Midland GXT1050VP4 36Mile 50Channel FRS/GMRS TwoWay Radio Pair
Midway's GXT1050VP4 two-way, 22-channel radios are designed for GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) operation, in a rugged, weatherproof package. With a range of up to 36 miles and Mossy Oak Breakup...read more
$65.76
Average Customer Rating
4 out of 5 |
Product Features
- 50-Channel Mossy Oak Break Out Camo with Up to 36-Mile Range
- NOAA/All Hazard Weather Channels with Alert and Weather Scan
- 387 Privacy Codes
- Vibrate Alert
- 9 Levels of VOX for Hands Free Operation
Product Description
Midway's GXT1050VP4 two-way, 22-channel radios are designed for GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) operation, in a rugged, weatherproof package. With a range of up to 36 miles and Mossy Oak Breakup Camo finish, they're ideal for your next hunting trip. Features include privacy codes, direct/group calling, NOAA weather radio/alert/scan, silent operation, whisper function, SOS siren, and plenty more. Five animal call alerts are also included. Perfect for the outdoorsman. With a range of up to 36 miles, the GXT1050VP4s are perfect for most any adventure. Click to enlarge. |
 Package includes Pair of radios, belt clips, desktop charger, rechargeable batteries, pair of mic headsets, AC wall adapter, and DC (vehicle) adapter. Click to enlarge. |
 Measures 9.75 x 2.5 x 1.75 inches. |
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GXT1050VP4 Features
22 Channels PLUS 28 EXTRA CHANNELS
Clear, crisp communication with easy button access.
Up to 36 Mile Range
Longer range communication in open areas with little or no obstruction.
387 Privacy Codes
Gives you up to 5560 channel options to help you block other conversations.
NOAA Weather Alert Radio with Weather Scan
Automatically locks on to your local weather channel and alerts you to severe weather.
SOS Siren
Allows you to send out distress/locator signals in an emergency situation.
JIS4 Waterproof
Protection against light rain or splashing water from all directions on the radio.
Whisper
Allows you to speak quietly and still be heard clearly by others.
Group Call
Allows you to make direct calls to other people within the group without alerting the entire group.
eVOX
Hands-Free Operation (9 levels) with easy voice activation--no need for an external microphone.
X-TRA TALK Power
Maximum allowed by law.
Weather Scan
Easily scans the active weather channel in your area.
Direct Call
Allows you to instantly contact one member of your party without alerting the others.
10 Call Alerts
Different call tones to notify you of incoming calls from your group.
Five Animal Call Alerts
Includes Turkey, Duck, Crow, Cougar and Wolf alerts.
Channel Scan
Automatically checks channels for activity.
Dual Watch
Lets you monitor two channels.
Vibrate Alert
Provides silent page / call notification.
Auto Squelch
Removes annoying background noise.
Keypad Lock
Locks in your selected settings.
Monitor
Checks for any activity within your channel.
HI/MED/LO Power Settings
Lets you adjust transmit power & conserve battery life.
Roger Beep
Indicates call completion.
Silent Operation
Turns off all tones for quiet operation.
Bright Backlit Display [LCD]
Easy to read day or night.
Keystroke Tones Audible tones with each key press
Mic and Headphone Jacks
Battery Life Extender
Provides longer battery life.
Drop-in Charger Capable
Dual Power Options
4 standard AA batteries (not included) or rechargeable batteries.
Midland Radio Corporation
Midland Radio Corporation is an international industry leader in wireless communications with affiliates in Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom, as well as representation in Latin America. Midland develops high quality consumer products such as GMRS Two-Way Radios, Citizen Band (CB) Radios, Marine Radios, Bluetooth intercom systems, and All Hazards/Weather Alert Radios. Also, as a leading manufacturer of Land Mobile Radios, Midland supplies professional grade analog and digital (P25 Technology) Portables, Mobiles and Base Stations/Repeaters for government entities such as forestry, public safety, and other commercial users.Known in the '70s primarily for CB radios and household electronics, Midland has grown with the times by producing innovative new communications products and by actively promoting public emergency preparedness. Midland has manufactured quality Two-Way Radios for the last 50 years and is a market leader in several individual categories.
What's in the Box
Pair of radios, belt clips, desktop charger, rechargeable batteries, pair of mic headsets, AC wall adapter, DC (vehicle) adapter and owner's manual ....read moreProduct Details?
