Are the cheap Baofeng radios just SDRs at heart?

[Rred]

Just wondering, since most of their HT's sell as "impossible" prices. I was looking at an SDR USB stick today and a light bulb went on. Are the Chinese using SDRs at the heart of these cheap radios, to really cut down the parts count and the price?

--Red

 

[nd5y]

Yes. The UV-5R and UV-82 series use the RDA1846 SDR chip and Elan EM78P568 microprocessor.

I don't know if they use the same chips in their other models.

 

[Rred]

Thanks, Tom. That explains a lot about "How can they do that?!" and "Why can't they do this?" at the same time.

 

[csxcp55]

2m HT's are not so expensive. Sales going on right now for Yaesu and Kenwood to name two.
I like the Yaesu, but I have read lots of great reviews for Kenwood as well.
One example: For a dual band 2m / 70cm HT, you can get the Yaesu FT-60r for $149.95 at either HRO or AES. Free shipping in both cases.

Frank - KE2KB

 

[Rred]

Hi Frank.
Actually I needed a spare Part90 radio, and got a UV82C for $30. Could get five of them for the price of one of the ht's from the Big Three. The quality and performance may not be the same, but for what I needed it for?
And the quality on ham bands is surprisingly similar to my more expensive dual-band gen-you-whine ham ht.
Which of course are still "junk" compared to the commercial radios. That add another digit to their prices, too.

Horses for courses and all that good stuff. I was just curious to know how they could do it so cheaply.

 

[pinballwiz86]

I have several Baofengs and a Yaesu FT-270R 2 meter only HT.

The quality difference and ease of use is palpable...love the Yaesu.

Baofeng's have their place too though..

 

[csxcp55]

Maybe if I didn't live right outside of NYC I could use a radio like the Baofeng. But with all the RF floating around here, I need good front-end. I would love a commercial radio, but so far haven't found one that I can afford. The old ones on Ebay are cheap, but with sensitivity specs of 1.0uV, they are worthless to me. I enjoy working and listening to weak signals, and do a lot of listening out-of-band on the RR freqs (160-161Mhz). Even my VX-150 gets overloaded during the day when connected to the Ringo ARX-2B on the roof.

 

[csxcp55]

After listening to a QSO on 70cm last night, I am concerned that the proliferation of these cheap 2-way radios will seriously impact the 2m and 70cm ham bands by making it too easy for unlicensed use of the airwaves. So far, I haven't heard any unlicensed activity in my area (northern NJ), but I Googled and found a story about an incident where some kids caused interference on the public service emergency band.
I don't know how the kids were able to transmit on the ps band, since the radios sold here in the US aren't capable of transmit in that range. Perhaps there is another version of the radio, or someone had modified them.

 

[Rred]

It is an old problem and one reason why mics were traditionally connected with jacks and plugs.

The licensee, control operator, whatever term you want to use for whatever service, the adult who is responsible for the radio, is supposed to secure it against unauthorized users. Including kiddies who wander into daddy's radio desk and play radio.

The USCG has had false maydays for decades for the same reason. Daddy forgets it is his obligation to secure the transmitter..

If it happens often enough, the FCC can re-open the old field operations, find a few slackers, hit 'em with 10,000$ fines, and the rest will be more careful about securing their transmitters. And ht's.

Cheap radios? Might put more people on the air, licensed and proper. More operators means...more of many things, including unsupervised kids playing radio.

OTOH, a lot of the cheap radios come pre-programmed for FRS and GPRS, and they're simply not legal for those operations in the US.