Thursday, May 5, 2011

Yaesu VX-3R Knock-off: The Baofeng UV-3R

The Chinese are at it again. This time we have a knock-off of the Yaesu VX-3R. The VX-3R is a tiny, but full featured 2M/440 HT. At $175, it isn't super expensive, but not exactly cheap either.

Enter the Baofeng UV-3R... it looks a lot like my VX-3R, but you can get three of the UV-3R for the price of the Yaesu.




G4ILO is on top of things again with a great review of this new rig. Some of his key points follow:
"The UV-3R makes [another Chinese radio] look a quality product. This is the first new electronic product I've had that didn't come with a peel-off protective film over the display. The plastic casing is extremely thin and the plastic belt clip that can optionally be attached looks as if it would easily break. To be fair, the flimsiness of the Baofeng may not be due to cheapness but to save weight."
"Confusingly, the rotary switch on top of the radio must be pulled up before it can be rotated."
Note: the VX-3R works this way as well.
"I also checked the strong signal handling performance of the receiver the same way I did recently with my other hand-held transceivers. It was on a par with the VX-8GR and the JMT-227, at the poor end of the spectrum."
Here you can see the UV-3R in all its glory.



For $55 I am willing to roll the dice. When the storms hit last week, my wife was looking for my VX-3R. Unfortunately, I keep that one in my laptop bag. I was contemplating another radio already, so finding this one has tipped the scales. I'm off to eBay.

3 comments:

  1. has anyone tried the wouxun kg-uv commander software to see if it expands tx and rx. just a thought

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the software is radio specific.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mine had expanded transmit on VHF/UHF. It does narrow & wide FM but strangely will not accept a new narrowband 6.25 kHz frequency. It rounds up.

    ReplyDelete