GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

[W1CY]

I got an email about the GD-88. It looks like a mix of the Anytone 878 and the BTECH 6X2 (some exclusive BTECH features are available on the GD-88 and not on the 878).

Probably a complete different chipset, but that would be cool to have the OPENGD77 firmware running there

[ok1pt]

I got an email about the GD-88. It looks like a mix of the Anytone 878 and the BTECH 6X2 (some exclusive BTECH features are available on the GD-88 and not on the 878).

Probably a complete different chipset, but that would be cool to have the OPENGD77 firmware running there

Hi!
I looked at it and it looks really promising! It seems to be a "handified" Anytone's AT-D578UV with most of the advanced features like Dual Standby (i.e. it has two separate receivers), Cross-band repeat and especially Single Frequency Repeat (SFR) on DMR, which is really very valuable for the HAM operation, because in some countries it's illegal to operate a classical duplex repeater without a special license individually obtained for it and it also requires to pay a regular fee for the operation, while SFR is free of all these limitations and can be used in many cases.
To support all these functions, OpenGD77 would have to grow substantially, or otherwise it would be really unlucky to cut all these nice features off - I'm a big fan of OpenGD77, but I wouldn't use it for this radio in the current state of the software.

[rgchristy]

I contacted them regarding the ability to RX between 480 MHz and 512 MHz, and they said no. Whether that means no; never or no; not right off the bat, I'm not sure. I can't remember if the GD-77 had band expansion when it first came out, but it has it now.

[DO3HB]

Probably never. As you can see here, the device is only specified up to 480 MHz:
https://fccid.io/VO6DR-880UV

[ve7mdt]

...
- I'm a big fan of OpenGD77, but I wouldn't use it for this radio in the current state of the software.

You wouldn't use it in the current state.... You made it sound like it's already capable of running on it, except you don't like it as such....

Really....

[VK3KYY]

If Radioddity (TYT) have done what Baofeng did with the DM1801, then they replaced all chips in the radio so that everything is sourced from Chinese designed and manufactured parts. This includes the CPU.

Chinese chips in the GD77 were a major problem, becuase its not possible to get data sheets.

So if this new radio has been resdesigned like the DM1801, it would be practically impossible to support it because of undocumented hardware

Additionally, people don't seem to remember that all these radios have crypo locked firmware, and the only reason the OpenGD77 firmware could be installed onto these radio's is because the Chinese developers used old / weak encryption which could eventually be broken.

Every new generation of radios has stronger crypo locking of the firmware, which can make it impossible to install non-authorised firmware.

[rgchristy]

Probably never. As you can see here, the device is only specified up to 480 MHz:
https://fccid.io/VO6DR-880UV

Thanks for the info.
If I have the correct FCC ID, the GD-77 was only specified up to 470 MHz
https://fccid.io/2AN62-GD77

It also looks like the Anytone AT878UV is the same
https://fccid.io/T4KD878UV

So, it really comes down to if the firmware can be hacked/unlocked as Roger mentioned above. We're way above my pay grade on this one.

Take care,
Rich

[ve7mdt]

I went to the Radioddity website and also used Google Search and could not find the GD-88 model from Radioddity's website.

[VK3KYY]

I went to the Radioddity website and also used Google Search and could not find the GD-88 model from Radioddity's website.

https://www.radioddity.com/products/rad ... 51e2&_ss=r

[W5RAH]

It looks to be along the same lines as the Kydera DM880UV. Their DB-25G mobile is also derived for the similar Kydera product. I have one of the DB-25G radios and it seems to work fine as long as you use the third party CPS.