[W5SFA] Starter dual-band HT

[Roger Klein]

All,

 

I'm passing on some information about my "cheap Chinese radio" that a couple
of people asked about at the meeting last night.

 

The model I got was a Baofeng UV-5RA, which is currently selling for $32.96
on Amazon.  See
http://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-UV5RA-136-174-Dual-Band-Transceiver/dp/B009MAK
WC0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top.    The package consists of radio, battery
charger and AC adapter, and carry strap.  They are FCC Certified (sticker is
under the battery compartment).   The radio has between 4-5 watts maximum
power,  a 128-channel memory, as well as a scan function (which is kind of
slow).   I have found it to be a decent radio for someone just starting out
but does not want to sink a lot of money in.  You can consider it a
disposable radio for the price.  It has received pretty good reviews on
eham.net (see http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/10349)

 

Of course, being cheap there are some downsides.  The case is not
weatherproof or even weather resistant.  The UV-5RA is somewhat of a bear to
program manually through its keypad.  Fortunately there is a web site that
has lots of information about how to manually program
(www.miklor.com/uv5r).  It also has links to a freeware program (CHIRP) that
will enable you to program in the local repeater frequencies and offsets
from your computer.  This is a lot easier to do than programming manually,
plus you can save your settings out to a file on your computer.  However, to
program with a computer, you will need a USB interface cable, but this costs
less than $10.  See
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Cable-Baofeng-UV-5R-Driver/dp/B008RZJHJU/r
ef=pd_sim_e_1

 

Another useful add-on is a whip antenna to replace the "rubber duck" antenna
that comes with the unit.  I got this one:
http://www.amazon.com/ExpertPower%C2%AE-Two-way-Radio-Antenna-SMA-Female/dp/
B008Y2SPE4/ref=pd_sim_e_3

 

At some point I intend to get a better UHF/VHF unit or even a mobile model,
but for starting out on the cheap this unit does pretty good for the price.

 

Regards,

 

Roger

 

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