The Baofeng UV5RE

[lukeoid153]

I'm glad that you are all talking about this very topic. I am new to GMRS, got licensed for the family a couple months ago and just last week got my Ham Technicians license. As the rest of the family is not yet on board with alternative communication medium, I plan on getting the Baofeng bf888s for them and just simply program it for them to contact me via a GMRS repeater in our area.  As is mentioned above that these are FCC compliant, but not factory approved, I think that as they will be used in compliance with FCC usage rules. With that, what are options for GMRS that are repeater capable?  Any recommendations that might be factory approved and compliant?  Thanks so much.

[Linus]

I know that Motorola makes a FCC Certified radio. MRS350R is the model. The price is MUCH higher than a Baofeng radio, but it has the FCC sticker which is important.

 

GMRS repeaters will give you coverage similar to a 70 cm repeater. The wavelength is such that it will permit your signal to exit a building better. Dead spots are smaller (just move a little bit and you can get out of a dead spot). The distance that you can transmit is not as far as VHF. VHF can get go over the horizon a bit more than UHF.

The power output is limited to 50 watts for a GMRS repeater. You need permission to use GMRS repeaters (I would ask even if it is listed as an open repeater).

 

Your family would have access under your GMRS license. Depending on terrain, line of site is what you need to make the repeater.

 

Linus

[MSensei]

Ok, so it's been about a year since I picked up the Beofeng UV-5RE Plus and, honestly, I've only had sporadic amounts of time to do any testing with it - until a few weeks ago.  So thoughts:

 

1 - Physical Unit

So, I have dropped, kicked, scraped and have had a 2, now 3 year old grab it, run off with it and throw it - and it still works!  It's definately physically solid casing provides good protection.

Scale of 1 to 5 - it gets a 5 for durability.

 

2 - Programming

On a scale of 1 to 5 I give it a 3.

 

Pros - After you download the correct software/drivers, programming (downloading/uploading data) the device is fairly easy - if you get failures in either direction, it is usually because the unit itself has low battery power.  The software interface is fairly straightforward so long as you know what you are doing - there are no help files on what anything means.

 

Cons - Programming using the handset is not as easy - but that may be the case for many hand helds.  You can only program and/or update a channel from within Frequency mode - it cannot be done within channel mode. SOFTWARE - even though it is straight forward, every time you launch it, the language defaults to Chinese, so you have to know where to change it at for English (unless you know chinese) to utilize it.  Subsequently, the USB Cable needs to be plugged in with the unit turned on prior to launching the application, otherwise, the software goes into an endless loop which you are forced to reboot computer in order to get out of it.

 

3 - Operations (Transmit & Receive/Antenna)

So, the default antenna that comes with the unit is ok - I would say it is on-par or slightly better than the antennae that come with bubble-pack devices.  In fact, it works very well with bubble pack devices for transmission and reception.  To that point I purchased a Etekcity® Nagoya NA-771 SMA Female 2.15 dbi 10W Antenna for the radio - Noticible and significant difference in reception and transmission but was really only limited to testing it in my area - which can be a challenge given no real repeater availability and topography of the area - was able to transmit/receive with the bubble pack radios up to about 1 mile with my signal being stronger.

 

Recently, I picked up a Original Nagoya Dual Band SMA UV Antenna for baofeng UV-5R which is a vehicle-mount antenna (magnetic).  I can tell you I do get very good reception with the mounting, however, I am unclear if and/or how well transmissions are being received from my station, being mobile.  This has been a source of frustration with me to the point that I was just about to give up - I don't know if it is me, or if there is just no one listening at the time I am transmitting.  I travel the I-476 route from Lansdale to Philadelphia (up I-95 to PHL) - South in the morning between 7 and 8:30 AM and usually after 5 PM on the return home.  Today, I think someone may have heard me on a 725 repeater near PHL and was trying to contact/confirm my transmission, but I'm not sure (I was also moble, as I always am, trying to make the contact).  A little later in my trip, I picked up a station identification from repeater I believe to be in Holmes, PA from between Lansdale and Plymouth Meeting. 

 

Either way, the committee is out on how well this 4W/5W transmission is working.  Until I can get some solid time/confirmation with someone either on a repeater (preferred) or directly on a frequency, I can't provide a meaningful rating for this aspect of it.  If anyone is in the area of my daily travels and wants to volunteer to help out, please PM me.

 

 

So that is my review to date.  Hopefully, in the near future I can provide some sort of update on the operations (transmit/receive) while mobile.

 

Thanks,

David

[Logan5]

I just got the Bf-F8 very similar to the UV5r line, even uses same battery. Not sure how I feel about the reverse display but it does have the latest chip and preforms very well.

[zap]

The Chinese radios really have changed the radio game. My apartment complex acquired a bunch of BF888's. I essentially help resale the UV5R's.

 

I generally program with Chirp unless I specifically need to remove the vfo. I've noticed several things with the radios.

 

A) Don't try and hot swap the programming cable or speaker/mic. Turn the radio off. I've seen many people blow either the ptt out speaker on the radio (usually works fine with a speaker Mic though).

 

the receivers are good, the squelch circuits suck. They can get a little annoying on high rf environments, even with a receive pl on.

 

C) I've found the stock UHF antenna on the bf-888 has 2-3 more dB of gain on the dual band antenna...and a Motorola Jedi series UHF antenna has 3 dB more gain than the "high gain" UHF antenna (same bandwidth). The Motorola antenna can be found on Amazon for $8.

 

D) if you trash one, you are out $15-30.