Features:

  • 128 Channels 50 ctcss and 104 CDCSS dual-band display, Dual Freq. Display, dual-standby, a/B band independent operation | High/low TX power selectable: busy Channel lock-out(bclo).
  • Tri-color background light selectable: 0-9 grades vox selectable | FM radio (65.0Mhz-108.0MHz) | large LCD display.
  • Keypad Lock: channel step: 2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/25Khz | voice Companding: 50 ctcss/ 104DCS coder & tone searching.
  • Emergency alert: 25Khz/12.5Khz switchable | LED flashlight: hight/low RF power switchable.
Excellent radio so far! I'm hooked!

I'm new to HAM, and this has got me hooked. It's my first radio, and within a day I had this thing programmed with all kinds of cool channels. As of right now, I've got every channel set to low, and all TX frequencies set to FRLs so that I don't accidentally key on actual repeaters. I'm looking forward to taking the AARL technician class license so that I can legally use this, as well as learn about cool radio stuff! BTW, YouTube is your best friend when getting to know these radios/programming. Also, don't cheap out and buy the counterfeit programming cables. Spend the lousy twenty bucks and save yourself the massive headache and wasted time.

... my new radio a few days ago and I love it. My nephew is the one that got ...

received my new radio a few days ago and I love it. My nephew is the one that got me into ham radios and he suggested this one for me really a neat little radio smaller than I thought it would be. Works great once you realize what you're doing with it all I can do right now is listen to it. But will study and hopefully not too long be able take my test to get my license. 100% satisfied with the radio also ordered the authentic genuine Nagoya NA-771 15.6-inch whip antenna from BaoFeng Tech it came in the mail yesterday which has really boosted my distance on the repeaters around my city. Was averaging about 6 to 7 miles with the antenna that came with the BaoFeng UV-5R radio. now it's double my reaching area to 14 to 16 miles. I have to thank Amazon, KoCo-Go for the radio that's where it came from, and BaoFeng Tech for my new Nagoya NA-771 antenna.

A+ Radio. Highly recommended

Very well built. Not cheaply made. Feels substantial and not like a toy. Works exactly as described. I have only good things to say about it. I was able to trigger repeater about ten miles away from my apartment. You wouldn't get that distance from ground to ground. I got only about half mile talkie to talkie using included rubber ducky... But I never expected anything more. It's on Par with my pld jtx-202 two meter and Alinco two meter. Unfortunately the ham group near me have disbanded shortly after my purchase. I now use the two I have for use on family radio and/or emergency use. Great for many uses. Just make fully sure your legal. Where I live the bands are completely silent at all times. Police/fire use either cell phones or digital spread spectrum. Not even the tourists use any radios. Not a peep from the boaters either. Lol. Bought to listen to police and tourist activity but nada. Still, I highly reccomend this radio. Works great, great sound and battery life. Feels real, not like toy. This is a legit two-way radio and will transmit even on police freq. Be careful and verify your freq. It does not take very long to locate you if you goof with authorities. Overall A+ rating!

Good first radio.

My first radio. Bought on a whim for the cheap price and have been learning more and more ever since. Got my Technician license recently and am looking forward to actually transmitting and not just listening. - It's not as complicated to program as people make it out to be. The flow of the menus makes sense...there's only so much you can do with a 2-line display. Spend some time messing around in the menus and you'll have it down in no time. - Battery life is really good. I can listen to my local repeater and the county dispatch (dual-monitoring) all day for ~3 days before it needs a recharge. - Stock antenna is fine, especially for short-distance comms, like vehicle-to-vehicle when off-roading. I can pick up my local repeater with it, but did purchase a Nagoya 701 and it does receive slightly better. I think this is a good first radio for anyone...it got me into ham radio, so I can see it doing the same for others!

I have been amazed at how great this radio is

This little radio is a marvel! I don't have the money to sink hundreds or thousands of dollars into an expensive radio, so wasn't sure what to expect with such an inexpensive radio as this one. I have been amazed at how great this radio is! I've had and used mine for several months now, and it has done great. What I've done: bought a Power Expert 7.5 inch 2m/70cm antenna for it, which may have helped with the performance; I also bought a CHIRP cable to program the radio, since you can't name channels from the radio itself. What I use the radio for: I purchased an FCC GMRS license, so I can talk legally on GMRS frequencies, and also use this radio with my family on FRS frequencies. I've also programmed repeaters into the radio, so I can talk on 2m when I get an Amateur License, as well as GMRS. So far my best contact on GMRS was a measured 36 miles, which included going down into a small valley where we were camping. This radio clips to my Camelbak, so I can use it while riding my bike or hiking. I would like to get an extended microphone for it, since the antenna hits me in the face while I'm riding (though it looks very tacticool, so it's really worth it). Overall, this radio is a fantastic toy I mean tool! It's customizable, so you can use bigger antennas, or mount it in a vehicle and attach to a roof antenna; it's programmable, so you can find your local frequencies of interest, and put them in; and it has great range, so you can talk to friends and family over a large area (much larger and better, if you use repeaters). I plan to buy more!

