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Ohio Fire Depts Using Baofengs

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"Professionalism" at it's finest!! Glad I don't live anywhere near them!!

That is a private company conducting the table top exercises and they bring their own radios just for this purpose. Here is their link: B Shifter - Blue Card
I am sure - hopefully - the involved departments are not using this type of radio in real life.

Yeah and Terry Bradshaw "Profiles" Blue Card and their efforts.. I feel much much safer knowing he is promoting them! NOT!
 

AK9R

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That is a private company conducting the table top exercises and they bring their own radios just for this purpose.
Many years ago, I participated in a table top exercise that was conducted by a private company. We used handheld CB radios during the exercise.

That said, many of these inexpensive, Asian radios generate spurious emissions when transmitting. And, those spurious emissions are real, even if the radios are used in an exercise.
 

waynedc

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That said, many of these inexpensive, Asian radios generate spurious emissions when transmitting. And, those spurious emissions are real, even if the radios are used in an exercise.

Robert, we are radio guys that is why we are here on RR but those involved mostly are not, so they have no understanding of that fact. It is upon us in those classes to establish a relationship to inform them if they are in fact using something incorrectly. There are Baofeng radios that are US Part 90 certified so maybe they are good in this case - who knows...
 

K7MFC

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From the video:

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fa5YQdC.png
 

MotoTRK

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The BF888's are actually one of the better cheap radios, $12 a unit with Part 90 approval at 1.7 Watts out I wont knock them. I keep 4 of them for my nieces to use when I dont want the $500+ motorola's broken or caked in mud. ALSO the 888's DO NOT have the spurs like the UV5R crap pieces do.
 

INDY72

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Indygo transit center security and supervisor use UV5R and some nifty icoms on FRS freqs. Verified that yesterday. Was doing range testing on my RD-5R on FRS 1 with 67.0 PL. Had one of the supervisor answer my radio check and then we look at each other and chatted about radios for a while
So they get used by many official agencies due to prices. For all other ops they run XTS 3000 til they replace them with APXes
 
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XTS3000

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Not sure what worse.... firefighters using Beofeng radios or helicopter pilot using them.

Last summer I got a work order to set up a portable repeater for some company who needed portable coms for a 15 mile stretch that were putting fiber optic cables on those high tension power lines. I set up the repeater and tested end to end 15 mile stretch and it worked just fine.

All was fine until a chopper landed and the pilot got out and handed me his Beofeng radio and told me to program it for the repeater frequency. He bragged his radio did 8 watts on VHF and 6 on UHF. I refused to program it and be the responsible person if it interferes with his chopper. He managed to get it programmed himself.

In my report after setting up the repeater and testing it, I made sure to CMA and put a note in my report the chopper pilot was using a non type certified radio. Tried to explain his $80 radio could generate spurs or harmonics that could be dangerous. Thankfully their project was completed and the chopper didn’t crash, however they dropped 2 radios and destroyed them.
 

Giddyuptd

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Nice Eric, that is what we use as well. You guys looked top notch in the news article and I am glad you pursue training actively. 73
We used APX 6000xe 6000s, 8000xe until various entities here started drifting to DMR, P25, NXDN. Only logical route to go for us is Kenwood NX series now.
 

Marine_Cotporal

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Some of you guys really need to get off your high horses. Are Baofeng radios cheap? Yes. Do they work? Yes. Will they work in adverse conditions? Yes to a point. As long as they aren't dropped from very high distances and seriously abused or dropped in pools of water. Will they work if used by a dispatcher or a supervisor from a car or office? Yes. Absolutely.

I work in a train yard. I've used a Baofeng Uv82 for a few years now banging cars around, jumping up and down flats and hoppers, putting on handbrakes, throwing hand throw switches, ect all while occasionally banging it up against equipment. I've used it in downpour rain, extreme cold in the single digits and below, and in summer heat. It's got some dings on the plastic housing and it still works. It works just as good as far as range and clarity goes as my issued radio but we use it so that we can communicate with the yard master and also amongst ourselves with the dual transmit that our Vertex radios lack so we don't have to keep switching frequencies over constantly.

It's not the best radio as far as durability but it works and can take a beating. I'm willing to bet that my little Uv82 has seen more combat per se than any of your American made or Japanese made radios used in a den or garage. I don't mean this as an insult or anything or tooting my own horn. Just stating fact. They aren't fragile toys like they are constantly made out to be.
 
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RichardKramer

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I have the UV82C which is Part 90 approved which I use for my Loss Prevention job and for ham radio. In the several months I've had it, I have dropped it a number of times and banged it around quite a bit; so they take some beatings. I paid $50 for it on sale; regular price is around $58; but there is no difference between the cheaper non Part 90 UV82 model and mine except for the fact the FCC wanted it to be programmed by computer instead of right out of the box like the non Part 90 unit and it has the approved Part 90 label. Would I take it into a burning building; absoutely not as it's not made for that type of use. And as far as spurs go, every radio produces harmonics no matter what type of radio; my UV82C will turn on the coffee maker at work when tx if within several feet as well as the expensive motorolas we use that do it too. Both the Baofeng and motorola will shut down my Windows XP laptop when tx within several feet of the computer.
 
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