GME TX677TP

Early days but not looking good – 12 month update: I dont use these anymore - i have had a unit installed in the car with a decent antenna and it works very well. I get at least 5kms out of it, so much better than the hand held models. If you want them for just giving to the kids to play with or so you can contact them, great. But dont expect to be listening to the goings on… Read more

around the highways and biways, these wont do it.

I bought these two radios after watching a video showing how good they were. In the video a chap was using one in the scrub on his property, testing them with his wife back in the house, starting at 1km, progressively moving out to 10km.

In the video, even at 10km the two of them could communicate across hilly and wooded land. I am wondering if they used two handheld radios, or whether the wife had some kind of raised antenna (not just the little one on the handheld unit). Here's why....

I first checked that I was on high power (2W not 0.5W). Then I just did a quick check that they actually worked by going into the backyard and trying them - they worked fine over a distance of about 20 meters. Then I hopped in the car and headed off down the street - we are not living in the open country, but in the suburbs, which may have impacted the test. Anyway, from distance of about 400 meters as the crow flies, they worked okay, but I could hear a little static coming in. I then drove off to a location about 1.3kms away, a little over 10% of the stated range. We could not hear each other at all! Not even faintly over a lot of static, nada... Okay, there were houses and some trees between the two of us, but the ground was flat so I would have expected to be able to hear each other.

I then moved to a different location, with fewer houses in between us, and only 670 meters away. We could hear each other, mostly, but the static was very bad, and hearing every word was a challenge. The radios were very clear at about 250 meters, but once the distance got past 500M the static increased significantly.

I understand how radios work. I understand LOS. I dont believe these radios are as good as some people have suggested. Or perhaps you need perfect conditions - be on top of hills that are 10kms apart with nothing but a valley in the middle. So why did I give them 3 stars. Well, they are not super expensive, they do work okay under 1km, really well under 500 meters, and for many people this will be sufficient. Using them in theme parks, or caravan parks, or for just being able to communicate with someone when reversing a caravan, would be where they come into their own. They have more features than this type of use would need, but you could also have them in your car if you dont have a larger unit installed. They would be fine chatting to truckies as they come up behind you or are in front of you. But if you are going to use them for anything else, maybe pay more money and get something more powerful. I was going to get a 5W model, but they cost twice as much as these two did, and I dont really need that level of power for my purposes. But if you do, that would be the way to go.

I have only had them for a few weeks and havent really used them much beyond the test. I will update this review if I find out that they work better out in the wilderness than they do in suburbia.

UPDATE

used them on a trip to Dubbo, and I havent changed my opinion at all. On the road, on flat mostly treeless ground, these radios would have been lucky to reach past a couple of kms at best. There were a lot of trucks moving wide loads so there was a lot of chatter. I could just pick it up between 1-2 kms, but the reception was very poor. Under 1km the reception was okay, so they are still good for chatting to people within that range, but anything greater and you will struggle. For that you will need to get the 5Watt models...