Super cool for the price

***BUYER BEWARE*** to get the most out of this radio, you will need to pass the HAM Technician test, which is pretty easy to do. This is not a basic walkie talkie, it allows you to communicate on a bunch of amateur and official frequencies, some of which include local police department dispatch, air traffic control, and other important services. This is not a toy, children should not be on these broadcasting on those frequencies. Just a disclaimer for anyone who thinks this is a normal walkie talkie or a good gift for unsupervised children. There is a specific range of frequencies used for traditional walkie talkies, which requires no license and is harmless. Stick to transmitting on those until you get licensed. That being said, this is a very high quality little radio at this price point. They are made in China, but if i didnt see that sticker I would have assumed it was a nicer Japanese brand. The battery lasts a ludicrously long amount of time, mine has gone about 8 hours running now and the battery hasnt drained more than 50%. i would be surprised if you couldn't get a solid 24 hours out of one battery, and they make bigger ones as well if you need it. I ordered the larger antenna for it, but it doesn't make much of a difference. The shorter one it comes with is plenty for most applications.

Great emergency communication/scanner HT

Purchased 2 of these UV-5R's along with a two pack of 15" na-771 extended antennas and the programming cable. All of this cost me less than $100. I keep one in the house and the other in my truck along with a "emergency backpack". Battery life seems very good too! We live in a rule mountainous area im the PNW and are prone to heavy snowfall, flooding and strong wind storms. We also do a lot of hiking and camping so it's good to have a dual band handheld radio for emergency communications. The FM radio is an awesome feature as well. You can program these to work with your standard box store walkie talkies. FYI I do not have my ham license, BUT you don't need a license to listen or to transmit in a true emergency. I programmed around 40 local gov, police, public utilities, emergency management and response agencies and weather channels. I used the programming cable and free chirp software to program them. There are a couple videos on YouTube that walk through the process. Walkie-talkie to walkie-talkie I'm able to get around 4 miles clear sounding range in mountainous wooded terrain (with the extended antennas). I'm sure it would go further, but I have not tested it any further. I'm also able to pick up different repeaters as far as 22 miles away. All in all I am definitely impressed given the price range. Do yourself a favor and spend a few hours doing some research on different frequencies and understand how to (manually) program and use the radio.

Don't hate on BaoFeng!!

I have several of these radios. They're great! I also have a Yaesu FT-60 and people cannot tell the difference when I talk with them. Two words of advice--no matter what hand-held transceiver you're using, it pays to get a programming cable and CHIRP software. You'll need to buy the cable. The programming software is free, and it's awesome. The other thing is know that there are radio snobs out there that will trash talk BaoFeng...probably because they spent too much on another radio. If you're interested in getting into ham radio, this radio is a great place to start, as they're inexpensive. It's legal to listen ALL YOU WANT on any ham radio, just don't press the transmit key until you get your license. Best of luck! 73, KI7NZW

For what it is, there is no better

The original UV-5R, which this is, offers unprecedented flexibility for an analogue radio, which is why it is so popular. It is up to the operator to configure it, which does allow for illegal configurations. It also tends to leak more EM radiation than better manufactured radios (such as Kenwoods, Yaesus, etc). It is also a lot more flexible than the above mentioned. For configuration, I would suggest using CHIRP – stay away from the Baofeng configuration software, I wouldn’t trust it at all. Some notes: 1. Many of the radios appear to work fine, but as soon as you attach a programming cable, mic or headset into the two pin port, the sound stops working normally – it then works a. Easy fix (which I won’t recommend but has worked for other people): Take a q-tip and trim off most of the fuzz. Dip it in some rubbing alcohol and shove it in both of the twin ports and twist it around – do this several times. One port is smaller than the other and there won’t be much fuzz left when you shave it enough to fit the q-tip in. Its ok, still works though b. Apparently there is some grease / glue / something which can break loose when you first insert a mic (or the programming cable for CHIRP) – this cleans it and your radio will be 100% afterwards. I’ve done it with two successfully c. Remember, this violates warranty and I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS! 2. Always buy these radios from Amazon. No, I don’t work for amazon, no I don’t get kickbacks from them on anything. Everything sold by Amazon (including other vendors) gets the Amazon return policy a. QC on these radios (and much of the radios made in China) is, uhm, sub-optimal b. Trying to return a radio to a Chinese manufacturer is really really really really hard c. Leverage amazon’s return policy and be happy Pros 1. Highly configurable – you can get it to do what you want, and with CHIRP it isn’t too arduous 2. Reasonably robust, much more than you’d expect for the price 3. Absolutely inexpensive, and combined with robust, means you can get extra and not worry about breaking the bank Cons 1. Not certified for FRS, GMRS or MURS, so you can’t legally use it on these Freqs a. They are not certified for any of them b. Some people do use them on these freqs anyway and are careful to set the FRS freqs to “low power”. I would not recommend this, of course, as it is against the law 2. Higher EM leakage than well-made radios – not a huge deal though 3. Need to test all radios on arrival due to poor QC to make sure you can return them within the amazon window. I strongly recommend connecting a head port (or other two pin connector) before testing to make sure it works afterwards. See note 1.

Great buy for the price!

What a great little radio for the price! So far I have been able to program any feature that I require using the onboard keypad. I have not encountered a need for a data cable yet. There are loads of videos and writeups online of how to program, etc. You can use it as a scanner. Set your presets and enable the scan function. Scanning is slower than a purposed police scanner so you may wish to only enter a small amount of presets, but again, for the price, I am surely not complaining. I am not sure of the overall transmit range as I have not had a chance to thoroughly test. From what I can tell, the unit has a channel memory support about 127 channels

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