BAOFENG UV-5R Test Results

[KC4RAF]

For those interested in the UV-5R transceiver HT, you can see some test results at this Miklor site:

Baofeng Pofung

edit: I find that the UV-5R is a good HT. It hit the repeaters up to 20 miles away.

The tests were done by individuals whom I guess aren't government agencies related. None the less, amateur operators, who don't have any monetary gain for doing the tests and reporting them.
For the person interested in this radio, you will find comments highly against these radios, and some who posts that the radios are really good to great. For the price of these transceivers, you can buy one and do your own testing if you have the equipment to do so.
For the newly licensed amateur operator who may be short of cash, these radios are obtainable to get you on the 2 meter and 70 cm bands.
As always, "buyer beware" needs to be remembered.

 

[dlwtrunked]

For those interested in the UV-5R transceiver HT, you can see some test results at this Miklor site:

Baofeng Pofung

The tests were done by individuals whom I guess aren't government agencies related. None the less, amateur operators, who don't have any monetary gain for doing the tests and reporting them.
For the person interested in this radio, you will find comments highly against these radios, and some who posts that the radios are really good to great. For the price of these transceivers, you can buy one and do your own testing if you have the equipment to do so.
For the newly licensed amateur operator who may be short of cash, these radios are obtainable to get you on the 2 meter and 70 cm bands.
As always, "buyer beware" needs to be remembered.

Your post seems to imply negatives about the UV-5R (perhaps not your intent) while the reviews on the link are highly possible. I have both a Kenwood TH-F6 and a UV-5R. I prefer using the UV-5R and it has worked fine even in high RF areas. Many of the negative posts are people trying to justify the higher cost of the other radio(s) they bought without even having used a UV-5R.

 

[KC4RAF]

No, my post is leaning toward positive for the UV-5R. I have two of them and they work great.
My "buyer beware" is toward those that want to post all the bad things they think could be wrong with this model. That's why I put it in quote marks.

edit: I added an extra sentence to clarify my post as being more toward positive.

 

[prcguy]

I have a couple of UV-5Rs along with cheap Chinese hand helds from Wouxun, Anytone and others. I find some places in my town where I can hear fairly strong 2m simplex stations on a Yaesu and Anytone hand held that don't exist on the UV-5R in the same location with the same type antenna. The UV-5R is very susceptible to strong out of band interference that will blitz its receiver where the other hand helds work fine under the same conditions.

If I test all the radios on a service monitor the UV-5R comes out as sensitive or more than the others, but simple bench test specs with a single signal sent to the receiver mean nothing in the real world. I still think the UV-5R series is a great radio for its price but in the end you get what you pay for. If your life depends on a radio performing every time in every place you would not want to rely on a UV-5R.

 

[chief21]

My experience with the less expensive Chinese handhelds is similar to prcguy. The receivers in these rigs appear to be very sensitive (perhaps too sensitive) and just about as selective as a barn door, meaning that they are easily overloaded by nearly any RF in the neighborhood. Perhaps not a deal-breaker for some - especially considering the cost.
Actually, I own several of these rigs and they can be fun to play with, but I wouldn't use them in situations where they needed to provide reliable comms. I also have a problem with the lack of certain features and the user interface with most of them.