ABBREE AR-8118 GMRS Mobile Radio

Scott Ames

September 29, 2026

The included antenna is worth replacing right away for better SWR.

Great budget-friendly, compact GMRS radio for your truck or home base station. It puts out a solid 20–25W and easily hits repeaters 50 miles out with loud, clear audio reports. Preprogrammed channels and simple menu navigation make setup painless even if you're new to GMRS. It gets warm during transmission, so use the included mounting bracket for decent airflow.

The main downsides are the included antenna (worth replacing right away for good SWR) and an extremely tight antenna port—plugging it in took some real effort before it finally seated. The instruction manual is also pretty useless, though YouTube videos make learning the controls easy. Despite those minor drawbacks, its small size and performance make it a fantastic value that easily outperforms other budget radios in its class.

Good Begginers Mobile Gmrs Radio

Great compact 25w gmrs radio , good for the house, car or even manpack. Easy to use...

Great radio for the price.

Didn't use the antenna. Love the radio. Works great.

Tiny, powerful, and affordable UNLOCKED GMRS Radio

What a great radio! I saw that it was a frequently returned item and I know EXACTLY why. You, pretty much, have to program all of your custom channels in via a computer. It can be done without but the user interface is difficult to navigate. I put this in my 2005 F-150 because I was tired of using my handheld wired to a roof antenna. It was very much a pain to swap from a mobile radio back to a handheld and for the price of this radio, I had to try it out. I'm SUPER Impressed with the performance and range. Im hitting repeaters that I never thought were reachable and in normal simplex operation, I get out pretty far. People are always saying how clear and strong I sound and can't believe when I tell them what I'm running and how little I paid for it. It took me about an hour to mount and since it is tiny, it fit in a little pocket below my HVAC controls. It took me longer to find an ignition switched hot that could handle 4 or so Amps then mounting it. I suggest that if you don't have a 120v to 12v cigarette lighter type power supply, grab one so you can have this powered up inside right next to a computer so you can add all of your custom channels and settings before you mount it for good. It's 1000% easier than doing it in vehicle via the user interface. There's plenty of space for custom channels. The ABBREE software is super easy to use and save your setup incase you accidentally factory reset the unit. I truly LOVE this radio. Also, the fact that it's unlocked is nice so youre not strictly locked to all GMRS. There's a few other things you can do if you're licensed to. Have fun and stay safe!

Capable budget rig + noise cancellation

Nice mini rig for price. With 240 channels, it has noise cancellation (for noisy road trips) and enough power to hit our local repeaters. The audio is clear and adequate through the top-fired internal speaker, but quite good with an external speaker. One oddball feature is the ability to speak into the face of the radio using its front panel PTT or VOX, so you could leave the mic at home if there's a use case for such a scenario. This model doesn't appear among Chirp's supported radios, but the software noted elsewhere in reviews is good enough. The included USB programming cable, with the USB-C port in the back, is less fiddly than the typical CCR. I didn't test the power output, but other reviewers have and it's reportedly between 17 & 27 watts on full power, which is enough for offroading, caravanning and my needs around town.

Gadget

July 18, 2026

GMRS 25W MOBILE RADIO

Yes, using it daily and it works as advertised

Stay clear of these!

So far this has been nothing but a turd. They are a pain to program and every time I key the microphone, the entire radio shuts off and now I’m stuck with three of these wheel chocks.

0:23

Dim display in daylight, need "Hiroyasu IC-980 Pro" SF-8118 programming software. 18w output on GMRS

Just installed this in my wife's car for GMRS. To program it, I needed to locate the programming software for the "Hiroyasu IC-980 Pro" as WIN11 doesn't recognize the radio when connected with the provided (looks like a straight thru, not a "programming cable") USB-C to USB cable, meaning not (yet) CHIRP compatible and the ABBREE programming software was useless (wanted a COM port to connect, when none existed in the COM port options tab).

When connected to the "Hiroyasu IC-980 Pro" programming software, it programmed with no issues.

For GMRS, I was getting 18w output with a Bird meter, which is what I expected for a radio this size and price and is comparative to the Anytone AT-779U/V in performance. The latter being a slightly wider form factor than AR-8118.

The radio's built-in audio speaker was pretty decent for loudness, but can tell it's probably a 3w or 5w at best, because cranking it up the volume to 11, you will hear some audio distortion. For a Ford Explorer that is insulated from the outside noises on a highway, moderate volume settings on this radio is adequate with good sound.

With no antenna connected, I was hearing NOAA weather radio and even a local GMRS repeater (located about 5-7 miles Northeast of me) which says the receiver has decent sensitivity. Just know that the radio comes with the squelch setting at "5" and may want to lower it to 2-3 for better reception of distant stations.

Radio reports were good, "a little tinny" from one report, which is what you hear with most cheap Chinese radios when it's not a Motorola quality microphone. Not a show stopper.

The photos advertised, leads one to believe this has a built-in audio out speaker in the microphone, this is not the case if anyone else had the same conclusion when looking at them. Just the microphone element.

The radio display is pretty, cool, where you can make it only display a single "Frequency mode" and not see an "A and B" selection on the display. It has alpha tagging to name the channel, along with the frequency and (in big bold numbers) the Channel number all displayed. Just now that in daylight, the display is not really bright enough to see from more than 2-3 feet.

For the price, it is a decent little radio for those needing a small form factor due to space available for vehicle installs. 18w for GMRS will get you countywide repeater coverage, if the repeater site is 200 or more feet up. Base to Mobile with the base antenna up 30-50ft, you'll probably get around 10miles line of sight with that amount of power and a 1/4 wave mag mount, which is good for most GMRS users. Anyone looking for a GMRS radio for the Boonies (remote with no repeater coverage) you might want a radio with 40-50w and at least a 1/2 wave antenna, which this is definitely not ideal for remote GMRS simplex.

