HamRadioReviews: DMR Range Test - Baofeng DM-5R [Video]

This is the first in a series of 3 DMR range test videos. In this video, I am testing the range of the Baofeng DM-5R from two locations.



Here is the video, enjoy: https://wp.me/p800qu-do

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Why are all of these reviewers giving so much attention to non complaint DMR radios?

 

Another Chinese piece of crap!

 

Who has raised a complaint?

 

If you don't like Baofeng radios, then don't click on the links for them. Simple and easy.

 

Nice review-- I did notice some decode errors from the long distance site. However still very readable.

73 W1XWX

 

These radios broadcast on both time slots at the same time and they cause nothing but issues on the DMR repeaters. Most repeaters have banned them and they will ban you for using them on their systems. They are advertising these as tier 2 compatible radios when that is not true at all.

 

Indeed, from location 2, there were some errors. Wait for my other two DMR range test videos from the same locations, you'll be surprised. 73!

 

Buona sera da (roma )ci siamo anche noi facci sapere qualcosa di piu se è valido per aquistarlo /iz0wpa/ grazie.

 

I guess if you repeat an old sporadic minor problem often enough it becomes true for all--- the transmit on 2 time slots was long ago-- and does not occur on recent models. It's just sour grapes from the Motorola ego crowd.

DMR is the only segment of the hobby where hams bad-mouth other hams for their equipment. Not a good way to grow our hobby.

 

In general I find BF equipment to be poorly designed and to have poor quality control. My first BF HT had the antenna connector come lose from the PCB, so for a year I was only capacity coupling to the antenna. I did not notice it much because being in NYC the repeaters tend to be strong. When I did notice the issue it was comparing a friends radio to mine and discovering she was getting into the repeater much better than me from the same location. I opened it up and discovered the issue. I connected the antenna and now have full power on VHF, but still almost no power on UHF. I expect a chip diode for band switching may be blown. Needless to say that radio is now mostly a paper weight.

Since they are so cheap I bought another UV-5R. I was mostly happy with it on a rubber ducky around town, but I discovered that when I connected any better antenna to it, like my mobile 5.2 db gain triband antenna that the frontend was swamped by strong RF and desensed to the point that I could not copy a 50 watt VHF repeater just a mile away from me. Pop on the rubber ducky and all is fine. I have the same issue connected to my discone on the roof of my apartment.

The RX problems will come as no surprise to anyone who has opened one of these radios up. Looking at the radio it seems to be fully SDR with no front end tuning at all, so a strong FM broadcast station, or even strong ham or land mobile repeater can saturate the RX and leave you deaf.

I would not recommend any BF radio as a primary radio for anyone in a city. I find when I travel to the country it preforms fine and I get good reports on TX. It also has good sensitivity on RX when far away from the ElectroMagneticJungle of the city. My experience in NYC with the radio has been duplicated in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philly.

There are good arguments for hams having these inferior radios, but not a good argument for any BF being a primary radio, especially if you are a city ham. I carry mine when I want to spare my VX-5 from possible damage, like when I am going to be on or around the water or where there might be a chance of physical damage from dropping.

I find it hard to believe that the DMR version of the radio would have any better RX performance. I suspect it is the same circuit with a little more software burned into rom.

For emergency communications it might make a marginal backup radio. I suppose a partly working radio is better than no radio.

 

Hi, I would like like to know that above is really true? I have not seen where this was proven yet and we have been waiting. The only authorised USA reseller for these states the following: "Sanatop is the only authorized USA BaoFeng exclusive distributor of the BaoFeng DM-5R. . NOT compatible with Motorola MOTOTRBO, supporting Tier 1 and Timeslot 1 only."

What that means is they do not have TDMA in them, and as such will cause repeater problems if attempted to be used on them, so still seems it is a simplex only radio?

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-DM-5R-400-480MHz-Transceiver-Ultra-long/dp/B01LZ0FZFQ

If this has been cured, please send me the link to anyplace other than RadioDITTY that has not be able to be trusted in the past. I would think the authorised USA supplier would be boasting that they can work on DMR repeaters if that was solved with a firmware update.

ArtU

 

Update, the Distributors states the following about not causing issues with Slot 2 on a reply to comments on the AZ page:
"The current Tier II upgrade causes interference that would get you banned from a repeater...<snip>..The new version that supports Tier II will be released in 2017. "

 

Thanks for the info, happy new year!

 

"DMR is the only segment of the hobby where hams bad-mouth other hams for their equipment. Not a good way to grow our hobby." Agreed. Usually the criticism is a hallmark of envy -- demeans us all to hear it and put up with it.