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Retevis RB17P - Just Right (for aging eyes)

NWI_Scanner_Guy

SCANNING THE AIRWAVES SINCE 1987
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
2,298
Location
Hammond, IN
BTECH GMRS-V2 -- display too dim.
Baofeng GM-15 Pro -- display too bright.
Retevis RB17P -- display just right!!

Just call me Goldilocks. LOL!! :p

With my aging eyes dealing with macular degeneration, it's getting more and more difficult to read the displays on my various handheld radios. When I got my GMRS license a few months ago, I bought the V2. I like the radio's form factor and I think it's a great radio overall....except for the display. I find it's hard to read, with or without the backlight.

Enter the GM-15 Pro. I saw in video reviews on YT that it has a brighter display, so I thought "hey, that should work for me. I could read that display," so I bought one. Turns out the display is too bright. With the backlight on, I have to hold the radio "just right" to see anything, which makes any manual programming a PITA. Display is even difficult to read when the backlight is off as well.

What was needed was a handheld with a "dark background" display, like my mobile GMRS radio has. Enter the Retevis RB17P. I'll admit, I was looking for something "cheap" (currently on a tight budget) and saw the RB17P on Amazon for $40. One of its main selling points (for me anyways) is that it has seven display colors to choose from, including a black background. I watched a few reviews on YT, and saw that it got pretty good reviews overall, so I decided to take a chance on it.

I've had it for almost a month now, and for a no bells / no whistles radio, I have to say I like it. I had to do a firmware update to it right out of the box to fix a couple of issues, but once I did that, it has turned out to be a great little radio. The only display that is truly useful to me is the black background, of course (and the blue background to an extent); all others colors are just pretty....just pretty useless. LOL. No FM radio or flashlight, but I'm not big on those features anyway. The flashlights are usually pretty dim (except for on my new KG-UV9PX (bought on black friday because of the dark background, but man, did that ever "blow up" my budget LOL); it's actually quite bright) and FM reception is always kind of "spotty" (for me at least). It does include the NOAA channels, however, so that's a plus. It puts out right around four watts for me (although it's advertised as five watts) on high power, which is plenty of "oomph" to hit my favorite repeater almost 20 miles away using just the stock antenna.

While I'll probably keep, and maybe occasionally use, my other GMRS handhelds, the RB17P has become my new, daily use GMRS handheld. Going forward, any new handhelds I buy, whether GMRS or ham, will have to have the dark background. I could never go back to anything else...unless I get a bionic eye or two. LOL :D
 
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PACNWDude

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2012
Messages
1,336
Interesting radio. Had to look this one up as there are so many options and models out now. For a basic GMRS radio, it looks like it could fill a void in my own use case. And having an easy-to-read display is what I am looking for as well, for some older relatives that want to stay connected around the neighborhood. Many of them used to be in community emergency Response Team (CERT) roles and have used FRS/GMRS radios for a long time now, starting with Motorola Talkabout models, pre-2017 FCC rule changes. Thank you for posting OP.
 
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