Psh-Pshsh. Review of the portable radio station Midland GXT-1050
You can ask - why do we now need radios when the cost of the minimum dialing for communication (dialer + SIM card) is approximately equal to the average check in a cafe? The question is fair. On the one hand, the phone really does already have even every child. On the other hand, despite the fact that now is 2015, there are still places on the territory of our homeland where the quality of cellular communication is poor (or want to have it in principle). And though the walkie-talkies do not solve this problem globally, it is obviously too early to bury them - even if we do not take into account the need for walkie-talkies for special services, to simplify communication at large enterprises, and so on.
Psh-Pshsh.
You begin to understand the delights of a walkie-talkie when you use it for some time. First, for communication in nature or even in the city does not require any infrastructure. No need to call the other person, spend money - just press the button for free and everything, almost always in touch. Secondly, the radio is relatively (with smartphones) ridiculous money, and the connection for it costs a penny - if not to take electricity to charge the batteries, but will it consume a lot? Thirdly, there are a lot of cases in life when communication in this way makes life easier many times. Hunting, fishing, mushroom camping, barbecues, cycling, paintball, orienteering, all kinds of Encounters and other modern games with augmented reality. In general, given the price and opportunities offered by a portable radio station, it is better to have and rarely use than not to have at all and not even know that many things could be done differently, simpler, faster and better, having such a method of communication.
')
Therefore, a warning: after reading the post, you may want to get a set of radios, even if you have never thought about them before. At least I now have this fixed idea by February 23.
So, Midland GXT-1050 is the flagship set of two radios of this manufacturer, designed to work in the LPD-band.
Standard: LPD
Frequencies: 433.075 - 434.775 MHz
Transmitter power: 0.01 W
Number of channels: 69
Encoding: DST, CTCSS
Number of codes: 142 (38 CTCSS / 104 DCS)
Three transmitter power levels (H / M / L)
Scan modes / radio control
The devices are sold in bright packaging, inside which there is everything you need: you don’t need to buy anything else to get started. Moreover: the equipment was pleasantly pleased, apparently, against the background of half-full (I am an optimist) boxes of stingy manufacturers.
- Two way radios
- Two batteries
- Two removable latches for fastening on the belt
- Two headsets (one earphone and a microphone with a button)
- Charging dock for 2 way radios
- Dock adapter
- Car adapter
- Instruction
The docking station allows you to charge both radios at once, the full charge time is about 12 hours (!) - the same amount of radio in non stop mode is enough for the maximum power of the transmitter.
In appearance - a walkie-talkie as a walkie-talkie. Our copy was made in khaki colors and with the texture of leaves, and on both radios the texture was different. In principle, if you take a similar device not for hiking, but for working with it in the city - no problem. But in nature, be prepared for the fact that the search for fallen into the foliage of the radio will have to spend time; with orange or red this would not have happened.
The material is a durable matte plastic, inside of which a solid-state circuit is used assembled on a solid printed circuit board. All this has moisture-proof properties - radio stations are not afraid of splashes, drops, short-term (fallen-raised) falling into the water. It easily transfers soft cleaners, but no more. No IP67 and “dive to half an hour”, however, the manufacturer promises reliable and trouble-free operation of devices for many years.
The device is very pleasant to the touch and lies comfortably both in the right and in the left hand: the PTT-button for right-handers will be under the pad of the index finger, for left-handers - under the thumb.
The battery compartment has a cunning design: it can be used as a battery from the kit (Ni-Mh, 700mAh, 6.0V), and a set of 4 finger-type (AA) batteries.
It's nice that the manufacturer took care of the possibility of using alternative power to the radio, as it is not always possible to recharge the built-in battery on the way, while a set of batteries can be bought in any stall.
The antenna is not removable, not turning, not folding and, moreover, almost does not bend.
Controls do not cause any questions. Powerful rubberized buttons, large twist, transreflective display, monochrome, has an orange backlight.
On the right side there is only a PTT-button for sending messages, on the left - a folding cap protecting the connector for connecting a wired headset. Bottom - contacts for charging the docking station.
It can be seen that the device was not done by Johnny Ive - here you are wearing both gloves and gloves, a shockproof design, and an ax-cut design - in general, everything is almost perfect for your tasks.
I tried, but could not find any flaws in the appearance and design of the radio. You can not say about the friendliness of the interface on the screen ...
All management is reduced, in fact, to four buttons. It is approximately the same as the menu on any TV or monitor. In the instructions, the manufacturer gives a complete "map" - the thing is useful, but at the right time you most likely will not have it with you.
