Just a quick heads up for people in the UK, and other western countries such as the USA and Canada. If you’re thinking of buying a Baofeng DMR DM1701 and want it to come pre-installed with Open GD77 rather than having to install it yourself, be careful when looking at the listings on AliExpress. Many of the images used in the listings show the DM1701 with the words “OpenGD77” next to the radio. But that does not necessarily mean that it comes pre-installed. Truth is, many don’t. See below for a comparison between two listings. One does come with GD77, and one does not.

The listing above DOES come with OpenGD77 Already Installed 

The listing above does NOT come with Open GD77 Already Installed

They just put the wording in the image to get across that the radio can be upgraded to Open GD77 and is compatible etc. You have to really read the small print to find out. And sometimes even reach out to them and ask in a live chat, like I did. So it is difficult to tell the difference, but there are some that do come with Open GD77 already on the radio, as shown above.

I mean, take a look at the two listings above that I linked to. They both look like they come with GD77 on the radio, but only one does. It can be quite confusing, as they don’t make it as clear as they should. But I don’t think this is done on purpose in many cases. I think this could just be down to the language barrier, how good the sellers written English is at getting their point across, writing their product descriptions etc. So don’t let it put you off from buying this great transceiver. It has a lot to offer for those on a tight budget that want to get into DMR. Great at transmitting and also great with receiving signals.