Anyone concerned about a BaoFeng ban?

RLBreton

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I've read recently (and watched a few YT vids) about the FCC "cracking down" on imported radios...according to the FCC Public Notice DA 18-980, (mostly Chinese) VHF/UHF transceivers such as the BaoFeng, the QYT, Puxing,and others may no longer be imported, sold, or operated due to lack of FCC equipment certification.

Anyone bought up a bunch for a rainy day?
 
It's a case of you get what you pay for. It has been well documented that these radios frequently fall below the spectral purity requirements of the FCC, so it does not surprise me that they have become a target. When you openly flaunt the FCC, you are bound to attract some negative attention. Frankly, I personally like to go with commercial grade radios. Older versions are frequently very reasonable in price. Furthermore, with a little thought and hacking, these radios can add security to your comm plan. If the SHTF, I have the ability to to communicate with the family with either DES or AES encryption on 900, VHF and UHF.
 
They are junk anyways, no great loss.

If you really want them, people will still be rugsweeping them the same way we get unblocked scanners, cb amps and cuban cigars.

-Mike
 
For what it is, a nearly disposable HT, I like my UV5R. Admittedly, its Tx filters are probably splattering outside the allowed bandwidth. This would bother me if the 2M and 70vm bands weren't quiet 99.9% of the time.
 
They are still cheap on amazon. Good for what they are. 40 bucks for a radio is unheard of.
 
This is why I asked - many in the..."prepper" community are screaming to buy then NOW ahead of any sh!tstorm...
 
They are junk anyways, no great loss.

If you really want them, people will still be rugsweeping them the same way we get unblocked scanners, cb amps and cuban cigars.

-Mike

For cheap, local, mostly non critical comms, Baofengs and the like are perfect for most people's general needs.

They are the best thing that ever happened to the potable two way market for the average person.

I use them daily on the farm. They are $23.00 +- radios that more than suffice for my needs. If I lose one off the tractor(which has already happened) I'm not out alot of money and woukdn't even bother to go looking for it.

If I lost a $300 Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood, or a $600-1000 Motorola, thats a whole different ball game.....one I'm not willing to play.

I'm putting away a dozen of the UV5R's for future use.
 
For cheap, local, mostly non critical comms, Baofengs and the like are perfect for most people's general needs.

They are the best thing that ever happened to the potable two way market for the average person.

I use them daily on the farm. They are $23.00 +- radios that more than suffice for my needs. If I lose one off the tractor(which has already happened) I'm not out alot of money and woukdn't even bother to go looking for it.

If I lost a $300 Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood, or a $600-1000 Motorola, thats a whole different ball game.....one I'm not willing to play.

There's a ton of Icoms, Yaesu, and Kenwood radios that don't cost anywhere near $300. Most of them are monobanders though.

And like I said, even if banned, they will still be around. Just probably not on amazon, but fleabay and other places, for sure.

I guess they do have a place though too, esp with children and other people who probably beat the piss out of things, if it breaks you just throw it away and issue them a new one.

-Mike
 
I bought a baofeng because they were running a sale on amazon last year and it was a complete package, radio, mic, mounting brackets etc. to be honest I still prefer the yaesu it seems to work really well and has more frequencies. The only down side is that everything for a yaesu costs more.
 
I have two of the little bitty ones. Maybe time to grab a model up from that. The 8w version maybe.
8W? Meh. Power is one of the last features I look at in an HT. The diff between 5W and 8W is half an S-unit. To me that's not worth the battery life it costs. But even though I don't need another, I'm arguing with myself over getting 1 or 2 more since mine is really old and I hear they've made improvements.
 
I bought an HT a little over a year ago. I thought it would be good to have in the car and I would listen to it during the day while at work. The thing crapped out just after the warranty ran out. $60.00 and all the accessories with it.
 
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Waiting on 6 more UV5R's with the 3800 mah batteries right now from fleabay @ $27.30 each. They're going in storage for future use.
 
It's almost a crime how bad the user interface is on these radios.

Its not the "interface", its the documentation that is poor. I don't find them any more complicated than a Kenwood 281 or other radios.

The Baofengs are only a two layer deep menu, unlike some other radios that can be four or more layers deep to set one parameter. Plus, they are supported FREE on Chirp.

Manually programming of Baofengs is actually easy once you understand the sequences. There are certain things that require a computer/software to modify but for the most part, all the parameters are accessible by the front panel keys.
It takes repetition to familiarize yourself with the procedures. They drove me crazy at first but once I programmed it a few times it became easier.
 
(1:00 - 9:00 discusses part 90 related information and rules).

You can skip to 9:00 and hear the gist of the AARL's response, and his viewpoint commentary.

 
Interesting article on the Yaesu FT-4X ($99.95) which is built on the same transceiver chip (RDA1846) as Baofengs, maybe with better filtering and spurious emissions, not sure the masses will appreciate that as a $75 difference.

Yaesu FT-4X review (it is after all a Baofeng)

I'm sticking with my VX-6.
 
The Baofeng has gone through some changes over the years. What is the latest, "best" version of those?
 
The Baofeng has gone through some changes over the years. What is the latest, "best" version of those?

Thats like asking whats the best car to buy.:D

There are many models to choose from but they all function basically the same, but there are differences in batteries, keypads(with and without), power outputs, and a couple of later iterations of software.

I bought a dozen UV5Rs with the 3800mah batteries for my use here on the farm. I don't need the 8w output as I have a repeater on the property that can be hit with a couple of milliwatts. For general use with 2m repeaters, VHF/UHF simplex channels they are fine.
 
OK, Christmas is coming. What is the most recent version of these? The selection is overwhelming and confusing, and the Chinese English does not help in the least. I would think model numbers would be a giveaway, but it gets lost in translation.
 
OK, Christmas is coming. What is the most recent version of these? The selection is overwhelming and confusing, and the Chinese English does not help in the least. I would think model numbers would be a giveaway, but it gets lost in translation.

From what I've read, one Baofeng is about the same as any other. Pick the one that fits your budget, but get two. No idea if these are repairable. I think you're expected to throw it away if it breaks.
 
OK, Christmas is coming. What is the most recent version of these? The selection is overwhelming and confusing, and the Chinese English does not help in the least. I would think model numbers would be a giveaway, but it gets lost in translation.

Where are you looking at these radios where there is any Chinese in the descriptions?

There are several versions because they have different batteries, different capabilities, different screens, single band, dual band, tri band, different size case, etc.

What is your comms needs?

If you want a basic dual band radio, the UV5R with a 3800mah battery will suffice. The battery will last for several days in recieve mode.
Put a three dollar speaker mic on it and you have a workable radio on two wide bands, plus FM broadcast listening capability.
 
From what I've read, one Baofeng is about the same as any other. Pick the one that fits your budget, but get two. No idea if these are repairable. I think you're expected to throw it away if it breaks.

If any of mine broke, I'd mark it BAD, then toss it in a box for use as spare parts(case, knobs, antenna, battery, belt clip.
A 20-28 dollar radio is not worth spending ten minutes on trying to fix it and I don't think there's any user serviceable parts or even schematics to reference to even begin.
They are disposable......something that has great appeal to a lot of people including me.
 
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