Bricks v. Card Decks

[Guest John Roberts]

As someone who is just getting into the hobby, I'm fascinated by the variety and options of portable 2-way GMRS radio. 

Already I've done my first radio purchase, the requisite Baofeng UV-5R. After that, I bought a UV-82, the look and feel of which I found to be impressive. Next I bought a Baofeng BF-H7, which may have been a bad call. Batteries are almost as expensive as the radio, and the H7 feels more like a brick. 

The 5R is more like a deck of cards and has a 5-watt (or so) output, even though it's rated 8-watt. The 82 has a maximum output of 8-watts (or so), and the H7 has a 10-watt (or so) maximum output. 

I'm more curious about the weights of these radios. The 5R, of course, is the lightest, the 82 seems just about what I'd expect for a 2-way walkie-talkie (HT). But the H7 is more like a brick. It's more like what I'd expect out of a day-in, day-out radio -- guard duty, that sort of thing. My question is, why the weight difference? 

At first I thought it might be the 10-watt output, which various reviews have shown to be pretty much 10-ish watts, but there are 5-watt models of the same radio. 

So why the difference in weight? 

Thanks!

 

[WyoJoe]

I'm not familiar with the BF-H7 model, but I'd suspect the added weight is in the battery. It might have a larger capacity than the standard batteries in the other models, and from what you said about the price of the battery, I'd expect that to be the case.

Have you compared the weight of the different batteries? Have you also compared the weight of the radios without the batteries attached?

When I compared the weight of a UV-82 battery (3000mAh) to a GT-3 (similar model to the UV-5R) battery (1800mAh), the UV-82 battery felt slightly heavier. The UV-82 radio also felt slightly heavier than the GT-3 radio, both without batteries attached. This is as I would expect since the UV-82 is slightly larger and has what feels to be a more robust case.