Midland GXT1000VP4 5 50 Channel Waterproof GMRS Radios with NOAA Weather/All Hazard Alert. Includes Rechargeable Batteries, Dual Desktop Charger, Headsets and 12 volt Vehicle Adapter, Pair Packed. The GXT1000VP4 features the standard 22 GMRS Channels plus an additional 28 Channels. The GXT1000 meets the JIS4 Standard of exposure to water for 30 minutes and features the Maximum Power allowed for GMRS Handheld Radios for up to a 36-Mile Range. Weather Scan finds the nearest NOAA broadcast to stay up to date with the latest weather and hazard information. In addition to important weather announcements, All Hazards Alert means the GXT1000VP4 will receive other emergency announcements such as Child Abduction (Amber Alert), Nuclear Power Plant Warnings, Biological Hazard, Fire, and Landslide Warnings. New features for 2009 include the Whisper feature which allows you to speak quietly and still be heard clearly by others and SOS to send out a distress sound for emergency situations. The Group Call allows you to make "direct calls" to other people within the group without alerting the entire group. The GXT1000VP4 features a Vibrating Alert for silent notification and 9 Level E Vox for Hands Free operation. Additional features are 387 Privacy Codes, Scan of the 50 Channels, Hi/Med/Low Power Settings, 10 Call Alerts, Keypad Lock, and Battery Save Circuit. Unlike other GMRS radios on the market that use lithium batteries, Midland's Dual Power Option allows the use of the included rechargeable batteries or 4 "AA" batteries
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i bought this radio to talk to my family when we are out in the wood. The fact it says it works upto 36 miles, that is only if you are in Desert with no blocking mountain or building. however, in the city this radio worked upto 3 miles.
I love the fact that you can use Alkaline batteries or rechargeable. You never need to buy battery. It comes with rechargeable stand which can even charge your AA recahargable batterries beside its own included battery. It has alot of futures. Over all it is nice collection for those who like to go outdoor activity. advertise 36 miles, where it should say 6 miles.
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In the past I have taken walkie talkies to the State Fair and they were unusable because of all the chattering going on. I brought the Midland GXT1000VP4 radios to the fair and randomly selected a channel and privacy setting. They worked perfectly. Not one other person broadcasted on the same channel (200,000 people in attendance). We could hear each other crystal clear. You either get a crystal clear signal or no signal at all with these radios; there is never any static. They lasted the whole day on one charge and the battery indicator still read full.
The only complaint that I have is when putting them on the charger, it takes a bit of menuvering to get the charge light to go on…and I have had it go off after about 15 minutes before. In that case I reseated the one radio again and the light stayed on for the whole charging period.
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The Midland GTX 1000VP4’s work great and are easy to use. I have used them for many hours at a time. The low battery indicator comes on long before they quit working. The published range is very optimistic. But it is the best of this class I have used. I took back 2 different Cobras that didn’t work well before buying the Midland radios.
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My husband and I go gold panning in California when the snows melt. We are never in an area that has cell reception so we decided to invest in a two-way radio. We tend to wander away from each other so these have been very useful locating one another. Have only used them twice but are pleased with the reception, the hands free operation and the crystal clear signals.
I’m hoping we never have to use them in an emergency but at least we’ll have them … just in case.
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The Midland GXT1000VP4 50-Channel 36-Mile Waterproof is a good radio. But like everything it has things that do not work as well as it is described. Like the range is great as long as there is NOTHING in the way between the people you are talking to. It works to about 3 miles in a city and maybe 10 miles on the freeway. The rechargeable batteries work very well. So all in all it is a very good buy.
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Presently surprised with radios. I have a Harley so I had to adjust the sensitivity levels for voice activation. Motor noise interfered at #1 setting. Had to adjust to 7 in order for radio to work with activation. Wife was in house, and we talked for about 1.5 miles. Bought mainly so we could communicate when she is a passenger on bike. Very good for this purpose..
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update July 2010 : after further testing we mounted the charger in the race car and hard wired it to the 12v electrical system. Worked great. Tie wrapped the radio to the mount. No power issues now. now we are working on a more reliable headset for use in a race car with PTT and helmet. The standard motorcycle setup is useless. Made a hybrid setup. Worked great, but the wires are just too weak. Could not take the abuse that my drivers gave it. Now trying a tactical throat mic setup with MIL-spec cables.
I purchased these for our endurance race car team for an upcoming 24 Hour race at Nelson Ledges in Ohio in October (24 Hours of LeMons, Lamest Day). We were using the Midland motorcycle helmet speakers and mic setup that works with these radios. Initially in the pits while testing they worked great. But when you got on the track you could not hear each other. After speaking with other racers and Midland Tech Support we will be trying out the FBI style in-ear piece.
