Baofeng UV-5R: New Baofeng Model

Chris (NH7QH) at Hawaii Radio Sales sent me the following about the new Baofeng UV-5R. (On a side note, Chris is now also selling ham equipment via eBay.)

"Just got this email - looks like it is a TYT TH-F8 - same marks and all mono band, already FCC approved since a TYT."

He also included a couple of pictures - see below. The styling looks more like the UV-3R +. Other obvious features are the charging connectors on the battery pack (so a drop in charger) and the keypad. I am not as familiar with the TYT radios, but it looks like Baofeng is willing to leverage the success of the UV-3R to build its brand by buying radios from multiple companies (Vero Telecom and now TYT). This model also more directly competes with the Wouxun. (I felt like the UV-3R was more of niche radio than a direct replacement for the Wouxun's.) These Chinese radios are keeping it interesting for sure. Maybe Baofeng needs to rebrand a mobile and steal the thunder from the much anticipated KG-UV920R.

Pricing on the TYT TH-F8 is around $50 to $75 on ebay. Here are the specs for the TH-F8.

Single band, dual display, dual standby	■  A/B band independent operation
■  128 groups channels storage	■  FM radio and 25 stations storage
■  Wide/Narrow Band(25kHz/12.5kHz)	■  0~9 grades VOX selectable
■  Chinese/English voice prompt	■  CTCSS/DCS and scanning
■  1750Hz tone	■  PTT & ANI ID
■  Priority transmit selectable	■  0~9 grades squelch level setting
■  LED display mode	■  Keypad beeper setting
■  Transmit over beeper	■  Dual watch/monitor
■  Receive saving function	■  Auto keypad lock
■  Power-on display	■  Battery power voltage
■  Power-on message	■  Repeater offset function
■  Channel name display and setting	■  Reapter shift direction
■  VFO step function	■  Shortcut menu operation mode
■  Emergency Alarm	■  DTMF encoder & decoder(optional)
■  8 groups scrambler(optional)	■  2/5 tone encoder & decoder(optional )
■  Remote skill/stun/activate(optional)	■  High/Low TX power selectable
■  Busy channel lock-out(BCLO)	■  Transmitter time-out timer(TOT)
■  Voice companding	■  Tri-color background light selectable
■  PC programmable	■  Wire clone

Lots of Radios

I've posted about a lot of radios...


AnyTone
AT-5888UV / AT-588UV

Baofeng
BF-F9
BF-F8
F-11
UV-3R
UV-5R
UV-B5

Baojie
BJ-UV55

Chierda
CD-UV55

Hong Litong
HL-UV8R

Hora
HR-76D

HYS
TC-UV55

INTEK
HR-2040

Kirisun

KYD
NC-5H
NC-UV90A
UV-5H

MYT
MYT-Q1
MYT-Q2

Nanfone
NF-369

NKT
NKT-R3
NKT-R5

Puxing
PX-888K

Quansheng
TG-K4AT(UV)
TG-Q5 (Lucky Stone)
TG-UV2

Ronson
UV-8R

Shi Ying
SR-31

SMP
SMP698

TYT
TH-9000
TH-9800
TH-F8
TH-UVF1
TH-UV3R
TH-UVF9

Vero Telecom
UV-E5
UV-X5
VR-2200

Waccom
WUV-6R

Wouxun
KG-UVD1P
KG-UV920R / KG-UV920P
KG-UV6D
KG-UV2D

Chinese Radios - The Center?

The Baofeng UV-3R is a re-branded Vero Telecom UV-3R.

The Vero Telecom VR-2200 is a re-branded TYT TH-9000.

The Baofeng UV-5R (which I cannot find on the Baofeng site) is similar to the TYT TH-F8.

When the UV-3R came out, I thought VeroTelecom was going to be the actual manufacturer - if not the design house, too. The UV-3R was availible as a Baofeng UV-3R, Magiksun UV-3R, Comtex UV-3R, and a Zastone ZT-UV3R. Vero Telecom was going to be the source.

Now it appears that the VR-2200 is actually a TYT TH-9000. And the UV-5R looks like it has it origins in the TYT TH-F8.

Is TYT going to be the center of the ham radio world for China manufacturers?

Does ICOM buy Yaesu radios and re-brand them? Is Elecraft reselling Ten-Tec rigs? The game is different in China. Maybe they just like to keep us on our toes. I am going to need a map.

