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Reviews For: Baofeng BF-A58

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : Baofeng BF-A58
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
VHF/UHF Handheld Transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0033
W9CLL Rating: 2021-01-16
Decent cheap radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have the A-58s which is the Tri-Band model. It fits the hand well, has good audio, and works well. I honestly find no fault but if you get one just remember it's not an ICOM, Kenwood, or Yaesu it is a Baofeng, and be happy with that. I picked mine up on Wish.com for $25, money well spent.
K9BW Rating: 2018-07-16
A bit lacking Time Owned: N.A.
Well, after reading the poorly written manual I loaded about 20 known frequencies. Since it brags it has 126 memories... you would think it had scanning abilities. It only scans the entire VHF band freqs.. that means it stops on all those digital commercial and police noises.. YOU CANNOT LIKE IN AN ICOM....SET BAND EDGES... Hello China... if you are going to copy ICOM gear..do it right!. Then this is the payoff after you store your repeater frequencies... guess what? The BF-A58 does not scan saved memory channels. No matter what button or menu you punch. I did not expect MUCH... but why build in 126 memory channels...BUT NO PROVISION FOR SCANNNING.????? I am not spending 40 bucks for the special dongle to hook it up to a computer since the web is full of hams who have ended up with a paper weight for a computer since these disks are full of VIRUSES.

No scanning capabilities.... What a joke... It would be difficult for me to recommend a pofung anything..Unless you do not need a scanning feature and band edges... that I like to hear all of the fire and police digital transmissions to jam up your audio.

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Earlier 2-star review posted by K9BW on 2018-07-09

Well, I needed a talkie that was splash proof. So that is why I thought I would try out this model. All my units are ICOM or Yaesu. I never needed to use a hacked software to program any of my handhelds so that is one big drawback since I have now read that some hams computers were crippled from Viruses snuck in via programming discs and internet software. This model lacks many features that are standard on my ICOM units. The scanning feature... if you want to call it that... is terrible. Audio is OK but does not match the clarity of my ICOM handhelds.. Even the ones that are over 20 yrs old. The positive is that Baofeng is a cheap toss away.. But really only good for a few channels. OK. the screen is colorful and nicer that some of my older ICOMs and Yaesu's… but that is about it. A nice big battery... we shall see how long it lasts. The charging stand has to operate a 10Volts. Not good since they do not sell a safe car lighter plug with which to charge the radio through the charging stand. My opinion... the controls are goofy. I will put a few more weeks into this thing but probably look into what ICOM and Yeasu sells that is water and rain proof. I am able to load frequencies manually... but what a goofy process. It will be interesting to see what will be the life of this item. If Pofong or what ever they call their company ever costs as much as an ICOM or Yeasu… these radios are certainly not worth the money since they lack features that hams expect in a handheld.
KA4KOE Rating: 2016-10-25
Adequate Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This radio appears to be a direct clone of the UV-82, unless someone can point out the differences to me. The programming software is a must as frankly, the process is not intuitive.

My brother, who knows my voice, said my audio was not entirely clear; however, I had a cold at the time.