The radios worked well. Just remember that to use these radios on the non-FRS frequencies you will need an FCC license.
The range was good. But because these have the FRS frequencies, the antenna is not removable. It would have helped us if we could have mounted a roof antenna but can’t due to FCC law. We had good coverage until the Carousel (turn 7-9) and picked up again just before turn 10. This kinda sucked under Yellow as the area is blind at speed. You were on your own.The trees are what caused the blackout, so it really was not the radios fault.
Now the batteries did well, but they did not last the full 24 hours like we expected. They lasted only about 14 hours. This really did suck as we were not allowed to swap out radios/batteries in the hot pits due to the rules. There is no facility on the radio to plug it into a 12v supply. Now the charger base that comes with the radios does have a 12v adapter, but this is not stable enough to use in a race car.
These are little issues that mainly concern fellow racers, but to use these as they were meant these radios would be awesome.
I did contact Midland customer service about some of the issues. But they were not very helpful. More like sales people that had to look up the facts before answering my questions, which really were never answered. And they were not willing to work with me on trying to figure out how to make these work in our conditions. The company we use for our in-car cameras, […] and […], bend over backwards for us as we try and help them make better products. I expected that from a company like Midland. If you are reading this Mr or Mrs. Midland, please contact me. We have some ideas that could add a whole new market to your radios.
Bill Strong
Racing Strong Motorsports
The Toyota MR2 Owners Club
RSm was a 2009 24 Hours of LeMons Top 10 in Class Finisher! Twice!
See our videos at […]
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The package arrived quickly and was packed very well. Typical for an Amazon purchase.
The radios work as advertised and I got a range of 11 miles so far on the first usage, according to Google earth and the ruler function. This was using a high power GMRS radio channel. Will they make 36 miles? Not in my area they probably will not. If your area in flat like Kansas, I imagine that the radio might come close to that claim.
For the price, there was a lot included. The rechargeable batteries were a nice addition as the radios burn through regular AA batteries.
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These midlands are pretty decent little HTs for what they cost. They are not indestructible, but they are relatively robust–much tougher than most blister pack radios. I’ve used these in urban environments and in the woods with good results. I got about 1.5-2mi with one RT inside a wood frame house and the other inside a vehicle in a relatively populous, yet wooded area…line of sight was gone after 100 yds and there were lots of trees and houses in between. That is about all I would expect from an MBITR or other military grade 5w TR in those conditions, so I am relatively pleased. In a hunting situation, these worked well, and range was good, although I didn’t do an objective test in this environment. Battery life…used these for a 10 hour day on several occasions and the battery meter never dropped, although this was admittedly mostly in receive, with maybe a dozen transmissions over the course of the day. These are an upgrade to the old 950 series, and I wish they retained the scramble function. Although it limited range, it was a neat feature. The only thing that would make these radios better is a TNC or BNC connection for the antenna so you could swap out a more efficient design when required. I use these with the Midland security earpieces, which also work great…good audio, stays in your ear, and works under muff-style hearing protection.
Caveats: You have to charge the included batteries to full charge before attempting to use. Otherwise the pack will probably not work well for you. Read the directions, and you will be fine. They are a NiMH rechargeable pack, and not sure on the self-discharge rate, so you may want to charge fresh before heading out. I use Tenergy low self-discharge NiMH batts in mine and they work great.
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After careful research of all available GMRS radios on the market, I choose Midlands top of the line GXT series radios. Midland has always made some of the best products over the years and I had to give these a try. I recently moved to a rather remote rural area and felt the need to have some additional ways of communication. The truth is, all of the high end consumer radios no matter that the wattage, are limited in range given the terrain you happen to be in unfortunately. Just to prove this, I did some range testing: 1: Rural w/ trees and some houses from house standing outside to max range in car was 2 miles. 2: Outside hunting with partner, ear pieces, forest canvas, 2 miles with elevation changes, excellent reception with more range easily available if needed. 3: Top of small elevation to house inside was over 3 miles loud and clear, so is it possible to get longer range if there are limited trees and obstructions. All of these tests were on high power (5 watts) and high power channels with privacy codes set.
I will be testing some more this month with various conditions.
Overall, I was very happy with these radio’s. They are extremely durable, reliable, and well made.
Positives: Durable, functional features, battery life (8+hours on high), car charger, home charger, ear pieces, tons of privacy options with the channel selection, whisper function really works, vibrate mode that works excellent.
Negatives: Range is always hard to find with obstructions ( as with any radio). Midland does not have repeater channels on these top of the line GXT radio’s. These radio’s would be the complete package if they did.
I highly recommend these radios for any adult.
George
FCC License# WQLD553