Radioddity recently released a new water-resistant handheld radio the GS-5B, this fits the bill for a more industrial type radio that can take the daily abuse of in a work environment. The case is definitely sturdier that a typical handheld and has a 7.4 Volt 2,000 mah battery pack. The battery is secured with a screw to enhance the seal and moisture resistance. This really fits the bill for a radio that you can take most anywhere.

The radio is listed as VHF / UHF radio it has a transmit range of 136-175 mhz and 400-520 mhz. While the receiver has a range of 136-520 mhz, so you can monitor on the 220 mhz band as a bonus feature. The radio also has separate PTT switches for each band and a large color display.

I have made my measurements with an IFR-1200SS Service Monitor. Just to make the receiver sensitivity measurement comparable with something you can do at home, I used squelch level 1 as the benchmark so when it broke squelch at level 1, I entered the signal generator output levels.

Measurement
Receiver Sensitivity
146.520 .18 uv
223.500 .30 uv Lower sensitivity but not advertised to cover 220.
446.000 .17 uv
Transmitter Deviation CTCSS / Microphone
146.520 680 / 4.5 Khz
446.000 700 / 5.0 Khz
Transmitter Power L / H
146.520 2.9/4.0 W
446.000 2.2/3.7 W

Overall, the radio performed very well and if you are looking for something more rugged here’s an option, for the off-roading, hiking and fishing fans. Just a note while not listed in the manual but the top row of keys provides the DTMF tones for “A, B, C, & D”. This was important to me as I use those keys for control functions on my repeaters.

The accessories included are a drop in charger, antenna, serial programming cable, belt clip, lanyard, and clear ear piece and microphone for noisy environments.

The programing is done with software downloaded from the Radioddity website via provided serial cable. This is the first radio I have tested that you can also program via Bluetooth from your smartphone too! I had to download the software for the iOS as a beta version via the provided Q-Code as Apple had not released it to the App Store as of this writing. Programing is straight forward but the Bluetooth is really nice for field programming as keyboard programing can be challenging at times with imported radios.

Joe Orrico
WB6HRO
WR6AAC Repeater System

Learn more about Radioddity GS-5B