I think I commented on it previously in a different post, but if you show face at a typical amateur radio gathering you will invariably see a few of these hanging off the hips of even the saltiest radio operators. Yup, I'm saying the super tech nerd with thousands of dollars of radio gear and years of experience might very well still have a Baofeng in his quiver of gear still in use.
They work and they're cheap.
I would strongly recommend shelling out the extra $40 to go ahead and get an extended battery and antenna if you plan on using it effectively. The data cable and CHIRP are even more invaluable as hand jamming your frequencies gets old after the first one you try to enter manually- if you can even figure out how to do it at all that is
If you're on the fence about shelling out the $80 or so for a tricked out feng setup just remember you can also use it to talk to your buddies who have bubblepack radios too. I honestly don't use handheld radios all that often, but when you need one there is no substitute. I use them backpacking to listen to the weather service, on the ski slopes to stay in contact with friends, for fun to talk with radio clubs, and just in case of emergency.
Yeah, it's true they aren't black gear Motorolas or green gear Harris setups but for the price of one of those you could easily buy a pallet of Baofengs. People say they're fragile but mine hasnt been babied and it's still trucking. Plus they are light in the hand/on the pack and have phenomenal accessories and open source support.
If you really want to be legit, look into joining up with an amateur radio club and getting your license. If for no other reason than learning a little about radios to help you understand the tech side and limitations. Once you have your license too you won't have to feel like you're a criminal if you want to use your radio on tech frequencies and use repeaters.
If you have any other questions, feel free to also PM me. I'm no radio guru but I can point you in the right direction.
Looking to upgrade the antenna on my UV-82, Can anyone recommend a quality antenna? I've been looking at Diamond recently, they seem fairly well built.
Had a Nagoya that separated from the connector, so I don't think I'll go that route.
Diamond & Comets are good, however I expect they're still made at the chinese factories with dubious quality control, just sold under the Japanese brand name. DOn't get too good of an antenna, or depending on where you are (RF noise floor) the antenna may overwhelm the 'front-end' of the receiver circuitry.
Also make sure you get an antenna with the proper connector for your transceiver.
/-/ooligan
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
We've went with a few UV-82. We mostly use them out in the boonies on our ATVs. The range is great and they work just fine even in rough terrain (hills, dense forest, etc)
It's been about 2 years so far and everything's great. But once we went out last winter, it was -34 celcius or so and the radio's battery just can't handle that kind of cold weather. We had to tuck the radios inside our winter jackets.
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Most radios are going to have that issue -- also Liquid Crystal Displays.
I just ordered an AnyTone AT-878 & should have it in a few days.
https://www.amazon..._s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but I understand the English language manual & firmware are all written in Taiwan by cheap coders. A better radio is supposedly the BTECH 6X2 because the firmware & manual are done by competent, English-speaking coders.
Anyway, just curious -- when using teh radios for snowmobiling, etc. do you have them set to FRS freqs, or ??
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
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