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Went on a road trip and my 6 year old rode with grandma. I gave him one of my radios and we kept the other. Thought it'd be a fun way to try to talk. In the 20-ish hours of driving: Kid turned off his radio "to save battery" Kid turned off his radio because he wanted to watch Minecraft videos on the iPad Kid dropped the radio and couldn't reach it Kid couldn't hear his radio over his headphones while watching a movie on the iPad Kid said "hi dad, I love you" and a construction worker on the same frequency responded "what?" and my kid went "what?" and the construction worker went "what?" and my kid panicked turned off the radio when he realized he wasn't talking to dad We talked about how big windmills actually are when we passed a blade being transported All in all, a fun experiment. He enjoyed using "dad's radios" and getting to use walkie-talkies somewhere other than the backyard (when it was turned on). Also, sorry, random Illinois DOT guy.

100%, grandma kept telling him to turn it off to save the battery whenever he wasn't using it. Kids left to their own aren't going to be thinking those invasive thoughts; they'll leave it on in their sock drawer for six months, or until years later when you clean out their room after they moved away to college (whichever comes later).

My RV Friends are just now getting out of Bear Creek Texas, untouched by the floods because they were camped high enough.. They say the devastation is unmanageable and the amount of rain they got in short period was beyond belief.. They've been staying in touch with the world via their GMRS radios, which they say were very busy by both rescue groups and people in general. There cell service has been spotty and just now coming back, they even had a hard time senidng text, which i thought worked off satellites now.. I would have been on the trip with them but had last minute issues with my VGT Exhaust break and still in the shop for a $4,500 repair.. (3weeks latter)... Thank god they are all safe..

Getting back to the original post, it’s truly unimportant whether it was an original Baofeng box, an oversized shipping box, or something else entirely.. What’s important is that the OP must contact the vendor to get the antenna that was advertised.

Nothing you said has been offensive but I don’t understand why you don’t want to be an eggplant.

Wow! looks a lot better than my collection of radios stuff into plastic food storage boxes on a couple of roll-around shelve units.

Terri, that’s an impressive stack of uniformly sized boxes. At least through BTech, it appears that Baofeng has a standard single radio box. That makes sense from a cost standpoint. I wouldn’t want either a small rattler or a long antenna bent nearly double in one of those boxes. Randy, let Terri be. She’s one of the good ones we really want to keep. She doesn’t come here and act like one of the several resident assholes we’ve had. She backs up her points with facts, figures, and photos. I have no idea whether the boxes you’ve experienced are differently printed but same size (as her photos indicate happens) or whether you have received 34 different sizes, but the argument isn’t really important enough to drive one of the good ones away. I don’t doubt that some sellers bend 15” flexible antennas to fit the boxes, but one time it happened to me the antenna took on a bit of a permanent arch. A friend gifted me a Wouxun and couldn’t find the original rubber duck so he bent his 15” antenna into the outer shipping box and sent it instead. The other time I received a 15” antenna it was in my packaged with my very first Baofeng, in a larger box with a “covert earpiece”, a PTT microphone, a charger, etc. some of the pieces, like the antenna, were marked TidRadio, and others said Baofeng. Perhaps some value added reseller put together a special package of accessories as so many on the Amazon Marketplace do. In any case, it’s not important enough to berate people over.

Yep, I had found that one and have it marked to order. It fits other 5RM models like my K5+. A ham friend strongly endorsed that one a few years ago. I didn't get it after reading the negative reviews. I recall there's another one that some reviewers say performs equally for half the price. They do often fall apart (even TV/stereo headphones at the local big box store are the same inferior quality). The best quality I've found is CommMountain. It's a lapel clip style. The mic holes are tiny and clog easily.

I'm on here mostly to collect feedback on the BF-F8HP Pro, make sure it gets to either the firmware developers, BTECH support, or something I should fix in the CPS. I don't have to be here. None of this "Brand Ambassador" stuff is in my job description. I also try to contribute useful information, since I've been a GMRS licensee for quite some time, know what is involved in setting up and operating a racked repeater with a tower antenna, and similar stuff. But enough about me... I thought one of the rules for this site was to maintain civil discussion. I interpreted Randy's post here as both non-civil and a personal attack. Anyway, this has devolved well away from the OP's 'I ordered a radio advertised with a 15" antenna and didn't get it'. Let's get back to technical stuff and friendly rag-chewing.

