Retevis RT3S Dual Band DMR Handheld Radio

No Support For Windows 11 or Mac OS. BATTERY EXPLODES AND CATCHES ON FIRE

Update. BE SUPER CARFUL. BATTERY EXPLODES.

to original post below. Yesterday I wanted to add a belt clip to the battery, (some effed up engineering design where the clip screws to the battery and not the radio), the battery started to smoke and exploded, I dropped it on the floor and smoke filled the entire room where me and my wife were and the battery caught on fire with flame and turned orange like a well lit charcoal. I immediately threw a towel over to put out the flame and used a reacher clamp and into kitchen sink while it is still smoking heavily and opened the water on it, (photos attached). AND NO I DID NOT CAUSE A SHORT. THE SCREW THAT SCREWS THE BELT CLIP MUST HAVE PENETRATED THE BACK OF THE BATTERY AND CAUSED THE DARN THING TO EXPLODE.

******* STAY AWAY AND BE CARFUL, BATTERY CAN EXPLODE EASILY *******

Original post below.

- - - - - - - - -

As much as I wanted to give this radio good rating, I just can’t. The manufacturer does not even provide a Windows 11 driver for the programming cable rendering the radio good for only analog use. What a waste of money. Get your self a radio from another brand that provides driver to program the radio.

Hands down my favorite ham radio - Once upgraded with OpenGD77 firmware

This is my favorite HT when upgraded with OpenGD77 firmware - even if you don't use DRM function. The OpenGD77 firmware was written for hams by hams. It adds APRS FM transmit so I can play around with APRS and send beacons. It has a satellite prediction function to tell me when satellites will pass over my location. Everything you could ever want is configurable - you can for example download different "themes" to change the colors of all the UI elements. You can do things like configure the radio to start scanning as soon as its turned on. You can press a button while scanning to flag nuisance channels if you want to temporarily skip something. New firmware versions come out ever other week it seems adding new features!

One issue I ran into is that newer versions of the radio seem to have FAR better GPS sensitivity according to various reports online. This is helpful for the satellite pass predictor tool and APRS. See Photo

4 Stars but I am buying a second one.

I tried to read the manual but boy was it difficult to understand the English there! After 30 mins of fiddling, I went ahead and flashed this thing with OpenGD77 firmware and boy, this thing is now a ham radio! I was able to set the rig up to listen to a local DMR repeater by just using the keypad alone. No programming cable and computer! Talk about easy of use? LOL! The battery life sucks. There is no way this thing can do standby for as long as Retevis advertised. How about try getting past 2 days first? LOL! 2000mAH battery is too tiny. Keeping it in the charging stand will do charging and powering the rig at the same time.

Overall, the battery life deserve a 1 star deduction. In conclusion, the RT3S is a great value buy.

The pros list: It's Dual band, fairly solidly build, low cost, analog + digital, and OpenGD77 compatible (more on this later).

The cons list: battery life sucks, documentation sucks, user interface sucks, ease of use sucks (with stocked firmware).

I don't use any of its stocked feature from the original firmware, but once it is running with OpenGD77, it's a beast! So to me, this is a BUY!

I heard that the latest batch of this rig are not compatible with OpenGD77. Flashing the firmware is not for the faint of hearts so buyers beware! **I am getting a second RT3S even I didn't give it 5 stars!** Grab one now before the old batch is gone!

Retevis RT3S works great!

I was able to easily flash the radio with OpenGD77 firmware. Works like a ham radio now. Make sure your rig’s serial number has a date code of early 2022 not 122022 and get the rig with GPS! 73 de N2GJ