BAOFENG 5RM Ham Radio 10W Long Range Handheld NOAA Weather Receiver 2500mAh Battery Rechargeable Walkie Talkies with Programming Cable,Speaker Mic,Type-C Charging,2 Pack

The media could not be loaded. Idc what all the radio snobs have to say about Baofeng. Are they cheap? Yes! Do they work and have they been getting the job done for YEARS? Also YES! And they just keep getting better and better. Even the guys transmitting in the video said they were using handheld baofengs on these repeaters lol. I’m picking up and hitting repeaters 20 and 30 miles away from me right from my living room with the STOCK 6inch whip antenna while in an urban area. I haven’t even played with the longer Abbree antenna yet. I’m also near an airport so I want to see how well it does with air bands. I will give an update on that soon.The one con I do have with this radio is of course it’s feel. It’s very cheap and plastic feeling but everything else tips the scale so greatly that I can overlook that one issue. It IS a cheap radio after all so something has to give. But once you put on the extended battery, the weight compliments the radio well. Beyond that, Programming is super easy, you can do it in field, use Chirp on computer, or use the TidRadio Bluetooth programmer with the ODMaster app on your phone which is what I did. Power is great for a handheld, sound quality I feel is average, has very good battery life 2.5-3 days of moderate use before dying, even better 5-6 days with the extended battery, and charging is super fast with USB-C. On top of all that, you’ll have endless accessories and aftermarket support to choose from. Definitely getting the family the GMRS versions of these radios. I applaud Baofeng for having an extremely affordable and reliable market for people to get into radio! I encourage EVERYONE to get their license, get a radio, and go HAM! To all, a 73!

This radio works well and is a fantastic value, given all the features and options, like USB charging and a large battery. It doesn't have any digital radio features, but then I wasn't interested in going digital, especially since the digital modes are constantly changing and no one standard is guaranteed to be the "final" winner.These radios are very easy to program. I tried both CHIRP and the free software provided with the package. ONE CAUTION: I initially had trouble getting the radios to communicate with the software. The problem is that you've got to look close when you plug the two-prong cable into the radio. It's easy not to get both fully pushed in. You've got to give it a good shove. You've also got to select the correct com port in the software. There are only a few options, so it's easiest to just try each until one works.These radios don't put out a full 10 watts, it was closer to 7 on most bands, but that's still quite respectable.The package comes with 3 antennas. The shortest one is almost useless except for very short-range communications. In most circumstances you'll want to use the longest one.Some reviewers have complained that the display is hard to read in the sunlight. The color screen is like your cell phone screen, and indeed it is harder, but not impossible to read. If you go into the menus, they use red lettering which is much harder to read, especially in sunlight. But this wasn't a deal killer for me.

The general quality of the radio seemed good at first. Construction seemed rugged. But after plugging in the external mic a few times, the built in speaker stopped working on both of these. Apparently the internal parts are more "dainty". The radio has a lot of functions, but it's hard to take advantage of them because the instruction booklet that comes with it gives very little information. A few random ham frequencies were programmed into this when it arrived. There were no GMRS channels programmed. The NOAA weather reception did work right out of the box. Reception quality of NOAA stations on this radio was better than on a UV-5R, using the exact same antenna, except for one little oddity. If I tune to an air band (AM) frequency in VFO mode and then switch to a NOAA station, reception is terrible. If I switch back to VFO & select an FM frequency, then change back to NOAA, then reception is very good again. Apparently having an AM frequency selected in VFO mode changes something in the FM receiver functionality.This radio receives common aircraft voice frequencies in AM. It transmits clearly on marine VHF channels. The GMRS/FRS frequencies work tx/rx, but it is unclear to me if this is certified for GMRS use. Reception quality is generally good. Air band reception is FAR better than it is on the few UV-4R variants that can get it. This radio is physically lager than a UV-5R. It does not appear to be at all waterproof. As I said before the mic/speaker connections have proven to be fragile on both of mine. If you want to use this with the internal speaker, it may be best that you don't ever plug in an external one nor the included programming cable. Batteries are not interchangeable with the older UV-5R radio. This radio does have an FCC ID number on its label. The antennas that come with it are not well tuned for GMRS frequencies. They are tuned for ham frequencies. Even after changing the parameters to keep the screen backlit 100% of the time, the battery life on the 5RM is at least as good as a UV-5R with a factory original battery.Update - Amazon agreed to replace the two radios with failed internal audio. I tested one of the new ones by plugging in an external speaker several times. So far, so good. The only real difference this time is that I made sure that power was off before plugging or unplugging the K1 connector. The instructions don't say that this is needed, but since both of the original radios developed a problem when the external speaker was plugged in with power on, it seemed prudent to try it the other way. I do not have an appetite for destructive testing just to confirm my suspicion, so I am not going to hot swap the external speakers on the new radios. My rating just got bumped up to 4 stars from 3. Thank you for the replacement. To the seller: Please consider an update to the instruction book if you believe it is appropriate.

Seems like a pretty good collection of Radios and accessories. There is a lot here, and I intend to use these as back-up radios. I normally use the longer, quarter wave antenna, but even the rubber duck antennas have decent performance. I have not tested the stubby’s with either my VNA, nor into the repeater, but I will likely reserve thes for close in simplex radio communications, as they cannot be very efficient.I used Chirp for programming the radio. I have not tested the vendor supplied software. Chirp allowed me to move my repeater list from my other radios into these radios, and the 999 memory locations will allow me to add anything else above and beyond my standard list.This radio is much better than the original UV5R.