With hurricane season underway, our HOA just announced that the board and staff will be monitoring 462.550. Now everyone knows someone will be listening. Including FRS means folks will at least be able to hear updates, even if they can't TX very farz with their $10 HTs. At the next board meeting I'm tempted throw out the idea of a portable, off-grid repeater. This place is too flat with too much vegetation for reliable HT simplex, but a decent antenna on the property high point would make a world of difference.

All I have is the GMRS and cell phone. I know when the cell phone quits the GMRS will work. But what I don't know is if there will be someone on the other end that will answer or help. But it's certainly better than having a useless cell phone and nothing else. On top of it the GMRS radio I have can transmit on a whole host of bands by just putting it into open mode. If it's an emergency, anything goes. If the eff sea seas comes to arrest me for using it without a license it still means someone is coming.

This is where I tell the "cell phone" people you need an alternate means of communication. You know the one's. Walkie Talkies aren't crystal clear and I can't call someone on the other side of the world. Sometimes the $100 option beats the $250 billion dollar option.

I was going to let this slide. But hey, it's Tuesday and I'm under my quota of arguments for the week so far... 1) It's Terri with an "i", short for Teresa. Which you'd know if you'd ever used any of my CPS programs. 2) Standard box size. Let's see. Here's a picture of 16 different Baofeng models in their boxes. I'm sorry I could only stack 4 high by 4 wide before I ran out of space. Front and top views. These are all single radios (which is what started this post). Obviously a box for a pair of radios, or more, would be larger. 3) "Nearly every radio manufactured by Baofeng (dozens)" Yup. Riggghhhhttttt. I have 34 different models, all unboxed, right now in my line of sight, not to mention the ones in the boxes in the pictures. Nor all of the ones I've given away. Here's a screen capture from a Baofeng factory promotional video where it shows just a small part of their showroom before the image pans around and looks down rows and rows of different models on display. 4) I could probably stuff a small rattlesnake into a standard size Baofeng box. Neither it, a 15" antenna, or the customer would be happy when the box was opened. You come along, all high and mighty with your proclamations here because you're a Youtube superstar with (as of just now) 266K subscribers and almost nobody is willing to stand up and call "BS" to your face. Well, surprise! Note that I only wrote this reply because you tried just about everything you could to provoke a response from me. Normally I'm easygoing and try to be helpful when answering questions here, without sarcasm or denigrating the other person. Now, let's all return to our respective corners and try to behave civilly, OK?

No. Absolutely not. The inventor (Motorola) named the technology Private Line, aka privacy codes. It was done to provide the operators privacy, meaning a lack of interruption from unwanted signals. Its the same concept as a privacy sign at a home or a hotel... privacy and it's literal term means to be left alone. A lot of people misunderstand the definition of privacy, confusing it with secrecy.

It’s hard to beat commercial grade radios. The mobiles are designed with the idea of them operating in all kinds of environments so the audio is usually loud and of good quality.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I hope you have a better day tomorrow.

The BF-F8HP Pro is specifically marketed as an amateur radio and has full Tx coverage in those bands. You might find that it will Tx out of those bands, but it is not type approved for that use.

There's a battery eliminator (car lighter adapter) for the BF-F8HP Pro (I only work on that model - If I did more models everybody at BTECH would be running around trying to satisfy the requests I pass through from users). I have never found a good corded microphone, across Baofeng, Radtel, Hiroyasu and other brands of radios and quite a few different microphones, ranging from the "$2 extra when you buy a radio" to the $25 BTECH QHM22. They all produce a very unpleasant crack sound when keyed and released. I suspect a capacitor in the microphone body would help - the trick is selecting one that will fix the crack without ruining the audio. The earphones w/ microphone/PTT cord are rather sub-optimal. I have a customer who has been using one for months and loves it, but others who get the same one say they fall apart rapidly. I'm sure there are good ones, it's just a market segment I haven't investigated.

....hold my radio.. I'ma do something real quick....

