Baofeng UV-5R Two-Way Radio Review

It's a radio that's great to take with you in places you might not want to take your $250.00 radio. Places like into the inner city, the beach, white water rafting, or Mars. It will melt on Mars, that might make a good video.
The BaoFeng UV-5R is a compact hand held transceiver providing 4 watts in the frequency range of 136-174 MHz and 400-480 MHz. It is a compact, economical HT that includes a special VHF receive band from 65 - 108 MHz which includes the regular FM broadcast band. Dual watch and dual reception is supported. You get up to 128 memories. Other features include: selectable wide/narrow, battery save function, VOX, DCS/CTCSS encode, key lock and built in flashlight. Selectable frequency steps include: 2.5, 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5 and 25 kHz. RF power may be selected at 4 or 1 watts. This radio comes with an SMA-Female antenna, flexible antenna, BL-5 Li-ion battery (7.4V 1500 mAh), belt clip, wrist strap, AC adapter (8.4V 600ma) and drop-in charging tray. This radio requires the PC03 FTDI programming cable.

• Foscam Digital Tech is the authorized US Baofeng exclusive distributor of the U-5R V2+. US based warranty service for this listing is exclusively provided by Foscam Digital Tech out of our office in Houston, TX, (no shipping to China).
• Frequency Range: 136-174 / 400-479.995 MHz. Metallic upgraded, durable housing. English user manual included.
• Upgraded 2014 Bright & easy to read two-color LED display.
• Compatible with UV-5R 3800mah and 3600mah Extended Batteries.
• More enhanced construction and features than previous UV-5R and UV-5RA. Helpful programming guides available at Baofengradio.us

The price of these radios combined with the sold feel and capability make this a solid 5 star radio. If the cost was 70-100$ I would put the money down on Yaesu or similar brand, but when I can buy almost 10 to 1 it is an easy decision. T
The radio has a quality and durable feel to it without being too heavy, says solidly on my dash with a small strip of velcro. I was surprised at the small size of the radio at first, not in a bad way, just thought it would be larger. It can fit on the shoulder strap of a backpack without being too heavy or large that it gets in the way.
Using CHIRP to program the radios was easy and within an hour or two of getting the radios I felt very comfortable using it and had no need of referencing the manual or any YouTube videos. Using the radio day to day is easy and with the decent memory size I don't have to change much to use it in areas around the state. The battery has been great, a few days of lot of listening and occasional TX and there will still be some life left.
The radio does receive regular FM radio stations and I use it more than I expected. It receives much better than my car radio although there is a lot of overlap making certain stations unintelligible if there is another nearby using the same freq. While it is in FM Radio mode, you still RX on your selected station
So far, for the price, I can't complain. BUT IT's NOT A $250.00 radio either. To go with this, I ordered a Genuine Nagoya NA-771 SMA Female Antenna and a Baofeng 3800mAH battery (for those places I go where chargers are far and few between).
It has an easy to read display that lights up, a keypad that also lights when programming or TX/RXing. An A or B Channel Selection, a small LED flashlight, 127 Channel Memory, High/Low power output, Scan, a FM Radio, and Extended Frequencies. It comes preset with what I would call commercial frequencies, those set aside by the FCC for business use.
So, with that in mind, it's not a TOY either. It's a Chinese HAM radio that just happens to give you frequency choices that you might not legally be able to broadcast on…with wattage you can't really control!!! You should know the FCC rules if you have a license. Power output is either High or Low. High measures around 4 watts and Low measures around 1 watt. This much power on some channels may not be acceptable. Now that you have been warned…
You can program FMRS/MURS, Marine, Weather and everything in-between. The included Baofeng programming software is not much. I downloaded CHIRP and am pleased with my results. It makes light work instead of having to go through all the menu items on the radio. CHIRP is open source, so it's free. Yes, there are Hacks out there to extend your range, but I just wouldn't go there if I were you. Not worth the expense the FCC will want to impose on you, or the vacation time you will have to take.
What the Baofeng UV-5R Radio doesn't have are the multiple banks of memory or cool duplexing that you see in the higher priced radios. The radio is Dual Band, but not true Dual Band. You can listen to only one channel at a time, Channel A or Channel B. Either A, or B, but not both. It does scan, but it only scans one channel at a time. It will scan Channel A or Channel B, but not both. There are some slight programming variations to allow you a preferred TX channel, but that's as sophisticated as it gets. No bells, it does have a whistle. More like a siren actually. A Woo-wooo-wooo siren.
It's got a plastic case and is not waterproof. There is no built-in GPS, APRS, mapping software or inflatable life rafts either. It also does not make coffee. It's a $35.00 radio, okay?
I like the price. I like the fact that if you are a new HAM Technician, you will love the the price to get into the HAM radio community quickly. This is something that would store well in case of emergencies. I like it because you can get two or three of these for the price of a higher priced radio. It's cool for the price! And if this one busted, I would get another one.

