Baofeng UV-5R VHF-UHF HT.

Has anyone tried this Baofeng UV-5R dual band HT for hams?
I bought 2 of these small HT's and they work great!
The UV-5R HT has loads of bells and whistles. You name it.

Frequency Range: 136-174 / 400-520MHz (RX and TX)
Dual-Band Display, Dual Freq. Display, Dual-Standby
Output Power: 4 /1 Watts
128 Channels
50 CTCSS and 104 CDCSS
Built-in VOX Function
1750Hz Burst Tone
FM Radio (65.0MHz-108.0MHz)
LED Flashlight
Large LCD Display
High / Low RF Power-out Switchable
25KHz / 12.5KHz (wide band, narrow band) Switchable
Emergency Alert
Low Battery Alert
Battery Saver
Time-out Timer
Keypad Lock
Monitor Channel
Tuning Steps: 2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/25KHz
Dimensions (less antenna) 2.28" x 4.33" x 1.26" (W x H x D)
Box includes: Radio, Dual-Band Antenna, 1800 mAh Li-ion battery,
Belt Clip, Drop-in Charger, Ear/Mic, English Manual

All of this for $40!!! No crap! For this price, it's still fairly rugged.
I bought the larger battery pack and it's a bit taller. The bigger pack cost me an extra $20. It came with a programming cable and software to upload and download memory.
This HT runs great. I hit all of the repeaters easily on 1 watt. 4 watts no sweat.
The only bad thing about it, is the user manual stinks. There are plenty of forums and groups that use this, so there is plenty of information out there.

Just thought I'd pass this along.

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I've heard about them but not used them... yet...
One of these days I will want to get a radio that's FCC type approved to operate both on HAM bands and on commercial bands. Could come in handy in an emergency

Nope. All Yaesu radios for me and quite honestly I barely use them. I really should get more involved, just that damn time thing keeps getting in the way.

There are a few floating around my local group. From what I've heard they make a great backup, but changing settings on them is a pain and the TX/RX on them isn't quite as good as the "standard" models. Still want to pick one up for backup uses, but money is going elsewhere at the moment.

LagunaH1 said:

I've heard about them but not used them... yet...
One of these days I will want to get a radio that's FCC type approved to operate both on HAM bands and on commercial bands. Could come in handy in an emergency

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I don't believe they are. They are part 90 radios that are supposed to be programmed for use only on the authorized band of the user.. Their cheapness and ease of availability are causing real problems with unlicensed operators on ham and land mobile bands.

3Hummers said:

Nope. All Yaesu radios for me and quite honestly I barely use them. I really should get more involved, just that damn time thing keeps getting in the way.

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I use my Yaesu HTs infrequently as well, but I like their ruggedness and relative user friendliness. I also like the fact that the ones I have (FT-60 and VX-170) use NiMH batteries and can optionally use lithium or alkaline AA cells. Sure, lithium technology batteries are lighter, but if my HTs were models that use LiIon or LiPo batteries I would have already replaced them twice by now due to the age-death these batteries undergo. As it is, I'm still on my original sets of NiMH batteries. Also, my VX-170 is sumbersible, which makes it a great radio for outdoor use in the rain.

abearden said:

There are a few floating around my local group. From what I've heard they make a great backup, but changing settings on them is a pain and the TX/RX on them isn't quite as good as the "standard" models. Still want to pick one up for backup uses, but money is going elsewhere at the moment.

Click to expand...

Yeah, try to run these Chinese radios in VFO mode :banghead: Also, the stock antennas are total crap. That seems to be the first thing most owners replace.

In Search and Rescue, most of the major HAM players use that radio as a backup because they're cheap and pretty reliable. That said, I've heard lots of complaints that the programming isn't very user friendly. I'm not a major player - when asked what kind of radio I have, I say "a handheld" or "a car mounted".... okay, I have a kenwood handheld and a blackbox car-mounted (and a couple part 90 blackbox radios)

Ft60 and 8800R for me.

Those two are my HAM radios of choice for anything even semi serious due to their ease of use and reliability

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Programming these things can be a real pain. There is no reason for the way they program. After you program a few channels, it gets a lot easier. I got it down to 4-5 moves now. The software is worthless. They say there is a group that upgrades the software daily, but I haven't seen it.
I have one dual band HT. Kenwood TH 79A. I had it for years. It works good and is reliable. The Baofeng is my backup. For $40 I got a good dual band radio with desk charger and some other accessories. That amount also included the shipping! If it takes a crap, pull the battery and smash it against the rocks. (I don't want some jerk getting on there and jamming the bands). It's disposable.
Besides, when you reset it to defaults, it talks to you in Chinese. Who wouldn't want that.
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Cables are cheap and there's a program called "chirp" available for download.


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I have one, In addition to my IC-7000's not a bad little radio you get used to the programming and settings quick if you have an aptitude for electronics!