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These are my thoughts on the RADTEL RT-950 Pro, having had it about four days.
The display is bright and adjustable. The audio is clear. The extra power for an HT is useful. Battery life is all day with everything on bright and loud.
The included antenna is junk. Get something better.
HAMS Be careful! This radio does allow you to easily use encryption, which is illegal on HAM bands!
This is a tri-band radio that can monitor three frequencies at once. This can be annoying as a second call can interrupt your QSO. They call this the TW mode. This can be turned on and off with a setting called “Standby Set.” On my radio I toggle this setting with a long press on the 5 key. Like many settings this made no sense and was hard to find. While most setting can be controlled by the easy menu system, all keys on the keypad are programmable for specific menu settings. Some items can only be accessed by the keypad.
This is advertised as a 10-WATT radio. My power tests through a dummy load resulted in about 8 WATTS on 2 meters, 9 WATTS on 1.25 meters, and 9 WATTS on 70 cm. Your wattage may vary. With a half wave 2 meter telescoping antenna got about one watt lower readings of forward power. I only tested on the HAM bands since I don’t have a GMRS license yet. I did test receive on GMRS and that worked with the Monroe GMRS repeater.
The APRS is very basic. You can beacon, but that is about all you can do. I can find no means to send messages to another APRS station, beyond the beacon message. You cannot mute the APRS while listening to other frequencies. This is annoying. Be careful, it can easily beacon APRS on the wrong frequency. I did this on 44.450MHz by mistake. Sorry! There are a bunch of APRS settings with no documentation.
While there is a toggle to turn a KISS TNC on and off, I have not yet found a way to use it.
The Bluetooth does not support audio, so no use of headphones or mic. It appears only compatible with a smart phone app which you can use to program the radio. I don’t believe you can even connect the Bluetooth without using the app. At least I have not found a way yet. I have an iPhone.
RADTEL has several firmware upgrades on their web site that are easy to install from a computer and using the included data cable. They also have a basic computer programming app that runs well and has some settings not included in the radio menu. So far this model is not supported by CHIRP. The computer programming app does not allow you to import from repeater book but is does allow for a CVS file import.
Yes, this is a HAM radio that also works on GMRS and FRS frequencies. Because it can put out more power than allowed on some of these frequencies care should be taken with the power setting.
The battery is hard to remove. I have locked up this radio twice while in the APRS settings and could not shut it off without removing the battery.
The user guide is very basic. Most documentation comes from HAMs on YouTube. Inside the battery compartment is a CE and FCC logo with the description of:
Model RT-950 PR
HVIN: RT-950
Output Power:10W
Frequency Multi-Band Band AM/SW/HF/Receive
FCC ID:2AZSA-RT950
Yes, it can receive NOAA, SW, FM, and MW. How to get to these are not documented well. I stumbled over them in a YouTube video and inside the programming app. You can use menu and frequency modes in each of these. They will behave differently based on what you choose.
I did not try to transmit on CB because I don’t care about it.
I did finally find a way to mute the active APRS channel. It was buried in the menu under APRS, Advanced. There is also a setting for which VFO to use for beaconing.
These are my thoughts on the RADTEL RT-950 Pro, having had it about four days.
The display is bright and adjustable. The audio is clear. The extra power for an HT is useful. Battery life is all day with everything on bright and loud.
The included antenna is junk. Get something better.
HAMS Be careful! This radio does allow you to easily use encryption, which is illegal on HAM bands!
This is a tri-band radio that can monitor three frequencies at once. This can be annoying as a second call can interrupt your QSO. They call this the TW mode. This can be turned on and off with a setting called “Standby Set.” On my radio I toggle this setting with a long press on the 5 key. Like many settings this made no sense and was hard to find. While most setting can be controlled by the easy menu system, all keys on the keypad are programmable for specific menu settings. Some items can only be accessed by the keypad.
This is advertised as a 10-WATT radio. My power tests through a dummy load resulted in about 8 WATTS on 2 meters, 9 WATTS on 1.25 meters, and 9 WATTS on 70 cm. Your wattage may vary. With a half wave 2 meter telescoping antenna got about one watt lower readings of forward power. I only tested on the HAM bands since I don’t have a GMRS license yet. I did test receive on GMRS and that worked with the Monroe GMRS repeater.
The APRS is very basic. You can beacon, but that is about all you can do. I can find no means to send messages to another APRS station, beyond the beacon message. You cannot mute the APRS while listening to other frequencies. This is annoying. Be careful, it can easily beacon APRS on the wrong frequency. I did this on 44.450MHz by mistake. Sorry! There are a bunch of APRS settings with no documentation.
While there is a toggle to turn a KISS TNC on and off, I have not yet found a way to use it.
The Bluetooth does not support audio, so no use of headphones or mic. It appears only compatible with a smart phone app which you can use to program the radio. I don’t believe you can even connect the Bluetooth without using the app. At least I have not found a way yet. I have an iPhone.
RADTEL has several firmware upgrades on their web site that are easy to install from a computer and using the included data cable. They also have a basic computer programming app that runs well and has some settings not included in the radio menu. So far this model is not supported by CHIRP. The computer programming app does not allow you to import from repeater book but is does allow for a CVS file import.
Yes, this is a HAM radio that also works on GMRS and FRS frequencies. Because it can put out more power than allowed on some of these frequencies care should be taken with the power setting.
The battery is hard to remove. I have locked up this radio twice while in the APRS settings and could not shut it off without removing the battery.
The user guide is very basic. Most documentation comes from HAMs on YouTube. Inside the battery compartment is a CE and FCC logo with the description of:
Model RT-950 PR
HVIN: RT-950
Output Power:10W
Frequency Multi-Band Band AM/SW/HF/Receive
FCC ID:2AZSA-RT950
Yes, it can receive NOAA, SW, FM, and MW. How to get to these are not documented well. I stumbled over them in a YouTube video and inside the programming app. You can use menu and frequency modes in each of these. They will behave differently based on what you choose.
I did not try to transmit on CB because I don’t care about it.
