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Larsen guys say the same things about Diamond, Comet etc. antennas.

Thanks for the comments. We do not need DMR or bells and whistles, these radios are solely for use on GMRS so the key requirement, besides overall quality, is simplicity of use. Thus the need for a display - so users get visual confirmation they are on the right frequency/channel. The VX-**** radios are also interesting. But, for the moment t we are concentrating on hand-helds to augment our existing P1225s. BTW, the major problem with the P1225s is battery capacity and life -- the only available batteries are NiCad & NiMh. For some reason, nobody makes a lithium pack for the P1225

It hasn't been too long since I started on GMRS and I started with Baofengs, fortunately it wasn't a very expensive mistake. Once you try to do anything in the real world where you need the radios to reliably work and receive almost all the time, b/c those cheap radios have very poor RF performance you'll hear static where you should hear a loud signal. These cheapies desense (receiver sensitivity goes to ZERO) at the first sign of RF noise... from anything... even other portables around it will make it deaf. You're better off buying used (or new) commercial gear that won't desense all the way when another Baofeng powers up 1 mile away from yours. Have at it, this guy made this nice video explaining why most of those cheap things range is usually pretty bad. And remember, just because you can hit a repeater doesn't mean your radio is any good, it most certainly means that the repeater is using a very good setup to do the heavy lifting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUQsZrd3IGo G.

If you're buying this radio for GMRS b/c of the fancy bells and whistles, just don't. My experience (as a former Baofeng addict) is to look elsewhere. While the radio might have a very palatable price tag, with a fancy color screen, twenty bands, customizable button sounds, roger beeps, voice echo, recording of 1000 hours, whatever, etc, the RF performance will be, like most of the cheap Chinese junk, inadequate, (for the lack of a more blunt word) ... That's their tactic, they can't compete with the US/European/Japanese made radios in the RF performance game (which is the thing that matters the most on a radio) so what do they do? They lower the price and add a ton of fancy (and mostly useless in the end) gadgets so the inexperienced customer bites. You're better off buying used commercial mobiles/portables that are undisputedly legal to use in the UHF GMRS band, or whatever band you are going to use them, (b/c some of those cheap Chinese radios is not 100% clear if they are really type accepted or not, etc). Personally I really like Vertex Standard radios, they come down in price quite a bit, the VX-5500 and VX-6000 are pretty decent radios, with hot receivers... etc. Vertex radios have free programming software, all you need is the cable, which might add to the cost, but other than that the radio RF will be leaps and bounds superior to anything cheap made in China. G.

I have a lot of Vertex gear, some 2nd hand, some new, but I really like it overall, and before they were fully absorbed by Motorola last year, they were basically Motorola quality without all the red tape associated with the Moto stuff. Software is free, just the FIF-12 cable was expensive for my EVX stuff... other than that they are pretty straightforward radios to use. If you don't need to have a DMR radio, then the VX-5500 and VX-6000 mobiles have one of the hottest receivers I've seen. With that said, one of the biggest let downs with the models you've posted is (as explained on another thread) that the bells and whistles factor on those radios is rather low. You get an alphanumeric LCD segment screen, so if you want to use them for DMR stuff like the DMR-Marc etc, you might find the screen a bit lacking lacking compared to, say, the XPR7550e series of portables. G.

Counterfeit stuff is on the rise, and harder to spot these days; and the performance is usually much lower too, as recorded by my own measurements. Most of the knockoff antennae are made with inferior materials too, and after some time they will develop high SWR, and be useless. So, my recommendation is to buy a brand antenna, I have nothing but Diamond antennas installed, and I really like them. I've tried TRAM/Browning, etc, all these went into the recycle bin after 1 or 2 years as they developed super high SWR... so, unless you like replacing the antenna every year or so, stick with brands like Diamond, Comet, Laird... and try to get it from an authorized dealer if possible, otherwise chances are you'll get a counterfeit that won't stand the test of time, more so in bad weather conditions.

