Baofeng UV-82X: 2M/220

Martyn is back with a new radio... the Baofeng UV-82X that will do 2M and 220.

"Baofeng UV-82X Dual Band 144/220 Handheld Transceiver
This is a brand new model out, IN STOCK NOW!!!
Features dual band, dual display, dual RX, 2.5 commercial spacing
5W out hi 1w out lo power, 128 memories, Emergency alarm,
Rugged construction, Perfect for Commercial and Amateur use."

Baofeng UV-5R: Lightning Deal

Baofeng UV-5R for $31 (Free Ship) as an Amazon Lightning Deal - only about an hour left.

Via Hank Curmudgeon on the Baofeng Amateur Radio Network (BARN) on Facebook

Baofeng Tech Amazon Prime Deals

Tomorrow is Amazon Prime Day - it is a little bit like a Black Friday sale, but only for Amazon Prime subscribers. Baofeng Tech is going to have several deals throughout the day. If you aren't an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial if want to take advantage of the deals from Baofeng Tech.

More soon!!!

Baofeng UV-3R: KC2RA Review

A KC2RA (Kings County Repeater Association) review by Gary ( KB2BSL) of the Baofeng UV-3R is below. I had not thought about it, but the review points out how much the of radio is in the software - that it uses the software to leverage a small number of components to build such an interesting little radio.

First Look: Baofeng UV-3R Review

"This radio is undoubtedly a SDR (Software Defined Radio) and has a relatively low part count. I will not cover every part used as a full list is available in the UV-3R Yahoo group file section (Thanks to PY2BBS), but will cover some of the major ones."

"The heart of the radio is a RDA Microelectronics RDA1846 single chip transceiver for walkie talkies. This single CMOS chip provides frequency synthesizer, VCO/VFO, AFC, AGC, pre/de-emphasis (selectable and can be disabled), RSSI indicator, CTCSS/DCS encode/decode, DTMF, 8dBm PA (about 6mw), and more. Basically everything a radio needs is provided by a single chip."

Baofeng Tech Amazon Prime Day Deal: Antennas

These Baofeng Tech Amazon Prime Day Deals are now live*:

Nagoya NA-771 15.6-Inch Whip VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) Antenna SMA-Female

Nagoya NA-24J 16.2-Inch Ultra Whip VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) Antenna SMA-Female 

Nagoya RB-35 5/8 NMO Mount Magnet

If you don't have Amazon Prime, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial if want to take advantage of the deals from Baofeng Tech.

* Hopefully, these are live now. This post was scheduled based on the original times Amazon had given for the listing. I'll update if I learn otherwise.

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.

Baofeng UV-82: BaofengTech Camo Version

First, many thanks to Baofeng Tech for sending this radio to me!

I usually post about how I like getting radios in bright colors, so I didn't think I would be a big fan of the new camo Baofeng versions. Well, I was wrong. I really like the way this camo UV-82 looks. My pictures do not do it just. I'll have to figure out a better way to show off the pattern.

Baofeng Tech Black Friday Deals

Three deals - one mobile and two HTs. The deals are available all day at their site or during lightning deals on Amazon.

2:55 until 8:55 PM EST:
BaoFeng BF-F8HP (UV-5R 3rd Gen) 8-Watt Dual Band Two-Way Radio (136-174MHz VHF & 400-520MHz UHF) Includes Full Kit with Large Battery - normally $63, now $45.

5:20 until 11:20 PM EST:
BTECH MINI UV-2501+220 (Gen. 3) 25 Watt Tri-band Base, Mobile Radio: 136-174mhz (VHF), 210-230mhz (1.25M), 400-520mhz (UHF) Amateur (Ham) - normally $129, now $99.

6:40 PM EST until 12:40 AM EST:
BaoFeng UV-82HP (RED) High Power Dual Band Radio: 136-174mhz (VHF) 400-520mhz (UHF) Amateur (Ham) Portable Two-Way - normally $63, now $45.

