Baofeng Baofeng uv-5r

[MTS2000des]

In terms of ham radios, I think that would qualify as "bad." That's an awful low of red flags to me.

Yes, indeed- but if it were a choice of nothing and a Baoturd, the Baoturd at least transmits and receives- poorly, but it does. In the right conditions, the RDA chipsets actually perform well, someone did a comparison to a Rodinia (MSI's proprietary chipset used in APX and XPR Gen2 s) and the RDA actually met and exceeded some performance characteristics, but at the end of the day, the Baoturd has no filtering, poor ancillary support components, shoddy firmware, and zero factory support. Hams love cheap and that's the only reason they sell.

 

[paulears]

I’m sitting in the office. On the shelf is a Kenwood Nexedge without battery or charger, sitting next to a uv5 that I dont even list for sale. Next to that is an Icom marine radio next to a Chinese similar one. For fun, and because the analyser was on the bench, I plugged them all in, set to a marine band channel. The purest one, as in having the lowest spurious outputs was at 300ish MHz first harmonic only just detectable on the Kenwood. The Icom and Chinese radios came second, almost nothing but a very tiny spike and as expected the Baofeng was worst. With a scanner, I could hear it at the other side of the office, outside, nothing. So my conclusion is I cannot judge there to be any transmit issues worth speaking about. I set up a generator the other side of the office and gradually turned up the output power, into a rubber duck antenna. The squelch opened first on the. ……… Baofeng! Just noise though. I’d set it up with a 1k tone. The squelch opened and the hiss was too loud. I increased output by 2dB and the icom and Chinese marine radios set to the most sensitive squelch setting opened up and the tone was there, the Baofeng still had mostly hiss but a vague sense there was a tone. 1db more and the kenwood opened up with a tone loud and clear and at this level the Baofeng had tone too. 3dB more got all four fully quietened. . My conclusion is the point where the sensitivity allowed hiss free reception on all of them was actually so close going up or down a dab at a time didn’t really do much. The Baofeng opens the squelch before you can really hear the content which is odd, and the Kenwood is at the other end with the squelch sensitivity not letting you hear a very weak signal. The test was of course disrupted frequently on the Baofeng by the local 155MHz pager, which all the others ignored.

you can buy 8 Baofengs, with the kenwood price, 4 with the Icom and 2 with the Chinese marine radio. If, as earlier explained in this topic, somebody cannot afford a usb programming cable, then their only option is a Baofeng. Why do we keep knocking them? They serve a purpose. As for guarantees, do you really expect a proper guarantee when the postage will probably be more than the profit. How much profit does a dealer make on a Baofeng? If I sold the one on the shelf for what you can buy them for on ebay or AliExpress, I would make four pounds! Would you give somebody a years warranty worth having for four pounds?

 

[mmckenna]

I would make four pounds! Would you give somebody a years warranty worth having for four pounds?

Sure, make them pay for shipping it back halfway around the world, wait 3 months and then claim it got lost and it's not your fault.

You make some good points, and while I ~love~ to poke fun at the CCR's (and their fanbois), they are an option for those on a restricted budget. Nothing wrong with limited budgets and hobbies. My grandfathers ham radio budget was so tight, he had to build his own equipment.

I think what we tend to laugh at is the idea that they are on the same level as the commercial/public safety LMR stuff. I know there are some that think they are, which is discouraging. No way I'd send one of our officers out with a Baofeng with their life depending on it. (but I'm sure they'd like the FM radio to listen to…)

Bigger issue I've seen is that they get used improperly by consumers that have no idea what they are doing. Radios being shipped preloaded with random frequencies that sometimes align with local public safety/commercial users is brilliant marketing if you don't care about what the ramifications are.

As disposable radios go, I'm sure they are the best.

 

[WRQS621]

How many years will this debate continue? It is a walkie talkie. Seriously, grow up.

 

[Fixitt]

I got back into,the scanning hobby with a Baofeng and quickly realized I needed something better. They are a great stepping off point into real scanners for those wanting to get their toes wet.

 

[Bob1955]

Any of these would be a good choice:

Yaesu FT-65R
Yaesu FT-4XR
Alinco DJ-VX50T

Yes, they are more than $25 or $30, but as the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for".

sallen07- I just purchased from Amazon.Com, a Baofeng BF-H6 for $39.95 and it's a fairly new model-I'm very impressed with it so far. I'm NOT spending $99.95 or more on a Yaesu FT-65R (I'm well aware that it's a great dual band transceiver) as I'm ONLY using it for receiving my local fire department which is 453.675 and the Westchester County, NY Fire/EMS Paging is now 470.200 so why do you all continue to "knock" Baofeng with CCR comments? In this current economy, let members on here purchase what they want.