You look at this cheat sheet and everything seems to be even understandable. But it is necessary to remove it and see the symbols “Ub” on the phone, as you immediately get lost. Therefore, there is one option - to learn the designations of settings in order not to be frightened by the low information content of the built-in display.
You will get to most of these settings several times in your life, when you first tune, or if you find that the frequencies are busy, but all kinds of call melodies settings (15 pieces to choose from, including 5 animals: jaguar, duck, crow, wolf and turkey) , vibrations, “gurgling” after the end of sending a message (“Roger beep”) will be included once and forgotten. At least even with the setting of ringtones on the smartphone (where the interface is much clearer) just like that.
And yes, about the low information content of the display (above), I, perhaps, got excited. A huge amount of all the necessary information is displayed on the screen, from which it becomes immediately clear: on which channel you are in, in a group or not, what transmitter power is set, vibrating status, etc.
The only tangible interface negative - the implementation of the battery charge indicator. The fact is that it does not show the battery voltage, but the “availability of the consumed current”. In standby mode, the consumption is minimal, the battery will seem full. You start talking - the battery will instantly be “empty” (which it actually was), the radio will be cut down. In the "combat conditions" it can play a cruel joke.
- Classic PTT (Push-To-Talk) - clicked and said, the other party is listening at this time. During the message transmission on the screen, the TX indicator is lit, during reception - RX (+ short display illumination and vibrating alert, if configured).
- VOX mode (Handsfree) - provides automatic transmission of sound when the microphone of the radio will catch your speech. It turns a walkie-talkie into an analogue of TeamSpeak: as soon as you say something loudly - the walkie-talkie goes into TX-mode and sends your words to the other party. There are nine levels of microphone sensitivity, but one nuance should be taken into account: the first word was eaten by a cow. It takes about half a second / second to determine the volume, turn on the microphone “on the air”, activate the transmission mode and send your voice, so the first thing to do is say “Reception!” Or some other useless word, and after that send important information.
- Whisper mode puts the radio microphone into high sensitivity mode, so you can speak very quietly or almost in a whisper, and your interlocutor will hear you loudly and clearly. In some cases, this is simply an indispensable feature!
Well, the last one, not so much an independent mode, as an opportunity to improve any of the three available - the mode of operation through the complete headset, which is especially relevant for the Whisper mode (when the conditions of using the radio do not allow using it in full voice). Unfortunately, the strength of the design of the standard headset (and microphone) makes me doubt, and the use of third-party headsets is complicated by the spaced minijack connectors. You can search for a suitable U-shaped adapter, but what prevented the manufacturer from combining a microphone and a speaker in one minijack?
This list of interesting features of the Midland GTX-1050 walkie talkies does not end there. Bend your fingers:
On the MON / SCAN button:
- Radio frequency control function. The radio is able to temporarily disable the automatic suppressor of background noise in order to hear even weak signals on the selected channel.
- Scan function. Allows you to scan all 69 channels, checking them for a signal. The station will automatically stop on the channel if there is any transmission on it, and continue to iterate the rest as soon as the transmission is completed. At the same time, no one forbids forcibly sending the walkie-talkie into further searches, moreover, both “forward” and “backward” over the frequency range: the direction is selected using the up / down arrows.
Together with the two previous functions, a useful feature such as Dual Watch can be - the ability to stay on the radio on two channels at once. I was not able to use this function (it’s very much niche), so I’ll just quote from the company's website:
Well, the last possibility of the kit, which can be very useful - the group work mode. A group is considered a number of subscribers united by a common protocol. A total of 142 groups are available, each can have a maximum of 10 radio stations, it is possible to work simultaneously only in one group (within the radio group, they themselves agree on the frequencies used). In theory, this should work without problems and can be useful for all search teams or teams, but for obvious reasons, in practice I could not try this opportunity to the full. Be that as it may, you will not immediately call the mobile phone of the ten.
The volume of the work is adjusted manually (it is convenient to do even with one hand) by the knob in the upper part - the volume levels without “gradations”. At the maximum volume of the message is audible perfectly, you can even say that the volume is exhaustive.
I tested the kit in various conditions, of course, the 20 kilometers stated by the manufacturer work only in two-dimensional conditions on paper. In a clean (well, almost clean) field, the maximum signal reception / transmission distance varies from 7 to 13 kilometers. The quality of reception at a great distance is strongly influenced by weather conditions and light from Venus, reflected from the upper layers of the atmosphere.
In the forest or park, the reception area is limited to 5-7 kilometers. In the city, due to the large number of buildings consisting mainly of not very radio transparent materials, you can expect to work within a kilometer, if you are lucky, two. But I believe that even this result will be enough for most tasks that are solved with the help of walkie-talkies (especially in the city).