Baojie BJ-UV55/HYS TC-UV55

Given the luke-warm reception of the Wouxun KG-UV920R, everyone is looking at some alternatives. Following is a essentially a guest post by Nate as he reviews the HYS TC-UV55 (Baojie BJ-UV55) by watching a video review by Andre Silva of Brazil. These mobile radios were first mentioned in his earlier Mega List guest post. I've done some editing, so assume any mistakes are mine. (Already updated as I've made plenty of mistakes! Hopefully, they are fixed now.)

Many thanks to Nate for the in-depth review!

Here is basically a "second hand" review as the video is not in English and Nate could not understand what he was saying. Basically, he watched the display and compared the specs listed in the catalog page.

This video consists of two parts. It is probably not a complete overview of all the features and menus of the HYS TC-UV55 - some key features weren't even showed. (He was using the pause buttons to check out all the settings, etc). The unit sells for about 2/3 of what they want for the KG-UV920 on AliExpress. Actually, the video is about the HYS TC-UV55 (which is essentially the same radio as the Baojie BJ-UV55 based on the specs and this video).

Part 1 Highlights

- Unique way to enter frequencies, the MHz button actually allow you to change digit by digit, most radios will just allow 1 MHz steps, and then you have to scroll up or down up to 500KHz .
- 36 Menu items (00-35).
- Offset steps - 10 KHz. Same digit by digit entry Offset Frequency (can be set between 0 and 69.9875 MHz in Frequency Mode).
- To switch between VFO and Memory Channel mode, he turned off the radio, held the MENU button while turning the radio on again. This seems odd, but I don't understand what he says. There could be a more conventional way to switch between VFO and Memory Channel. Here is a video from Thailand showing the Baojie BJ-UV88 HT radio and the guy demoing the radio did the same on the HT.
- The display can do VV VU - U+V,U+U,V+V,V+U dual band working mode can be selected arbitrarily Dual Frequency standby in any band.
- The button to the left of the MENU button, is the SCAN button.
- BDR function? TX-AB function?



Part 2 Highlights

- The display backlight can be turned off.
- Separate Tone Squelch or Digital Code Squelch can be set for TX and RX.
- The video gets cut at the end, but no Part 3...




Misc Notes
- A lot of similarities to the Baofeng UV-5R (The menu system is actually the same as the Baojie BJ-UV88 handy talkie).
-The Menu button is used to enter the item/save the change.
-The display shows a used memory channel the same way the Baofeng UV-5R does: CH-001 - used channel 1, 002 - empty memory channel 2.
-Like with the Baofeng UV-5R, programing a channel for the second time, the second frequency will become the TX frequency, the first will be the RX frequency, the display will show +-

MENU ITEMS - Default - Options
00 SQL - 5
01 BAND - UHF0 / VHF
02 TX-AB - OFF / A / B
03 BDR - OFF
04 TXP - LOW / HIGH - TX power (VHF 45W/UHF 35W)
05 TOT - 60 (Transmit Over Timer)
06 STEP - 10.00K - Channel Step(5K, 6.25K, 10K, 12.5K, 25K)
07 WN - WIDE - (Wide:25kHz ,Narrow: 12.5kHz)
08 R-DCS - OFF
09 R-CTCSS - OFF
10 T-DCS - OFF
11 T-CTCSS - OFF
12 ABR - ON
13 BEEP - ON / OFF
14 ANI-SW - ON
15 OPTSIG - OFF
16 SPMUTE - QT - Multi-kind mute modes(QT/AND/OR)
17 ANI-ID - 80808 - ANI code display(caller ID)
18 RING-T - 5 - Ring alert function
19 DTMFST - DT+ANI
20 S-CODE - 1
21 SC-REV - TO - 3 kinds of scan mode(TO/CO/SE)
22 PTT-ID - OFF - PTT-ID Function(BOT/EOT/BOTH)
23 PTT-LT - 5
24 MDF-A - FREQ
25 MDF-B - FREQ
26 BCL - OFF (Busy channel lockout)
27 AUTOLK - OFF
28 SFT-D OFF / - / + - Shift direction
29 OFFSET - Offset frequency 10KHz steps
30 MEMCH - Store VFO frequency into memory channel, second store will be for a separate TX frequency
31 DELCH - Delete memory channel.
32 WT-LED - PINK
33 RX-LED - BLUE
34 TX-LED - RED
35 RESET - ALL

