The Baofeng UV-5R and its place in the Tactical Environment

With ongoing debate about the Baofeng and more capable radios, I wanted to have a discussion about its suitability for tactical employment.

While I make the case for this radio, I want you to understand that at the end of the day, this is simply not something that I would put my trust into with my life. Whether I'm going outdoors for adventure activities or in a tactical situation, I would want to have something more durable, reliable, and effective.

Digital radios can always fall back to analog comms to support the ability to communicate on analog systems. There is no excuse to not explore this equipment, learn about how it works, and enhance your capabilities!

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[Satchel]

It seems like people forget that even special forces still use things like duct tape and zip ties. In a life threatening situation, nobody cares how Gucci your gear is so long as it works.

[maggillaguerrilla]

You got me at LARPing and projects in the garage. The reason I bought my Bao Feng UV-5R is because I’m just getting into the craft of radio operations and I don’t know a lot or even if I’m ever going to use it in a conflict situation (hopefully not) but once I get better with the radio and a much better understanding I will upgrade to something better. Until then I’m using the Bao Fang is a good beginners radio.

[dronographyllc]

NC Scout has published a book titled "The Guerrillas Guide to the Baofeng radio" . It is chock full of TTPs including digital burst on FT8, field expedient antennas and so much more. I highly recommend it for anyone that owns one of these lowly, unappreciated radios.

[larrybushman]

Outfitted our group with around 20 Baofengs 888 about five or six years ago. True we have been careful with them but none have had any problems in that time

[canadafree]

Many people can afford a $50 CND radio, but not too many can afford a $1000 set up. We all have our budgets. I am not going to war, nor do I have a team, just want something better than a Walmart special for hikes in the woods. Thanks for this video.

[highdesertdrew]

On point, I still hold that an analog radio is an analog radio. An XTS5000 in analog mode is just a really expensive complicated baofeng. Dudes were running bubble pack gmrs radios on convoys in Iraq, that way everyone could talk.

The reality, , if you can have most of your dudes outfit with basic radios, and then have fancier radios for more important stuff, all of this becomes much more powerful.

[last_raven]

The best thing about Baofengs is they're so cheap to get into and allow you to do a whole lot to gauge your interest level. Want to make a DIY repeater? Cheap and easy. Want to get radios for the whole family? Cheap and easy. Silly regulatory bodies changing the rules on you? Key combo. A barebones UV5-R is cheaper than lunch with a friend or a box of 9mm. No reason NOT to have one.

[patches]

We used ICOM radios which are basically comparable to the Baofeng UV-5R in our Combat operations in the Armored Cavalry in Iraq. We liked them and they did the job, but many of us opted for the ear piece & some had throat mikes for whispering mode. They were excellent for person to person comms when we were dismounted.

[jackcompton]

Thanks for the info drop. The uv-5r is an entry kit for me. Up til now, I've always been issued a radio. Two things helped with my choice 1, a plethora of positive reviews and 2, price point for complete kit (the dang molle pouch cost more than the entire kit). Press on.

[corymollak]

Brotha....good to see content like this on YouTube. I served proudly as a 25U in the United States Army signal Corps and lemme tell ya, not day goes by that I don't miss that world! My last duty station was Fort Irwin... and it's going to sound strange but besides Germany, the National Training Center at Irwin was golden. 90% of my job, for 18 days out of the month consisted of pulling retrans (the other 10% was comsec custodian for my unit)on all of the mountaintops in those grids and nothing beats waking up at the crack ass of dawn at an elevation of 4, 5 and 6, 000 ft and work my equipment. I still reside out here in the desert just outside of Twentynine Palms so I figure I'm pretty close, and while I have dozens of questions my main question: I was paying attention when you touched on obtaining the technician's license and was wondering if you provide any exam services where one can come to your location to test out for a technician, General or extra?

Please keep this channel alive and please keep the content coming and most importantl....i am most definitely not trying to insulting your intelligence with knowledge you already know... I'm sure you know that YouTube can be accessed all over the world including the darkest corners of this planet where people are planning new ways to get to us (we seem to have an Administration that wants to help them realize it) and you definitely want to be vigilant when it comes to content concerning comsec.

[dutchbeef]

I’m heavily invested in scanners and I don’t own many ham handhelds. In a SHTF situation if I have a choice between a baofeng and no radio then I’m going to pack a boafeng and probably chuck in one of my scanners. I’ll probably be more reliant on my scanners because thats how I know how to get information.

[DarkShadowCustoms]

The UV-5R is a great tool for someone to get into amateur radio on a budget, especially if they live close enough to a 2 meter and/or 70 cm repeater they can access it with a handheld.

Even though the FCC has cracked down on them being able to transmit outside of the amateur radio bands they can still be unlocked to transmit on the entire range of frequencies they can receive. The UV-5R has become the go to radio for people who attend large scale paintball and airsoft games. It ran reach farther than blister pack FRS radios and at $30 it is at a price point that if one gets lost or damaged the replacement cost is easy to swallow. If you want to run license by rule frequencies so you don’t have to worry about needing a license from the FCC you can run FRS or MURS frequencies. Sure it might not be allowed by the FCC rules, but they don’t have the resources to enforce them. Plus if they do get enough complaints and reports to investigate people using the radios out of band the offending parties will be long gone by the time someone from the FCC shows up.

[nickquik]

Sound argument. Something to think about as I'm new to the comms side of things.

[nevadabadger]

Sunday morning greetings from Reno, Nevada.

[dwaynerobertson]

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing this. If it wasn't for seeing these inexpensive little two way transceivers, while randomly browsing the internet, I would know absolutely nothing about two way transceivers, HAM's, propagation, range, interference, repeaters and tones/off-sets, etc - period. Instead, I bought a few of these and have been learning about radio communications ever since. I have enough UV5R's to build my own portable repeater, plus another pair...very inexpensively. They were about $35.00 Canadian apiece when I bought them. The other options, I guess, are several hundred dollars to achieve a very similar/identical task with a different brand/higher quality radio. I'll upgrade if I ever decide to go pro!! Until then, these little UHF/VHF radios are perfect for me.

[DARTHDANSAN]

I have 3 with signal stuff signal stick antennas and I left them with my parents in South America they are awesome and being able to unlock them for Marine frequencies is a plus . I also have the Yeasu ftd5r and pico APRS vs and sometimes I just find them to complicated and I find my self enjoy a UV5R for its simplicity and all band transmission a lot more

[Mogas]

Solid video! Looking forward to more!!

[Jkp]

The best place for the UV-5R is generally best for buying in bulk to pass out to your buddies who wouldn't listen to you about comms. I got 10 of them slightly used for $80

I'll probably never need a fancy good radio for my purposes. I'm no warrior.

[JDJD-hghu]

Great find on this channel
I love your approach.
I’m a happy new subscriber!
Stay happy healthy and fluid
My friend

[point]

If you haven’t already done it, you probably would benefit from doing a video on electronic warfare, direction finding, communications windows, decreasing electronic signature, and other related topics.