Radioddity DB50 Dual Band Mobile Radio Transceiver, UHF VHF 50W High Power Amateur Ham Radio, Multi-Band Receiver with Detachable Front Panel, Programming Cable, CTCSS/DCS, Chirp Programmable

The Radioddity DB50 is a great radio. I own 4 of them. One in the house, one in the car, one in a go-box and the 4th is a spare. The radio settings are easy to navigate and for the price, this little thing is packed with features. I'll touch on a couple of things that I use this radio for that aren't mentioned much. It works great when using Winlink Vara FM. It plugs into a Digirig that plugs into the laptop. I also use the cross-band repeater function. Where I live, I can't hit the repeaters on my handheld if I'm out on my property. I have two cross-band repeater methods set up. One is the typical cross-band repeater, where the radio's duty cycle handles both transmit and receive. The other method (the one I use most often) only requires a duty cycle when I transmit. The receive goes directly to the handheld. A dual-band/dual-watch is required for that. The radio is easily programmable with the Radioddity software or Chirp. I can't say enough about the Radioddity brand. I highly recommend this radio.

First, while this seems to be a pretty decent radio there are a couple of issues. IT is NOT CHIRP compatible!! CHIRP does not have a menu option for this radio. Next, the CPS software has NO manual available. The manual covers manual programming fairly well even if some of the English is a bit off. It briefly mentions basic install of CSP (downloadable for free from Raddiodity). CSP documentation aside, it is a pretty good radio and I was able to fiddle through the software enough to get it up and running just fine to my standards. I did contact their support via e-mail and received a prompt, polite reply that answered the questions I had. It is a fairly compact radio and I love the removable faceplate feature. The radio can be out of the way while a small lightweight faceplate can be installed almost anywhere. You do have to buy the extra kit with the bracket and longer cord. The do not offer any accessories at this time, to include extra power cords. They recommend using 14 AWG (factory cord is 14 AWG) and I found some replacement cords that worked. Look for something Yaesu FT8800 or FT8900R compatible.

First of all, this radio is a great budget radio with a detachable faceplate. It’s jammed packed with features that are quite amazing, but takes some reading and a bit of a learning curve to figure it all out. However, my first radio had a faulty microphone. It would not transmit any sound at all, just a quiet transmission was all that was heard. I contacted customer support who replied back within 12 hours. They apologized, offered to do a partial refund if I could send them a video of the issue. They stated that they do not have any way of sending just a replacement microphone and they suggested returning to Amazon and getting a replacement radio. Ultimately I got a replacement radio and the new microphone works flawlessly. 4/5 due to the faulty microphone on the first unit. Great radio, great price, good customer service. Also, it’s compatible with CHIRP, but chirp can only read and write on the first 35 channels. Do yourself a favor and download radioddity’s programming software from their website. It has more features than CHIRP and works very similarly to CHIRP. Took me about 5 minutes to figure out this software. You can read and write to all channels with their software.

Great radio. Simple. I won't use the detachable face so I can't speak to that but I am completely satisfied with the functionality and ease of use. I've used a radioddity DB20 with no problem and they continued the quality with this radio!

I have been using handhelds for about a year, and I do have a Radioddity GM-30. I have been wanting a mobile/base radio, and I chose the DB-50 because of the detachable faceplate. My car does not have a lot of real estate for odds and ends, so the removable faceplate seemed like a good option. The reports from other people are outstanding. The radio is strong and clear, and I do not have a good antenna setup yet. I am writing this review just to help anyone who buys this with a few hurdles I encountered. First, you must use the Radioddity software to unlock the 758-channel capacity. Next, I connected to CHIRP and copied a previous set of channels and uploaded them into the radio. I did have some issues connecting to CHIRP, but some restarting and shutting down the radio and software resolved that. I then encountered two issues. The first was that I could not transmit on channels that did not already have tones on them, and the second was that those channels had a ton of static on them. This was resolved by uploading the now CHIRP programmed radio to the Radioddity software where I found a “TX OFF” box that was checked under the “More” tab, and where I found that the squelch was set to “0” on the “Function Setup” menu to the left. Unchecking the box and setting the squelch to “4” resolved both issues. After downloading the Radioddity program back to the radio, I was good to go. Of course, I then also uploaded the now functioning radio to CHIRP. Also, the four different power settings must also be set in the Radioddity software program. The only things that I don’t like so far is that the “Home” button only takes you VFO and not to the named channel. Also, the power supply cable needs to be stripped, and the terminals need to be installed for use with a power supply. The radio does not come with a 12V cigarette lighter power cable, which can easily be found on this site.

This is a great radio. I'm new to ham and I wanted a nice radio to start off with without breaking the bank. The settings are easy to find and adjust. I like that you can adjust the settings separately for the left and right sides. The audio is great in the car. Its a little loud indoors, even on the lowest level. I fixed it with a volume control attenuator that you can pick up on Amazon. It's easy to program with the Radioddity software or with Chirp. I love this radio so much, that I ordered a 2nd one.

