After nearly a year, my BKR9000 has finally arrived! Is it really different from the APX8000? 

I’d love that, thank you. I’ll call your office on Monday if that’s okay. My name is Matt and I’ve sent a few units into your shop for repairs so you might be able to find me in your system, the random guy from San Diego. Love the extended warranty line. Ha ha

It is much more than a walkie talkie. Lol I use them professionally on Wildfires. It’s not a high dollar baofeng. It’s okay not to know.

BK has always been the go to radio for Firefighting forces in the American forestry industry. They also did a stint in producing VHF walkitalkies for the military as well. I have seen Motorola HT's going for three times as much as these, even Harris makes a very expensive multi band multi format radio.

That’s a great price for a very capable radio. Motorola is much more expensive

Not true. Sell your kidneys, agree to indentured servitude for the next 15 years, and you’ve got your radio. … I’m not feeling well, should I have sold both my kidneys?

Absolutely not. I'm blue collar and have saved for some of these radios (APX series) I am looking closely at flipping some of my other single-band radios to acquire one of these flagship multibanders.

Finally a comment with brains

What year was your scout?

@@AdventureCruiser Well , I hade four of them. I think (25 years a go) "68' 800A slant 6 with automatic.

@@quartzsite nice! This is a 1962, one of 512 made for the military in the 60’s. There is a great article titled Binders in Uniform that describes their service.

@@AdventureCruiser 😎

Thank you. Yeah, you really should get one.

You’ve peaked, my curiosity, can you give me some hints?

Thank you!

That’s a great question, and I don’t know. But I’ll find out.

Firefighting

Nope! Go to the BK Technologies RU-vid channel and they have instructions for programming a trunking system, AND instructions for non-affiliate scan sometimes called NAS. This is receive only scanning or listening to a trunked system.

@@AdventureCruiser Awesome! That makes me super interested in one. Are you planning on doing a full breakdown/review of the radio? Maybe a full comparison to the APX 8000?

@@Aglowgibbon absolutely! I tried to film the comparison yesterday but got swamped and ran out of time. Look for it in the next week or two.

It’s incredible. For non-trunking it has unrealistically large scan options with the same Channel/Zone scanning. For trunking you are limited to 16 channels. I heard somewhere that the trunking scan limit has to do with the math involved in p25 communications, but I don’t know that to be a hard fact as APX8000/8500 have a 30 channel scan list. I have a dual-mode scan list set up with all of the local dispatch channels, then zone scan lists for each zone. The trunking lists are selectable within the menu if you set it up right.

Short answer. Yes, it’s the same as KNGs.

In my experience, I have found that you may want a large scan list to choose from, but only want to scan a few channels at a time. If the active scan is too large, you won't catch most conversations.

Without a scale, it feels bare lighter than an XTS, and a little heavier than an APX8000 with the short battery.

I don’t think so, but there are a lot of rumors about the relationship between M and BK

@@AdventureCruiser is it a custom CPS from BK? Never seen one of these until your video tonight

@@scottp1111 it is the standard programming software from BK, it works on all of their radios of the modern era. From the P series through the BKR series and yes, it is unique to the BK radios.

@@AdventureCruiser really cool! Thank you! I’ve got one of each of the APX line for code testing etc related to my work, that’s interesting. Appreciate your info share!

Please lent me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll do my best to help you out.

One most people can't afford. 😂

@@GoonyMclinux😂

shit

I’m sorry… you have grown to dislike people who have different priorities and ambitions than you do.

@@AdventureCruiser tell me its not a overpriced baofeng, a baofeng will do most of what that overpriced piece of garbage does, maybe except for p25

@@londo776 Except work properly, have acceptable spectral purity, not desense badly from adjacent channel noise, be waterproof, and have ergonomics/UI suitable for life-safety use.

I'm as cheap as they come and even I can see the value and justify the price. Big difference between a duty grade radio and a baofengs. I would assume because these are used by fireman that they have to meet a bunch of ip ratings and be intrinsically safe (spark free) for working certain environments. That being said, I do have baofengs but I also have Motorola's.

Fortunately and unfortunately I've seen that the price sheets for the BKR9000 are pretty consistent across the board. Sorry about that.

Sorry, I am not in the business of selling radios. There are many retailers advertising online for the specific radio, and in my experience they are all wonderful.

Way too much! Seriously though, I’m not comfortable sharing this number yet, I’m ashamed I spent so much in a radio. But, find a good APX8000 on eBay and add a bit to get into the ballpark.

Sorry, the BKR5000 cost me $1,800

@@AdventureCruiser as you shoud be