Pressing the phone to your ear in such conditions is not convenient, using Zello type virtual web radios can be costly both financially and from the point of view of the battery of your device, and you can not always poke a touchscreen smartphone with dirty hands or gloves. Walkie-talkie will be nothing, then washed with warm water and soap, and dried. By the way, a radio kit perfectly helps with construction / repair work: it’s not necessary to shout from room to room or from home to the street, it saves both nerves and time.
But the radio is practically not suitable for joint car trips: reception and transmission are much worse at speeds above 40 km / h, and it is simply impossible to talk at speeds of 70. Well, if you stop to talk - so nothing hinders and lean out of the window on the sidelines. In general, the work at high speed can not count, the signal "blows away." On cycling and quadrocycle speeds everything is OK and the radios will work in such conditions.
+ Build quality and body materials
+ Ability to power from the battery, and from AA batteries
+ Wide and quite popular frequency range
+ Convenient controls
+ Moisture protection (albeit weak)
+ Price
+ A bunch of modes of operation
+ Native charging provides power to two radios at once, they do not need to be "replaced"
+ Car charger included
- Proprietary headset connector (for sure, there are adapters, but still).
- Established battery only 700 mAh
- Poor radio performance at speed
- Non-informative charge indicator
Initially, I wanted to attribute the “lost” color of the case to the minuses, however, several of my friends liked such a coloring the opposite.
The cost of the Midland GXT1050 walkie-talkie set in the Yulmart store is 5,840 rubles (at the time of the publication of the review). This is almost 400 rubles less than on the official website.
We also have many different alternatives in the store , but this model is interesting, first of all, with a good set of functions and the possibility of alternative power sources multiplied by the pleasant price and the excellent quality of the walkie-talkies.
For a beginner, the capabilities of this walkie-talkie will be exhaustive; it will not use even a third of the functions. For an advanced user, the most important thing is the price-quality ratio here at an excellent level. Also, the kit is suitable for group use, especially in nature.
Psh-Pshsh! Have a nice evening! End of communication!
Our previous reviews:
» NVIDIA SHIELD Game Console
» Testing AA-size Ni-MH batteries
» Sony Smartwatch 3
» Transformer Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
» LEGO Mindstorms EV3
Psh-Pshsh.
You begin to understand the delights of a walkie-talkie when you use it for some time. First, for communication in nature or even in the city does not require any infrastructure. No need to call the other person, spend money - just press the button for free and everything, almost always in touch. Secondly, the radio is relatively (with smartphones) ridiculous money, and the connection for it costs a penny - if not to take electricity to charge the batteries, but will it consume a lot? Thirdly, there are a lot of cases in life when communication in this way makes life easier many times. Hunting, fishing, mushroom camping, barbecues, cycling, paintball, orienteering, all kinds of Encounters and other modern games with augmented reality. In general, given the price and opportunities offered by a portable radio station, it is better to have and rarely use than not to have at all and not even know that many things could be done differently, simpler, faster and better, having such a method of communication.
')
Therefore, a warning: after reading the post, you may want to get a set of radios, even if you have never thought about them before. At least I now have this fixed idea by February 23.
So, Midland GXT-1050 is the flagship set of two radios of this manufacturer, designed to work in the LPD-band.
Characteristics of the radio module
Standard: LPD
Frequencies: 433.075 - 434.775 MHz
Transmitter power: 0.01 W
Number of channels: 69
Encoding: DST, CTCSS
Number of codes: 142 (38 CTCSS / 104 DCS)
Three transmitter power levels (H / M / L)
Scan modes / radio control
Equipment
The devices are sold in bright packaging, inside which there is everything you need: you don’t need to buy anything else to get started. Moreover: the equipment was pleasantly pleased, apparently, against the background of half-full (I am an optimist) boxes of stingy manufacturers.
- Two way radios
- Two batteries
- Two removable latches for fastening on the belt
- Two headsets (one earphone and a microphone with a button)
- Charging dock for 2 way radios
- Dock adapter
- Car adapter
- Instruction
The docking station allows you to charge both radios at once, the full charge time is about 12 hours (!) - the same amount of radio in non stop mode is enough for the maximum power of the transmitter.
Appearance
In appearance - a walkie-talkie as a walkie-talkie. Our copy was made in khaki colors and with the texture of leaves, and on both radios the texture was different. In principle, if you take a similar device not for hiking, but for working with it in the city - no problem. But in nature, be prepared for the fact that the search for fallen into the foliage of the radio will have to spend time; with orange or red this would not have happened.