How many years will this debate continue? It is a walkie talkie. Seriously, grow up.

I agree with you 100%, KY40A

I'm confused now? I thought (from posts here and elsewhere) that the Baofengs were totally banned from import and sales as they are not compliant - your wording is pretty similar to ours. So a simple filter could make use of the existing rest of the world versions of the radio OK, or is their wide TX range the issue? I think I may have got the spurious emission issues mixed up with the wide band TX/RX?

 

[Bob1955]

I have to smile - When I bought my first Icom radio - decent quality (well made and still working) it was 1979. It had a dial up frequency on knobs, covered 144 to 146MHz and cost £220 - which was at the time TEN WEEKS wages.

Baofeng radios might have poor filtering, a bit muffled audio but zillions of features and the cost is almost irrelevant. Ordering in a pizza each for two people can easily cost the same as the radio. If you buy a 'quality' one - like the Yaesu mentioned - it's more money, but still very cheap. Baofengs are cheap, less rugged, less stable, more easily broken, perhaps more confusing even - but in value for money terms they are a sure winner. I've said it before. if you live in a rural area, most of the deficiencies will pass unnoticed. In busy urban areas then they're compromised - but they still work!

If you genuinely have no money - at least there is a radio you can buy and use without having to save up for weeks to buy!

paulears-Very well written and right to the point!

 

[mmckenna]

Since you asked….

I'm very impressed with it so far.

Just curious, what are you comparing it to?

I get it, if it works, it works. I have no issue with that. Just curious when someone speaks highly of a CCR what they are using as a reference point. Serious question, looking for a serious answer.

I'm NOT spending $99.95 or more on a Yaesu FT-65R (I'm well aware that it's a great dual band transceiver) as I'm ONLY using it for receiving my local fire department which is 453.675 and the Westchester County, NY Fire/EMS Paging is now 470.200

Nothing at all wrong with that. If it works, it works. No reason to buy more radio than you need. Absolutely no reason to buy a ham radio if you have no intent on getting your ham license. It's not the right tool for the job. I think @sallen07 was referring to another member who had their ham license.

so why do you all continue to "knock" Baofeng with CCR comments? In this current economy, let members on here purchase what they want.

Absolutely. It's discretionary hobby spending. If you have $25 to spend on a radio and you found one that does what you need, then good for you. If you had $100 to spend on a radio and found a $25 radio that does what you need, then you saved $75 bucks.

 

[TomLine]

I just got the cheap UV-5R and learned to program with chirp. Heck, get two for reasons I won't go into here. Can't go wrong. Get a nice analog dual band mobile next and use it as a base station. My girlfriend watches those talent shows where they sing out of tune and nobody seems to mind these days. I'm a zebco 33 man myself. The $500 fishing pole catches the same fish.

 

[MTS2000des]

Yep, nothing says lowest common denominator like a Bowelturd. Low, muffled transmit audio, wide open receiver. But hey, they are cheap so that is all that matters!

Maybe JVC Kenwood is gonna shock us all at Dayton when they unbox three crates of co-branded Bowelturd radios! 15 watt HT with crap audio but it's GOT THAT ALL IMPORTANT LED FLASHLIGHT, makes CB radio roger beeps to annoy repeater owners, and an FM RADIO with DUAL STANDBY!

What a value!

 

[MUTNAV]

As AK9R pointed out, we have similar rules.
There seems to be some differences, however, in the individuals using said radios, as I'm sure you've noticed on some of these threads:
1. Hams/hobbyists that won't read the rules or don't care about the rules. They feel they can do whatever they want since they assume that it's not hurting anyone else. There's a small (but annoying) segment of the amateur radio license holders that think there are zero limitations on what they can do with their ham licenses, including (but not limited to) using ham radio equipment on local public safety agencies. Some hams have been busted for this. Finding a ham that has actually read and understood the rules is getting to be pretty rare, even though it is a requirement. They prefer to take rumors from the internet as gospel truth.
2. Hams/hobbyists that don't really understand radio. They passed the test, regurgitated the multiple choice answers, and yet didn't seem to learn anything from it.
3. Hams/hobbyists that don't have a large budget to spend on radios and will choose one of these lower cost radios without understanding the issues with them.

Hams should know better. Some do, some don't, some are very confused and stuck in the middle between these two groups. The FCC makes it clear, but there's always that small group of people that assume the rules do not apply to them.

