Melsman
4.0 out of 5 stars Seems to be a decent radio once you figure out how to update the USB driver
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2021
Style: 1P Includes Full KitVerified Purchase
Overall, this TD-H6 is a very solid feeling radio that works well... once you get the driver situation figured out. After that, the radio works as advertised. And the extra battery and extra items (including the longer whip antenna) make this a worthwhile kit. However, as I mentioned, there are some issues that you should be aware of.
First, using the menu to turn off the annoying voice prompts showed me that the poorly written instruction manual doesn't really mention that to access ON/OFF options, you press MENU a second time.
Next, the programming cord that touts "no driver needed" is incorrect. The on-board driver is not compatible with the current Windows 10 iteration, so if you follow Tidradio's instructions, you go to the site bit.ly/driverfree... which dead-ends you into a 404 error! So now you are on your own. But here's how to make that lemonade out of the 404 error lemon.
Luckily, the 404 error drops you into the FTDI website - and FTDI is the manufacturer of the USB chip. Now you want to click the 'Drivers' tab at the top of the web page. Once the driver page loads, you want to look three lines down for a line that says, "Windows Driver Installer (VCP & D2XX), please click here." So, click there... and it will download a compressed file "CDM21228_setup.zip". Unzip the folder and run the CDM21228_setup.exe file. Windows isn't going to like it, but tell it to run it anyway. This will load the proper driver, and restarting the USB programming cable/programming software should result in a functional USB cable. At least it did for me.
As for the software, it's nice that the TIDRADIO software and the CHIRP software both work reasonably well. As usual, they use different terminology for the same features, but a little on-line research goes a long way here.
In any event, a little time and patience will result in a working radio at a good price. 5 stars for bang for the buck, - 1 star for poor instructions and driver debacle.
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