We tried the Midland GXT1000 line of GMRS handhelds. Net/net, I'd rather go upmarket or Baofeng.
I spotted this closed thread and it is informative Power questions about Midland .
Facts hidden. Midland could not try any harder to hide the power output. It's nowhere on their website that I can find, and the manual in the box also says only Low/Med/High with no explanation. But we noticed that its already-poor battery life is even worse if you run Med or High power. You can actually watch the battery meter dive when you trx. The post above says they now have only 2w max. But FCC allows higher with your license.
Poor battery life. The batteries supplied by Midland don't last a full 8h work day. And that's on low power. Mostly standing by, very little trx. My son had to carry two batteries and keep one charging in his pickup. It's a cruel hoax. We tried some rechargeable NiMh AAs in there and that nearly doubles the useful life. If you use the dualscan option to monitor two freqs, battery life is cut even more.
Button letters rub off. A few months after I gave one to my wife to wear on her belt, I asked her to try a different channel. She replied that she could not see the writing on the buttons. Indeed, they are rubbed entirely off. She wears it on her belt, and doesn't climb under pickups or do welding like I do. The printing is substandard on the buttons.
Nice feature set. The above faults are a shame, because otherwise the radios have a nice set of features. The Whisper mic setting works great. Range is fair, but within blisterpack limitations. Controls are clear to use (until the buttons get rubbed clean). They are a bit pricey for what are essentially Walmart radios in my opinion.
None have failed. We bought 5 and all are still working a year later. We can't say that for the Cobra MicroTalk blisterpacks we started with 3 years ago, which had a 30% failure rate.
So if power output or battery life don't matter much to you, consider the Midlands. Else, look upmarket or at Baofengs with type certification.
I spotted this closed thread and it is informative Power questions about Midland .
Facts hidden. Midland could not try any harder to hide the power output. It's nowhere on their website that I can find, and the manual in the box also says only Low/Med/High with no explanation. But we noticed that its already-poor battery life is even worse if you run Med or High power. You can actually watch the battery meter dive when you trx. The post above says they now have only 2w max. But FCC allows higher with your license.
Poor battery life. The batteries supplied by Midland don't last a full 8h work day. And that's on low power. Mostly standing by, very little trx. My son had to carry two batteries and keep one charging in his pickup. It's a cruel hoax. We tried some rechargeable NiMh AAs in there and that nearly doubles the useful life. If you use the dualscan option to monitor two freqs, battery life is cut even more.
Button letters rub off. A few months after I gave one to my wife to wear on her belt, I asked her to try a different channel. She replied that she could not see the writing on the buttons. Indeed, they are rubbed entirely off. She wears it on her belt, and doesn't climb under pickups or do welding like I do. The printing is substandard on the buttons.
Nice feature set. The above faults are a shame, because otherwise the radios have a nice set of features. The Whisper mic setting works great. Range is fair, but within blisterpack limitations. Controls are clear to use (until the buttons get rubbed clean). They are a bit pricey for what are essentially Walmart radios in my opinion.
None have failed. We bought 5 and all are still working a year later. We can't say that for the Cobra MicroTalk blisterpacks we started with 3 years ago, which had a 30% failure rate.
So if power output or battery life don't matter much to you, consider the Midlands. Else, look upmarket or at Baofengs with type certification.
Last edited:
