Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Baofeng UV-3R: Local Knowledge

My company has a manufacturing facility in China. I sent a message to the IT guy there and asked him if he knew anything about ham radio in general and Baofeng in particular. His response is below.
"I knew HAM from internet, and I use public-type walkie-talkie for spring outing sometime , but they don’t need license (so its power is lower to 0.5W).

In China, there is one official organization which is the radio association to manage China Radio users. Its website is: http://www.carms.org.cn/ (no English page on it now),

Wouxon and BaoFeng are two of popular brands in China Radio market. I saw HAM BBS has some articles to show its pictures and operations. I check Vero website, it seems Vero focus on foreign market (some of products is its logon, but produced by other OEMS(like BaoFeng did)). These radios equipments are easier to buy in electronic market (but once its power output is over 0.5.it needs license, it is illegal if use it without license, but no one will want to find you or publish you even though you use over 0.5 equipments except you activities are illegal to government).

And I remember that it is possible HAM users can connect even though they are away thousands of miles via relay station? Did you try this?

I check www.taobao.com (China B2C/C2C site), BaoFeng UV-3R, price range is from 200RMB ~ 300RMB, fyi"
I'm guessing that he uses GMRS-like radios when he is out hiking. For these low power radios, it doesn't sound like the rules are strictly enforced. Of course, strictly enforced may have a whole different meaning in China. Google says that the Chinese Radio Sports Association handles the licensing for amateur radio. So, I think he got the link wrong, but I can't confirm. I keep getting a website is forbidden error message. I wonder if you have to be in China to see that page. Strange.

He is familiar with Wouxun and Baofeng since they make other radios for the consumer market.

Lastly, he sees prices from $31 USD to $46 USD for the UV-3R which, on the high end, is what we can pay for them on ebay today (excluding shipping).

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