Baofeng is back but it’s not the baofeng we grew up on … or is it?
I know, it’s been a while since I have written a post. I have been wanting to for a while and I guess this morning is as good a time as ever. Over the past few months and as recent as a few weeks ago we have experienced things that should make us all think that we are on the verge of some kind of mass civil emergency and we have to ask ourselves whether were prepared or not.
Christmas 2023 was good with several new radios that I have had the time to play with. Some I like better than others but all are better than their early day siblings. Two of these I have wrapped in Faraday cloth and stored in SHTF kits ready for deployment.
Baofeng has come back with several newer radios that offer some decent features but continue to sell for cheap! Additionally, they have grown up in looks and feal.
My new favorite Baofeng is defiantly the new UV-5RM. This is a very nice upgrade to the Baofeng workhorse, the UV-5R that every prepper I know has in their go kits. It’s a UV-5R but more. It’s bigger, heavier, prettier, beefier. It offers extended transmit and receive including the VHF Aviation band. The alpha display allows the user to utilize a 12 character text display. All of the newer Baofeng’s include direct USB-C charging so there is no longer a need to use a battery eliminator or have to carry a mobile charger. You can program the radio using baofeng software or Chirp. The radio transmits in VHF (138-174 MHz) VHF (220 MHz) and UHF (420-470 MHz). This covers your most used Amateur radio bands and GMRS/FRS as well as a new receive band, the VHF Aviation band (108-136 MHz AM) for those trips to the airport to pick up the in-laws or utilized when in the rough or wilderness to monitor Air traffic for weather or other useful information aviation radio offers. The radio holds 999 channels. in AM, FM, NFM and WFM. AM is held to Aviation (108-136 MHz). The UV-5RM includes “built-in” all 10 NOAA Weather radio channels with Alert mode. Though the weather radio does not allow for SAME receive or display the various weather event.
Baofeng’s next two, the UV-21 and UV-9R also offer 999 channels with the UV-9R and its almost twin the UV-17L the new 12 character display and Tri-band transmit. However neither the UV-9R, UV-17L or UV-21 offer Air band receive. They are however bigger and really feel good in your hand. You can drop them on pavement or in the lake and they have a high survival rate. The UV-9R is submersible and the programming jack is a Motorola XPR type which also allows for better protection from water. The downside to that is you need a different programming cable to PC program it.
The UV-9R comes with the standard UV-5R 6 character display however, I am told this radio can be re-flashed to support the new Baofeng firmware.
My UV-9R came in Olive Green and Black which I really like. My UV-17 and UV-21 came in Orange and Black which I also really like and I noticed the other day in the car the UV-17 in the sunlight had a taste of fluorescent in the orange making it a higher visibility orange.
The downside to the UV-17 and UV-21 is that I had to buy RT Systems software for $25 bucks a whack to get these to work correctly. At the time there was no Baofeng software for the UV-21. Now, the RT Systems software is fantastic and if your going to take your baofeng seriously, buy it. In addition both ABBREEE and Baofeng offer several accessories including some higher end speaker mics than of traditional, earlier products. There is a 6 bay gang charger for the UV-5RM which sells on amazon for under $40.
The 5RM includes a CTCSS search function so you can search and store a CTCSS or DCS code for a specific channel quickly. The UV-17L includes a bottom firing two beam flashlight.
On amazon all of these radios are priced under 50 bucks USD. Software is available either from Milkor, Baofeng, RT Systems or Chirp. The downside to any of these is that are in fact Chinese manufactured and sold. China as you know would like nothing more than to come to America and jail us all! I struggled buying these but in the end I realized the people of China are struggling with their government much like we are ours. My issue isn’t with someone selling a product to feed and cloth their family. Not judging the little guy or the radio company cleared my conscience a little. But I will still pack a Japanese and American made radio when I can in times of trouble.
I programmed all of these radios using Windows 10 and 11 without issue. I did use the new Windows 11 prolific driver found here.