TYT MD-380 Digital DMR/Moto TRBO Two-Way Radio for Amateur Ham Operators - Perfect for Emergency Communication, Outdoor Adventures, and Radio Enthusiasts

Just discovered DMR radio and it seems like this is the entry point to the DMR networks due to price. I had no idea what to expect with DMR and whether I would even like it so it is a no brainer to not spend huge dollars on a DMR radio. Now that I am on and listening to some of the popular talk groups it seems that just about everyone has one and lots and lots of people use them for their daily radio. They seem very prevalent on DMR.I ordered one on Amazon and the first one I received had a hardware issue. The keypad or at the least the Menu button didn't work. I sent it back and ordered another one. The 2nd radio performs flawlessly.If you are new to DMR know this. It is somewhat difficult and unintuitive to program your radio to reach your talk groups either via hotspot or repeater. Because of the popularity of the MD-380 there are dozens of excellent videos on YouTube regarding programming. For a brand new DMR user this is worth its weight in gold.On the downside this radio only does single band UHF although if you operate with a hotspot that will always be adequate. Where it wouldn't be adequate is if you didn't have a hotspot and your area has a VHF repeater or the campsite where you camp only has a VFH repeater nearby so before you spend the money on a UHF radio make sure you have a UHF repeater nearby otherwise you will be buying or building a hotspot.The MD-380 is a big bang for small buck radio in my opinion. Also someone reverse engineered the thing and created open source firmware which adds some amazing capabilities to the radio. (Be advised running the OpenSource MD380tools voids the warranty) It has a DMR ID database which displays the users name and call sign on the screen and about a dozen other tricks up its sleeve. Who cares about a warranty for a sub $100 radio anyway.If you are new to DMR, know nothing about it, THIS is your entry point for a lot of reasons. Cost, technical resource availability, open source firmware. Can't go wrong here.