Two-way radios, mobile and handheld options and preferred frequencies

I've read many of the threads on this forum regarding two-way radios. I am currently shopping for some of my own and have considered both mobile and handheld. I spent my entire career of over 27 years using radios heavily on a daily basis but I have to admit I am still an amateur when it comes to these things. I am really pleased to see there are a few very knowledgeable folks in this forum.

I have considered a great number of options and looked at the Rugged Radios sold by a vendor here as well. I very much like the simplicity of those units, but there are a large number of less expensive options than the Vertex. The Asian made radios that are substantially less money seem outwardly to be too complex.
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In my experience, simple and rugged is best. I do not want complex displays, unlabeled multi-function keys, numerous buttons and knobs all over the unit or handset; I need simple. For this reason I have strongly considered the Midland MicroMobile MXT100.
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It has several drawbacks, however. The first is that it is only GMRS, the second, it is not repeater-enabled, and there are a few others. The up-side is that the thing is small, durable, simple, and puts out an adequate signal if your group stays relatively nearby. I have also decided that the way to go in my case will be a handheld unit that I can easily take with me when I step out of the vehicle. The cheap option in this case are the so-called blister-pack radios that are mass produced but have limited range. I've seen several other handhelds by Baofeng and others, and again they just strike me as being too complicated to be practical for my application.

So, while doing my research I came across mention of a new radio being produced and sold here in the US. It seems to fit the bill perfectly. Very compact in size, rugged, limited features, and relatively powerful for what it is. I found it through a YouTube video reviewing handhelds, and further searches produced nothing else as far as reviews on YT. The radio is the "Tera TR-505" and the "Tera TR-500". Here's the video. Since this guy is long-winded, you can start at about the 15 minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq14TIUXJ8Y

In his part 2 video, he delves into the Tera immediately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0mGWUvrFJs

Tera's website: http://tera.co/

I know this particular radio may not suit the needs of others here, but some of you radio-heads, what do you think? Have you heard of the Tera? any experience with them?

A vendor website with some more information along with several accessories:

https://powerwerx.com/tera-tr505-gmr...handheld-radio

I have a vertex 2200 and most of us use BAJAPIT.


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I have the 2200 from Rugged Radio .

Not sure what BAJAPIT is but in one of the threads I saw a list of names/frequencies. The frequency is 154.980.

I cannot find the frequency ranges for the Tera TR-505 "Recreational" radio. It comes pre-programmed for the GMRS Channels and is MURS capable. The description also states it is a dual band, but again, I can't find the specs.

Their other simple hand-held is the TR-500 "Commercial" radio. It states it comes programmed with "business" channels. It is programmable (and I think the recreational TR-505 is as well), and the frequency range for the commercial unit is 136-174 and 400-470. The commercial model is only $20 more. I'm not certain if I can program the 505 within the same ranges as the 500.

I may spring for the commercial unit as it appears I can program some GMRS into it if I wanted to.

Since this radio was just released, maybe I should wait until I find some more reviews on it. The ones out there now are glowing, but they also appear on the vendor's website.

Here's an affordable 200 channel model. It looks to be the same size as the others. It also has the same frequency range as the 500. I still want to keep it simple, but maybe this will work.
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https://powerwerx.com/tera-tr590-han...mmercial-radio

If you want to keep it simple, just buy one from Rugged Radio. It will come loaded with every freq others are using.

Nothing worse than showing up for an event only to find you programmed your radio wrong and don't know how to or can't fix the programming from the face plate.

Repeaters don't matter unless you are a ham or plan on using GMRS in the city.

We keep it simple in my Maverick Rugged Radio 2200 with intercom along with Bluetooth so I can pipe music into my helmet so no one else can hear my hard rock head banging music...lol

Thanks CC. You seem to have a lot of knowledge regarding the radios based on other posts. That, along with other opinions will have me looking at the RR options again.