This portable is currently in the hands of Tony (thanks to GV!) with the following viddy to help (mis)guide him or anyone else who might stumble across this intriguing unit.

The MD-380 is a 70cm only rig with DMR capability. (There is also a “UV” version as well.) It has limited memories and is not an all purpose radio but is handy for local 70cm work. Using a non-factory customer programming software known as Editcp, custom firmware called md380tools (KD4Z variant) can be easily loaded to enable a few extra features over the stock firmware.

One of those extras enables the end user to directly enter talkgroup ID’s, which takes a load off the codeplug programmer by not having to enter by hand every “contact” the radio is likely to connect to.

The following video describes the procedure for the end user of this rig, to use when changing talkgroups.

One area of concern with this rig is the less than friendly driver to allow it to read/write from a PC, which I can only get to work on one of my computers. But if you’re interested in one of these and need it programmed, I can do it.