RA25 20W GMRS Mobile Radio

I really liked it wasn't over complicated to set up sounds good on both ends !

This is an excellent radio. It can be operated as a dual-band (2m/7ocm) amateur radio or as a GMRS transceiver. You can choose which to use on power up. I get unsolicited kudos on the transmit audio. Receive is excellent as well. A cinch to program with the included cable using Retevis software. I highly recommend this radio.

The construction of the radio is SOLID. I'm honestly very impressed for the price. The included accessories (Mic, bracket, mic holder) were also pretty good. The display is bright, vivid, and gives lots of information. Out of the box however, this radio is nearly useless unless it's being used with the small number of other compatible Retivis GMRS Radios. This is in part due to the seemingly random frequency and tone plans pre-loaded on the radio. The programming software is also very wonky and as of the time I'm writing this review there is no support yet in CHIRP. Lastly the GMRS version essentially has 30 channels hard-coded into the radio and all you can really change are the TONES. Now, all that being said, if you are a licensed GMRS operator you can easily boot this radio up in full North American UHF mode and take full advantage of the following features. -Full use of all the GMRS channels and repeater channels. -Tow Hundred memory slots. -High speed scanning -Simplex/Duplex channels (Works with Repeaters) -custom programming After I got the radio out of GMRS Mode I was able to add all my custom channels and tones to match my handhelds (Retevis Rt21) without issues. I also added all the standard GMRS/FRS channels without tone so I could scan. This feature works very well when you actually want to listen to what's going on in the band. After I got passed the software issues and got this radio out of what Retevis calls GMRS Mode, I must say I'm very happy with it.

Fast shipping and the radio is my third one and it works well with all the repeaters I need to reach. No problems.

Kool radio and functions well. Does 20 watts as advertised. But, the radio gets hot as a firecracker when talking alot. Heat sink is just to small. Get a small fan to keep it cool.

Im very happy with this radio for around $100 bucks you can't go wrong, my SWR is showing a 22W output. Easy to use interface, my only complaint is not being able to learn anything about the microphone port. I really want to be able to set up a custom microphone but there is zero documentation on the pinout of the RJ-45 and it seems very nonstandard. It would be great if they released some kind of K1 adapter.

Buy the programing cable, download the software and it will be easy to program the radio to your specs. Windows 10 works great but might have issues with Windows 11 recognizing cable. I like the radio.

Awesome GMRS Mobile Radio. Very Easy To Program Through The Front Panel Or Mic. If You Have An Average Understanding Of Radio Terminology, & Read The Manual - You're Home Free. No Need For A PC Or Programing Cable, (you can use if preferred,) but not necessary. Completed All My GMRS Simplex PL / DPL Codes & Repeater PL/DPL Access Codes In Under 45 Minutes. Receiver Sensitivity / Selectivity, Output Wattage & Audio Are 10-4 Top Notch. Just Ordered A 2nd For Use As A Base With An Additional Power Supply - Good Stuff.....

This walkie-talkie delivers good clarity with crisp, distortion-free audio. The sound is clear even in noisy environments, making communication smooth and reliable. Highly recommended for its excellent voice quality!

I have ben into radios & Eletronics all my life prety much 40ish + Years an I got my GMRS Lisence and wanted a decent little Radio with out breaking the bank and in doing me research i found this and i have a Very high end Coax & antenna Comet X9 ant and M&P Coax (Probably The Best Money can Buy) and i have my ant about 25-30ft an i hear and talk probably 50+ Miles in about any Direction a 3 watt handheld more than 10 miles and i can hear some ham repeaters that are much farther over 100 miles But That is Ground waves rolling at night ! this little radio Retivis RA-25 is pretty good for the money If you know how to get a Good ant & Coax and Forget about all the Cheep Junk on amazon an ebay 95% of All coax sold on here is Fake No Good Coax Will Almost Never Have an Aluminum Center and or sheild It Must be Copper Point blank an any one that says Different don't know what they are talking about..Except in a Fuw rare cases when Copper is just to Costly..if you want to Receive any thing more than 5-8 miles You must Get good coax ! But that's not exactly Cheep ! If you want to know where to look just ask i can point you n the right direction ABI Industry and MPD Digital are a good place to start I would say Start at the very least with RG213U Or Better ! But The Bet Coax is Probably M&P (Italian made) i cant stress how important Good Coax is & How Hard it is to Get Now Days i got burned 3-4 Times n a Row an i knew what to look for !

