Hand-held for Idiots question

[paulears]

I've been selling one marine waterproof and floating radio for years. One customer bought one a few months back and asked if I had tried it in water. I powered one up, dunked it in a large bucket ...... and it sank. Three years previously they swapped the antenna for a slightly longer one with better sealing, but it was a few grams heavier and it doesn't float. It gently vanishes below the water! Always worth testing things like this!

 

[W2JGA]

Does the ARRL still do in-lab testing of radios? If so, did they ever test a Baeopoop radio?

 

[nd5y]

Does the ARRL still do in-lab testing of radios? If so, did they ever test a Baeopoop radio?

I have seen QST Magazine reprints from many years ago where they tested a UV-5R.
The results from testing one radio are meaningless because of sample variability. Too many board versions, firmware versions, poor QC and other reasons. You don't even know if they were all made in the same plant with the same component sources.

 

[AK9R]

Yes, the ARRL Labs still exists. They've had some turnover as the older staffers have retired. I've talked to the current lab manager and I think he's a straight shooter.

The ARRL won't publish a review in QST if the product doesn't meet applicable FCC rules or otherwise fails testing. So, we don't know how many radios they've tested, but not published in QST.

Here's a list of the VHF/UHF CCRs for which reviews have been published in QST:

Anytone AT-D578UVIIIPRO, AT-5888UV, AT-868UV, AT-D878UV, AT-D878UVII Plus
Baofeng GT-5R
TYT UVF-1, MD-2017
Tytera MD-380
Wouxun KG-UV2D, KG-UVD-1P, KG-UV8D, KG-UV920P

 

[GregOH]

You will find, outside this forum, that many with expensive radios (my most expensive costs $14,000), still will buy a Baufeng, as they have their uses.

And most likely many of this forum, and won't admit to owning one.

My first was a UV5R to learn to program analog 2M and 70cm. I still use it today for a glovebox radio and it works well for the simplex frequencies and local repeaters. I've never used software to program it and I can program a repeater in less than a minute with the keypad.

Is it a quality radio? No, but as you mentioned, it does have it's uses.

 

[paulears]

The constant slaps Baofeng and others get makes me smile. I’m old. I remember a radio costing many more times my wage and having to save or borrow the money. I also remember how many converted business radios has terrible spurious emissions, awful receiver sensitivity and selectivity and were really unreliable. Now a product at happy meal prices is awful when in every measurable way it is far superior to radios from the past. Why do people demand excellence from a cinema ticket product! It gets so tiresome.

 

[GregOH]

In my opinion, the UV-5R is a good radio for a new ham to start with to learn some things, because you will get some useful knowledge from it and won't be out much. If then you want something better (which you likely will), look into something like a Retevis RT3S, TYT MD380, or even the Baofeng DM-1701. Learn to use software, and write a code plug to a radio that can be had new for under a hundred bucks, and you'll be enjoying the analog and digital worlds of amateur radio.

The only thing I have against Baofeng is advertising a radio as 10w and the radio not being capable of it.

 

[videobruce]

I think they use 'Chinese' watts. Just like they do with wire gauges. (CWG)

 

[sempai]

This is why you often see UHF equipment labelled 'CB'. Very often the response to my questions is "I will ask the engineer" - as in one person, and there is no guarantee that person knows what the radios are even used for.

this is exactly why i am regularly annoying Vero and BTECH to stop screwing us over on the configuration of this platform of HTs using mobile apps for provisioning and configuring. if you get a chance please ask them to release their SDK for the mobile apps to consumers via license or open-sourcing at least the means to pull/push configurations via i assume OBEX on bluetooth to at least allow people the means to backup/restore a configuration they're happy with on a computer of some sort.

i knew when i bought in this was going to be a problem, i'm not surprised by this circumstance but i am extremely uncomfortable with it. if those dumb things weren't so great for grab-and-go i never would have purchased them and i wouldn't be surprised if there was a sole employee at BTECH shipping binaries for app stores and relying entirely on upstream expertise from Vero who probably doesn't have a large engineering team either.