Why are people buying Baofeng radios?

[BCasto]

For some reason, I am just not understanding the reasons for buying a Baofeng radio to supplement our scanning hardware? If you have one, can you please explain what model you have and for what purpose you have it? How does it improve your scanning capabilities? A lot of you are very good at answering questions and explaining stuff very well. Thank you.

 

[mmckenna]

I don't own one, just making sure this gets marked so I can follow it.
I'd love to hear some of the answers.

 

[jonwienke]

There isn't any.

Baofengs suck at scanning. They are slow and don't do any digital modes or any kind of trunking. And they only do two bands. They are OK as cheap disposable radios, but are pretty much useless for scanning.

 

[KK4JUG]

It doesn't improve scanning capabilities at all...period. It's not a scanner. It's a radio that happens to scan, albeit, very slowly. The advertising says it scans and the unknowing public doesn't know the difference. They're cheap, hence the abbreviation CCR. Does it scan? Yes. Does it transmit? Yes. Users are disappointed when they try to use it but the manufacturers and sellers made their money and they really don't care what happens after that.

The FCC has let it get out of hand by allowing the wholesale distribution of CCRs and now there's not much they can do about them.

 

[KE4ZNR]

They are OK as cheap disposable radios, but are pretty much useless for scanning.

THIS. Our radio shop bought an "Anytone" tribander (2 meters, 220, 70 cm) for 2 reasons:
1) To see how horrible these cheap radios really are
and
2) to have a low cost rig on hand to receive a 440Mhz Ham repeater we have co-located at our prime site.

I mean it is ok if you have no carrier pigeons on hand or don't know smoke signals as replacements for comms but I would NEVER put any of these low cost rigs into a public safety environment.

Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[KK4JUG]

THIS. Our radio shop bought an "Anytone" tribander (2 meters, 220, 70 cm) ,,,,

Marshall KE4ZNR

I don't believe I would have told anybody.

 

[zz0468]

Why are people buying Baofeng radios?

They're cheap.

 

[jwt873]

I bought an early Baofeng UV3R because it was yellow and only cost $25.

Yellow radios weren't that common back then so it was a novelty. I rarely use it. It just looks good sitting on the shelf with the rest of my handhelds.

 

[DJ11DLN]

I bought a pair of UV5R+ a few years back to evaluate as possible emergency replacements for the VFD. They obviously didn't make the cut for that. The one I still have is dedicated to monitoring the local Skywarn group when the weather gets nasty, and it does that fairly well with an RH77-type antenna in place of the awful duck that came with it.

Oddly, when I had my break-in a couple years ago, the thief/thieves took one of them...and left the charge base, a couple of Kenwoods and an EFJ. I guess he (she?) thought it was "shiny.":roll:

 

[KC4RAF]

I believe the majority of people who buy these CCRs don't have a clue as to what they are getting.
Some for the so-called "scanning" ability. That's money down the drain as far as having a decent scanner.
Others buy because of being cheap, (yes, both the radio and the buyer lol).
While some buy for the purpose of interfering with legit radio services.
Then there's those who want to get in to the amateur radio service, but don't have lots of money for a really good first rig. It at least lets them get their feet wet to see if they like being a ham.
There's other reasons as mentioned above. Some buyers just want to see if the CCRs are any good.
btw, I own two of the UV-5Rs. They make for listening to a frequency, not tying up my Yaesu or Icom.
If one or both are lost or stolen, then I've only lost 50 dollars for the both.

