in her car. For most of that time, we were able to communicate well. There were a few dead spots due to terrain, but at 37 miles we were still talking. We could have continued to talk if I had taught my wife how to use the monitor button. :-) I like this radio a lot. Good: Compact Powerful Configurable Ability to use ALL channels for GMRS simplex or duplex. Split tones Chirp Support Bad: Software quality. Cheap materials for Mic.

Update 3 November 2021 After a bit of trial and error I am navigating through the menus and able to find what I need. Although it is not intuitive some of the labeling in the menus do not make sense at first. You get used to it. The radio works as expected. CPS works consistently but can be so much better. Very basic. Example, you can’t delete a repeater but instead have to reprogram the channel. Support team is checking up on me regularly to make sure all is well and are very helpful. Original review: First the good. Radio is nice and compact, great sound, great bright display. Lots of features and ability to program as many repeaters as there are channels. Programming cable is included. The radio interface buttons is garbage. Monitor button is actually turn squelch off for example. Really?! Radio has ability to listen to all four channels at the same time. Not sure how because the manual, also garbage, does not talk about it. Manual is ridiculous. Does not cover 1/4 of all the radio can do. Then there is the CPS, or programming software. This is also very terrible and cant wait for CHIRP to be able to cover this radio. The downloadable software is easy enough to program repeaters but you cannot delete the repeater channel but you can change it. Has a few bugs and occasionally has comm problem talking to the radio. It also is an archaic 32 bit version and took me to find some windows software to get it to work. Look for it at DB25 radio page on Radioddity. This is this radio amateur cousin. Kudos for responses by the support team. They were very helpful but honestly answers to very question I asked should have been covered in the manual or help file of the software. Look it is a 100 dollar radio. I was expecting some problems. I think over time I will like it. I am to hit a repeater not in line of site at 20 miles away pretty easily. Bought for traveling in the car in particular repeater rich Arizona and seeing if a Base station made sense for my area.. Should work just fine for that purpose.

No, I'm not getting 25 watts out of this radio. My swr/power meter clocks it at 19.5 watts on the high power 462 mhz frequencies and about 17-18 watts on the repeater input channels (467 mhz). I have it hooked up to a TWAYRDIO 5.5 dbi antenna on a nmo 4.3 inch magnet mount. This is magnetically attached to an old desktop computer which is acting as a ground plane and counterpoise and placed in front of a window of my 3rd story apartment. It seems to do really well despite being indoors. I've connected with mobile radios at up to 15 miles in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Not what I'd call open area with lots of hills and mountains in the immediate area. Between the DB25G and the TWAYRDIO antenna, it's doing very well under these circumstances. It picks up very well also, nice clear audio. It transmits incredibly well considering how the antenna is setup on a computer on my window sill. I like the scanning features as well. I have it set to scan all the GMRS/FRS channels which makes it easy to find out where activity is located. The DB25G also receives my local NOAA weather/All Hazards channel as well as local FM broadcast radio. At some future point I will probably add local police, fire/rescue, and air frequencies in my area. I also want to add the local 70 cm repeater output and the 2 meter call frequencies. It has a total of 199 channels minus 30 for the main GMRS channels and 10 NOAA channels which leaves 159 channels for other stuff. To sum up, it's a great radio at a good price for what you get. I would easily recommend this to my friends with no hesitation.

The CPS programming software from Radioddity doesn't work. The installer fails repeatedly to find its files and then the software crashes and won't communicate with the radio. The installer and CPS software are _very_ old and are not compatible with Windows 10 or 11. Support for this radio is, as of this writing, only experimental in CHIRP and CHIRP doesn't currently support changing the Stun, Kill, and Revive DTMF codes. Which means if somebody sends the factory default codes over the air and your radio is on, the radio is disabled until you can send the "revive" codes. The radio itself seems fine, but without the ability to change the factory default codes, it's only a matter of time until somebody bricks it for you...

I bought two of these for my trucks. I put them through some testing with a Surecom SW-102 with a 25w dummy load. With a 13 foot coax that was just the right length from cab to bed and a Nagoya 200C pretuned to GMRS, the SWR was right at 1.2 and power fluctuated between 16 and 18 watts. As with a lot of radios, the wattage they advertise is the potential of the radio. I typically only use this radio to hit the local repeaters to chat with my friends that are 40 miles away. I only use simplex when offroading in a caravan of trucks so the power is not an issue. So long as it's stronger than the 5 to 8 watt GMRS handhelds, I am a happy camper. If you are power hungry, try something in the 50watt range, but be forewarned, it won't hit the full power and won't be much better in regards to "fars". That would pretty much put this radio at 4 stars, but when I brought up my concerns to Radioddity, they have been quick in replying and having a conversation about the radio and what I would like to see. I want them to come out with a 50 watt mobile.

Funciona bastante bien