Accessories:
Midland GXT1050VP4 36-Mile 50-Channel
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great Product! Need to play a little longer to get to know all the functions…
Great for Uninterrupted Ranges
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Recently while archery elk hunting, my husband dropped one of these radios during a walk through the brush. Returning to the same spot 2 weeks later, he found it. And it still worked!! During the final days of our hunt, there were some reception issues between us& our hunting part. This may have been due the mountainous terrain between us. We were approximately 10 miles apart. My husband is thrilled with the quality and convenience of on the go recharging.
Motorola MR350R vs Midland GXT1050
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Motorola MR350R vs Midland GXT1050–Both products received good reviews on Amazon and I had a hard time initially deciding which one to buy since I could not find detailed comparison between the two. So, I will try to be more comprehensive in comparison here hoping to help you make a decision suitable for your purpose.
I bought MR350R two months ago from Costco at $55 (tax included) to monitor my baby sleeping upstairs and to use during road trips. A month later I also bought Midland GXT1050 from Amazon upon good reviews and my dissatisfaction with some silly design issue associated with the MR350 VOX feature (which is critical for monitoring purpose).
Size and weight: MR350 is lighter (6.2oz vs 7.3oz for each handset including rechargeable battery pack and belt clips) and has a noticeably more agronomical grip, especially for kids or someone with smaller hands.
Setup and Change Settings: MR350 has more intuitively LCD display and signs/symbols whereas GXT1050 took me a couple of hours to set up and memorize what each symbol/letter means (It would be tremendously helpful if Midland can add a full list of all symbols/letters and their meanings in a simple table instead of diving this information into chunks and burying it into each individual function/feature section). I think a 10 year old can be taught to change settings on MR350 without a manual but that most likely won’t happen with GXT1050 (with or without the manual).
Features: These two share many useful key features like Weather Scan and Alert. GXT1050 has more channels (50 vs 22 for MR350R) which may be useful for using in populated areas although I never run into issues with MR350 on this one. MR350 has a built-in LED light for emergency use, which is nice. GXT1050 can produce a loud SOS siren which maybe useful in certain situations (although I never used it for any real purposes). Overall GXT1050 seems a bit more versatile with features such as direct call.
Range: GXT claimed 36 miles range and MR350 claimed 35 miles–both claims are meaningless since nobody would ever achieve the advertised range unless standing on two mountain peaks with perfect conditions. In actual use, the effective range is more like 1-2 miles in a flat suburban environment and a bit more in open field. Some reviewers here found a slightly better range with GXT1050 although my test twice showed MR350R lasted a slightly longer range while me driving away from home with each model broadcasting from my living room.
PPT Button is the one needing to be pressed down when transmitting. MR350R has the button designed in such way you can press the upper part for high power and lower part for low power–made switch power a much easier task. Using GXT1050′s mechanism you will have to pre-configure power level in the settings and is not very easy to change in a hurry. The shape of MR350 PPT button is made in such a way though, you would end up using the high power most of the time since the upper part of the button protrudes further out. Nonetheless, I like the MR350R design on this one.
VOX: This is one of the most critical features if you want to monitor baby sleeping in a different room or just want to talk hand-free. I agree with C. Hayes’ review here that MR350R’s three sensitivity levels are not sensitive enough (Hayes’s wording made me smile, though a bit exaggerated.). GXT1050 has 9 level of sensitivities and the most sensitive setting (level 1) is indeed more sensitive than that of MR350R (level 3), however, the difference it is not day and night–both detected my baby crying after waking up when placed about 1-2 feet away and both failed to detect my normal talk volume from 1-2 feet away unless I yell loudly or put the radio within 2-3 inches to my mouth. When put in front of a PC speaker, I did notice that GXT1050 started getting into the transmitting mode a bit earlier than MR305R as I turned up the volume knob of my speaker. However, if you want to talk to you handset placed on your shoulder (like policeman does) with your normal voice volume without bending your head to get close to the ratio–good luck no matter which set you use. I really think both companies should increase the sensitive level here.
