I purchased these radios 2 month back. I was sold when I saw the 5 watts advertisement.
I use these radios for camping and general stuff and have found them great for price and great distance compared to other brands.
Radios go about 2/5 miles for me almost all the time. They Work well on the high way too!!! The audio quality is very nice even in windy conditions.
The radios can take a bit of a bashing as mine have, but if you want a nice range and want to pay small price, then the MIDLAND GXT700 is what you want.
Yes they do lack a lot of functions but they are radios and they do the job( very nicely ). The only drawback for me was the range I was expecting these to go for miles and miles and sadly this is not the case.
All in all If you want a cheap reliable radio then Midland GXT 700 is for you.
P.S Don’t buy the midland battery packs and chargers, go on ebay and buy Recharge Battery and charger(china) and you will save a small fortune.
Any chance you could send me a private message with the link to the aftermarket charger/batteries that you mentioned? Perhaps we should look into carrying this.
I purchased a pair of GXT700s about a month ago, primarily for use in parkland near Manhattan. The black faceplate of this model is very “professional” looking. Range is excellent in the woods and, of course, over open space. My only objection to these radios is the absence of privacy codes. I received voice communication cutting in and out on every GMRS frequency. Since the squelch is not variable, there is no way to prevent this. I found the intermittent interference so objectionable that I purchased a pair of GXT710s (which come with rechargeable batteries and a charger – actually a bargain compared with the less expensive GXT700s, which do not come with rechargeable batteries or a charger). I used four new, fully charged 2900 mAh NiMH batteries in the GXT700s – the battery level indicator dropped by one bar (down to 2 bars) after only a few minutes of use. This did not occur when I used new alkaline AA batteries – the 3 bars were retained for over 1 hour. The GXT710s provide identical performance but have privacy codes (plus other features), which solved my interference problem. With the GXT710s, the battery level indicator still shows maximum output (3 bars) after 4 hours of use with the included rechargeable batteries. The GXT710s have silver faceplates. I prefer the black faceplate of the GXT700, and was able to switch these so my GXT710s now have black faceplates and my GXT700s have silver faceplates (this was easy to do, but the speaker/mic connections must be unsoldered and then resoldered).
Bottom line: Both the GXT700s and GXT710s are excellent radios. If you can tolerate the occasional interference from other GMRS users, go for the 700s. Otherwise, the 710s are the way to go.
I think I have an explanation for the battery level indicator problem. Alkaline batteries have a rated voltage of 1.5V, while rechargeable NiMH batteries output about 1.2V. I have a handheld GPS which allows to set the type of battery used exactly for this reason, to be able to show battery level correctly. As your radio was designed more with alkaline batteries in mind (or the included battery pack), they calibrated the level indicator for that type of batteries. Don’t worry though, the rechargeables will last as long as they should.
I have a pair of 710’s and with duracell 2650 MAH batteries I set them on scan
and they ran over 24 hours straight before needing a charge. This included some use of the speaker since there was intermittant talk throughout the day on a couple of channels.
The batteries are not really broken in yet, so better performance can probably
be expected once they have cycled a few times.
As stated in your post, midland gxt 700 've got 2-5 mile of range. Is this the acutal range in urban conditions? my midland gxt 600 doesn’t give even 1/2 mile range in urban conditions.