LED back-light options: OFF / PINK / RED / BLUE


Links

HYS TC-UV55
QUANZHOU TRUEST COMMUNICATION CO. ,LIMITED
Catalog Page
Alibaba Listing

(Notice in older pictures the FM button was the power button).
Note how in some places the model number appear as TC-VU55 (instead of TC-UV55), even on the company's own website, on the radio in the picture the model printed is TC-UV55, and in the catalog it says: "Dual Band In-vehicle Radio TC-VU55"

Quanzhou Truest Comm Co. has a similar radio, the HYS TC-UV66, but with a knob instead of the frequency up/down buttons. The HYS TC-UV66 catalog page says: "Dual Band In-vehicle Radio TC-UV66," one line below: "Model No.︰TC-VU66," and in the picture it says: TC-UV66 - anyway, I think that the TC-UV66 is not in mass production yet. (You see it only in Alibaba, not AliExpress )

HYS TC-UV55 - Pricing
Price on AliExpress: $239.90 to $244.21
At the official QUANZHOU TRUEST COMMUNICATION CO LTD AliExpress store it is $242
Price for quantity or dealers: $100 - $200

Baojie BJ-UV55 - Pricing
Radiomart.biz - $219
Radiomart.biz - $239 - w/US B programming cable
There are currently five offers on Ebay - from $299.62 to $329.99 all free shipping.
Price on AliExpress: $207.86 to $237
At the official Quanzhou Baojie Electronic Co.,Ltd AliExpress store it is $207.86
Price for quantity or dealers: $100 - $189

Baofeng UV-3R: eHam.Net Reviews

There are a few reviews of the Baofeng UV-3R coming in at eHam.net. Generally, they are positive, but I would give the radio a high score based on the value provided for such a low cost.

Baofeng UV-3R Reviews at eHam.net

Baofeng Tech: Nagoya NA-320A Triband HT Antenna

Nagoya NA-320A Triband HT Antenna ($17.99):

• Certified Original Nagoya Antenna - with an exclusive manufacturing partnership with BTECH
• New Release - May Require a Rubber spacer (included) and has an extended antenna cover to protect your radio SMA male base from the elements
• Triband: 2m-1.25m-70cm; *Gain (relative): +2.15dBi; Watts: 10; Height: 17.7"; Connector: SMA Female; *Rated against typical stock HT antennas.
• Compatible with all BaoFeng, some Wouxun, and some Kenwood Radios

Looks like a good compliment to a Baofeng Tech UV-5X3!

Baofeng Tech: UV-2501+220

Great news for everyone that has been looking at the Baofeng Tech UV-2501 (or variants) and wishing it actually supported 220 MHz:

"This month [Baofeng Tech] will be introducing the UV-2501+220. The name says it all - also we have refined the firmware to allow easier power switching, refined our audio and changed our RDA chipset placement to improve performance to audio filtering."

So 220 MHz and a few more enhancements as well! More info will follow as I get it.

Baofeng Tech BF-F8HP and UV-82HP Promo

Baofeng Tech alerted me to a promo for BF-F8HP and UV-82HP that was posted on the Miklor site:

"Until the end of March 2016, by entering the promo code 82HPF8HP at Amazon checkout, the price of the Baofeng 82HP and F8HP will be reduced to $50."

BF-F8HP

UV-82HP

Baofeng UV-5R: Waccom UV-5R 5W Video

409Shop has put out a video of the Waccom UV-5R. I did not see any difference between the Baofeng and Waccom, but the Waccom is still advertised as 5W. A quick search of the 409Shop site does not show any other Waccom radios - just some accessories that are shared by the Baofeng version.



Hat tip to Nate who let me know about the video.

Updates from Kight Radio - TYT and Baofeng

Kight Radio updates from 05 May 2012:

"Great News - The TYT TH-UV3R is in stock and shipping. I have been using one for the past 2 weeks and I love it. The size is about the same size as the Baofend UV3 but construction is much stronger."

