Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 No Real Performance Improvement...just addition of bells and whistles August 28, 2008
Instead of re-typing the problems that I have had with this radio, I will just copy/paste the email that I wrote to Technical Support at Midland Radio. In summary, the first pair of radios had a defective PTT button. I got a replacement pair. Also, the accessory output volume level is not high enough to use a speaker mic or any other sort of external speaker. In-ear boom mics, such as the accessories provided with the radios, work fine b/c they are in your ear and do not require a high volume level. Not being able to use speaker mics with these radios is unacceptable. Keep in mind, I tried 6 different speaker mics (one of which was a Midland branded dual-prong speaker mic). See my email to Midland Radio below:
"Hello,
Due to the end of the work day at my job, it conflicts with the hours of your tech support #, which is why I am writing an email instead of calling. I recently purchased the GXT900VP4 from Circuit City. Upon opening them out of the box, it appeared that the PTT buttons on the radios were not the same. On one of the radios, the PTT was normal and when you pressed it, it "clicked" giving you the feel that it was being depressed. The other radio has a PTT button that did not click, and was rather mushy when depressed. I returned the pair of radios to Circuit City and ordered a replacement.
The replacement radios arrived a few days ago and the PTT buttons were normal. I took Midland speaker mics that I have from other radios and the XT511 emergency crank radio that I have, and I went to go for a bike ride. I tested the radios with the Midland speaker mics before I loaded up for the bike ride, and I realized that the volume was extremely low. I turned the knobs up on both radios and tested them out, and again the volume was VERY VERY low. I took the speaker mics out of the radios and tested the volume without the accessories and just using the radios' internal speaker. The volume was fine. Thinking that my speaker mics were bad, I went and took other dual-pin speaker mics that I have and gave them a shot. They too had extremely low volume and you could barely hear the transmissions. I tried the radios by themselves and the internal speaker was fine. I took the vox ear piece boom mic that came with the radios and they were at an acceptable volume level. This was probably due to the fact that they were directly in my ear. Is there a reason why speaker mics do not work with these radios? Was the output volume limited on the accessory jack?
Not really understanding why two sets of these radios were defective, I returned the replacement radios to Circuit City for a refund. I wanted to bring these 2 issues to your attention so that your product engineers could hopefully fix the issue. It would be great if speaker mics could be used with these radios, so hopefully in the future a fix will be made and I can purchase the revised version of this model (GXT900VP4). All that has to be done is increase the output volume in the 3.5mm accessory jack. On another note... I have a friend who tested the Midland GXT900VP4's (5 watt radios) against an older model of Motorola GMRS radio (T7400, only a 2 watt radio) and he claimed that the range comparison resulted in equal range performance. I am not able to agree or disagree with him, since I did not have a chance to test out the range of the radios since I returned them after the 1st issue with the PTT button, and the 2nd issue with the output volume on speaker mics. Shouldn't these radios go a longer distance than radios with a lower power output, especially since these radios were rated by the FCC with an ERP of 5.33watts? I know there are many factors that result in transmission range, but over double the ERP power should result in at least some sort of noticeable increase in range.
I am a loyal customer to Midland Radio and have been for a while now, and I must say this has been the first disappointment with one of your radios. I look forward to hearing back from you regarding these issues that I have come across and I hope to see changes to the radio so that I can purchase a pair to suit my needs. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.
-Josh G."
 Good basic radios, but do not exactly live up to their title! August 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The radios are fun and basically work as described, except:
- They are not waterproof. We accidentally dropped one into the lake, for a second, in about 1 inch of water. I ended up opening the radio, and drying it off with a hairdryer inside. It did work after that.
- The 30 miles, mmmm, maybe 3 miles is better. Throw some trees in, and it does not even give you 1.5 miles. On the lake, I did manage to get about 3 miles, line of site, with no problems. I think it can do more, but I wonder if it can do 30.
The weather feature is great, and automatically alarms to bad weather, in the boat this was a great feature to have. I like the scramble and encryption functions, you are on your own on a FMRS frequency. Nice desktop charger, place them there every night, and they are ready for the next day.
All in all, great for the price, but they are not waterproof and I don't think you can get 30 miles out of them.
 Very Pleased August 17, 2008
My family and I went on vacation to Steamboat Colorado (Awesome Place) and we all kept in touch by using the Midland GXT900VP4. This made keeping track of kids and each other great. My wife would go into town to pick up some things and if I would reminder her to pick something up with the two way radios. Using our cell phones to keep in touch would have been a pain because I had family there from all over the U.S. (Lot of different area codes) and the Midlands made life much easier during the vacation.
 gmrs gxt900vp4 August 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
this gmrs is much better than a c.b.radio. i think everyone should get rid of their c.b. and go to the gmrs.there is no squelch and it scrambles your conversation.
 Not worth it August 14, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Distance is very poor. Maybe one mile on land and 1.5 miles on the open water. Takes time to get to understand how they work. Disappointed
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