Review on Enhanced Communication with Midland MicroMobile 15W GMRS Two-Way Radio and Control Microphone Combo by Eduardo Locke

07/11/2020 — For some reason, my original review and the Photos of my defective product that I previously posted have been removed. Interesting. My initial review (September 21, 2020) - I was excited to get this radio for a while, it was a luxury purchase as I am building my modified 19 4Runner to better live out some of my dreams and feelings. like a tough guy with a micro cell phone installed in my car. First unit, first impressions - it was very easy to install and wow the base unit is really quite a sight with its compact size. Everything looks and feels high quality. It fitted my setup perfectly and was mounted on a secondary mall plate which I pulled across the lower front of the driver's seat between the mounting bolts that attach the seat to the floor. I routed a 12V cigarette lighter under my seat to a second-row outlet and tucked the antenna cables under the side plastic inlets in the floor that led to the rear cargo area, where I fished out and placed the magnetic antenna through the gap between the sunroof. on the roof. All connections are good so I start the car and turn on the radio and everything is fine, I'm a happy camper. for a day. I installed on a Sunday and went to work the next day where I parked in an open lot, I have medium tinted windows and a ridiculously expensive but awesome CarCraft sun visor for my windshield which I use religiously because I live in Phoenix. I work 10 hour days, it was only 103F that day, not "hot" at all for us desert dwellers. I get out to my car at 5pm, start the truck and take my fancy new radio to play with it for a minute to see if the local repeater guys are chattering on anything and if I grab the portable mic , I can feel the cable being twisted and notice that the rubber coating is now tearing, exposing the wires and washing the oily, greasy substance out of the cable. Right now I'm confused and dissatisfied but ok of course Midland designed these things for hot weather use as there is a ton of off-road driving in the desert. Citing doubts about a defective cable, I am contacting Midland to let them know what happened (at the time I sent my message on September 14, 2020, there has not yet been any correspondence from their side). I will go ahead and replace the device with an exact replacement through Amazon, I kept my original power cord, antenna and mount and replaced the first original radio and replacement handheld. The second block - I reconnect the new base and PDA and everything works fine. Hooray. I have two children under the age of three, my wife works different days, I literally don't go anywhere on the weekends, my 4Runner has been in the doorway for three days. Monday comes and I go play my radio in the morning before work and. nothing, the handheld display shows nothing. So I unplug and plug it back in and the bingo lights up and back on. and then empty again. After a few minutes trying to figure out what's going on I find that the twisted pair wiring now somehow has a faulty intermittent connection, if I hold it correctly it will work, but the second I put my hand move, it turns itself off. Well that sucks. As I said above, the build quality seems solid and even this time the twisted pair cable doesn't snap like the first device, everything looks as it should, but it just doesn't work. I am very disappointed with this result, although my legitimate use of the radio would have been minimal had I intended to use it as a backup for some of the OHV routes here in Arizona where there is no cellular service. I am returning this unit for a full refund from Amazon and have no intention of receiving a properly working product on a third try. I'm frustrated, looks like I might as well invest in a CB setup and a huge whip after all. I don't know why I'm having so much luck with it because it's a popular off-road radio and I've never heard anything bad about it, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.