I have a few Ham radios and wanted something with a little more power for a mobile application. I am in a very rural area so I needed extra juice to hit repeaters. This radio is great, and also works on the GMRS channels so that's amazing when I am on property and can talk to the family on their GMRS radios, and switch to the ham frequencies off property (I have a GMRS and Ham license). Radio is easy to use, and I would highly recommend the mounting kit package for a vehicle. Had some issues with CHIRP programming, but I contacted support and they got back to me in a few hours. If you are using CHIRP there is no DB50 option, but using the Anytone 5888UV option works perfectly. Radio has a max 15A draw. Adding DMR to this would make it the ultimate radio.

The knobs are quite stiff to turn. The squelch is controlled through menu settings rather than a dedicated knob, which makes adjusting it more difficult than it should be. Another limitation is the display: you cannot show channel names on some channels and frequencies on others - it has to be one or the other for all channels. Programming is about as easy as with other radios. CHIRP supports this radio using the AnyTone 5888UV profile. I do like the microphone buttons. They make it easy to switch between the left and right channels. The display also has RGB color adjustment, so you can set it to almost any color you want. It fits in the same mounting bracket as the cheap TYT-9800 quad-band units (both of mine eventually died). Audio quality seems fine, although I use an external speaker. Setting up cross-band (X-band) functionality also appears to be straightforward. Overall, it seems like a fairly decent radio for the price. Discovered a potential issue. Even though it is powered off, the unit apparently will still drain a battery.

Ein gutes Gerät das durch die beiden einstellbaren Frequenzen und der getrennten Bedienelemente für jede Frequenz hoch punktet. Über Chirp und auch der originalen Software leicht programmierbar. Ablagen für Relays und CTSS Töne sind ebenso leicht, verständlich und intuitiv zu programmieren. Die Leistung ist ganz idividuell programmierbar, auch direkt am Gerät zu verändern - wie man es gerade benötigt. In kurzer Zeit beherrscht man die Grundfunktionen. Das Mikrofon mit den beleuchteten Tasten findet sich bei vielen Markengeräten wieder. Leider ist auch - bei allen Geräten die ich mit solchen Mikrofonen nutze - die Modulation zwar sehr gut, ABER eben zu leise. Das typische Nahbesprechungsmikrofon das man bis zu den Mandeln einführen muß um laut genug zu sein. Hier gibt es Lösungsansätze die man leicht bewerkstelligen kann. 1. Das kleine Loch zum Mikrofon sollte man unbedingt aufbohren, dafür das Mikrofon unbedingt zerlegen um die Kapsel nicht zu zerstören. 2. Es gibt Anleitungen im Internet, bei diesen wird eine kleine Verstärkerplatine mit Elektret Kapsel eingebaut. Hier muß man darauf achten die geringste Verstärkung an der kleinen Platine einzustellen um nicht zu übersteuern. Dafür entfällt jedoch der Lautsprecher, der im Mike sitzt. Kein großer Verlust bei dem Klang, das Gerät selbst hat ja auch einen Lautsprecher und im KFZ Betrieb würde ich einen externen LS bevorzugen. Radioddity hat auf ein kleines Problem sofort reagiert, das mitgelieferte Mike hatte ein Problem. Ich habe direkt ein neues Mikrofon auf Aliex bestellt, unter 20 Euro. Bei einem Kauf in Deutschland hätte ein kompatibles Mikrofon das doppelte gekostet. Natürlich hat der Händler mir alles erstattet. Natürlich gibt es dieses Funkgerät baugleich unter mehreren Namen. So eben auch unter länger etablierten Handelsnamen. Das erlebt man ja grundsätzlich das viele Geräte in Asien beim gleichen Hersteller produziert werden und bis auf den Schriftzug identisch sind. Im Fazit kann ich den Kauf dieses Amateurfunkgerätes im einzelnen, aber auch den Vertrieb mit dem Handelsnamen nur empfehlen. Ich glaube das wir alle wissen, das nicht der Name wichtig ist - sondern die Hardware. Am allerwichtigsten ist jedoch der Support der nach dem Kauf, wenn das nicht passt - macht es keinen Sinn. Wenn ich erneut etwas brauchen sollte, würde ich wieder dort bestellen.

Todo perfecto. No he probado aún bien el equipo, pero por lo que he podido comprobar funciona perfectamente.

goeie dualbander doet wat ie moet doen perfect !

Radio sprawuje się bardzo dobrze. Maleńka niedogodność to oba potencjometry działają niezbyt dobrze ale da się z tym żyć. Moja zasadnicza uwaga; radio na częstotliwość powyżej 200 MHz powinno posiadać OBOWIĄZKOWO gniazdo typu N. Instalowane gniazda typu SO239 do pracy powyżej 200 MHz źle się spisują. Radio DB50 nie jest wyjątkiem na rynku z tą wadą.

Muy buena recibida en perfecto estado y funcionamiento perfecto.