| K5TUE |
Rating:  |
2011-11-13 | |
| handy, good value |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
For the money its hard to beat these little radios. Get em while you can...they are part 90 type accepted, for now.
I personally prefer the Mark I, but finding one with the factory dual band antenna is not easy, and adding a separate SMA dual band antenna raises the cost.
Very hot receiver so they can pick up RF noise from computers, unless moved several feet away.
Good transmit and receive audio. Decent battery life. Handy for tower work due to having VOX, and easy to carry.
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| K4GHR |
Rating: |
2011-11-06 | |
| Adding my praise of this great little radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
For the money, this little radio is amazing. You can read the zillion other reviews for specs. I'm just piling on. Love it. It works. It's easy to use. Accessories are cheap. I'd buy another. 'nuff said.
73,
Brent - WB4SPA |
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| K8JHR |
Rating: |
2011-11-03 | |
| Great - value for the money... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Ok... this is a really CHEAP radio. It just feels and looks cheap... but IT WORKS. And it gets good audio reports from other hams. It puts out 2 solid watts.
I paid $35 for this little gem, and it works swell on 144 and 440. Reception and transmission on the diminutive included little antennas is just OK, and gets better if I use a substantially larger rubber duckie antenna with SMA mount.
My only complaint is the volume is LOUD and I use it on the lowest volume setting possible. I hear tell of a simple modification that lowers the volume output and improves audio quality - so there is hope for improvement.
The manual is a gem of simplicity. My wife read it to me, as I messed with the radio, and we were both able to quickly understand how to operate and set its up. Susan is not a ham, but she found it as easy to learn to use as the Motorola FRS/GMRS radios we use with the sports car club.
Is this a "good radio" ? Well, that is a subjective term... dependent upon YOU think makes a good radio. It is clearly not as well built as my Yaesu VX-6R, nor as well made as my inexpensive Wouxun KG-UV2D, but, shoot, what do you expect from a $35 dual band transceiver ?
It puts out 1 or 2 watts. I can hit the repeater from nearly 20 miles out using a quarter wave mag mount antenna - yes, of course it should, but that is the point, it DOES. It works as expected on simplex, reaching stations I expect it should. It worked gangbusters with a mobile antenna on my car.
A inexpensive cable and programming software is available, but we found it SO EASY to program I have yet to employ that facility. The only thing the manual did not spell out in 5th grade clarity was how to access the memories... which turns out to be as easy as pressing the [U/V - Mode] button and turning the ONE KNOB on the top of the rig to change memory channels. Duh... just too easy.
Battery life is modest, rated at 8 hours... but if you transmit a lot, you will consume the battery in much less than rated time. My Wouxun battery lasts substantially longer, and my Yaesu battery even longer yet. If I had to put battery life on a scale 1-th-10, I would give the UV-3R a 3, the Wouxun a 6, and the Yaesu a 10. The LED flashlight feature consumes an inordinate amount of battery reserve, so I would only use it in a serious emergency, or when I was sure I could recharge the battery soon. However, If you really needed a little light, it could prove an invaluable convenience in a pinch.
I am extremely happy with my purchase. It does what it should rather well, although it is clearly not as sturdy or as well made as my other radios - but then, again, it is priced accordingly. It is about the size of an Altoids tin, and 2 watts is enough power to make it useful in a great many situations. I will pack this little rig whenever I am traveling, hiking far out in the woods, or mountain biking way off the well traveled path, and it could prove a real lifesaver. This little rig and a repeater director could come in very handy when traveling.
Just MY take... Happy days to ya. /// James -K8JHR ///
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| G7MRV |
Rating: |
2011-11-02 | |
| Pretty good for the money |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Ok, so this isnt going to perform like a more expensive radio from one of the big three, but then it cost about the same as a meal out!
Sensitivity is pretty good, -122dB for 12db SINAD, and adjacent channel performance is good. Output power on mine measured as 1.5w on 2m and 1.2w on 70cm, but thats with the shipping charge in the battery, i havent fully charged it yet. The too loud volume is a bit annoying but can be modded, ive yet to see if the volume of the beeps can be reduced also.
