Chinese DMR Radios

There are more and more digital standards popping up and with that, more and more radios but the Motorola and Hytera radios can be expensive for someone wanting to just dabble in DMR. So what alternatives are there? I've done some browsing on eBay to see what the Chinese manufacturers are offering someone who wants to try DMR.

Top 5:

The following 5 radios look to be the best of what the Chinese manufacturers have to offer at the moment. I've listed them below for comparison. More info can be found by looking on Google or eBay for these. Prices are correct as of 24th March 2015.

Beifeng TD-501

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible and also analogue and is approximately £190 shipped.

Frequency rRange: 400-470 MHz
Channels: 160
Zones: 50

1 x Beifeng TD-501 Digital DMR Radio
1 x 2000mAh Li-ion Battery Pack
1 x Antenna 136/430MHz
1 x Belt Clip
1 x Hand Strap
1 x User Manual
1 x Adapter
1 x Desktop Charger ( 100V ~ 240V ) 
1 x Free programming cable

Connect Systems CS700

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible and is approximately £170-£200 shipped.

Frequency Range: 400-470 MHz

Channels: 1000

Zones: 50

Channels Per Zone: 16

BFDX BF-TD503

Unlike the TD-501 this radio has a CTCSS board and GPS built in as well as being MOTOTRBO compatible. It costs around £200 shipped.

Freqency Range: 

136-174 MHz

350-390 MHz

400-470 MHz

450-520 MHz

Channels: 160

Zones: 50

Quantun QP2100

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible. The sellers claim they are made by Hytera but Quantun have their own website for these so I doubt this is true. They cost around £170-£190 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-470 MHz UHF / 136-174 MHz VHF

Channels: 1000

KiriSun DP770

One of the earlier manufacturers of Chinese DMR radios, Kirisun has received some great reviews about this radio. It comes with GPS and is MOTOTRBO compatible. It costs around £260 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-470 MHz

Channels: 1024

Bargain Basement:

If you want to try DMR at its lowest price then the following radios are probably the lowest priced units around. I don't know how well they work so Google search for more info.

QYT D-68

This radio is MOTOTRBO compatible and costs around £99 delivered. A great radio to try if you're just testing the water with DMR.

Frequency Range: 400-480 MHz

Channels: 32

PR-77DMR

This radio seems almost identical to the one above. It costs around £100 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-480 MHz
Channels: 32

TYT MD-280

Again, almost identical to the one above this Tytera has some pretty good reviews for the price. It costs around £125 delivered.

Frequency Range: 400-480 MHz
Channels: 32

I hope you found the information above of some use when deciding what DMR radio to try.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.