I have to start by saying that I'm a long time ham radio operator and have used several dual band mobile radios in the mostly distant past. I bought this radio hoping to use it on VHF Receive only, and GMRS TX/RX. I struggled with getting the programming to do this as it shows many available memory channels, but no ability to program them outside of GMRS even with TX disabled. Then I found this on a forum which is not mentioned anywhere else: You need to set the radio to the 136-174/430-470 mode (that's widely known on the forums and reviewers). But how to get the non GMRS programming to work? The key is to READ from the radio first, then modify that file which the software allows. Using the supplied code plug when installing the software does not work, must use the code plug read from the radio itself. Now I have it programmed up for GMRS with a bunch of CTCSS codes for privacy, and a bunch of VHF band RX only freqs. Besides that it's a basic dual receive radio that is super small. Audio out is great but I put an external speaker under passenger seat in truck, that's always the best. My only objection so far is that when in keypad/front panel lock mode there is no way to un-squelch to hear how loud the volume is set to. I wish that would work even with keypad/front panel lock turned on. update July 2024: I programmed in the NOAA weather stations and using a run of the mill dual band mag mount antenna. This radio is able to receive NOAA station over 40 miles away and with transmitter not very high. This may not sound like a good feat but is definitely better than my old analog Yeasu HT or Mobile radios. OK, I don't know the real RX sensitivity of this Retivis radio, it's probably only ok frankly, but at least it's not poor as I feared from a SoC radio. This makes is a great radio for the price IMHO.

Recently received my GMRS license, and decided to get a base station for the house. Plugged this radio into a power supply and got a small antenna, and it works flawlessly. Great audio quality and easy to program with the programming software on the website. Aside from that, you can still listen to HAMs if you so desired (Of course, without the ability to speak to them). 9/10, lovely radio. I recommend to anyone who wants a base station or a little radio to leave in the car.

Great little radio. Perfect for setting up a pack radio.

This is for the second one I have bought. Like the first one so much had to have one as a base unit. Works well wit a Browning br 450 5/8 over 5/8. Pinging repeaters 20 miles away in not near perfect conditions.

Easy to see display. This is my second one of these and couldn't be happier. My E-bike install causes some head turning. Can hear what is being received even while buzzing down the road. Takes a little learning curve to program with microphone but easy with computer and USB cable. Still no CHIRP programming yet but the company software is pretty easy to use.

I was impressed with the overall look and feel of this radio. The display is easy to read, and the controls well laid out. I needed a compact radio for the mounting location I have in my Nissan Titan. I used a flexible stalk that mounts to the passenger seat base, and this radio is perfect for that. I researched this unit a lot, and found something that was important to me that was missing on a lot of radios in this price point- a VOLUME control! When my wife is in the truck with me, it is very important that I can quickly adjust the volume so that it doesn't interfere with her hearing aids. I highly recommend this radio. I will be building a personal repeater soon and using more Retevis radios for that as well.

i was really shocked at how nice this radio sounds , crystal clear people are asking me man what radio do you have ! really nice product for beginners.

had to return it due to screen to small for me, I am older, and old school and like a bigger screen

I had a very specific purpose when I purchased this radio. I need a GMRS radio, which was compact in size, included a microphone with a microphone stud, rather than the hanger type, most amateur radios use, and could be easily mounted and dismounted in my truck. The original intent was to find a radio operated on all GMRS frequencies, including repeater pairs, that was easy to program from the microphone, and could monitor 70 cm hammer radio frequencies as well, because I was heading into a hurricane deployment, and frequently, we used GMRS as back up for vehicle to vehicle communications when needed, however, the state of Florida also has a robust network of 70 cm ham repeaters, which are interconnected and can be used in emergency situations by responders who need to communicate with the state operation center. I figured monitoring that network on the secondary channel while being able to communicate on a GMRS channel was exactly what I needed. However, once I left my hurricane assignment, I opened the radio up to the full spectrum of United States amateur frequencies, and I have operated this radio both on 2 m with a dedicated 2 m antenna, and on 70 cm with a wide band, UHF antenna, and I have gotten good reports on clarity and signal strength on both sets of those frequencies. so, in retrospect, when I thought I was buying a good GMRS radio, I actually ended up with a good dual band, low output, amateur radio, which has the appropriate part 95 certification to be used on licensed GMRS frequencies. It should be noted for the purpose of this review and for the use of this radio that I am licensed for GMRS and hold a Amateur radio license, and that anyone who purchases and operates this radio should be licensed on any frequency they may transmit on.

The Retevis RA25 GMRS Mobile Radio, Is a good little radio. It took me a few mins to figure out how to get the DCS codes out of it. This is my only complaint, come on Retevis there is no reason to ship these with the codes programmed in. Also no programming cable was included. Other than that a great little radio.

thank y

I really like this little radio. I've since replaced it with a slightly higher power model but not because I was unhappy with it. The display is well laid out and easy to read, the programming menus take a little bit to get used to but once you do it's pretty easy to change things like CTCSS on the fly. My only real complaint in the menus is that it would be nice to make a DCS direct entry rather than having to scroll through to the right setting (with 1024 combinations including both N and I that's a lot....) The biggest complaint is that it doesn't work with chirp. Yes, it also uses a prolific knock off so you have to find a windows 7 laptop or install dodgy third party drivers but I can deal with that if I can use chirp. The included software is TERRIBLE. I wrote a python script that will inject a Chirp CSV channel list into an existing dat file that you can then upload with the Retevis software. Look at issue 9241 on the Chirp website. This is the same guts as several other radios like the RT95...search youtube for more information on that...

Nice package, with excellent footprint in my car. Sound quality is excellent, both on send and receive. Truly a gem.