I am late to this one, but as someone who started with a couple of Baofengs I have to admit that you really get what you pay for. It is very hard to understand for the first time buyer why these radios are a waste of money, and only after you try to start using those for anything that requires reliability and range the expectations go south, quick. Most of those inexpensive radios have two major problems/deficiencies that most beginners don't understand, and that is even before getting into the legality aspects of those, which have been shuffled already. So, those cheap overseas radios use direct conversion receivers with very poor (if any) filtering on the front end, because adding those costs a lot of $$$. And those two flaws alone means you should look elsewhere, regardless of anything else, no matter what bells and whistles, etc. Which BTW, that is a very common, and smart, strategy used by the cheap overseas manufacturers, they give you a garbage radio sugar coated real good with all kinds of fancy color screens, 150000 DMR contacts, etc... but in the end the radio lacks where it matters the most, in the RF performance. So, what does this receiver mumbo-jumbo mean? Very simple: -Poor receiver selectivity. -Even worse receiver sensitivity. Good lord, what is all that? Well, selectivity is usually the reason why the range on your brand new 20 dollar Baofeng is measured in feet, rather than in miles... and why, you might ask, why? Well, b/c when the radio has little selectivity the receiver hears everything around it, as in, it will hear all the stations that are pumping hundreds of watts at 10 Mhz, 20, 30, or even 300 Mhz apart from the frequency you're tuned in. So, what happens when you are standing front row at a concert and your friend tries to talk to you? You try closing your ears to reduce all that noise blasting in an attempt to hear your friend.... well, the same things happens to these cheap radios, the receivers desense so they are not overloaded, as in, receiver sensitivity goes south, and while the receiver might've had an amazing sensitivity figure advertised (which makes the problem even worse) that means diddly squat when the RF environment gets crowded, even operating near other portables, or mobiles, your cheap radio will hear static where it should've heard a signal loud and clear. When you buy higher end commercial radios from companies like Motorola, Vertex, etc, you will certainly have less bells and whistles, but the radio will have stellar RF performance so range is measured in tens of miles rather than hundredths of an inch. And that is not going into other details, like spurious emissions, b/c those are terrible too. I can hear those cheap Baofengs on adjacent GMRS channels even 200 feet away... heard about it, tested it, verified it and moved on. So, before giving your hard earned money to some foreign company that is just collecting on unsuspecting buyers, dazzled by color screens and fancy boot screens, just look at used commercial gear from Motorola, Vertex, Midland, Ritron, etc... and if you plan on using it for GMRS just buy accordingly with the legal requirements. Here is a video where this desense effect is shown, basically the radio stop receiving altogether... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUQsZrd3IGo And this is far more common than you think nowadays, with tons of cellphones, WiFis, computers, Bluetooth devices... there are tons of RF noise nowadays that will render these 20 dollar radios useless where you might need them the most. Hope this helps. G.

This is no different from any of the cheap Chinese radios that have come across my bench. I think its time the FCC starts doing its own testing, this goes to show the Chinese manufactures dont care and will fudge the paperwork to make this junk sellable in the US. As I have stated before none of these CCR's belong in use on GMRS as even the certified ones don't meet spec or standard. The spurs in the 900 band where strong enough to pick them up several 100 feet away on a scanner.

Corey, yur just mean. Some of the Chinese junk is good junk, and some of it is bad junk. Hmmm, I have some of the good junk and some of the bad (American labeled , you know who I mean) junk. Yup, yur just mean. Thank you for being honest and politically incorrect. !!, Keith T

I owned 2 Baofeng ham radios for a combined total of 2 weeks. I wouldn't give one to someone I don't like, because its too cruel. Do yourself a favor and forget they exist. Just my opinion.

Hello all, New to GMRS and radio in general. I have the infamous Baofeng UR5+. Ive purchased the NA-771 antenna for one of them and the UT-72 mobile antenna for my truck. Me and the wife have been experimenting with them and not getting very good coverage. At 1 point I was on the roof while she drove just a short distance before losing her. 1.5 miles to be exact. So today (monday) we took them to work where I have access to a roof atop a 10 story building. I went to the roof (10th floor) with the NA-771 and she went to the 3rd (top) floor of her work with the rubber duck and we tried to talk with no luck. She then went outside to my truck and plugged into the UT-72 mobile antenna. A little static is all she got from me. I got nothing from her. This distance is less than 5 miles but right at it. I can see her work place practically. Cincinnati is in a bowl. I can see the ridge line that encircles the city. Basically our 275 loop I can fully see from that building which is 20 minutes in every direction. Ive already bought 3 radios and 2 additional antennas. I purchased over the weekend a roof top antenna that is specifically for GMRS 462mhz from Michael the J pole antenna guy. I was going to purchase the LMR400 cable but now Im hesitant in putting alot more money into this if its not really going get me the distance Im looking for in an emergency situation. I live in a suburb of Cincinnati and the majority of my family lives about 10 to 15 miles out in the country from me. I want to buy a 50 watt base unit but Im afraid to sink more money into this if Im nonly going to get slim results. I read how peolple swapping their factory antenna for the ones Ive bought increases their coverage so much. Im not buying it or Im doing something terribly wrong, I only see 2 repeaters in Cincinnati and they have not given me permission yet. But from my limited understanding is if I cant even talk 1.5miles then how on earth can I reach a repeater thats 10 miles away or better? Side note I used the chirp to program the radios so they'd all be the same. thx guys for any help. Nice site by the way. Very cool.