Are you aware that the CTCSS and DCS tones for the Radioddity radios are programmed using the actual tone/codes i.e. 192.8 Hz & 445; and Midland radio uses a programming code such as CTCSS 31 for 192.8 Hz and DCS 57 for 445 as depicted in the Midland User Manual? When programming the Midland you need to make sure that you are programming in the appropriate CTCSS or DCS mode.

Thankfully my education as an industrial controls electrician helped me wrap my head around this stuff pretty well. I use to wonder why things like bonding and what not were required when I first started in the career. I had great instructors who broke the ideas down to bite size pieces that were easy to understand and gave examples that supported the "science" of it all.

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I have a half-dozen or so that came that way. I don't remember if the BF-f8hps were in a different size box, but they didn't come wth a longer antenna anyway. I'm not sure because I only kept the boxes for radios I haven't used. Anyway, my point is that if it was advertised with a 15" antenna, the seller certainly could have included one by one means or another. Thus, it's most likely that OP's radio was supposed to have one and it got overlooked. The antenna is so cheap to the seller that it probably wouldn't be worth the negative feedback to advertise it falsely. Again, I'm not trying to show anyone up or be a . I'm just providing accurate information.

Oh. "L". Sorry. That's the higher power one. Like I said in the beginning. Regular power supply and cut off the cord to attach.

If you already have the cord (others have provided link) you should be able to connect it to any power supply sold for use with two way radios. A switch mode power supply will be less expensive, lighter, and smaller. A linear power supply will be heavier and bigger but many people like them for their longevity.

Pretty wild stuff. Glad they had working radios with them and people to correspond with, too. If they were in trouble, it may have saved their lives. Just being stranded or cutoff from leaving is enough to make someone panic. Sometimes, just having a voice on the other end and some mildly useful information can really make the difference on the psychological impact of a situation.

I was very impressed with the Midland Ghost antenna. If I didn't need an antenna for multiple bands, I'd still be using it. Where I do most of my driving, distance is limited mostly by terrain, not by the antenna, so I can't say for sure whether you'd give up some farz with it, but it's definitely worth a look. The Comet 2x4 is a remarkably good antenna. If I didn't want to use the 1.25 meter band, it's the only antenna I'd use. Mounted on the roof of my car with a good ground plane, it has good SWRs (~1.2-1.4:1) and good performance on GMRS, 70cm, and 2m. It also has an excellent SWR on MURS, although I haven't tried its performance on that band. Surprisingly, it has a very good SWR on 1.25m as well, but I haven't tested its performance on that band. It's not claimed to be tuned for that band, and I'd be amazed if it performed well, but I'll probably try it someday.

+1 on the speaker mic. The sound on them is legible but tinny and the PTT button is waaaaaaay too sensitive.

This is a good thing. My first hand held I bought was a GT-5R from BTech's Amazon store. I was missing the ear piece and they were very quick to respond when I contacted them. They went above and beyond, they sent a new charging base, ear piece and a hand mic.

More lies and misinformation Tammy! People stand up and call BS to my face every day.

You may want to google what gear we used to use on these...

Seriously? Radio jail? How would you be 'punked' in there? People walk away so you cant hear them? Do they just now respond to conversation? Step behind an object to not engage? Would your prison number be your callsign you didn't use? Would you have to make up a crazy story to be accepted, like a renegade repeater of something...LOL

YouTube, look for videos from the Notarubicon channel. One specifically describes configuring a radio for a repeater.

IF it is not "locked", then, YES. IF it is 'locked', then, NO. So the actual answer is: It Depends TL;dr: Maybe

Mine can, but it’s an older model.

I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work, but I can think of all kinds of reasons it wouldn't be allowed.

There aren't really any good ones out there.

I get it that people do not like having their address and info listed for anyone to see on the FCC website. But if you true want to stay off the map and be untraceable then you would have to totally go off grid which means no cell phones, computers, tablets, etc along with no bank accounts and paying cash for everything. We get tracked everyday if we have a cell phone on us or even by our vehicles if you own a newer one with all of the computer modules onboard. PS: If you have ever had any type of government issued security clearance then they already know your life story. And the government ALSO has your DNA on file if you have served in the military since 1993. IF you are that worried, then get a good home security system and a big dog that roams the house while you are gone.