 "The New TH-UVF9 Dual Band HT (4 watts) will be available soon. I will have 2 of these to test within the next week and I will update everyone on this new radio. I have pictures posted on this site."

This is the first I've heard of the TH-UVF9. Here is the link to the listing. No price yet on this dual band, dual display 4 W unit. He does mention he will have one at Dayton.

"Baofeng UV5 - They report that the problems have been fixed and shipping the updated ones now. We will wait to test them and then release them to sell at that time. If ordering from other companies you might want to wait until they get rid of their old inventory before ordering."

Amazing how quickly they can respond with fixes. They are getting a lot of free testing from the hams that are early adopters.

"Just in case your wondering, the Baofeng UV5 looks like a TYT radio however it is not. TYT did not sell or mft the radios for them, They simply took TYT's case design and copied it. There have been some questions on who makes the TYT radios for them .... TYT is the MFG!"

I am beginning to think the cases are a core competency for China. They can make copies faster than anyone and in any color you like.

Baofeng Tech Bluetooth Adapter

You need your own Bluetooth headset, but if you want to go wireless, you can try the Baofeng Tech Bluetooth Adapter for your Baofeng, Wouxun, or Kenwood radios for $85.

Via Hans

Baofeng PSA

For those of you who bought new Baofeng toys during the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, you might want to check out Baofeng Tech's support page for tutorials and downloads.

Baofeng Tech: BTECH UV-2501

Some more details on the dual band mobile Baofeng Tech UV-2501 ($114.89).

The Baofeng Tech website mentions a few key features that differentiate it from the other similar radios:

"Synchronize Display Mode
Scrambler/Inversion, DTMF, 5Tone, 2Tone, CTCSS, and DCS Calling Modes (Remote Kill/Stun Supported)
VFO Lockout
Menus, Programming, and Reset Lockout
Auto Power Off Function
Dual Watch Delay Time: Allows the receiver to stay on the secondary channel longer after incoming transmission - customize the delay up to 50 seconds; This avoids manually channel switching when you are engaged with simultaneous contacts on two frequencies"

The specs...

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
BTECH UV-2501 Mobile
Mounting Bracket and Hardware
Remote Speaker Mic and Mic Bracket
Inline Fuse and DC Connectors

FEATURES

25KHz/12.5KHz Switchable (Wide/Narrow Band)
FM Radio (65.0MHz-108.0MHz)
Large Tri-color LCD Display (3 Selectable Colors)
High /Low RF Power Switchable
50 CTCSS/ 104 DCS Tones
5Tone Support
2Tone Support
Voice Inversion (Scrambling) Support
Tone searching/scanning
Dual standby
PC programmable
Transmitter time-out timer(TOT)
Busy channel lock-out(BCLO)
Remote Stun/Kill

UV-2501 MINI SPECIFICATIONS
Frequency range:
[TX] 136 - 174MHz, 400 - 520MHz
[RX] 136 - 174MHz, 400 - 520MHz, 68-108MHz (FM Broadcast)
Channel Capacity:
200 Channels
Channel Spacing
25KHz (wide band)12.5KHz (narrow band)
Sensitivity
≤0.25μV (wide band) ≤0.35μV (narrow band)
Operation Voltage
13.6V DC ±20%
Frequency step:
2.5-25KHz Selectable
Antenna:
Antenna Connector: SO-239
Stability:
±2.5ppm
Output power:
25W / 10W
Audio Power Output
1000mW/10%

Baofeng UV-5R: Size Comparison

On the left is my Baofeng UV-3R. In the middle is the Baofeng UV-5R. On the right is a Wouxun KG-UVD1P.

No Baofeng Policy

N4NJJ - No Baofeng Policy:

"In order to provide the best experience for all operators, our repeater system has a zero tolerance for Baofeng, Wouxon, Retevis, etc. radios. These portables do not have the ability to perform pre-emphasis/de-emphasis, which results in below acceptable audio levels. Users to the system are encouraged to operate a commercial and/or public safety grade portable or mobile. Users are also encouraged to use amateur grade gear."

And N4NJJ's open letter about the policy.

Via Chinese Ham Radio Google+