The poor manual, and the squelch let it down. The squelch has 9 settings, all of which equate to -120dB!
I can't comment on the harmonics issues, as i dont have immediate access to a spectrum analyser. My tests were done on a Marconi 2955B communications test set.
One thing to remember is that this is a 'pseudo'- dual band radio. Only one band can be used at a time, it doesnt support monitoring both at once or crossband working (although that may be possible using the memories etc, i'll have to look at that)
The belt clip is a bit flimsy, as is the channel knob when not locked down. But, it weighs next to nothing, and is quite tiny, easily fitting a shirt pocket or in my case hiding nicely behind my company ID badge! The lack of a DTMF keypad makes IRLP dialling impossible unless an external dialler is used - mines almost as big as the radio is!
What i'm impressed by is that Baofeng have gone entirely SDR with this rig, so improvements should be possible just by adjusting its firmware. It also seems they do read reviews and the mk2 has improvements over the original, i expect it wont be long before they bring out a tru dual bander!
A really handy 'handie', and cheap enough to not worry about. |
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| 9W2AZX |
Rating: |
2011-10-30 | |
| value for money |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
just had this small thing about a few weeks back. took about ten days to arrive from the seller. agreed with most of the reviews, especially from DH5JBR. one problem - the first time i wanted to charge the battery, the charger went 'pop!' and there was a burning smell. i quickly emailed the seller (radiobanker) & they agreed to send me a new charger with no extra cost (thanks!). overall, it's a cute radio, works fine, RX is good, speaker is loud. also easy to bring anywhere you like.
9W2AZX |
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| KA5PIU |
Rating: |
2011-10-30 | |
| Nice cheap talkie. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
For the price you are getting a cellphone sized talkie that can do 1 watt, on 2 bands!
Although the receiver volume is loud even on its lowest settings and transmit purity is not the greatest this is more than offset by its tiny size and price.
This is not something that says geek, it has the look and feel of an FRS radio, and even comes in several colors.
I use the louder audio and tiny size to my advantage by putting this in an older nextel carrying case I bought on clearance, it fits perfect and the front cover not only protects the radio it also deals with the sound level.
Get one with the extra battery pouch and you can store up to 3 extra batteries as well as your pens, or as a tight fit, just the radio and AA battery pack attached.
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| DH5JBR |
Rating: |
2011-10-28 | |
| Value for money |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Okay, it may not have great value, but then, it does not cost as much as really good radios.
This is about both, the UV-3R AND the Mark II.
The original model comes with two antennas (this was rectified with a dual band antenna I already had). If you only need 70cm, the UHF antenna is really small and neat.
The headset is thrown in for free and may be "sticky" using the VOX. I do not use it.
The volume issue is only critical if you use the headset.
The charging base only makes sense if you have a spare battery. The unit can be charged with the battery mounted. There is a provision to daisy-chain charging bases if you have many units working.
The charging unit has a two-colour LED that changes from red to green when the battery is fully charged. Neat! My YAESU FT-50 did not have that.
The Mark II comes with a dual band antenna which is ok.
The battery cover WILL slide off IF you do not LOCK it. There is a latch at the base that can be locked and the lid stays put, if the latch has not been broken by somebody forcing it open. The manual will tell you how it works.
The manual, however, is the weak point.
It tells you elaborately how to access the scan mode setting and that the two settings are "TO" and "CO", but not what they mean.
The Mark I had a "dual watch" function, but nowhere was it explained how to set the second frequency to be watched.
The Mark II has one more menu item (19) "Priority" but there is no information on how to assign the priority frequency.
The dual watch will now work and scan upper and lower displayed frequency alternately, if "DW" is on.
The upper line will either display UHF frequency or the contents of memory channels. The lower line will only ever display VHF frequency and never memory channels or UHF frequencies (unless somebody explains how to achieve that, the manual certainly does not.) This means that you can watch three combinations:
VHF (from memory) and VHF from lower display
UHF (from memory) and VHF from lower display
UHF from uppper display and VHF from lower display
Some people have experienced problems with the channel steps. So have I. The channel steps can only be set with the focus on the lower display line. (You can set them with the focus on the upper line, but it will be ignored ;-) )
The manual should really be made the issue of a hate mail campaign. It is really a pain to read and withholds vital information on scan limits and ranges. It bosts that these can be set but does not say how.