Baofeng UV-5R: Output Power

The question was asked on the UV-3R Yahoo Group if the UV-5R was 5 watts. I don't know the answer to that question, but the UHF TYT TH-F8 is 4 watts and the VHF TYT TH-F8 is 5 watts.

Chinese Radio Reference

I'm losing track. I'm gonna build a reference list. I'm not sure of the format, but I thought I would link to the manufacturer's website, maybe get pricing, link to my posts about that radio, and then any notes about what made that radio special. Maybe a list like this...

TYT

HT

TH-UVF1

Kight Radio $109.95

409 Shop $105.00

My Posts

TH-UVF9

Kight Radio $69.95

409 Shop $68.50

My Posts

Radio-Mart tried to make this a tri-bander

TH-UV3R

Kight Radio $59.95

Import Comm $64.95

409 Shop $51.00

My Posts

Moleculeo's favorite

TH-F8

Kight Radio $89.95

409 Shop $63.00

My Posts

Baofeng UV-5R: Schematics

Via RadioScanner.ru, a direct link to a PDF Schematic of the UV-5R. It is interesting that the file name is F8UV-1846 (bottom right in the drawing). I wonder if the F8 is for the TYT TH-F8 and the UV is for the UV-5R. Just some idle speculation on my part.

Baofeng UV-5R: Ronson UV-8R

So, we have the Baofeng UV-5R, the Waccom UV-5R, the original TYT TH-F8, and now the Ronson UV-8R that looks like the other radios, but claims to be a7W dual-band HT. I don't see the radio on the 409Shop.com site yet so no price or other details..

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

Steve points out that the 409Shop has a Waccom UV-5R for sale. The description says the unit is 5W. We've seen the other versions of the UV-3R (Magiksun, Comtex, Zastone), but the specs were normally the same. I still want to know if the UV-5R is a Baofeng product or if they are just re-branding some's hardware like they did with VeroTelecom and the UV-3R. Clearly, it is similar to the TYT TH-F8.

Baofeng UV-5R: Dual Band?

If this picture is accurate, then the UV-5R is a dual-bander instead of a single band radio like the TYT TH-F8.

Image courtesy of OH6HGN who posted about the UV-5R several days ago.

Also, a hat tip to Nate who pointed out the OH6HGN web page.

Factory Tour - Injection Molding

Not directly ham radio related, but I suspect the process for creating the cases for the radios is the same. Also, given the amount of effort required to make a mold, you can see why the TYT TH-F8 and Boafeng UV-5R (among others) might look the same.

MIT Media Lab IAP 2013 - Shenzhen, China:

"The tool and die shop was amazing. I had no idea how massive the tooling was just to make a simple enclosure. The tooling is cut out of steel using CNC, EDM (Electron Discharge Machining), and manual milling. Each steel mold can weigh a ton or more and requires a lot of manual and automated work. Depending on the finish, the molds also need to be hand polished. To tool and die shop consists of a lot of heavy metalworking equipment. The steel blocks are first cut on the CNC machine. The EDM machine is used to remove steel in parts that can't be cut accurately using a CNC machine. It uses electrical current to remove steel at a rate of 5 microns per electrical burst."

And on a side note, the drinking matches my experience, too. The hosts would, one-by-one, engage you in a "ganbei". This might result in your having four or five drinks to their one. You could often respond with "cheers" and you would just have to take a small drink instead of finishing your glass. Another tactic would be to tap the table with your drink and it meant everyone at the table had to "ganbei."

"This concluded our tour of this injection molding factory and the boss of the factory took us all out to lunch. I didn't realize that lunch included drinking alcohol and we had many "ganbei" (chinese for "bottoms up") glasses of beer with the boss. By the end of lunch, I was fairly trashed and Bunnie was getting there too."

Oh and the "white lightening," as we called it, was horrible. I much prefer the warm Coca Cola and ginger drink that they also encountered. I've actually made that drink at home a few times.

