You Shouldn’t Buy a Baofeng

Should you buy a Baofeng as your first handheld radio?

#HamRadio #AmateurRadio #Baofeng

[thrillscience]

I didn't buy a Baofeng -- I've bought four of them!

[justcompton]

I wouldn’t be in the hobby if not for the baofeng. I got one for a NOAA weather radio and quickly realized I had no idea how to use it so I began to studying for the tech exam.

[kingdick]

Dude, I agree with you 100%! Baofeng is exactly that, “Entry Level.” I wouldn’t mind getting into ham radio with $30 invested and later find out I don’t like the hobby. It’s better than risking $300+ from one of the big three to potentially find you don’t like the hobby. “Cost” has always been a gate keeper, until now…

[royceweslowski]

I’ve been a ham for 26 years. I like the baofeng I have way more expensive Yaesu hand helds. I tried both on air and I am amazed with the quality of audio. It’s hard enough to get people into amateur radio. This is a excellent entry level radio at a fair price.

[HamRadioPrep]

THIS GUY GETS IT!! 👏🏼👏🏼 Let’s get some more people on the air!!

[jasonvincent]

100% true....Baofeng got me first radio

[owenmonaco]

I just got one a couple weeks ago. Now I'm looking at a nice, used yaesu quad band mobil unit. The new version would run me about a grand cad. Even a new dual band would set you back about $500 with antenna and everything. A lot to drop on a unit if you aren't sure you're going to enjoy the hobby.

[bendeleted]

Even if you already have high-end HTs, these things are so cheap and portable, there is zero reason not to have several stowed away for emergencies. Heck, you can hand them out to your neighbors if power and phones go down. As low as $15 each.

[DonzLockz]

They weren't my first but I have two to keep in the car. The good ones stay on my person. :)

Boofwangs are the common radio that everyone can afford like the old VW Beetles etc. They serve a purpose like a purpose like gateway dope... and cheap emergency radios for the car that you don't care if they get stolen. Lol.
I'm travelling to the South Coast soonish and will take my Anytone, Wouxun and a Uniden CB as I don't hear much traffic at home.

[ueqctvp]

I started with a baofeng, then upgraded to a used yaesu ht, then I upgraded to a mobile radio to use at home. And now I’m looking at hf radios. But without the boafeng there’s so much I wouldn’t have learned and it really helped me understand all the different settings and things before I got deeper into the hobby.

[rbmwiv]

I got a Baofeng a few years ago maybe longer. When they first came out and It got me interested in the hobby. I first used it as a scanner and then got more interested in it and got my license about a month ago and I made my first contact on my Baofeng and have bought a mobile and a better HT but I had no issues hitting my repeaters.

[ManLikeKitch]

Instruction unclear. Proceeding to purchase a radio.

[realtyrocks]

Absolutely. Ive owned alot of Yaesu and Icoms and always go back to the various models of Baofengs. They are great little and cheap radios and they do have better versions over the UV5R.

[david_WQDF]

Lots want to be part of ham radio but do not have money for high dollar toys. Baofeng helps with that 📻🎧

[strm-xx]

at this point, just get discord. *sitting here waiting for all the 50+ year olds to start moaning

[residentmusician]

Why buy a baofeng, when you can buy two baofengs?

[karlschulte]

Check each on spectrum analyzer. Some are fine. Some send out signals/ waste energy on extra spurious frequencies illegally. Harmonics and so on can interfere with non ham coms, reduce energy on desired channel. The older ones were poor but getting a lot better lately. Have 6, 2 have issues.

[dereklea]

Baofeng 😝 I bought the UV5R over 10 years ago when they began to get popular. I can count on one hand how many times I used it before the microphone went belly up. It cost more to send it out for repair, and have it repaired, than I paid for it. It was sent to the local electronics recycling facility.
I can always detect when someone is using a Baofeng on our local repeaters, their audio sounds as if they’re talking through a pillow.

I’ve owned Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Alinco and Motorola HT’s and have never had one issue with them. I still own a Yaesu FT50 that slammed into the dash of my truck during a sudden stop in traffic, no damage and the radio still works 27 years later.

The old saying of you get what you pay for is true. I’ve bought products on the cheap during my lifetime and always regretted doing it. I would rather buy a quality product from the start and be done with it.

[ZeroFox]

I Got a UV-5R $50 off eBay with accessories insane.

[KellanMeigh]

If you're gonna cheap out on a 'feng, at least by the GT-5R version. It is the best one, worth having as a beginner radio or a beater to keep in the truck. The rest of the lot are so easily desensed by strong signals that they are unusable. Still need a better antenna, a Comet or Diamond, and you should buy the RT Systems programming cable and software, since the 'feng cable is junk and Chirp is just an exercise in frustration.