I took the liberty to write my own German version.
The audio quality is good and so is the FM radio reception. You can listen to the radio and if the local repeater gets busy, it cuts in. You can also go on air immediately. The FM radio will come back on after 10 seconds of inactivity on UHF/VHF.
The built-in LED-torch is not great, but it will certainly help to find a key hole or the REAL torch or to read a sign in the dark and is not to be sniffed at.
The housing is a little flimsy (battery cover latch) and will benefit from careful treatment, but the heat sink inside and the antenna mount is strong enough.
There is an issue in Germany with spurious emissions, but this in my view would only matter in the case of output powers in the region above 10 Watts.
I can open the local repeater in 10 mile distance from the basement of my house and the low power setting 0.5 W.
I can open the repeater on the highest German Mountain Zugspitze DB0ZU 145.725 (-0.6) with the low power setting given free view from a distance of around 70 miles. People have received the ISS with it.
Considering all this, the radio offers a lot of functions, has a reasonable quality, weighs very little and can be taken anywhere. If it does get a knock, it will probably take it and if not, there is no great loss. Even the Mark I version is good enough if you have a dual band antenna to spare or you can take the pain of changing the two antennas. The dual frequency display of the Mark II is not as versatile as it could be (no UHF/UHF or MEM/MEM).
I ordered from 409shop, but delivery took three weeks to Germany. The second helping came quicker, but German customs wanted another 19% in import tax and I had to come to their office and collect the parcel or face more red tape. |
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| K7PDP |
Rating: |
2011-10-25 | |
| Good value for price |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| The problems I've read about regarding this radio may be overstated, at least as it relates to the latest Mark II. The audio seems reasonable to me, so perhaps they've tamed the problem cited with earlier radios. Manual programming is tedious but simple, with the exception that it doesn't seem possible to program 70cm frequencies that are on 5kHz boundaries. Perhaps I just don't know the trick, but I've ordered the programming cable to see if that gives me the capability. The receiver is very sensitive: even in my basement it's picking up signals on both bands. The transmitter seems effective, too. I ordered from 409shop.com and received the radio in a little over a week, not bad from Hong Kong! It's the model with the dual frequency displays and a single VHF/UHF antenna. I'm liking it so far! I wouldn't get rid of my 2m base station, but this seems an appropriate set of compromises for a 2m/70cm handheld, especially for the price. |
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| KD8HAM |
Rating: |
2011-10-24 | |
| Absolute rubbish. Would not recommend |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just recently got this radio off of Ebay - 43$ including shipping from China. This is the older model with single band RX and 18 menus. The small form factor is the only nice thing about this radio (and hence the rating of 1 from me).
The finish is not very great and the battery cover is not snug. Extremely prone to inter mod from my laptop and makes listening to the radio a nightmare. Cannot hit repeater in town (a few miles from where I live) on full power which makes it absolutely useless for me. Tried different rooms (even going outside) but still no luck.
I bought the radio only to access one or 2 repeaters. However it turned out to be a nightmare. I would not recommend this radio at all. Save your money and get a Wouxun. Atleast those did work!! |
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| AE7EC |
Rating: |
2011-10-22 | |
| Pleasurable Little Radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just got this radio today (UV-200 variant), but after a good reading of the manual, and a download of a fresh copy of CHIRP (yes works wonderfully with it), I was able to load, edit, and export my Wouxun KG-UVD1P's channel "set" as a .csv, then import said list to my UV-200s format. In no time, I had a full channel "set" closely mirroring my other radio (minus 28 frequencies), and was in business.
I then checked out it's reach, and was able to get into 4 repeaters in town (2 on the mountain (6mi 2m), one on the hospital(7mi 2m), and one at the city landfill(8mi, 70cm)), and also did some "fair" simplexing (6mi, 146.520).
Over all, the other folks thought it sounded nice, and that was all I needed to know. If the radio continues to work as it did today, my other radio will get a well deserved break. |
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