The BaofengGate Conspiracy
From all the Baofeng UV-5R clones we've seen in the past two+ years, this gets the prize for being the most "original".
It all started after I've spotted a seller named "A-plugs" or "A-Plus" selling this radio in their virtual AliExpress store 913499:
They have changed as much as they could:
- Volume knob.
- Antenna connector (and a different looking antenna).
- Speaker 'grill'
- Location and shape of the RX/TX LED
- The side buttons are both under the PTT, and are both black.
- Shape and location of the VFO/MR and the A/B buttons.
- The belt clip.
- And the charger looks different too.
The specs shows it to be the version where you can either have a standard 144/440 MHz radio or a 220/440 MHz radio. (See the note here regarding versions.)
Now changing labels and plastic is a very Chinese like thing to do, but changing the antenna connector? This is very suspicious.
Then I found the culprit: From the state of Ohio: Universal Radio Inc - apparently, this just appeared about two weeks ago on their website: TDXONE TD-Q8 HT.
This radio is also sold on eBay, but get this, only by Americans. Two sellers, one a company called Lentini Communications, Inc from Berlin, Connecticut, and the other is also from Ohio, that not only claims to beat "Universal" in price, but that the radio is graded IP65.
There you go, the BaofengGate conspiracy is solved.
(And I waited so long to post this, Nate kept digging. - Brick)
The BaofengGate Conspiracy Part II
Some more information about the 'conspiracy':
The domain: tdxone.com belongs to Universal Radio Inc.
I believe the eBay seller from Adamsville, OH, is Walter KD8HWG.
The radio appeared several month ago, maybe around April.
There is a weird claim that keeps repeating itself about this clone:
128+128 Memories, what is that about?
TDXone logo:
Software Download
Specs
This frequency range post here is interesting. Universal talks about the frequency range, but fails to mention that there is a 220 version. The 220/440 versions cover 219-225 MHz, The good people of Universal, left the specs as 245-246 MHz which is really only interesting to you if you want to use it in Thailand.
And looking at the TDXONE TD-Q8 Controls:
- Is "#" the confirm button? For UV5Rs, you press the MENU button again to confirm an action.
- On the bottom left: Scan? What happened to the Monitor function?
After examining the users manual (keep reading), I found out that the graphics was misleading, MENU still confirms changes, and the monitor function still exists.
Menu comparison chart is here.
Yet another American company has it: Radio Inc
Users Manual is here (PDF).
Anderson Communications from Australia also has it. His version is TD-Q8AH with a "super high capacity battery".
From the manual I've learned that the menus are slightly different, and you can change the functionality of one of the side buttons, edit channel names, and the ANI.
They also added PL/DCS scanning.
(And I still didn't get it posted, so he dug some more... - Brick)
Also aaRadio.com has it too...
But they call it Tongdaxin TDX1 Q8.
Which brings a whole slew of more information:
TDXChina.com carries the name Tongdaxin.
Their website, shows that this radio is actually 3 sub models:
TDX-Q8(CH)
TDX-Q8(BH)
TDX-Q8(AH)
And there is the TDX-Q8-silver which has the same case as the TDX-Q8(BH); they might be the same radio.
A clone that looks like a simply relabeled UV5Rs: TD-Q6
A clone with an interesting keypad layout: TDX-Q7
And something that looks new and probably not on market: TDX-Q10
Of-course you have a bunch of the usual commercial radios.
Of-course you have a bunch of the usual commercial radios.