joseph77 Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Has anybody on here used these radio's ? Looking for any info i can get on the range from all the searching i have done on the net there are as many bad opinions as good. Logan5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Cheap they work. I have tested a few, they generally do not put out the advertised power, 2.5 watts is about the best you can expect. They are good radios for the glove box but not a quality radio. That said they are less than $20. I am not the radio police but the versions I have handled did not have any FCC Certification what so ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PastorGary Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Hello, Joe, and welcome to MyGMRS forums. Noticed that you just received your license a few days ago. Please go through the Equipment Reviews section of the forum when you have some time. You may find additional opinions in that area concerning the 888 series and other offerings from that company. We are not saying one way or the other as to what equipment SHOULD be used by GMRS licensed operators, however, the majority of members here use accepted Part 95 and accepted Part 90 equipment. Thanks and nice to have you here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan5 Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 The BF888 is a good simple non FCC certified radio. Please inform yourself and understand the BF888 is not part95 certified for use on the GMRS service . Use at your own risk. They can make great glovebox radios, but I would not store any radio with the battery attached., I am also sure the battery would need periodic recharging. I keep a UV3r in my glovebox and I must swap the battery every 45 days or so. The UV3r is a dual band radio and front key programmable, can be used on GMRS full power and MURS, if you use low power. the UV3r is also not FCC part95 certified but is commonly used by Hams and GMRS users alike, The BF888 and the UV3r are both rated at 2 watts and 1watt in low power so neither is acceptable to use on FRS. Fleabay has uv3r's at 35 bucks, so if you chose to, for a few more dollars you get dual band and front face programing,. Baofeng makes a lot of radios. So far none that I am aware of is part 95 cert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph77 Posted March 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 As far as regs i was just really wanting to use them as a cheap programable scanner for listening to some of the local ham operators evey now and then. For Gmrs i am probably going to get a pair of Icoms we use there product at work and it seems very durable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 The 888 is rated a (per the sticker) at <4W. Which means less than 4 watts. I ended up throwing one on my General Dynamics R8000 and it cam back as 1.96W in the GMRS area so the sticker did not lie…it was less than 4 watts. Billy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 The 888 is rated a (per the sticker) at <4W. Which means less than 4 watts. I ended up throwing one on my General Dynamics R8000 and it cam back as 1.96W in the GMRS area so the sticker did not lie…it was less than 4 watts. My numbers were a little better but that was my experience as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan5 Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 I thought the BF888 was only rated at 2w high and 1w low, so I just searched some e-bay listings and found this,Frequency: 400-469.995MHz16 channel;50 CTCSS/105 CDCSS1500mAh Li-ion battery; Low Voltage Alert; Intelligent ChargingVOX Function; Voice Prompt; PC Programming; 3 Watt Transmit Some e-bay listings claim 5 watt's, but then some e-bay listing make a lot of false claims. most say less than 3 watts. Even the Uv5r is only about 3.86 watts. Billy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph77 Posted March 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 Spec from BF-888S manual SPECIFICATIONSFrequency Range400-470MHzRF Rated Power <= 5WChannel Capacity 16Operating Voltage 3.7V Logan5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonto Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 (edited) Has anybody on here used these radio's ? Looking for any info i can get on the range from all the searching i have done on the net there are as many bad opinions as good. I have a couple 888s and they were OK for when my wife and I and her sister were taking a road trip (two cars). I had some troubles when I was in Omaha when we were separated by a mile or so, but I think that was mostly due to me not using a roof-mount antenna. I've programmed them so that the FRS channels are using lower power, etc, etc, I'm not trying to be mean with them or anything. My brother-in-law and I can sort of talk to each other, we live about a mile away from each other. It's not too bad. I mostly bought them for SHTF communications with each other, and the occasional thing like road trips, paintball, etc. But again, I'm mostly a prepper, and just use the radios incidentally. Their real purpose, to me, is emergency use. Edited May 17, 2015 by spd641 Edited due to comments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldcarson Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 I have a couple and use them on occasion, but of the Chinese knockoffs, I prefer the Uv5R. Having said that I just took a look at both and mine on High are holding at 3.25 watts. Low power is .98 watt. There is another one that I saw on fleabay that purports to have 8 watts transmit power. I am down in Argentina at the moment, but when I come home for summer vacation I want to try the Radio Tone Duplex to see if it will pass the GMRS freqs. I have one and it works great setting up a temp 2 meter VHF or 440 UHF repeater for amateur radio use. The Li-Ion batter in it gives you about 24 hours sometimes longer use without power which makes it great for emergencies, however don't know if it will work on GMRS freqs.... Logan5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PastorGary Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Hello Larry and Welcome to MyGMRS Forums... nice to have you with us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldcarson Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Thank You PastorGary. I am already enjoying the boards.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mabbent Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I plan to use a pair BF-888 in a portable repeater, mainly to use on camping trips. They should be fine with a low to medium duty cycle. I'll post my results/preformance as I continue on the project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I plan to use a pair BF-888 in a portable repeater, mainly to use on camping trips. They should be fine with a low to medium duty cycle. I'll post my results/preformance as I continue on the project.That'll be interesting. I don't remember which RF module the 888's. The receive on the radios is pretty good (down to -126 dBm on the one I threw on my R8000). You can actually pull COR off of them if you know where to find it (and completely forgo the need for a true controller). The only issue I foresee is if using a duplexer, you will have roughly 1.5-2 dB of loss in the system meaning you may be outputting closer to 2 out of the duplexer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdesigns Posted September 30, 2016 Report Share Posted September 30, 2016 I have 4 and I have them prepare with Encryption ON and non GMRS frequencies, only to be used when SHTF and the need of more privacy is required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan5 Posted September 30, 2016 Report Share Posted September 30, 2016 Voice inversion isn't really private. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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