Much clearer than what I have had in the past and the distance is great.

Much clearer than what I have had in the past and the distance is great.  Read Less

Good but instructions to get started are worthless.

Good but instructions to get started are worthless.  Read Less

Update: chirp-daily-20190718 has the stepping bug fixed for this radio. Chirp now works just fine with this radio.--Confirming ...  Read More

Update: chirp-daily-20190718 has the stepping bug fixed for this radio. Chirp now works just fine with this radio.--Confirming that chirp-daily-20190713 works with this radio I just got today, including enabling the cross band repeat option. Just was able to program the radio and confirm that it works with chirp on my mac. USB cable worked with no effort as well, plug in and just worked.Will update this review as I play with the radio. So far, it seems pretty cool.Edit 1: It took me nearly 48 hours on scan mode to drain the battery. Chirp works bug free as of 20190718 daily build.The radio's squelch is a bit more aggressive than my Baofeng. I adjusted the squelch with chirp. It's much better, the long whip antenna is awesome for recieve. Think I'll get an SWR meter to check, but I think the stubbier rubber duck antenna is better with transmission. I'd love to get a 1.25m antenna and check if opening up that range actually works. But I have read that this radio can do 1.25m, making it a tri-band with cross band repeat. For under 100 bucks, that's a darn impressive couple of features for the price.The instructions. Oof. They read like you'd expect a cheap chinese radio to read. If LED is to be blinking, please to off for time of a moment. Okay, maybe not that bad, but they are hard to read, as poorly translated as they are.Inputting/saving channels on the radio's UI without software is horribly tedious. I love the spin dial up top, but it's still slow trying to type the channel name with.The power seems fine. Zero issues hitting a tall UHF repeater 7 miles away, the UHF club said I was coming in nice and strong, standing in my backyard.It's a cool little radio for sure. It feels good and well-built. It has the power to outdo normal HTs. It's a tri-band with cross band repeater built in. So far, super happy with this radio. I've already recommended it to a number of friends. In my humble opinion, it beats the pants off Baofeng for functionality and just feels/looks like a much more sturdy radio that doesn't feel like a toy with iffy horrible weak mic. This radio has the wattage, features, mic and speaker to be a decent cheap chinese handheld I think any amatuer will enjoy having. It's a handy nice little radio.Biggest gripe I have is the lack of a flashlight (the baofeng UV-82hp spoils me with it when offroading/camping in the woods). But that thing's stock battery is only 1800mA where this is 3600. Needs it for the extra wattage. I would like more control over the scanning and more speed. The radio's user interface is tedious for manual entry, the chirp support works now though. Overall, I'm super impressed and happy with this radio. It's a very nice, powerful and functional radio for the price.I hereby officially give my recommendation to anyone considering this radio. KG5VPE, 73s.  Read Less