This Baofeng UV-5R Handset comes with 12 months warranty. Brought to you by the leader in electronic devices as well as Cheap Two-way Radios, www.tagreat.com.

Baofeng BF-888S Two Way Radio Review

Baofeng BF-888S Two-Way Radio

The BaoFeng BF-888S is a compact hand held transceiver providing 2 watts in the frequency range of 400-480 MHz. You get up to 16 selectable memories (user-programmable). Other features include: selectable wide/narrow band, battery save function, VOX, DCS/CTCSS encode, and a built in flashlight.
This radio requires the PC03 FTDI programming cable to program Channels and Frequencies.
I bought these for the marine industry. There are so much chatter while moving around in port that we wanted something everyone else didn't have to work on. These seemed to be the answer.
I'll start with the products construction. It feels cheap but nothing has broke the 1st week of use. For $20 a unit though who cares when the other are $100 and only last a year in this environment.
Clarity
I think it is actually better then the expensive one we use, may be that chatter is eliminated so I can hear my deck crew better though. The ear piece is a heck of a lot better than I expected after reading the reviews. I didn't have a problem at all understanding the other person, never did anyone else. Crew likes them better then the old ones.
Programing
To program what freq. to use was easy. Be advised though, as stated, it doesn't use windows 8. Lucky a guy on the boat had windows7 and programing was done in a matter of minutes once we decided which freqs we were going to use.
Freq usage
This has been a touchy subject so I did a lot of research due to my work area. We have Helo ports around us along with USCG and various other agencies. All these things have certain freqs they work on so I looked up and used the business freqs and there are more than plenty to cover the 16 channels you can program into the radio. I just used 7 freqs (7 set on low power and the same 7 set on high power.) Also this radio works great for me because it will do VHF also. I can program the working VHF freq we use into the radio right along with the UHF freqs eliminated the use for two radios. If I need to tell the deck crew something I can tell them to switch to channel 8 and the client can't hear what we are saying. The old way was to call them on the VHF and tell them to call me on the house phone. It just keeps ships business personal.
VOX function
This is a great tool if in security and such but was non functional for my use. The mic is very sensitive even set on the highest level. The boat makes a lot of noise when docking due to all the screws and thrusters working and the mike would pick it up and constantly stay keyed. It works great, just not for what I use the radio for.
CTCSS/DSC function
Again not for me. It works and works as intended. I tested this by programing two radios with it and one without. The two radios that had it did not pick up the transmission from the one without. The one without could hear the two with it, just as designed. THE BIG PROBLEM is if the one was transmitting the other two didn't know because they couldn't hear the transmission. If they tried to report something the radio would not transmit because someone was using the freq. at the same time. I immediately decided to do away with this function. Moving a 300' boat in close quarters I need to hear my deck guys.
Busy Channel Lockout
This may fix the above problem but I didn't look into it. Have not heard any traffic on the freqs we are using so no big deal with interference.
Scan function
Didn't use but I'm sure it works as intended. Everything else has.
Scramble function
Tried to use it but couldn't get it to work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Again no big deal for what I intend to use the radios for so didn't spend much time on it. If for security I may have spent more time on it.

Microphone on headset
This thing is very sensitive and works great and is very clear. Tested it out at least 1 foot from my mouth and was told it was crystal clear from the other person. Very impressed with the cheap looking earpiece/Mic combo. As a matter of fact I ordered 10 more, one for each crew member, so everyone doesn't have to share earpieces.
Range
Well that is not a factor for me once it only needs to go 300' BUT, I did test it out inside the steel hull of the boat. Good thing is I was able to talk to the Engine Room from the bridge. Pretty impressive once the signal is getting though 4 decks of steel. The radios didn't like the actual engine room where the engines were but worked fine in the Control room. My guess is the engines are putting off a freq that the radios didn't like.
Belt clip
Again will see in time but the clip felt strong.

Instuctions
Not very clear on the programing but can be figured out pretty quick. I just played with it and clicked all the buttons. That's when I found the VHF freqs.
The Baofeng BF-888S Two-Way Radio come with a 12 months warranty. Brought to you by the leader in electronic devices as well as wholesale Walkie Talkies, CellBy.com.
Great radios for the price. Better build quality than I was expecting. After cycling the batteries a couple of times.I lent a pair to one of our survey crews. I told them not to baby them, I wanted a real world test. They listened. They are jamming the clips (clips are screwed the radio body) over thick belts. Each time they have brought me the radios to charge (charges have been lasting about 3 work days) they are carrying them by the antennas. The radios have been in the woods, on construction sites, and bounced around in the back of the pickup. The volume and clearity have worked in all situations. Have not dropped one in a creek yet. I am really impressed with this radios. At the price I got them, they are 12-15% the cost of the Motorolas I have purchased in the past. I took a pair on a family camping trip and got a range of about 3/4 of a mile, more than I expected. I highly recommend these units.