Radioddity GD73 Review
I have been looking for an inexpensive portable DMR Radio for quite a while now and came across the Radioddity GD73, this seemed to fit the bill perfectly! You can purchase this radio for £60! This is an absolute bargain! The radio took about 2 weeks to arrive directly from China and was really well packaged. This is a UHF only radio and would work really well with a hotspot and that is how I mainly use the radio, the radio has two power settings 2w high power and 500mw low power, again this is ideal for use with a hotspot as I find the lowest power setting gets into my hotspot without any difficulty whatsoever and the battery lasts for a very long time indeed!
This radioddity GD73 can be charged with a standard micro USB charging cable that can be easily found in most households, this makes it ideal for taking about portable or in the car as you don’t need a special charging dock, you can just plug it in using the supplied cable or any phone charger you have to hand, awesome!
I mainly use this radio with my hotspot and I find it absolutely perfect using it this way, the inbuilt antenna is part of the radio so there are no worries about the possibility of it getting broken whilst it is in your pocket for example, unfortunately you cannot import the DMR database into this radio so when calls come through you will see the DMR id and not the name of the person for example, this is not a bad compromise as the radio is very affordable and you can get by without it.
This radio is really new to the market and there has already been two firmware updates! This is a really good sign of the commitment that Radioddity are showing to this radio and I’m happy to see it, I found it really easy to update and the instructions were easy to follow, of course all firmware updates are completely free and so is the programming software! This is fantastic and the fact that a standard USB cable works for charging, firmware updates and programming is amazing! All radio’s should be done this way!
In the box.
The radio comes with a 2600Mah battery, with a separate belt clip. We also have a high quality Micro USB cable that doubles as charging cable and the programming cable, awesome work Radioddity! Also a very well written user manual, the best I have read from a Chinese manufacturer! We also have a nice earpiece with PTT built in and an 18 month warranty card! All in all I am very impressed with the packaging and included equipment especially for the price! Did I mention this radio is only £60! WOW!
A look around the outside of the radio.
This is a really small form factor DMR radio measuring in at (115mm x 50mm x 32mm) and weighing in at 148g, the build quality is quite good for the price and is made from a hard plastic that seems quite durable, we have the speaker at the top of the radio, this is a very nice speaker indeed and you will not struggle to hear this I can assure you. We then have the small LCD display that is very easy to read and nice and bright, the backlight can also be set to turn off at different times including being set to be continuously on, this is a nice feature and allows the display to be easier to see and does not affect the battery life much. Under the display we have 6 buttons including a menu, escape key and P1 & P2 keys with an up and down arrow keys too. These are made from plastic and are quite nice to press and tactile.
On the left hand side of the radio we have the plastic PTT button and torch light button. On the right hand side of the radio we have the volume up and down keys and the power on/off button. The top of the radio has the non removable antenna and torch and also the earpiece socket.
Using it with my hotspot.
Like I said earlier the best way in my opinion to use this radio is with a hotpot! Its super portable and rugged, easy to carry and can be charged very easily by any micro USB cable you have lying around, I use mine with my home build MMDVM hotspot and although BER is slightly high it can still be fine tuned and used around my whole house on the lowest power setting, really nice!
Here are some of the technical specs..
General
Frequency range: GD-73A: 406.1-470MHz | GD-73E: PMR
Number of channels: 1024 (in 64 zones of 16 channels each)
Channel spacing: 12.5kHz （Digital Mode）| 25 KHz/12.5 KHz (Analog Mode)
Operating voltage: DC 3.6V
Battery capacity: 2600mAh standard Li-Ion
Working temperature range: -30℃~+60℃
Storage temperature range: -40℃~+85℃
Antenna impedance: 50Ω
Audio output power: ≤1W @16Ω
Dimensions (H*W*D): 115mm* 50mm * 32mm
Weight: 148g
Transmitter
RF output power: GD-73A: ≤2W | GD-73E: ≤500mW
Frequency stability: ±1.0ppm
Adjacent channel spurious: ≤60dB
Free Time Slot Power: TDMA ≤ -57dBm
Hum and Noise: -40dB@12.5kHz
Spurious Radiation: Antenna 9kHz – 1GHz ≤-36dBm | 1GHz – 12.75GHz ≤-30dBm
FM-Modulation: 12.5kHz: 11K0F3E
4FSK Digital Mode: 12.5kHz (data only): 7K60FXD | 12.5kHz (data + voice): 7K60FXE
Modulation Maximum Deviation: 2.5kHz@12.5kHz
Nonactive Slot Power: ≤ -57dBm
Digital Protocol ETSI TS 102 361-1 -2 -3
Vocoder Type: AMBE+2TM
Audio Response: +1dB~-3dB
Modulation BER (Bit Error Rate): ≤5%
Receiver
Analog sensitivity: 0.35µV/-116dBm (20dB SINAD) | 0.22µV/-120dBm (Typical)
Digital sensitivity 0.3µV/-117.4dBm (BER 1%) | 0.22µV/-110dBm (BER 5%)
Co-channel rejection: ≥-12dB
Adjacent Channel Selectivity: TIA603C: 65dB | ETSI: 60dB
Spurious Response: TIA603C: 75dB | ETSI: 70dB
Audio output power: 1W
Audio response: 1dB~-3dB
Rated Audio Distortion: 3% (Typical)
Spurious Radiation: Antenna: 9kHz – 1GHz ≤-57dBm | 1GHz – 12.75GHz ≤-47dBm
My conclusion.
I really like this Radioddity GD73 DMR UHF radio, it’s really inexpensive and really well made, I feel that this would last for many years to come, paired with the fact that radioddity are updating the radio regularly makes it a radio that you can rest assured will get even better with time. The speaker is really nice and loud and the display easy to read, easy to program and even easier to charge this radio is a fantastic buy and cannot recommend it highly enough! Go and buy one!
You can purchase the radio by clicking on the logo below.