The material is a durable matte plastic, inside of which a solid-state circuit is used assembled on a solid printed circuit board. All this has moisture-proof properties - radio stations are not afraid of splashes, drops, short-term (fallen-raised) falling into the water. It easily transfers soft cleaners, but no more. No IP67 and “dive to half an hour”, however, the manufacturer promises reliable and trouble-free operation of devices for many years.
The device is very pleasant to the touch and lies comfortably both in the right and in the left hand: the PTT-button for right-handers will be under the pad of the index finger, for left-handers - under the thumb.
The battery compartment has a cunning design: it can be used as a battery from the kit (Ni-Mh, 700mAh, 6.0V), and a set of 4 finger-type (AA) batteries.
It's nice that the manufacturer took care of the possibility of using alternative power to the radio, as it is not always possible to recharge the built-in battery on the way, while a set of batteries can be bought in any stall.
The antenna is not removable, not turning, not folding and, moreover, almost does not bend.
Controls do not cause any questions. Powerful rubberized buttons, large twist, transreflective display, monochrome, has an orange backlight.
On the right side there is only a PTT-button for sending messages, on the left - a folding cap protecting the connector for connecting a wired headset. Bottom - contacts for charging the docking station.
It can be seen that the device was not done by Johnny Ive - here you are wearing both gloves and gloves, a shockproof design, and an ax-cut design - in general, everything is almost perfect for your tasks.
I tried, but could not find any flaws in the appearance and design of the radio. You can not say about the friendliness of the interface on the screen ...
Controls and Interfaces
All management is reduced, in fact, to four buttons. It is approximately the same as the menu on any TV or monitor. In the instructions, the manufacturer gives a complete "map" - the thing is useful, but at the right time you most likely will not have it with you.
You look at this cheat sheet and everything seems to be even understandable. But it is necessary to remove it and see the symbols “Ub” on the phone, as you immediately get lost. Therefore, there is one option - to learn the designations of settings in order not to be frightened by the low information content of the built-in display.
You will get to most of these settings several times in your life, when you first tune, or if you find that the frequencies are busy, but all kinds of call melodies settings (15 pieces to choose from, including 5 animals: jaguar, duck, crow, wolf and turkey) , vibrations, “gurgling” after the end of sending a message (“Roger beep”) will be included once and forgotten. At least even with the setting of ringtones on the smartphone (where the interface is much clearer) just like that.
And yes, about the low information content of the display (above), I, perhaps, got excited. A huge amount of all the necessary information is displayed on the screen, from which it becomes immediately clear: on which channel you are in, in a group or not, what transmitter power is set, vibrating status, etc.
The only tangible interface negative - the implementation of the battery charge indicator. The fact is that it does not show the battery voltage, but the “availability of the consumed current”. In standby mode, the consumption is minimal, the battery will seem full. You start talking - the battery will instantly be “empty” (which it actually was), the radio will be cut down. In the "combat conditions" it can play a cruel joke.
Opportunities
- Classic PTT (Push-To-Talk) - clicked and said, the other party is listening at this time. During the message transmission on the screen, the TX indicator is lit, during reception - RX (+ short display illumination and vibrating alert, if configured).
- VOX mode (Handsfree) - provides automatic transmission of sound when the microphone of the radio will catch your speech. It turns a walkie-talkie into an analogue of TeamSpeak: as soon as you say something loudly - the walkie-talkie goes into TX-mode and sends your words to the other party. There are nine levels of microphone sensitivity, but one nuance should be taken into account: the first word was eaten by a cow. It takes about half a second / second to determine the volume, turn on the microphone “on the air”, activate the transmission mode and send your voice, so the first thing to do is say “Reception!” Or some other useless word, and after that send important information.
- Whisper mode puts the radio microphone into high sensitivity mode, so you can speak very quietly or almost in a whisper, and your interlocutor will hear you loudly and clearly. In some cases, this is simply an indispensable feature!
Well, the last one, not so much an independent mode, as an opportunity to improve any of the three available - the mode of operation through the complete headset, which is especially relevant for the Whisper mode (when the conditions of using the radio do not allow using it in full voice). Unfortunately, the strength of the design of the standard headset (and microphone) makes me doubt, and the use of third-party headsets is complicated by the spaced minijack connectors. You can search for a suitable U-shaped adapter, but what prevented the manufacturer from combining a microphone and a speaker in one minijack?
This list of interesting features of the Midland GTX-1050 walkie talkies does not end there. Bend your fingers:
On the MON / SCAN button:
- Radio frequency control function. The radio is able to temporarily disable the automatic suppressor of background noise in order to hear even weak signals on the selected channel.
