GD-88

The GD-88 is a frustrating radio. It was expensive enough that I wish it were more intuitive to use.

It has built-in APRS, complete with GPS. But I can't for the life of me get it to transmit reliably. It's also supposed to have APRS receive capability, but it. . .doesn't? I can't tell. I can find where you're supposed to be able to see messages sent to you, and where you're suppose to be able to see a directional map of where other APRS stations are, but I've never seen anything in either of them!

Where this radio shines is in DMR. Their codeplug editor isn't great, but, fortunately, there is an alternative courtesy of MM7DBT which works a treat. I was able to get it programmed with the vendor's CPS, but it was a chore.

I have yet to make any text contacts on DMR, and, in fact, I've only ever made BrandMeister contacts over my Pi-Star. However, I am able to hit my local DMR repeater just fine, so I suspect I might be able to get more use out of it when people start going back out into the world this spring.