0:04

Solid build, good clarity, compact

Picked this radio up cause it was a better price than the others ones I looked at. It’s small and compact and it got a nice weight to it. I like how the display looked and the buttons feel solid. Sound wise the speakers is good also. I use it as a mobile radio I can plug it up in my jackery power station. It says 25watts I got somewhere around 21 watts still not a bad value

Great little GMRS radio.

This radio isn't perfect. It has a couple of quirks. It scans slowly. The menu isn't rich. It's a straight forward, simple radio, and sometimes that's a good thing. It's a GMRS radio. Very little needs done to it out of the box.

Audio reports are very good. The handimic seems to be particularly good. The button layout is good, and I like the subchannel select buttons on the top.

The radio is small, very small. It's smaller than the ABBREE AR-m9, which is already a small radio. Small is good. It fits the jeep perfectly.

The programming software has quirks too, and is pretty basic, but the programming cable couldn't be better. The radio uses a simple USB-C data cable. It programs faster than any I've programmed.

It does have other features that make it a little more than a simple GMRS radio.

It is definitely worth the price. I am very happy with it.

You Need A License!!!

YOU NEED A LICENSE TO OPERATE THIS!!! You need a license to operate this two way radio, I repeat this twice because no where in the listing does it say anything about a license, permit, or anything else. This is why I took two stars off because thats important information to know before you buy it. Yes it’s just filling out a form and paying a fee but you already have to pay for the radio I think they should make it clear that an additional license is needed. So the radio itself is very small and will fit easily in most vehicles with a speaker in the handheld walkie that can also be hooked up to an outside speaker which is helpful. It does have all the mounting hardware also which is nice but I haven’t set it up yet because I need to get that license so I’m not sure about the range yet. Once i get it set up and am able to test the range and features I’ll update my review. So overall if you want to use this out of the box make sure you’ve got the license to use it.

Solid Mobile Radio Option

I haven’t had a chance to install and test this unit on the road yet, but my first impressions are very positive. The packaging was excellent. Everything arrived secure and well-protected. The device itself is compact and feels rugged, with a solid build quality that inspires confidence. The transmitter appears powerful and the PTT button has a nice, snappy feel, making it easy to tell when the radio is engaged.

Overall, it’s a very well-constructed piece of equipment with no complaints so far. Based on the quality and design alone, I’d say it’s worth the price. I’m looking forward to getting it installed and seeing how it performs in the field.

GMRS Mobile Radio: Clear Power for Highway or Hiking Comms

As an amateur radio operator, most people might assume I wouldn’t use GMRS. The truth is, I live close to a major interstate where thousands of cars pass in each direction daily. While some drivers may use the 2-meter or 70-centimeter bands, most of the radio activity along the highway happens on GMRS frequencies (and probably CB as well). I already had a GMRS antenna on my SUV and was using a handheld GMRS radio connected to it. This mobile radio is a far better choice. It puts out 25 watts, compared to maybe 4 watts from the handheld. I could hear and be heard much farther right away.

This radio works with GMRS repeaters. I programmed it at home before installing it in my SUV. For most GMRS use—especially while traveling along a roadway where people typically don’t connect to repeaters—you don’t need to do anything extra. It will also talk directly to FRS radios on the same frequencies. For this radio, you need a single FCC GMRS license, which comes with a small fee, covers the whole family, and lasts ten years.

You can do everything from the microphone, and it’s easy to use. Don’t worry about the number inputs—for typical use, you’ll never need them. It covers all 22 channels by default. It features dual PTT, so you can monitor and talk on two channels, switching back and forth easily. It also offers VOX (voice-activated transmission), which is great when traveling in a convoy with others on the same frequency—just talk, and it transmits automatically. When you’re silent, it listens. VOX works best with a headset rather than a hand microphone, but the function is there.

It’s a bit pricey, but it’s a nice-quality radio. I’ve found that with transceivers, you generally get what you pay for, so it’s likely still a good value for most users.

Great value for good clarity and signal strength. Perfect for mounting in cars.

This is a very capable little GMRS radio. Firstly, I should caution (or remind) any potential users that the GMRS frequencies require a license from the FCC to transmit. Thankfully the process is not difficult or expensive. There are no tests to take and no training class to take. You simply sign up for an FCC number and then use that to request a GMRS license and call-sign. The FCC charges a small fee and you are good to go for 10 years. The key things the FCC and radio community care about is keeping language clean (no profanity) and not “hogging” the airwaves. GMRS is the perfect intermediate solution between low-power Walkie talkies and the more serious Ham CB radios (GMRS has far fewer rules than CB does). It generally works in the several mile to 20 mile range depending on terrain and level of other interference.

I have several handheld GMRS radios and a larger 50 watt base station with 20’ aerial. This mobile radio transmits at 25 watts and can be powered directly via a cigarette lighter port in a car - the perfect intermediate level that I was looking for. I paired this with a 6dB gain Motorola antenna with magnetic mount (which sticks onto roof of car) for a good mobile combo. You really want to spend similar amount on the antenna as the radio to get a good combo (if you use a cheap antenna or bad mount no amount of power will get you a good signal).

I tested last night and was able to reach friends (who were on GMRS handhelds) about 10 miles away in a relatively flat suburb. Sound quality was reasonable on incoming signals but I was told my transmission was remarkably clear. I will modify this to a more permanent setup by running the cables discreetly and securely. The small size of this mobile radio makes it easy to install and the hand mic is easy to use. You do need access to the front of the radio to turn it on and off and see which channel is active. This radio is a great value especially compared to some of the large brand names while providing the same power and good signal clarity. Note that this radio is not waterproof so it is meant to be installed inside a car/truck and not on an ATV or such.