I'm willing to bet the UK has a few of these individuals. Seems like maybe it is dealt with a bit swifter on your side of the Atlantic, maybe not.


There's a couple of things going on here.

For all transmitters but amateur, the FCC has standards they must meet. If the radio does not meet the standards, and does not have the proper certifications proving it does, the cannot be legally used to transmit.

Amateur radios do not require the certifications on their transmitters.

The problems:
1. A lot of the low buck Chinese "amateur" radios are easy to modify via keypresses or software to open them up to work where they are not legal. As mentioned above, some hams assume the rules do not apply to them and will modify the radios to do what they want. Some have no knowledge of the rules and will do it "just in case" (see the failure that was the ARRL "When All Else Fails" mess.)
2. Some want one radio to do absolutely everything and have full access to all the radio spectrum. This is easily done with some of the Chinese radios, and a lot of the higher tier amateur radios. They may or may not understand the rules regarding this, but none the less ignore it. The way the rules are set up is that it is not illegal to modify the radio, it's only illegal to transmit with it. Assumptions are that they'll never get caught, or that they assume their amateur radio license gives them access to everything.

Really it comes down to personal responsibility and learning/understanding the rules. Doesn't seem like that is a thing that is taken seriously anymore.

I thought that if you were going to sell ham transmitters (or amps) (more than 10 or so) that they did need FCC certification.


Thanks

Joel

 

[sallen07]

Nothing at all wrong with that. If it works, it works. No reason to buy more radio than you need. Absolutely no reason to buy a ham radio if you have no intent on getting your ham license. It's not the right tool for the job. I think @sallen07 was referring to another member who had their ham license.

The OP's question was, "Are Boefeng uv-5r good ham radio's ... ?"

My response was "no", and I stand behind that statement.

@Bob1955 I never said, "they don't work", or "you shouldn't buy one". If a Baofeng works for you, and you are happy with it, that's great.

But if someone came to me and said, "Hey I want to listen to the local fire department's analog frequency" I would recommend that they get a scanner, not a cheap radio. Why? Because it will work better *as a scanner*, and because one of my personal principles is that I never program a frequency into a transceiver that I'm not authorized to transmit on. YMMV.

You can buy a new car for $20K or $200K. Both will transport you from A to B. Does that mean a car costing $20K is just as good as one costing $75K??

 

[12dbsinad]

You can buy a new car for $20K or $200K. Both will transport you from A to B. Does that mean a car costing $20K is just as good as one costing $75K??

Haven't you ever heard the old expression? "If it's got t___, tires, or transistors it'll give you trouble at some point".

 

[TomLine]

Haven't you ever heard the old expression? "If it's got t___, tires, or transistors it'll give you trouble at some point".

I like your wisdom. You get more mileage out of a cheap pair of speakers. I think some of the old timers are still mad because the Chinese bombed Pearl Harbor.

 

[KevinC]

I like your wisdom. You get more mileage out of a cheap pair of speakers. I think some of the old timers are still mad because the Chinese bombed Pearl Harbor.

I thought Japan did that? Maybe I skipped history class that day though

 

[TomLine]

I thought Japan did that? Maybe I skipped history class that day though

I thought Japan did that? Maybe I skipped history class that day though

You're correct. I feel even better about my UV-5R now.

 

[MTS2000des]

It's still a road apple radio that sounds like a road apple on the air. I ignore Bowelturds, not gonna listen to low, weak muffled audio and roger beeps. I love P25. Bowelturd free zone!

 

[MTS2000des]

How many years will this debate continue? It is a walkie talkie. Seriously, grow up.

No debate, it's a piece of feces. They suck and you know it. Garbage pail radios built for the lowest common denominator. I would think someone with an extra class ham ticket would have a clue. Silly me.

 

[mmckenna]

I thought that if you were going to sell ham transmitters (or amps) (more than 10 or so) that they did need FCC certification.

The receiver section has to meet Part 15, in most cases.
Some amplifiers that cover 10 meters require certification, or at least they did, it was because the FCC was making an attempt to block them from use on CB.
The radios still have to meet some very basic, easy to achieve standards that they not cause problems outside the ham bands. But not require type certification on the transmitter.

 

[mmckenna]

The OP's question was, "Are Boefeng uv-5r good ham radio's ... ?"

My response was "no", and I stand behind that statement.

I was replying to Bob because he said he was using it for listening to the local fire agency.

As for using them as ham radios. I agree with you, however I rather they get used on the ham bands than anywhere else.