Review on 📻 Retevis RT73 Mini Mobile Car Radios, Dual Band Transceiver GPS, 4000 Channels, 200000+ Contacts, Dual Time Slot, with Microphone (1 Pack) by Tommy Russo

This radio has potential. This is a true mini mobile, so small it's the size of a steering head (removable faceplate). It's a real draw despite only having 20W RF output. This works very well for DMR usage. It has a very small display that would be hard to see in a car, and its analogue FM operation is annoying. The radio is intended for commercial/business/government service, not the US amateur radio community. It does not have part 90 stickers, but it is transferred there. But it supports radio amateurs and is legally allowed to operate on the UHF and VHF amateur bands. That was my interest in this radio, so out-of-band operation wasn't important to me. A special mention for Retrivis' customer service, they were surprisingly good. A representative from China emailed me and called me and within 7-10 days I was advised and they wanted my plugin for testing. Hopefully this radio will mature over time. My assessment (without performance test) There are many problems with this radio, but many of them can be fixed with better CPS and firmware. I'm pretty picky about wireless operation and performance, but cost is also part of the overall value rating. If you only use it for DMR and are willing to wait for CPS/firmware improvements and keep the cost under $200, this could be the answer to DMR Mobile Phone Detachable Control Heads for ham radio. Ham's digital use is useful now, but hardly and not for what I envisioned, a mobile DMR in my wife's car given its sub-compact size. The radio is the size of a small control head so is limited to 20 watts and is fan cooled. So advantages and disadvantages, first digital, then analog. The following is not exhaustive, but is mainly my personal take on the cons: General Radio and Digital Mode Pro's Compact size, it's a true palm-top cellular device. outside of ham radio bands) Decent quality and RX sound levels Decent quality and TX sound level adjustment The included printed manual is pretty decent The mic has a magnet for hanging it's strong so a plus but will slip off a vertical surface so it won't not so quick to record is in radio (no pins entered but complete block recorded) AMBE++ (at least that's what he claims, it's not known if it's software or hardware based) General Radio and Digital Mode Con's20 Watts TX (or 5W with other settings) The default volume is set to maximum volume when you turn it on, prepare for the start (there is a solution for this). To change the volume, you must first press the function button on the top of the radio, then the volume control channel knob will synchronize volume on both bands A/ B, not independent Band 2 cannot be disabled Only one band that can receive RX at the same time (Anytone allows simultaneous use of digital and analog signals) Promiscuous mode or digital monitor only listens to 1 time slot. The GPS Rx seems sensitive enough but can't figure out how to get it working digitally and there is no analog APRS support in all CPS which need to be installed in the standard windows directories to work. If you optionally choose something else, it crashes after the first few clicks. CPS is fuzzy and values change after input. Still seems to work, although it shows incorrect values. External microphone jack - 3.5 mm, external speaker jack - 2.5 mm. The internal speaker does not turn off when the external speaker is connected. CPS is not included, found it online and should be the same version as the firmware (like Anytone). Same small screen as Anytones. No Part 90 decal and no mention of ham radio use. Analog Pro has an analog mode. I didn't test beyond that as I need digital and analog is better than just digital. Analog Con: CTCSS and DTS both don't mute noise reduction (tested at 120, 180, and 240 degrees reverse burst). the squelch is still very annoying. I haven't tested much with analog primarily because of my interest in digital work quality and also because of my need for DMR. If you want to be a beta tester for this radio or others with its bugs, it might be worth it in the long run. I sent the radio back to Retravis.