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.