Baofeng and Baofeng Tech

[WSHH493]

Newby here. Baofeng and baofeng tech. Are they the same company? How are they equipment wise?

[SteveShannon]

3 minutes ago, WSHH493 said:

Newby here. Baofeng and baofeng tech. Are they the same company? How are they equipment wise?

They are not the same company. Baofeng Tech is an American company formed to import and sell Baofeng radios.  Their goal was to add value by providing on-shore service for the products they sell, unlike many of the other sellers of Baofeng.

[UncleYoda]

What Steve said, plus Baofeng the company is actually Pofung.  Not that anyone in America cares as long as it still has Baofeng on the front label.

[WRTC928]

What @SteveShannon said. However, Baofeng Tech has branched out in recent years and are having some equipment made to their specifications by other companies. That's probably why they have kind of backed away from Baofeng Tech in favor of BTech. As a general rule, the Baofeng products they sell are a bit more expensive than from other suppliers, but they often have a couple of extra features and they do back up their products and provide support for them.

[TerriKennedy]

On 7/1/2025 at 1:28 PM, WRTC928 said:

What @SteveShannon said. However, Baofeng Tech has branched out in recent years and are having some equipment made to their specifications by other companies. That's probably why they have kind of backed away from Baofeng Tech in favor of BTech. As a general rule, the Baofeng products they sell are a bit more expensive than from other suppliers, but they often have a couple of extra features and they do back up their products and provide support for them.

My understanding is that if the radio itself is branded as BTECH, it is contract manufactured for them to their specs (by someone other than Baofeng). If the radio itself is branded as Baofeng (regardless of whether the box only says BTECH), it is a customized model from Baofeng which is usually (always?) exclusive to BTECH. For example, the UV-82HP is a BTECH exclusive, although there are generic tri-power UV-82s.

My work on the BF-F8HP Pro (a BTECH exclusive) shows that BTECH is listening to customer feedback (many requests from Facebook, here, and other places) and it has been incorporated into the two firmware updates released so far, with more to come). It is also quite ahead of other analog Baofeng handhelds in terms of features, bug fixes, and programming software (Disclaimer: I write the Windows CPS programming software for the BF-F8HP Pro and co-manage firmware development, as well as dabbling in documentation. However, nothing I post should be considered an official statement of BTECH.)

Speaking of the BF-F8HP Pro, if you use coupon code "CPS" at checkout you'll get 20% off (on that model only, and only on the BTECH website, not on Amazon). I should point out that the BF-F8HP Pro is not type approved for GMRS use, but since the equipment reviews rules were relaxed a while ago to allow discussions of non-GMRS equipment due to the overlap between the GMRS and ham communities, mentioning it here should be OK.

[TerriKennedy]

On 7/1/2025 at 1:03 PM, UncleYoda said:

What Steve said, plus Baofeng the company is actually Pofung.  Not that anyone in America cares as long as it still has Baofeng on the front label.

Technically, they're "Fujian [Nan’an] Baofeng Electronics Co."

The Pofung business was because they never trademarked Baofeng in the US (it is a place name, so it would be like trying to trademark "Miami"). But someone trademark-squatted in the US and it took Baofeng quite some time to get the trademark assignment invalidated and assigned to them. During that period, radios intended for import into the US were labeled Pofung.

Any Baofeng OEM customer can request whatever labeling they want (within reason, presumably Baofeng would reject a request to label any of their products as "Motorola"). Some of their OEM customers seem to still be requesting the Pofung branding, simply because it isn't as well-known in the US.

[UncleYoda]

The story I heard wasn't about a place name.  It was that Baofeng is a family name and the family objected to its use for these radios.  That's when I first started seeing Pofung as a brand.  But I wasn't referring to branding but rather what it shows on the manufacturer label on the back of a recent radio I bought.  And as far as that Fuji Nana stuff goes, I've also seen other stuff like Quansheng Electronics.  It's apparently whatever they want to call it - neither companies nor brands mean the same thing in China as here.  My UV-5G says "Po Fung Electronic(HK) International Group Company" and that's from 2022.

 

p.s.  I don't know what your Pro version is but the BFF9 I got (supposed to have been an improved BFF8 with 8 watts like an HP) was terrible, extremely low power on 440 and same as 5W models on 2m.  Worst UV5R type I ever got.

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, TerriKennedy said:

Technically, they're "Fujian [Nan’an] Baofeng Electronics Co."

The Pofung business was because they never trademarked Baofeng in the US (it is a place name, so it would be like trying to trademark "Miami"). But someone trademark-squatted in the US and it took Baofeng quite some time to get the trademark assignment invalidated and assigned to them. During that period, radios intended for import into the US were labeled Pofung.

Any Baofeng OEM customer can request whatever labeling they want (within reason, presumably Baofeng would reject a request to label any of their products as "Motorola"). Some of their OEM customers seem to still be requesting the Pofung branding, simply because it isn't as well-known in the US.

Thank you for sharing your insider knowledge.  

[WRYS709]

4 hours ago, TerriKennedy said:

My work on the BF-F8HP Pro (a BTECH exclusive) ...

Are the accessories on this model compatible with UV-5R accessories, specifically the higher capacity UV-5R batteries?

[UncleYoda]

The battery isn't - the contacts are on the inside face.  It's a 5RM or 5RH variant not a UV-5R.

[WRYS709]

4 hours ago, UncleYoda said:

The battery isn't - the contacts are on the inside face.  It's a 5RM or 5RH variant not a UV-5R.

Thanks! 

I will stick with my RD-5R and DM-5R with memory chip upgrade modifications: I have all the batteries I need, except maybe a USB-C or two. 

They do Ham 2 meters and 440 MHz, GMRS and MURS and DMR. 

[Majik]

I just wish there weren’t 40 varieties of radios from them. It gets hard to figure out what’s different about all of them and which ones are newer. They have a dizzying amount of models.