Bluetooth App Control; After wirelessly pairing your phone with the ham radio; you can conveniently change the walkie-talkie’s settings via the Retevis app’s visual interface; Note; This app is compatible with Android and iOS phones
GNSS/APRS; The amateur radio with GNSS can track location information in real time; APRS enables the receipt of SMS messages and the display of activity histories; however; it does not support sending messages
IP67 Protection; This Retevis HA2 can withstand immersion in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes without malfunction; making it the ideal choice for rescue operations; expeditions; and extreme weather conditions
Surport Customizable; The amateur rechargeable walkie talkies supports customization of the lock button; power-on screen; VFO scan range; screen timeout; and more to meet your individual needs
2800 mAh; This walkie talkies long range supports fast charging; The Type-C charging cable is convenient and quick; and the high-capacity battery ensures all-day battery life
Fast deployment; configure your two way radio fleet in seconds with full radio duplicating; all radios share the same settings instantly; no cables; no settings; no hassle; for large teams; event organizers; and rescue operations
Airband reception; stay informed with accurate; long-range air band reception; ensures crisp and stable signals across aviation bands; helping you catch vital information in real time; the true ham radio long range performance professionals rely on
One-key pairing; connect instantly; with one press; this walkie talkie synchronizes bands with another unit; no settings; no delay; suitable for quick coordination during field events or emergency deployments
Customizable settings; define your own way to operate; the ham radio handheld supports flexible zone and sc configurations; Channel; VFO; limited-range and CTCSS sc; so you can control exactly what you listen to and how you operate
FM Radio; stay entertained and relaxed between communications; the built-in FM radio adds a touch of enjoyment to long shifts or field days; an amateur radio that keeps your mind fresh while keeping you connected
Ok, thats enough copy and paste from the Ailunce website.
I have always enjoyed the Ailunce / Retevis equipment from early on. I have much praise for the HD-1 Aanalog / Dmr transceiver and it’s feature set. I was browsing the Amazon Website, trawling through pages of crap and then came across the Ailunce HA-2. I checked the specs and ordered one. I also took advantage of a combo deal and got myself a noise cancelling speaker mic. Figured i was in deep enough to keep going.
Overnight, the parcel arrived at a local pick up locker so i went to recover the items and bring them home. Time to fire it up and start testing.
The first thing i done was to charge the damn thing. The USB Type C port on the battery took about 30 minutes to fully charge, please note that the battery was not fully discharged when beginning. I also charged the Speaker Mic accessory and was quite surprised to find a “Standard” BL-05 style phone battery! I was quite pleased because you can pick these battery parks up all over the place, for cheap and to think you can drop a second one into your backpack just in case, that was a little win.
After everything was charged up and connected, i switched on and made myself familiar with the menu settings.
First thing for me was to get the Bluetooth running and the Radio connected to my tablet for programming.
Congrats to Ailunce (Retevis) for a simple mobile app that makes it kind of easy to program the HA-2
The APP found the radio via Bluetooth and i imported my favourite list of nearby repeaters and simplex frequencies.
(By the way, you CAN use chirp and it doe’s work really well.)
After everything was to my liking, i jumped in the car, went to a hill top and had a play.
Whilst in the “Power” menu, if you press and hold the Hash # Key, you can activate the High Power 10watt mode but please note that the radio WILL get quite warm in use.
I had a really good play with the GNSS / GPS / APRS settings and it did not take long to get everything working as i wanted.
The Firmware updates are very easy to apply and the latest firmware release takes care of an APRS bug so if you are having trouble with yours, please do check the version of firmware you are using. Ailunce provide an OTA version so, no cables and no fuss.
I decided to connect the Speaker Mic and test that out too. The GP328 style connector does have a good secure feel about it. The noise cancellation works really well with many favourable reports about good audio.
The battery life on the HM005 (pictured above) is around 70 hours. If you ragchew, you can do a good 48 hours before you need to charge the internal battery. The HA-2 will also give you the option of connecting different Bluetooth enabled Microphones so you are not without a choice. Whatever you connect should support the Handsfree Profile for maximum compatibility. You can even choose to route the incoming audio from your qso contact to either the HA-2 Speaker or Bluetooth Speaker or you can have BOTH at the same time. This is ideal for field days or “Camperham” style weekends where you might want to share a bluetooth mic around the campfire whilst taking part in a local vhf/uhf net.
There are many hidden features in this Radio. The ability to receive an APRS packet and have that displayed on the screen is just the start, press and hold the scan button (i think it was that one) and you can use the Radio as a tracker in compass mode to display how far away you are from the target and it’s Bearing / Heading.
At the time of writing this little article, i have had my HA-2 for about a month. I am quite impressed with the feature set and how versatile this thing is. The only thing i will say negative about it is the stock supplied antenna is not all that good. You might want to check out some better replacements.
Other than that, i have really enjoyed using this, it still surprises me today and i keep finding little things to make life easier.
Thank you Retevis / Ailunce for a great Transceiver.