"AQS, a contract manufacturer that was helping to organize all the tours and also a company that Bunnie works closely with, took us all out to dinner with their staff. It was a wonderful dinner and we talked about a lot of the things we saw with them. They also broke out the Chinese hard liquor (53% alcohol) and proudly proclaimed that they wanted to drink with us. I hid from the "white liquor" since I've had a few bad experiences with it but most of the others were game to try it out. Overall, it was a fun evening with AQS and it was our first real dinner together as a group. It was a wonderful chance to meet everyone and hear about what they were working on, why they were on the trip, and just randomly ramble on in a happy, semi drunken state :) "

Chinese Radios - The Center Part II

A commenter on yesterday's post about which Chinese manufacturer is really making all these radios pointed me to this link at Kightradio. (He is the one offering the TYT TH-UV3 for sale.) There are multiple updates on the page:

03/19/12 "The TYT TH-UV3 Dual Band HT is on the way to me now. I will update everyone as soon as I receive them."

So he could have the TYT TH-UV3 any day now. We do live in interesting times.

02/20/2012 "Baofeng UVD-5R Dual Band 4 watt HT was just released for sale in China. This is a nice little Dual Band rig but as of now, the menuis only in Chinese. This is howthe first UV-3R started out and then they made the english menu later. I would like to note that this radio looks exactly like the TYT F8 Radios. In talking with TYT I found out this is a COPY and not a radio made by TYT and sold to Baofeng. TYT has a patent on the case so we will see what TYT does about this later. So if you buy one of these on the internet, BEWARE, its menu is ONLY IN CHINESE and hard to figure out. I have one to test and I am having the menu translated and I will update you later on this.

Dual Band mobiles are not anywhere close to being released. I would not look for them at Dayton this year. Maybe if we are lucky, a few months after Dayton but this is just my personal guess with info I hear in talking with the MFG's every few days."

We know that are now versions of the UV-5R that do Chinese only, Chinese & English, and English only. And he has been told that Baofeng is ripping off TYT's case. More interesting is his claim that the dual band mobiles (KG-UV920R anyone?) won't be available for a few more months.

No Date "We attended the Hong Kong Electronics Fair and the Canton Export Fair Oct 15,2011

We will be updating the site in a few days with all the New Goodies we found at the show. Lots of exciting things in the works so be sure to check back with us and get updated.

We are in China now so if you have any special radios you would like us to purchase for you, contact us and we will be glad to purchase for you.

Call 405-227-9980 (Our time is opposite the USA time so when its 11 am in the US, its 11 pm in China) Please call late evening your time to reach us.

We can get you the latest versions of Wouxun,TYT, Baofeng and others at Hong Kong Prices."

Pretty cool that he offers to ferry radios back from China. Shipping and wire transfers can make a good deal go bad very quickly.

11/11/2011 "Wouxun is going to raise the price effective now of the KG-UVD1p & UVD3 about $22.00 This is because of dealer requests to add 2.5 steps to those models. Its seems more like a move on Wouxun's part to increase the retail price like they have been wanting to do for sometime. They also increased the min wholesale order to 500 units. This is going to put the Wouxun HT's in a higher price class and TYT and others will have the advantage. Hong Kong will have a much lower price and attract more customers. As far as the Dual Band mobile, I would not look for it anytime soon and when it does come out, I am anxious to see the price. Wouxun is not aware of other companies working on Dual Band Radios because they pay little attention to their competition."

Build your brand and demand higher prices. It is the American way!

Baofeng UV-5R: TYT Spare Batteries

Hans compares the TYT TH-F8 and Baofeng UV-5R batteries. The batteries appear to be the same except for a slight weight difference and some cosmetic molding. And despite the different rated capacities, he suspects they may be identical internally. He's going to do some more looking, but if that is true then the TYT battery is a much better deal at $4 less than the Baofeng. Looks like the Baofeng brand is beginning to be worth something.

Chinese Radio Mega List by Nate - Part 2 - HTs

Here is the second part of Nate's e-mail with the information about the HTs. (Most of this is from his e-mail, but I've edited it so assume any errors are mine.) Part I was about mobile radios.

Baojie BJ-UV88

BAOJIE have an HT model: BAOJIE BJ-UV88

HYS TC-UV11 / TC-UV99

HYS have an HT as well: HYS TC-UV11 and HYS TC-UV99 (if you need a larger flashlight). And the HYS TC-UV88 that looks a little bit like the Baofeng UV-5R / TYT TH-F8.

More UV-5R clones / brands:

ZasTone ZT-V8 ($85.50 on AliExpress)

Mstar M-UV1 ($56 on AliExpress)

Mstar M-UV2

Mstar also has the M-UV2 (Totally different radio)