radtelRT-890 Ham Radio 999 Channels Full Band Long Range Handheld Walkie Talkie AM Air Band Radio NOAA 108-520Mhz Scanning Receiver HT Transceiver Type C Battery Copy Frequency for Hiking

**Edit** 7-7‐2023‐Okay I now own four of these little guys for family outing and emergency comms. Updating battery and Programming scores. While twice as much as a uv5r or $10 more than a gt-3wp you really get way more features with this radio.1) From inside home (cbc construction) to inside vehicle two miles aways gmrs was clear with basic antenna.2) Airband from inside home is picking up planes on Miami and Palm Beach approach freqs pretty just okay (expected). Hearing tower pretty clearly when within 2.5 to 3 miles, not great LoS. Really need an external mounted or scanner antenna to take advantage of air band rx3)Chirp Next project has corrected the formatting issue. So adding/importing channel memories from other HTs is way easier now. No issues going back or forth between Chirp or the proprietary software.liked it so much I bought a second. Little HT packs a lot of great features. For an entry level HT under $50 it is a great value. Updating to 5 stars.--------------end of edit.-Features- 5 starsThis is legit a full band radio that legit outputs 5W (or very near across all bands), all while fitting in pocket or palm of hand. The air band monitor, CTS/DCS scanning, vhf/uhf scanning, voice scrambler are all great features.-Programming- 5 stars (updated)While it is supported by Chirp Next (use Ryage uv58plus), the file format in Chirp is missing some columns that the proprietary SW (freely available at radtels.com) includes. If reading a Chirp made config using proprietary SW, you will get a read error. The proprietary SW also lets you customize boot logo, boot message and some minor UI color tweaks. Would be nice if Chirp project was a little more aligned.-Form Factor- 5 starsEasily fits in pocket or palm of your hand.-Sound quality- 5 starsIn all honesty I only have BF GT-3WP to compare with so my sample is small. Overall sounds clear.-Battery Life- 5 stars (updated)I haven had it long enough to get data on battery life. USB-C charging on radio is a plus. Will update when I have some data.-Durability- 4.0 starsCompared to my BF GT-3WP (which are solid bricks), the RT-890 feels a bit on the fragile side. I would recommend caution with the display when out scrambling around. I ordered some anti glare tablet screen protectors and cut pieces to cover display area. Just in case.-User Interface- 5 starsGreat interface. UI and display are easily readable in sunlight. I like the black background, with actual RX and TX power levels displayed. I wish all the other Radtel HTs would copy this interface. I'm guessing the interface is Iradio or Ryage design.

For the price this is one of the better cheap radios because of it's screen, display layout, and features. I like it better than the Talkpod A36 and UV-5R (all variants) which is really where this radio belongs in terms of line up. However, at the end of the day, these cheap radios are nothing more than toys in terms of radio TX and RX capability/quality. Not to diminish their usefulness as "Walkie talkies" but in terms of scanning, quality of reception/sound, and use as an enthusiast radio, this should be at the bottom of your list. This should be at the top of your list if you're looking for a cheap HAM radio for 2-way comms. Terrible at airband reception by the way.

I checked the AM aircraft band sensitivity with a calibrated signal generator. I would rate the sensitivity as comparable to my other AM aircraft band receivers. But the RT-890 appears to have an AGC-related problem on the AM air band reception. Weak aircraft signals sound acceptable and clear …but strong signals from nearby aircraft is very distorted….almost un-intelligible. This tends to suggest a poor AGC in the IF section. This doesn’t matter for FM reception but it’s a big deal for clear AM reception. So if you don’t care about 118-136 MHz then all other features of this radio appear to be nominal. But NOT the AM aircraft band. Front end is also pretty vulnerable to overload and intermod as well.

Everything about this radio leaves a Baofeng UV5R in the dust. I own both and I wish I had this radio in the beginning instead.The better display and keypad are worth the price alone. Programming frequencies from the keypad is much easier than a Baofeng and you get a 999 channel memory. Programming an offset frequency is done without going into the menu and is much quicker than the Baofeng as well.The airband reception on this radio is really good when paired with the Radtel Air Aviation Band Flex Whip Antenna 108-136Mhz, so be sure to include one. While an unlocked Baofeng will accept those frequencies it doesn’t have the AM receiver necessary to pick up the transmissions.The USB C charging port comes in handy. You don’t need to lug around the AC charging base to charge the radio. (Note: Plugging a USB C cable into the radio from a phone charger plugged into a wall outlet will not work.) A USB port from a laptop works just fine.The oem programming software works well, just like chirp, and a Baofeng programming cable gets the job done. You can even customize the startup logo and welcome message.The Radtel does everything a Baofeng does, and more, plus it does it better.

The Vhf sensitivity is terrible and the battery is too small. The screen is nice and it works good on Uhf. I tried a different antenna and it did not help with the Vhf sensitivity problem.

For me this radio is a piece of junk because when it scans it stops on the First Signal it hears and it will not resume scanning it's also not easy to read in daylight just avoid the price of this and go by yourself something else like a uvk5 or if you must a UV 17 this thing doesn't do anything special in the airband receive is horrible the only cool feature that this thing has is it will display the frequency and the alphanumeric tag as well as the tone that it's using when you transmit but other than that this is a hot piece of trash