- Scan function. Allows you to scan all 69 channels, checking them for a signal. The station will automatically stop on the channel if there is any transmission on it, and continue to iterate the rest as soon as the transmission is completed. At the same time, no one forbids forcibly sending the walkie-talkie into further searches, moreover, both “forward” and “backward” over the frequency range: the direction is selected using the up / down arrows.
Together with the two previous functions, a useful feature such as Dual Watch can be - the ability to stay on the radio on two channels at once. I was not able to use this function (it’s very much niche), so I’ll just quote from the company's website:
After turning on the Dual Watch function, the radio station will start “listening” to 2 channels - the numbers of the two selected channels alternately light up on the screen and the “RX” and “TX” icons light up, indicating that the Dual Watch function is on. The radio scans two channels, stopping on the active channel. After 5 seconds, after the channel is no longer active, the Dual Watch function is activated again. When you stop on the active channel, you can activate the transfer mode and negotiate. In this case, the Dual Watch function is activated again after 5 seconds, after the channel becomes inactive.
Well, the last possibility of the kit, which can be very useful - the group work mode. A group is considered a number of subscribers united by a common protocol. A total of 142 groups are available, each can have a maximum of 10 radio stations, it is possible to work simultaneously only in one group (within the radio group, they themselves agree on the frequencies used). In theory, this should work without problems and can be useful for all search teams or teams, but for obvious reasons, in practice I could not try this opportunity to the full. Be that as it may, you will not immediately call the mobile phone of the ten.
The volume of the work is adjusted manually (it is convenient to do even with one hand) by the knob in the upper part - the volume levels without “gradations”. At the maximum volume of the message is audible perfectly, you can even say that the volume is exhaustive.
In life
I tested the kit in various conditions, of course, the 20 kilometers stated by the manufacturer work only in two-dimensional conditions on paper. In a clean (well, almost clean) field, the maximum signal reception / transmission distance varies from 7 to 13 kilometers. The quality of reception at a great distance is strongly influenced by weather conditions and light from Venus, reflected from the upper layers of the atmosphere.
In the forest or park, the reception area is limited to 5-7 kilometers. In the city, due to the large number of buildings consisting mainly of not very radio transparent materials, you can expect to work within a kilometer, if you are lucky, two. But I believe that even this result will be enough for most tasks that are solved with the help of walkie-talkies (especially in the city).
Pressing the phone to your ear in such conditions is not convenient, using Zello type virtual web radios can be costly both financially and from the point of view of the battery of your device, and you can not always poke a touchscreen smartphone with dirty hands or gloves. Walkie-talkie will be nothing, then washed with warm water and soap, and dried. By the way, a radio kit perfectly helps with construction / repair work: it’s not necessary to shout from room to room or from home to the street, it saves both nerves and time.
But the radio is practically not suitable for joint car trips: reception and transmission are much worse at speeds above 40 km / h, and it is simply impossible to talk at speeds of 70. Well, if you stop to talk - so nothing hinders and lean out of the window on the sidelines. In general, the work at high speed can not count, the signal "blows away." On cycling and quadrocycle speeds everything is OK and the radios will work in such conditions.
Advantages and disadvantages
+ Build quality and body materials
+ Ability to power from the battery, and from AA batteries
+ Wide and quite popular frequency range
+ Convenient controls
+ Moisture protection (albeit weak)
+ Price
+ A bunch of modes of operation
+ Native charging provides power to two radios at once, they do not need to be "replaced"
+ Car charger included
- Proprietary headset connector (for sure, there are adapters, but still).
- Established battery only 700 mAh
- Poor radio performance at speed
- Non-informative charge indicator
Initially, I wanted to attribute the “lost” color of the case to the minuses, however, several of my friends liked such a coloring the opposite.
The cost of the Midland GXT1050 walkie-talkie set in the Yulmart store is 5,840 rubles (at the time of the publication of the review). This is almost 400 rubles less than on the official website.
We also have many different alternatives in the store , but this model is interesting, first of all, with a good set of functions and the possibility of alternative power sources multiplied by the pleasant price and the excellent quality of the walkie-talkies.
findings
For a beginner, the capabilities of this walkie-talkie will be exhaustive; it will not use even a third of the functions. For an advanced user, the most important thing is the price-quality ratio here at an excellent level. Also, the kit is suitable for group use, especially in nature.
Psh-Pshsh! Have a nice evening! End of communication!
Our previous reviews:
» NVIDIA SHIELD Game Console
» Testing AA-size Ni-MH batteries
» Sony Smartwatch 3
» Transformer Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
» LEGO Mindstorms EV3
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/363831/
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