 

[KE4ZNR]

To be serious for a couple minutes: when I first got into the Ham Radio hobby as a teen all of the decent portable dual band radios cost anywhere from $200-$400. Kids like me did not have that type of money lying around. So that limited me to a used RadioShack single band HTX-202 as my beginner rig. It had many limitations but it helped me appreciate the time, effort and cost I put into the hobby. You don't get that same appreciation with a "bubble pack" style HT. My first dual band radio was the Yaesu FT-50RD and I had to save money from 2 jobs and have some help from family to buy it. Anyway, today's disposable electronics makes these radios possible.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[kj6psg]

I can pull up the local police's dispatch channel on a good radio, and use the Baofeng to monitor their two lesser-used channels with dual receive. It's an inexpensive way to add additional receivers, it's less traffic missed while the scanner is listening to something else. I don't use it in scan mode, but rather as an idle receiver on interesting or important channels where I don't want to miss traffic.

I bought my UV-82 as an inexpensive way to get on the 70cm ham band. It works most of the time, and the audio is good enough to have a conversation. For $27 I got a similar feature set to what $110 radios are offering, and I used the money I saved to eventually get a better transceiver.

 

[VE2XWA]

THIS. Our radio shop bought an "Anytone" tribander (2 meters, 220, 70 cm) for 2 reasons:

1) To see how horrible these cheap radios really are

and

2) to have a low cost rig on hand to receive a 440Mhz Ham repeater we have co-located at our prime site.

I mean it is ok if you have no carrier pigeons on hand or don't know smoke signals as replacements for comms but I would NEVER put any of these low cost rigs into a public safety environment.



Marshall KE4ZNR

Anytone radio are not bad as the Baofeng.

The AT3318UVE is actually a good tri band radio, i like mine very much.

Dan



Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[Rred]

"I am just not understanding the reasons for buying a Baofeng radio to supplement our scanning hardware? "

Uh, parlez-vous "CHEAP" ?

They see the ads that say "scans" and they see CHEAP and they just have no idea that doesn't make it a good scanner, unless you're trying to monitor one or two local frequencies. Cheap.

 

[12dbsinad]

Because they are 20ish dollars.

And the APX doesn't have a built in FM radio that you can jam to your favorite tunes while monitoring the ham box

 

[sibbley]

I bought a UV-82 for the dual receive capability. As it turned out it was a pretty good receiver. There are a few frequencies on our local analog public safety system that are weak. Scanners have a hard time receiving them. The UV-82 has no trouble. Now it sits and scans those 5 frequencies. It scans slow, but scanning 5 frequencies isn't too bad.

 

[cmjonesinc]

I needed a dedicated radio to feed a single audio feed. Less than $30 bucks for a radio and battery eliminator and I was rolling. Good enough for what I needed. Granted I could do the same with a surplus ht1000 for probably about the same cost...

 

[NC1]

I bought one just for scanning the local frequencies that I care to listen to. I don't need any modes, or P25, or DMR. It is very rural and only 8 frequencies are mainly in use for the whole county. Scanning 8 channels goes by pretty quick.

The second reason is, since I am outside in the yard quite a bit, if it gets accidentally dropped, left on the table out in the rain, somehow takes a dunk in the pool, or lost in the woods - I won't get panicked. If I did that with one of my $300 to $400 scanners, then I would be pretty upset to say the least

Do I use it for Ham radio? Well, yes occasionally I do. Excuse me while I go get my fire-retardant suit on.

 

[FireBuffChgo23]

I have 3 Baofeng radios to help me monitor Chicago Police. I live on the far NW side of the city & they help me pickup the far south side zones. They pick up those zones (5,6,7,8,9) w/ the stock antenna better than a standard RS or Uniden scanner & the dual receive is nice. I also use them when I'm out & about, should something happen I'd rather lose them than a more expensive scanner & they're nice & compact, a lot of people use them here in Chicago.

 

[ILjim]

I have a UV-82 and it's a decent radio, especially for $30. I mainly use it to monitor 1 or 2 other agencies when my scanners (a Uniden BC125AT and GRE PSR-500) are occupied monitoring other stuff or anything that the Baofeng can't receive (like airband, P25, etc). I also have one because it's the most sensitive receiver that I have, which allows me to monitor agencies that I can't usually pick up with my other scanners.