Radioddity GM-30 Plus Review

--By David Pomerance KO4DKN and Ricky Eaton KD4HGR

The Radioddity GM-30 plus Handheld radio is a dual band GMRS transceiver which allows you to program 1,000 channels across 10 zones, including 30 default GMRS channels and 970 customizable channels. This radio supports a wide range of receiving bands: GMRS, FM, UHF, VHF, NOAA, Air, 220-260 MHz, and 350-390 MHz. This radio can act as both a transmitter & scanner to transmit on GMRS and monitor 8 other bands. The radio has a lot of good features out of the box which makes this a rock-solid radio. Let’s take a closer look.

This radio includes the Radioddity & Baofeng “Frequency Copy” feature. By simply pressing [SK2] key (which you can program for SEARCH) you can easily clone and duplicate a frequency, CTCSS/DCS tone from one device to another, ensuring consistent and reliable communication across multiple units you may own. If you have a GMRS club it will allow you to easily program other club members radios in seconds.

The radio comes equipped with a robust high-capacity lithium-ion 2500mAh battery, and USB-C charging port which adds convenience by allowing you to recharge quickly and easily in various settings, including with the use of a wall adapter, USB-C port in a desktop or laptop, a power bank or the use of a car charger USB-C/Cigarette lighter plug. The battery is securely fastened to the radio with 1 decent size screw and is not a snap-in battery. Perhaps one down side to the battery is that the USB-C port is located in the battery, so if you replace the battery be sure to buy the same battery, so you get the benefit of the USB-C port.

The radio comes with a built-in GPS feature, so you can get longitude, latitude, and straight-line distance of your contacts right from the radio. This radio is not for APRS tracking, but it does give you some essential location data to boost your safety during outdoor activities.

This radio comes with a nice and pleasant male Voice, instead of the computer-generated voice that the other radios have. You can always change the type of male/female voice from within the radio setup menu if you want a different one.

The radio has a Kenwood style microphone port on the right side of radio under the water-resistant cover. This radio[1 pcs] is nicely priced on Radioddity’s website for less than $40.

This radio feels good in the hand. The sound quality coming out of the radio does not sound as tinny as some Chinese brand radios. When talking to other GMRS users in the area the transmissions appear to be very clean to my ear, which perhaps means that Radioddity put a good size speaker within the radio.

One downside I found is that the volume knob is loose. This is probably because it’s not a rotary dial with notches. The volume on this radio is very loud but even with the loose knob I was able set the volume to a comfortable setting when listening to the other people on GMRS.

The included 2500mAh battery held up well under my daily transmissions, but with the many charging options available with this unit, I didn’t expect to run out of battery.

The radio does have the NOAA weather channels but does not have Weather Alerts, which I wish the radio had.

The radio does have Dual Watch/ Dual Reception so you can monitor two channels (A Channel and B Channel) at the same time. This is a plus feature! I like this, so I can monitor B Band, my Amateur radio repeater, while transmitting on the A band which is my GMRS channel 21. You can even do cross band reception with this little radio as well. The radio also has a few different Scan functions within the menu system so you can scan your channels, or frequencies.

Some of the radio channels come preprogrammed, like the standard GMRS channels. But you can add 970 more customizable channels to the radio and you can put them into 10 customizable Zones, or groups. This radio can be programmed from the front panel or by software downloaded from radioddity’s website. There was an included programming cable with my unit, but some packages from Radioddity didn’t include it, so make sure yours has it if you want it. Don’t worry if you didn’t get one, they do make it available if your package doesn’t include it. My package came with two radios and the following accessories:

Thank you taking the time to read my short review.
73’s