Baofeng 5rm ar-5rm difference?

[WSJG844]

On 2/15/2024 at 4:47 PM, Guest Top said:

Totally Newb, but thinking about buying my first HAM/GMRS radio.  I *think* I've narrowed it down to the 5rm or ar-5rm but I'm not sure the differences.

 

Best I can tell the ar-5rm can Tx on low/med/high whereas the 5rm can not.

 

Any help much appreciated.

Better to buy the Baofeng BF-F8HP PRO. More bang for the buck. Better display too....

[Guest WSKD229]

Why is it I can’t connect to other gmrs users the meter was hitting but it seems like they couldn’t hear me I’m using a baofeng handheld radio 

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, Guest WSKD229 said:

Why is it I can’t connect to other gmrs users the meter was hitting but it seems like they couldn’t hear me I’m using a baofeng handheld radio 

If the meter shows that your radio is receiving something but you hear nothing it’s probably that you either have CTCSS or DCS turned on for receiving. 
If the matching tone or code isn’t received your radio will stay silent. 
Give us more details and we can provide specific information. 

[WSJJ679]

On 2/15/2024 at 1:47 PM, Guest Top said:

Totally Newb, but thinking about buying my first HAM/GMRS radio.  I *think* I've narrowed it down to the 5rm or ar-5rm but I'm not sure the differences.

 

Best I can tell the ar-5rm can Tx on low/med/high whereas the 5rm can not.

 

Any help much appreciated.

I use a 5RM (unlocked) with a Diamond K412SNMO mount on my hood, connected to this antenna: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHM7WC2W?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title I use an SMA Female to UHF SO239 Female RG58 Coaxial Jumper Cable between the coax & radio. I can only imagine how good this setup would be if I used a 20-25W mobile radio, because even with the inevitable signal loss due to the adapters, it outperforms my expectations and blows me away at how well it does.

It reaches any repeater I want and TX/RX are crystal clear. Hood mount was $70, antenna was $44, radio was $23.  It's loud & clear and I can grab it for the trail or use it as a mobile radio.

[Guest WSIU319]

I own 8 of the AR5RM's all are unlocked. All transmit well on MURS, GMRS, Ham in 2meter, 1.25, and 70 cm. They are also quite good on Marine channels. Perfect for preppers.

[WRTC928]

On 2/10/2026 at 7:09 PM, Guest WSIU319 said:

I own 8 of the AR5RM's all are unlocked. All transmit well on MURS, GMRS, Ham in 2meter, 1.25, and 70 cm. They are also quite good on Marine channels. Perfect for preppers.

Same here. I only recently discovered they rx/tx on Marine frequencies. Not that I have any real use for that, but it's not impossible to imagine a situation where I may be glad to have it.

[WRQI663]

I have a uv5r plus, uv21 and their GMRS equivalents -- I just ordered an ar5rm to replace my now defunct

uv6r which was a piece of junk.....I don't care so much about that "10 Watts" high power --5 watts has always worked good for me.

My uv6 was dropped (once) and it caused the battery to cut out intermittently rendering it useless until it finally refused to power up  at all. It is now landfill somewhere.

[HHD1]

I love my AR-5RM's.  Just beware of the hair trigger PTT's.  Set duplex to "off" in chirp for channels you don't want to accidentally tx on.  Because it will happen with this radio.