Baofeng Fanboys & Fan Girls

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stevec

Full Member
Oct 30, 2003
547
142
Sheffield
Is it dual band? Or a 2m that can therefore be used on 70cm as they are relatively speaking harmonically related?
 
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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,983
7,760
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Both antenna are dual band; I was under the impression the 771 gave better performance but under objective testing that appears not to be the case across the spectrum.

OK, to be fair, 449MHz is a little above the 430MHz top end of the antenna.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,983
7,760
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Nope, it works perfectly well, it just isn't as good at the top end as some people want to believe. Down at the 145MHz range it gives considerably better performance but not at 449Mhz.

If you can point me to some actual measured performance figures that disprove the results I'd be happy to reconsider my conclusions.
 

ONE

Full Member
Nov 21, 2019
249
116
54
N. Ireland
You've either got a copy or a defective item, Nagoyas are by no means high end but they out perform stock Baofeng by every metric, more markedly on 2M than & 70cm but definitely, on both bands.
 

ONE

Full Member
Nov 21, 2019
249
116
54
N. Ireland
I think my point here would be that if you had a genuine 771, you wouldn't need to use test equipment vice the provided Baofeng articles. Seriously, it's the difference between opening both my local repeaters and not. There are a LOT of fakes out there.
 

ONE

Full Member
Nov 21, 2019
249
116
54
N. Ireland
It's not something I want to die in a ditch over, but they really do mate up well with Baofengs. Where Diamonds etc have the front end swamped.
 

vlrkl

Member
Oct 25, 2021
10
4
California
I bought a UV5R a while ago for emergencies, and haven't done anything with it besides listen to NOAA weather radio. I've been wondering if it would be at all useful to bring hiking or camping, and if so whether I should get a MOLLE pouch for it to attach to my pack.

Does anyone bring a Baofeng hiking/camping/backpacking with them?
What do you use it for?
How do you carry it?
 

SaraR

Full Member
Mar 25, 2017
1,631
1,177
Ceredigion
I bought a UV5R a while ago for emergencies, and haven't done anything with it besides listen to NOAA weather radio. I've been wondering if it would be at all useful to bring hiking or camping, and if so whether I should get a MOLLE pouch for it to attach to my pack.

Does anyone bring a Baofeng hiking/camping/backpacking with them?
What do you use it for?
How do you carry it?
I don't, but it seems quite a common thing to do in the States.

If you're intedending to have the radio for emergencies, do make sure that you have played around with it a lot before you find yourself in one! Even if you are a seasoned user of handheld radios, you don't want to start finding your way around the menus when stuck in a difficult and stressful situation.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,983
7,760
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Picking up from SaraR's point, make sure you've programmed it with some well labelled channels as well - that way you can quickly select the channel you want to transmit on (so something like 'SOS' rather than just 'Ch1', 'Ch2' etc. :)).
 

SaraR

Full Member
Mar 25, 2017
1,631
1,177
Ceredigion
I bought a UV5R a while ago for emergencies, and haven't done anything with it besides listen to NOAA weather radio. I've been wondering if it would be at all useful to bring hiking or camping, and if so whether I should get a MOLLE pouch for it to attach to my pack.

Does anyone bring a Baofeng hiking/camping/backpacking with them?
What do you use it for?
How do you carry it?
Well, I did use mine for SOTA (Summits on the Air) before getting a Kenwood TH-K20E (2m only handheld), but I sometimes still bring a UV5R as a back-up. It's my only option for 70cm and I've got the local repeaters programmed into it (works great!), plus I have it set up so that I can listen to the marine and PMR channels as well. So it's still useful even if it's not as good as the Kenwood for working 2m.

I've got the longer rubber duck antennas for mine, but I usually carry it turned off and then attached the antenna and turn it on when I want to use it. If I was moving about with it on, I'd probably only use one of the shorter antennnas and not the really long one. I'd love to get one of those foldable or extendable ones for the Kenwood, but I haven't figured out which ones are compatible yet.
 

mikehill

Settler
Nov 25, 2014
944
345
Warrington
Have you tried a slim Jim ? The roll up quite small and you can throw a line over a tree branch and hoist it up. Get loads more signal out.
 

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