The biggest turn-off of MR350R is that its VOX feature would be automatically cancelled if you press PPT button, intentionally or accidentally, even if when all settings are “locked”–my baby likes to play with radio and sometime the VOX setting is accidentally cancelled because he squeezed the PPT button. I found this a ridiculous under-thinking (or over-thinking) by Motorola’s engineers–I understand the need to preserve power if pressing PPT means VOX may no longer be necessary, but auto-cancel even though settings are locked? Does the word “lock” mean anything? GXT has no problem on this one–kudos to their engineers. I would have returned MR350R for this reason alone (thanks to the great Costco return policy.) if not because my GXT1050 set had a quality issue.
The Wishper feature of GXT1050 does give much loud volume which is very useful for baby monitoring if you don’t carry your ratio set on you or right next to you.
Battery life: Both are pretty good (for the good unit I have). I followed exact instructions to do the initial charge (important to battery life) and subsequent charges. However, one of my MR350R unit would run out juicy twice faster than the other handset would–this may be due to difference in batteries or the radio circuit parts. Even worse luck with GXT1050 I had– sometimes one unit would lose power during use even though it was newly charged and it would not even charge after being placed on the charger. Swapping batteries solves the problem temporarily but this issue reappears later. This caused me to return the GXT1050 to Amazon (thanks to Amazon’s 30 day return policy) after on two occasions my baby woke up and fell off bed but GXT1050 failed to give me any warning in advance because of this very issue.. I don’t know whether this was caused by a faulty battery or circuit component but I do think this is probably an isolated quality issue since most reviewers here seems to be quite happy with their purchase. One small thing to comment on the rechargeable battery installation and removal–MR350 got this one right with a ribbon under the battery to help you remove the pack easily. The GXT1050 rechargeable battery pack fit in so tightly and there is no ribbon there to help–it would take a few minutes and possibly a fingernail or two (and believe me, I am not exaggerating here) to remove it, especially if you are in a hurry to put in some alkaline batteries in the field. Midland–please spend a nickel or a dime and put in a removal ribbon here.
Charger: Both models do NOT have smart charger–which means the charge light is still red even when fully charged. IBoth companies should make an improvement on this for better battery power and life.
Compatibility: I checked their frequency charts and found that first 22 channels are on exact frequencies so they are compatible. However, I found this to be true only when privacy code is not used. When both models are set on the same channel using the same privacy code–they were able to scan and found each other SOMETIMES, but not always. What a bummer since I would be happy to have both sets (if without quality issues mentioned earlier) and use them in a group to suit different needs.
Waterproof: GXT1050 is splash-proof (JIS4 as the fine print specified), not really waterproof in the sense you can submerge it in water but this is still better than MR350R.
Price: GXT1050 package costs about $20 more but it also includes two headsets and a car charger adaptor–I would call a tie on this one.
Overall, each model has its own strengths–buy what suits your purpose. I had experience in building electronics and know for a fact that individual difference in parts/components sometime impact significantly in power consumption and transmit/receiving sensitivity. So, each unit may vary somewhat from one another –your mileage may vary when coming down to range, sensitivity, etc. So, celebrate if you get a good pair but don’t get too hung up if someone else claims a bit better range or clarity or whatsoever.
I would have given 4 stars to both models given their solid performance before noticing quality issues mentioned above but 3 stars here due to quality/reliability issues happened to the set I received in addition to some much desired improvement in design–I hope the manufacturers read my reviews and take some actions–those are not expensive changes at all but would be much more user friendly. I would buy the improved version of either brand in a heartbeat.
Works for me
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Having read the reviews for these radios, I had limited expectations when I got them in the field. I have been pleasantly surprised. The physical quality is very good with the cases, antenna and clips all very sturdy compared to most of the older models I’ve seen.
While I have not had a chance to test the ultimate range, I can say that we got clear reception over a few miles in rough terrain where we had absolutely no line of sight.
The radio’s came charged and it took almost two whole days (mostly on standby) for one of the units to alert to a low battery.
The charger is GREAT! The radio’s clip into the charger base so they have a positive connection and I have even charged them in the charger laying down (backs of the radios to the floor) on the front seat or tranny hump while driving offroad with no problems and a constant charge light.
I ordered the in the ear head sets with the PTT and so have not used the headsets included with the package. However I did try one on when they arrived and wasn’t too impressed, the in the ear buds are the way to go.
