BajaNomad

Bao Feng radio

weebray - 2-24-2014 at 04:00 PM

I thought I read a review of this scanner/radio here but a search on Bao Feng coughed up nada. The price seems too good to be true and that usually means it is. Any knowledgebase out there??

Here 'tis

bajaguy - 2-24-2014 at 04:06 PM

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=71877

rts551 - 2-24-2014 at 04:17 PM

one word. Baofeng.

Neal Johns - 2-24-2014 at 04:44 PM

Stay off (transmitting) of the Ham bands or they will getya unless you have a Ham license.

willardguy - 2-24-2014 at 05:02 PM

dittydumdumditty, who will getcha? in baja?

[Edited on 2-25-2014 by willardguy]

weebray - 2-24-2014 at 05:21 PM

Thanks for the link, guess my search was in two words, still you would figure the little guy in my computer would of offered some suggestions. Never have been very successful with the search function here. Google it ain't.

bajabuddha - 2-24-2014 at 06:25 PM

Two things come to mind about this deal;

If it looks too good to be true, chances are, it ain't;

Ya git whatcha pay for.

Now, if you can pick up Chinese music on it, you can dance the Feng Sway !~

errrrm, sowwy. :no:

mcnut - 2-24-2014 at 06:40 PM

I've got 3 of them, they work great. This is definitely a case of getting more then I had hoped for.

I'm not the FCC police but users should be familiar with the frequency spectrum they are broadcasting on and use some common sense.

Bruce

Gulliver - 2-24-2014 at 10:24 PM

I'm a ham operator and can't speak to the performance of any scanners but I and my friends have had a lot of problems with these radios not keeping their memories. Something about the flash memory chip being a cheapo unit and not holding data after only a few months. It seems that every time the unit is turned on, some data is written to and from this chip. A quality chip is good for many thousands of read/write cycles but the one in these radios starts to fail after only a few hundred cycles. Of course this often happens right after the warranty runs out. The main and first U.S. importer of them has dropped them.

They are so inexpensive that it's hard to not try one but it was a lesson to me about quality and price. No free lunch.

mcnut - 2-25-2014 at 11:41 AM

I have read reviews and followed forums dedicated to this radio(Baofeng UV-5R) and this if the first I have heard of this issue. I have a medium amount of use on my 3 radios and they have been 100% solid.
I have to wonder how common this is and with what radios.

Bruce

[Edited on 2-25-2014 by mcnut]

weebray - 2-25-2014 at 11:52 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mcnut
I have read reviews and followed forums dedicated to this radio(Baofeng UV-5R) and this if the first I have heard of this issue.

See my other post on the other thread about these radios. I also tried hard to find any microchip complaints on google and found nada. Ham people normally fall into the hard core right wing camp and don't take kindly to upstart chinamen horning into an "all American" tradition. There is going to be a bunch of push back.

Gulliver - 2-25-2014 at 09:33 PM

Not right wing at all. Funny.

Three of my friends have them. The price is very good.

BUT: One of them had an outright failure, dead as a door nail. He got a new one from the importer. The second one went through three units. Each one lasted about six months. The third friend's radio is still chugging along.

Now the first two guys were able to deal with the importer who sold through an individual web site and a ham magazine ad. That importer has stopped importing.

You pays your bucks and takes your chance. But getting satisfaction from an Amazon vendor might be difficult. And exchanging emails with a seller in China sounds like a sure route to frustration.

I buy cheapo stuff all the time but I don't depend on it for emergency communication in the middle of nowhere.

When I'm riding my DR-350 bike by myself in the sticks (I know. Bad idea.) I carry a low power H.F. SSB radio, with a small antenna tuner and a fly reel full of wire. If I'm not too bunged up to get a wire over a cactus, I can raise hell with people half way around the world to come and find my sorry carcass!

I got all screwed up an a rough grade going North from San Javier to Commondu a few days ago and I was very happy to know that I had my radio along.

There are rumors of a ham 2m repeater somewhere around Commondu but i haven't been able to confirm them yet.

There is a great repeater up at La Laguna South of LaPaz but it is solar powered so it is a very good idea to make peace with the LaPaz ham club before yakking on it much. Not that big of a battery bank.

Mike

Gulliver - 2-25-2014 at 09:40 PM

Here is the story from the importer. It's complicated and sometimes pretty techie.
http://www.wouxun.us/Good-Bye-Wouxun/Good-Bye-Wouxun.html

mcnut - 2-25-2014 at 11:41 PM

That's a nice read but the title of this thread is "Bao Feng radio" (it's really Baofeng), Wouxun is a competitor and completely different manufacturer.

Bruce

taoswheat - 2-26-2014 at 09:17 AM

I have a small fleet of various Baofengs and Wouxuns- about 50 total. Have had a few failures- 1 radio, 4 chargers, 1 battery. All in all, they are good radios and perform about as well as my Motorola fleet of 200 radios.

Gulliver - 2-26-2014 at 02:29 PM

Yeow. I thought they were the same manufacturer. Ignore my previous posts on this subject.
Mike

Hook - 2-26-2014 at 08:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by taoswheat
I have a small fleet of various Baofengs and Wouxuns- about 50 total. Have had a few failures- 1 radio, 4 chargers, 1 battery. All in all, they are good radios and perform about as well as my Motorola fleet of 200 radios.


