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Baofeng Baofeng HT Saves A Life

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Citywide173

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Well, it was used in the only setting where it is legal, so there shouldn't be anything to detract from this particular story. It's the use in Part 90 appllications or being used out of the box on the factory channels that seem to cause the discussions.

Now the naysayer part....I'd love to put his radio on a spectrum analyzer to see if it was throwing harmful interference into the public safety band, these radios are notorious for spurious emissions.
 

mmckenna

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So much for some of the Baofeng naysayers here who always degrade the HT. I wonder what excuse their going to give now?

The radio did what it was designed/intended to do. No celebration needed for that. The story I see here is that it didn't fail in doing it's most basic task.
Glad to hear the guy is OK.
 

KK4JUG

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I don't think anyone has said they didn't work. That isn't their problem.

Having said that, I'm glad everything worked out.
 

nd5y

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The guy is lucky that:
1. He was able to hit the repeater with a hand held.
2. Somebody was actually listening to the repeater.
3. The person who he made contact with was smart enough and willing to handle the distress call.
You can't rely on ham radio for any of that.

If he had a PLB maybe it would not have taken 8 hours to be rescued.
 

AK9R

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Now the naysayer part....I'd love to put his radio on a spectrum analyzer to see if it was throwing harmful interference into the public safety band, these radios are notorious for spurious emissions.
I have. I take my spectrum analyzer to hamfests and offer to test handheld radios. Every Baofeng that I've tested, except one, generates spurious emissions that exceed FCC rules for amateur radio.
 

belvdr

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Here's a news article showing how the use of a Baofeng saved someones life.

Baofeng Saves Life

So much for some of the Baofeng naysayers here who always degrade the HT. I wonder what excuse their going to give now?

73 to ya...

BaoFeng Blogger
I normally see them degrade Baofeng, not HTs in general, right? The real news is a ham radio helped here, not the fact it was a Baofeng.
 

KevinC

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I have. I take my spectrum analyzer to hamfests and offer to test handheld radios. Every Baofeng that I've tested, except one, generates spurious emissions that exceed FCC rules for amateur radio.

Spurious emissions are a "feature". It increases your chances of someone hearing you if you are transmitting on multiple frequencies at the same time.
 

RichardKramer

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Let's put the blame where the blame belongs on the Baofeng radios; the FCC not doing their job. I have the UV82C, approved by the FCC for commercial use, and I bet if W9BU checks an unapproved UV82 model with a UV82C approved model, there will be very little difference in spurious emissions, except for the fact that the UV82C has an FCC approved label on it. I paid more to get the approved model; but the FCC dropped the ball here in letting these unapproved radios into the USA. Enough said.
 

AK9R

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I bet if W9BU checks an unapproved UV82 model with a UV82C approved model, there will be very little difference in spurious emissions, except for the fact that the UV82C has an FCC approved label on it.
I'm not sure what the FCC label really means anymore. I don't know if the Chinese radio manufacturers are submitting one radio for testing and then selling a different radio or if they are faking the test results that are submitted to the FCC or if they are simply faking the label.

All that ambiguity aside, I own two Baofeng UV-5R radios. One was purchased by me in the summer of 2018. The other was sent to me by a Baofeng importer in the summer of 2019. They do not look the same on the spectrum analyzer. Is this a normal variation in the radios? I'm going to say "probably not" given the number of other UV-5Rs I've tested that all look the same. Has the Baofeng factory changed the design in order to filter out the spurious emissions possibly due to the heat they are getting from the FCC? Maybe. Did this particular importer specify that the radios in their shipment had to meet FCC spectral purity rules? Maybe.

But, all of this is tangential to the article linked to in the first post. The headline of that article is "Ham Radio Saving A Life Locally!" not "Baofeng Saves Life" as the OP stated. It doesn't matter that a Baofeng was used in this situation. It matters that an amateur radio operator with a radio was able to reach someone on the air and get help for a person in distress. If the radio had been an iKenSue, the brand of radio would not have been a issue and would not have been used by the OP to justify the use of radios that don't meet FCC rules.
 

belvdr

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So, let's tally the score here.....
Baofeng saves the day : 1
Baofeng jams analog public safety channels : I lost count

Not really a victory worth celebrating.
It did save a life, so that's a victory in my eyes, regardless of vendor.
 
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