Overall, these are great radios especially for the price. In fact I’m ordering another pair for the rest of our hunting party.
Bubba
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Applications are limited Flat areas with limited obstructions and (NOT) practical for motorcycles (AT ALL)on VOX &/or PTT even with the Throat Mics. We emailed Midland Customer Service (&) Tech Support to see if it (might) have been operator error “even though we’ve own Nady’s for years” with a (5 mile) range. 36 miles on the Midlands, (Sounded) awesome and you’d (figure)a (Good) 200 yards with (no) obstructions? (NOT)!!!! We where 25′ or less from each other @ 45 miles an hour and got (NOTHING)!!! lol Just thought I’d share !
Good Radios
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We bought these to use in Colorado.
However, we found out they are extremely useful on road trips when we use two vehicles.
The batteries last for about 10-12 hours, when we use them on road trips.
Great radios, long range, solid quality
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have been more than happy with these radios. I use them mostly for tactical paintball in the woods and the range is great. I have really gotten a mile in deep, thick woods. Better than any motorola or other radios I have previously had.
radios that work
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
only used them a cpl times outside and they seem pretty good. but i use them in the woods and range is limited to maybe 1/4 mile. i use them on my atv with family and they are good for that so im happy that i can use handsfree and chat. just need to get a helmet headset for better sound and noise reduction from atv
Works great in the marina
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
We use the radio for communication between kayak and yacht. Works very well in the marina and the sound quality is very good. The earpiece is difficlut to keep on the ear but sounds good. I have been impressed with the sound quality however we have not been at a great distance. Less than a mile has been very good.
Midland 36 mile talk
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I place importance on quality communication, as we spend much time driving off road buggies in the mountains of northern AZ, and I have tried many radios. For the money and stated performance category, I would place these Midland Outfitter Series GXT1050VP4 50-Channel 36-Mile Waterproof 2-Way GMRS at the top of the list. I bought to try, the three radio sets with the highest recommendations and these were by far the best for long distance communication. Now long distance is a relative term. I hope no one really expects to be able to use these at 36 miles. In the mountains with several obstructions we got clear sound both ways at about 3 – 4 miles. About 25% more than the others we tried. To get much better you will need to jump up to radios that cost about $150. -$200. each. My only criticism is that all these radios are just way too complicated these days. Too many options. But then I am certainly old school. I just want to be able to talk when I need to. Good luck.
Excelent two-way
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The reviews of the radio were spot on. I use this caravaning with a group of people and needed something hands free. The headphone/mic sounded great and I was told the radio sounded as good on the other end with no over modulation as in some radios. The battery held a charge all day (the radio was on 6-8 hours continuously everyday)
I would definitely recommend this radio(and have)to others.
Lifesaver
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My Father-in-law uses this out on Lake Michigan when he goes fishing, walking around town or when he and my husband goes to hunting camp. We had an earlier model and these work twice as far and the sound quality is excellant. Also the weather alert really comes in handy.
Great Radios for sound and distance – not so great with batteries
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
These are great radios. I got them for backpacking, skiing, airsoft and 4×4 trail runs. The sound is good. They sound as good as my friends 2 meter radios. The distance you get out of them obviously depends alot on the terrain. Don’t expect more than a few miles in heavily wooded areas, deep canyons, or city driving. Out in the desert you get miles of range though. The only problem I have had with them is that the battery life indicator is junk with the rechargable batteries that come with it. The meter will show full for most of the time, then suddenly drop a few bars and be dead within 30 mins. No real consistency on showing the actual charge rate of the battery. Despite the battery issue, I’ve owned several different FRS/GMRS radios, and think these are the best.
LED on one is not complete.
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
The LED screen on one works fine but the second one 3 parts of the information is unlit. The animal sounds only work on the receiving walkie-talkie not the sending one. I would like it to work on both since I would hope both hunters could be within earshot of game.
Awesome!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought these to use in a bar. I am a bouncer at a bar and we have live bands on Friday and Saturdays. My other bouncer and I bought the Midland Radios and Midland Security Headsets for the bar so we can communicate when we needed something. The radios are awesome, the only drawback is the battery life. We can only use them for about 18 hours and they go dead, so the rechargeable batteries that come with them are a lifesaver! I would recommend to anyone looking for a high quality radio. The NOAA weather feature is nice as well.