BAOFENGDM-1701 Dual-Band Dual-Time Slot DMR/Analog Two-Way Radio | 3,000-Channel Capacity | Includes Programming Cable, Charger & PTT Earpiece | OpenGD77 Compatible

I already had one of these great little dual-band HTs. I wanted to buy one for one of my oldest friends in ham radio, Frank. He's not on any of the digital modes so I programmed his radio after he got his DMR ID and put frequencies in there for MD to NJ, his stomping ground. I performed the OpenGD77 upgrade and installed the codeplug for him before shipping it to him back East. This radio sounds great, transmit and receive and has excellent battery life with its larger-than-usual battery. Highly recommended. NOTE: this radio does not have a built-in GPS, if that's a feature you need. OTOH, battery life is generally better when there is no GPS! 73 DE N2GJ ABQ NM USA

The Windows 11 driver can be an absolute deal breaker. You can’t connect to a Windows 11 computer easily if at all. I was looking forward open gd77, but could never get the driver to work. Oh well. I will work getting it to work and when it does, I will order again.

I loaded OpenGD77 on this and its working great. Since I'm new to DMR, I'm not sure what else I could possibley want in a DMR radio but so far so good. Its been working great with my generic MMDVM (from GOOZEEZOO by the way) and the Brandmeister network. I would not hesistate to purchase one of these. An after thought now, I wish I would of learned how to use the stock firmware and software firsr before loading GD77, if you have the time and energy, I would at least play around with that before flashing it.

This was my third Baofeng handheld purchase and I was immediately impressed with the high-quality feel and look of the radio. However, my enthusiasm quickly faded once I embarked on the frustrating and complicated process of programming the unit. You must first obtain a special DMR radio ID before you can use it to transmit. Then you need to download specific software in order to program the radio for operation in digital mode. The user manual is of no help, and the Baofeng website offers very little help. My Windows 10 computer would not recognize the supplied programming cable, even after updating the driver. After 3 very frustrating days watching YouTube videos, I decided to return the radio for a refund. My other Baofeng radios were very easy to set up, and are still working fine. Baofeng needs to address this issue of programming.

We bought this radio to be able to listen to local fire police etc. When received we found out that you couldn’t program it by just the radio itself so we went out and bought a 200$+ (cheapest I could find) computer with windows so we could program it. Husband went to program it, it couldn’t connect it was having issues with the usb and reading it. Definitely wasn’t the PC as it was new and worked on other things. Once it finally was able to connect, my husband put all the frequencies in and downloaded to the radio. Once it was unplugged from the computer and turned on it was making a bunch of noises that it wasn’t supposed to and we couldn’t hear any one. In the process of sending it back for a refund.

I loaded Open gd77 right away and loaded the codeplug I've used on several other radios. For the price it is amazing. I get better reports on my xmit audio than with my 878UVII-PRO. It also has better rx audio than the 878 in my opinion, and the volume control gives better refinement than the 878. Definitely worth a try!

I do love this radio and I'll give the bad first, there is not usb-c battery option for this model that I can find. Otherwise, the radio has every feature I want in a hand held unit. Dual band, really tri band but the 1.25 meter band doesn't do too well. On 70cm and 2m it is great. I loaded OpenGD77 and have both digital and analog repeaters programmed. No issues with performance or reliability so far and I use it every day for nets on brandmeister as well as local repeaters and even simplex with a pigtail toa mag mount nagoya in my car.

The 1701 is a pretty-not-bad DMR HT that *can* run OpenGD77 firmware, but works reasonably well with the stock firmware. If you are on a tight budget and want to try out DMR, give this one a try. As with any DMR getting a localized codeplug may be as easy as asking a nearby ham, or (worst case) could require adapting one to your locale. Works well with my hotspot and local repeaters, not terrible on analog, and with some fiddling around you may get the satellite functions in OpenGD77 working.Functional complaints: the audio seems shrill, volume/squelch tuning is coarse, and the desktop charger's blinking LED is irritating. The CPS (configurator) software is Windows-only, but that seems to be the case for everyone.But: if you want to try DMR without breaking the bank, the DM-1701 may be your answer. OpenGD77 supports a range of devices, so time invested will not be lost if you upgrade later. Enjoy - 73