Baofeng Ham Radios - Pros & Cons

Comparing pros & cons of the infamous Baofeng Ham Radios from a practical standpoint.

(just my .02!)



73
K5ACL

 

Thanks for the tips. I’m not a fan of that radio but I have one. That being said I will be looking for a better HT in the future. Thanks for another great video K5ACL..


Fred Wilson/KG5PWA

 

Many good points here but 'your mileage may vary' as they say. I purchased a UV-5R+ in 2012, still have it and it gets used a lot. Yes, one battery died (after three years) but I got a high capacity replacement for $17. Several of these have been tested by a local shop and have been found in compliance with part 97 so who knows it may depend on the production run. Power, you won't get much of anywhere with 4, 6, or 8 watt in the VHF or UHF range in general. My UV-5R+ goes about as far as my Yaesu VX-6 does and it cost over $200 (and went back for repairs after six months) but both put out about the same power.

Is it in the same class as Yaesu, Kenwood, ICOM or Motorola? Definitely not, but if you are new to the hobby and aren't sure if it is for you long term this is a cheap way to find out for yourself.

One of the local clubs where I used to live would hold a VE test session for new hams and give you one of these, pre-programmed for the local repeaters, if you passed. It got you on the air RIGHT NOW and in general most of the new hams were very happy but eventually went on to better equipment.

K5ACL, good video, keep them coming!!! Just another point of view here.

Brent Seale
KK4NAW

 

the main thing i want in a HT is for it not to fall over when I set it on the coffee table...

 

Me too!!!!

 

I agree on the quality of the radio.Although cheap, in the long run they are very expensive. For example, years ago (maybe 20 years?) I purchased a dualband IcomW2A hand-held and it's still running as well today as it did the day I bought it. My cost has been less than $15/yr, so in the long run it has been much cheaper than the Baofeng and a much, much better radio.

With that said, I do happen to have a Baofeng 888S, a $10.00 door prize I use as a monitor of 2 local repeaters. For that, it is A-OK.

 

Got a Uv5R when they were new to the market back in 2012 at a local hamfest - a gentleman had 5 of them on a table in the flea market with no price so I asked 'how much are these ?' , he said $55. I asked if he would take a local check and he said sure after he looked over one of my checks.. It has worked great for me so far and was my first VHF/UHF HT (my only one so far)...Have used it for quite a few public service events and never a problem. Also acquired a better after market antenna, larger capacity battery, cigarette lighter power cord, and a speaker-mic for it and all work FB.. If they meet your needs, I see nothing wrong with them.. Even picked up a Leixen 25w dual band mobile @ Hamvention last year for my car and it works FB so far The big 3 need the competition although the Chinese radios are really not in the same class IMHO. Nice video !

 

I've tried one of these, UV-B5 with rotary encoder. Everything was good or at least acceptable for the price but the receiver was absolutely useless. Unlike "normal" superheterodyne, you'll never hear any mirrors or intermods, it'll be silent. And this is very bad: it meanly becomes deaf! It becomes deaf any time a strong signal is present anywhere - paging, trunking, TV/FM broadcast, neighbor HAM, whatever. And you'll stay with a silent radio showing no signs of a signal you're expecting for regardless actual presence of that signal. I mostly tried my one to use it with a Bluetooth TNC and a phone to operate portable APRS. Useless. Where my old TH-F7E (Euro version of TH-F6A) receives w/o any problem, Baofeng stays silent, muted with RFI. Meanwhile theoretically Baofeng has very high sensitivity itself so if you're going to use it in a desert where absence of selectivity is not an issue, you'll find it quite acceptable to receive weak FM SATs or something like this.

Exactly.

 

They work and I have three of them for less than $100. I hardly ever use them but they seem to be pretty effective for what they are. The one newer one holds a charge for a long time with little or no use. I imagine for emcomm they are probably a good thing to have and I have one in each of our vehicles tuned to local repeater if something unexpected happened.

 

Same for many other devices. Designers seem to like round bottoms. So do I, make that "round bases".

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

 

It's the cheap way to find out for yourself that there ain't no traffic on the repeaters in most areas. Don't forget to blow more on a AWRL membership than your radio cost.

 

By "RIGHT NOW", you mean a couple of weeks later when your callsign is published?

 

I suppose that at some point I can try out UHF and VHF. Might be worth looking at getting one.

 

Nice review, and I agree with most of your points.

I'm an example of someone who get his license purely because these (in my case, a GT-3TP Mark III) were cheap enough to make a foray into amateur radio affordable. My impression from talking to other Baofeng users and a few local shops is that QC is spotty - one local shipment of 10, had 2 DOA. The one I got from an overseas radio speciality place had clearly been opened and tested before sending to me, which I appreciated. Mine has been a fantastic performer, no issues with overload or wide RX, and reliably hits simplex QSOs out to 10 miles or so - from inside my house and with the OEM rubber duck. Audio is good on both TX and RX, and battery life has been excellent.

Would I trust it if I was bashing around in the woods and rain? Probably not! Do I expect one day I'll go to turn it on and it just won't work? Yes, wouldn't surprise me. Has it done everything I've wanted though on 2m and 70cm? Absolutely. At the price I paid, if/when it dies, I'd not hesitate to get another as long as I know the seller pre-tested. I've gotten a year and a half of good use, it's been on hunting and snowshoeing outings in bad weather, and it's never had a hiccup. I do think you get what you pay for though, it's basically a disposable radio. Even if nothing else fails, when the battery life gets poor, it's not worth replacing!

One other oddity / con I would note... at least for mine, if running high power (nominal 8W), be careful not to short your hand across the exposed battery recharge terminals on rear of unit when you hit the TX button.

When I saw the price on these, and found that code was no longer a requirement, I took the plunge - ordered a radio and went and challenged the Basic license. I scored an Honours pass meaning HF privileges granted... and three months after getting the Baofeng I had my first HF rig. And then what do you know, another few months after that, the lure of CW without the pressure of a mandatory test got me trying that.... now 90% of my radio activity is on HF and of that half in the past few months has been CW. So for me, it was a great gateway into more traditional ham radio. Money well spent, as long as I had no unrealistic expectations of build quality.

 

I must have read a hundred reviews before I purchased two Baofengs. There are pros and cons as noted here and everywhere else. The more important question is: are they FOR ME or not? Here's my case.

My Yaesu VX-5R died last year. It looks like the battery is shot - it overheats. That battery was poor to start with, even when new, I was able to barely get a few hours of monitoring with it, a few transmissions. I always wanted an "extended life" battery for my VX-5, no one seems to manufacture one (if you know of any, please let me know). I was unable to find an original Yaesu battery, so... for the price of an aftermarket battery for the VX and a little change, I bought two FH-8P radios.

My two Baofengs allow me to work satellites full duplex. I bought an extended battery, but don't need to use it, I seem to be unable to kill the regular batteries working a whole day. The audio quality leaves the VX-5 in the dust. FM broadcast: check. WX channels: yes. They even interface with my family Motorola Talkabout M-series FRS/GMRS walkie-talkies, privacy locks (DTMF) and all.

Don't buy one if you need to use it very close to a radio/TV tower. Other than that, go for an FH-8, it's better than the 5-series - even if it will go bad on you, which is unlikely - the quality has improved quite a bit - you can buy three more, and still come less out of pocket than buying one of the
"big three".

My few cents anyway...