I keep getting asked about the Baofeng radios. Usually, it’s a new ham asking “hey, should I buy the Baofeng?” Even though I own several of them and make good use of them, I have been a little reluctant to recommend them as a first radio. I put together my thoughts on these radios plus a few tips to help people get started with them. Read the full story here on HamRadioSchool.com.
73, Bob K0NR
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I was skeptical when my wife wanted to purchase one of these low cost radios. I had been raised to believe that you get what you pay for. While that it true the question is do you have to pay an extreme amount for the extras that other radios have? We found out that a low cost radio offers exceptional value on a cost per radio basis. I am now a huge fan of the lower cost radios. They are not all things, but they are also not price to be that.
I have one. The B F -9 V2+. It hears well with the Nagoya NA 771 16 inch antennas. (I managed to get a real one not the counterfeit) my ticket will be showing up in the database soon, so I can’t speak for the transmit yet. It is the 8 watt version. A ham friend tried it out for me and hit our local repeater with no problems. If you get one get the programming cable and use Chirp software to load your repeater and simplex frequencies. Keyboard programming is impossible. Programming with the cable is difficult enough. If you’re not licensed yet, get a dummy load and hook it up before connecting to the computer. Reading the radio file in either direction causes the radio to transmit.
Accessories are cheap. The speaker/mic is about $7.00. The 3800 ma/hour battery’s are about $17.00 each. Most of the major brand batteries go for $50.00 up.
All in all, I’m pleased. I have less than $80.00 in the radio and accessories.