I understand your point, but in order for that to happen, a number of things would have to occur simultaneously. 1) Someone would have to hear your call. 2) They'd have to know they could look up your address from the call sign. 3) They'd have to know a criminal near where you live -- because by definition, if you're away from home, the miscreant is somewhere near you, not near your house. 4) They'd have to go to the effort of contacting their buddy and telling him to burglarize your house, which they'd have little incentive to do because criminals don't burglarize a house and send part of the ill-gotten gains to a friend 100 miles away. The odds of all that happening simultaneously are so astronomically small that I don't even consider it. I just periodically check the security cameras on my phone and go on enjoying my vacation.

you should read the rules my friend. § 95.1751 GMRS station identification. Each GMRS station must be identified by transmission of its FCC-assigned call sign at the end of transmissions and at periodic intervals during transmissions except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section. A unit number may be included after the call sign in the identification. (a) The GMRS station call sign must be transmitted: (1) Following a single transmission or a series of transmissions; and, (2) After 15 minutes and at least once every 15 minutes thereafter during a series of transmissions lasting more than 15 minutes. (b) The call sign must be transmitted using voice in the English language or international Morse code telegraphy using an audible tone. (c) Any GMRS repeater station is not required to transmit station identification if: (1) It retransmits only communications from GMRS stations operating under authority of the individual license under which it operates; and, (2) The GMRS stations whose communications are retransmitted are properly identified in accordance with this section.

I couldn’t remember this myself so I had to look it up but English on the identification is required. 95.1751 GMRS station identification. (b) The call sign must be transmitted using voice in the English language or international Morse code telegraphy using an audible tone. You can use a P.O. Box as stated. With GMRS if someone can hear that you are no where near home than they are also not likely anywhere near said home. While you do bring up a valid concern here are some ideas. Use an alarm system, camera security, house sitter, big dog, a pleasantly noisy neighbor, Burmese tiger traps (affiliate link below). Pun intended

Ok, Great questions and while I am half asleep I'll try to get a reasonable answer to you. Channel 8-14 are limited to .5 watts power and 12.5kHz bandwidth due to them being close to the repeater input channels. By limiting TX power and narrow banding those channels, it reduces the chance of interference with repeater users. FRS is narrow band (12.5kHz) all the way through, and most bubblepack radios will be set up this way. GMRS uses wide band (20kHz.) They can talk to one another if on the same channel, though there will be some degradation of audio (narrow band transmissions will sound quiet on wide band channels, and wide band transmissions may clip or sound over-modulated when heard on a narrow band channel) Bandwidth is the total amount of frequency space a signal is allowed to take up. A 12.5kHz signal can take up as much as 6.25kHz of frequency space on either side of the center frequency. A 20kHz signal can take up to 10kHz on either side. So when a wide band radio is listening to a narrow band transmitter, it is expecting a 10kHz signal on either side of the center frequency, however since the narrow band radio only sends out 6.25 on either side, the audio output becomes quieter. On the flip side, a narrow band radio is expecting a 6.25 signal on either side of the frequency, however when it receives a 10kHz signal, the radio is hit with an extra 3.75kHz of signal and will either over-modulate, or overload the front end (in rare cases however usually worse when very close to one another.) I'm sure some of the other radio heads could explain it better, but thats the fundamentals. Narrow band and wide band radios can talk to one another which a few minor issues, but will work in a pinch. and the .5W TX power is simply to help prevent interference with repeater users.

Picked up a BTech Nagoya UT-72G for my SUV. Very poor RX/TX, even though plenty of steel roof ground plane. My stock-stubby HT outperforms it from inside the vehicle. I plan to buy another antenna to compare against before returning it. So, what are your favorite magmount options? Primary use is Simplex. Urban hills (no buildings over 10 stories, but plenty of hills. 3db?). Need to stick with removable for now. No drilled holes. Would consider bracket mount for top of rear hatch (but worse ground plane?) I haven't done SWR sweep; don't wanna focus on numbers just yet - would rather stick with analogue comparison initially. It'll be easy to compare. The UT-72G is performing noticeably worse than any HT in the vehicle. Thank you. [UPDATE] I purchased a TRAM 1192 to test through-glass before I spend more on sexier magmount options. Will update.