How many field hours on average, per unit, would you say you have on your fleet?

taoswheat - 2-27-2014 at 09:36 AM

Most of the radios are in daily use November through April at a Ski Area. The Wouxuns and Baofengs have been inservice for about 2 years and the Motorolas 1 to 10 years.

elskel - 2-28-2014 at 06:05 AM

To ham operators, this sounds like an economical radio for emergency situations (southern baja Pescadero - hurricane all else down) cells and power. Question, no license needed for emergencies? Question 2, previous post by Gulliver, Are you able to run some wire and attach to antena for extended range?
brian

Hook - 2-28-2014 at 06:31 AM

As I recall from my exams, there IS an exemption for emergencies.

But there is no preclusion for using this on the marine VHF band. There is no longer any license required for those frequencies in the 156-162 Mhz band. In an emergency in Mexico, those might be the best frequencies to try.

Based on reading the reviews on eham.net, it will accept external antennas. Some have reported that the OEM antenna gets very hot after a lot of transmitting, as though there is an impedance mismatch. This disappears with a better quality rubber ducky.

Audio quality on receive sounds like it's pretty "tinny", based on reviews.

It does have less ouput at only four watts, compared to most HH marine radios at 5w. But for the price, I am thinking of replacing my FRS radios that I share with people on ATV trips.

elskel - 3-2-2014 at 07:00 AM

Can these radios be programed 156 - 162 MHz? Just out of curiosity, If one of these handheld radios were to pickup a repeater, the range could be all over North America or U.S.?
Brian

woody with a view - 3-2-2014 at 07:21 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hook
But there is no preclusion for using this on the marine VHF band. There is no longer any license required for those frequencies in the 156-162 Mhz band. In an emergency in Mexico, those might be the best frequencies to try.


how do those #'s correlate to vhf 1-69 etc....

rts551 - 3-2-2014 at 08:40 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by woody with a view
Quote:
Originally posted by Hook
But there is no preclusion for using this on the marine VHF band. There is no longer any license required for those frequencies in the 156-162 Mhz band. In an emergency in Mexico, those might be the best frequencies to try.


how do those #'s correlate to vhf 1-69 etc....
Here you go woody. sorry about formatting.



1A 156.050 156.050 Port Operations and Commercial, VTS. (New Orleans/Lower Mississippi)
5A 156.250 156.250 Port Operations or VTS. (Houston, New Orleans and Seattle)
6 156.300 156.300 Intership Safety
7A 156.350 156.350 Commercial
8 156.400 156.400 Commercial (Intership only)
9 156.450 156.450 Boater Calling. Commercial and Non-Commercial.
10 156.500 156.500 Commercial
11 156.550 156.550 Commercial. VTS in selected areas.
12 156.600 156.600 Port Operations. VTS in selected areas.
13 156.650 156.650 Intership Navigation Safety (Bridge-to-bridge).
14 156.700 156.700 Port Operations. VTS in selected areas.
15 -- 156.750 Environmental (Receive only). Used by Class C EPIRBs.
16 156.800 156.800 International Distress, Safety and Calling.
17 156.850 156.850 State Control
18A 156.900 156.900 Commercial
19A 156.950 156.950 Commercial
20 157.000 161.600 Port Operations (duplex)
20A 157.000 157.000 Port Operations
21A 157.050 157.050 U.S. Coast Guard only
22A 157.100 157.100 USCG Liaison/Maritime Safety Information Broadcasts. Announced on channel 16.
23A 157.150 157.150 U.S. Coast Guard only
24 157.200 161.800 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
25 157.250 161.850 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
26 157.300 161.900 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
27 157.350 161.950 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
28 157.400 162.000 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
63A 156.175 156.175 Port Operations and Commercial, VTS. (New Orleans/Lower Mississippi area)
65A 156.275 156.275 Port Operations
66A 156.325 156.325 Port Operations
67 156.375 156.375 Commercial. Bridge-to-bridge communications in lower Mississippi River. Intership only.
68 156.425 156.425 Non-Commercial
69 156.475 156.475 Non-Commercial
70 156.525 156.525 Digital Selective Calling (voice communications not allowed)
71 156.575 156.575 Non-Commercial
72 156.625 156.625 Non-Commercial (Intership only)
73 156.675 156.675 Port Operations
74 156.725 156.725 Port Operations
77 156.875 156.875 Port Operations (Intership only)
78A 156.925 156.925 Non-Commercial
79A 156.975 156.975 Commercial. Non-Commercial in Great Lakes only
80A 157.025 157.025 Commercial. Non-Commercial in Great Lakes only
81A 157.075 157.075 U.S. Government only - Environmental protection operations.
82A 157.125 157.125 U.S. Government only
83A 157.175 157.175 U.S. Coast Guard only
84 157.225 161.825 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
85 157.275 161.875 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
86 157.325 161.925 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
87A 157.375 157.375 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
88A 157.425 157.425 Commercial, Intership only.

woody with a view - 3-2-2014 at 08:41 AM

got it.

FM Radios

bajaguy - 3-2-2014 at 09:00 AM

What about these

http://www.amazon.com/Midland-Nautico-Waterproof-Marine-Radi...

rts551 - 3-2-2014 at 09:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajaguy
What about these

http://www.amazon.com/Midland-Nautico-Waterproof-Marine-Radi...


Hand held marine radio only. Baofeng is hand held dual band 2 meter radio. I have a midland and never use it. Only advantage is that it is water proof.