Best Handheld Ham Radio UNDER $100?!? - Best Ham Radio 2023 

Great job!

Great!

Some people have reported being unable to get one for free

Maybe $6.00 I’d have to review.

Yes I do!

Yes, agreed. But several other radios have this also

could you possibly list a few good options for radios with this feature? I am part of a Search and Rescue team and really like the baofeng uv 82 for this reason but the noise rejection of the baofeng radios is terrible. Great video as always and keep up the good work. @@HamRadio2

Yes, true

Correct, it is no longer free

Do they still make those?

@HamRadio2 Yes. They are available at Import Communications

I still use my UV9D Mate often, but it isn't under $100, so it doesn't fit into this video

I'll look that up

Good idea, maybe I'll make a video about that

The UV17s we have here are USB-C chargeable. Maybe they don't ship the same units to Australia. I'm not aware of an Anytone dealer that ships to Australia either

Good choice!

The first question is: do you want a radio that requires a license like basically all in this video or something license free (FRS)? Next there is GMRS which is a license that costs $35 for 10years and covers the entire family which would be my choice if I wouldn't be interested in learning for the HAM license. Then another important question: how far away from each other will you be? None of these radios will talk 10 miles over 2 hills, a forest and a city (without repeater). All of them will do 10 miles line of sight (e.g. from a mountain to another). I find about a mile range realistic in urban environment, a lot more on open range. The UV-82HP is a decent affordable choice....but requires the HAM license. If you're not interested in learning for that license: get a legal Part 95 certified radio.

@@ac7fd That information helps alot. It sounds like the range wouldnt be sufficient without a repeater for my use case. I live in a rural area so im not super concerned about legality. Probably one of the only times they would ever get turned on would be in the situation described above. assuming I was closing the distance gap a bit, would the UV-9G be a decent option. I believe thats only a GMRS radio.

I had bad luck with a 5X3. Mine was a dud and wouldn't transmit. Btech promptly changed it with few questions asked. Only to find out there's basically no one on 1.25m here

I have to 5x3 and can hit the few repeaters in my area without a problem. Upgrade the antenna right away or get the most out of it. BTech has great customer service too if that’s a factor for you.

It's a junk radio

I'm looking at that one

All of that is mentioned in the video

I would say the TYT MD-UV380. I have the MD-380 and it's a decent radio

Have you used the digital on it much?

Yes I only used it digital and it worked really good. Got some good reports from it.

Again, junk

The QUANSHENG UV-K5 is dirty on 2m the updated QUANSHENG UV-K6 is cleaner with a better speaker and screen, these have the beken RF chip that is opened up to fantastic open source firmware. I am suprised its not been mentioned. Cost me only £11.00 / $14 aliexpress inc shipping

Yeah that one isn't very good

I haven't tried it yet

@@HamRadio2 can't wait to get your impressions on it.

Yes

I've seen the pictures of FT65's with their "Made in China" label, but I suspect this may have been a temporary thing (pure assumption). I have one and it is made in Japan, or at least it says it is. Accidental story time, I didn't realize I was going to say this much initially: However, the quality isn't as far above Baofeng as I would have liked. It outputs 4.75W, which is about 2W more than my "8W" UV-5R, but the sound quality is about the same as a UV-5R. Ability to hit and receive from repeaters is about the same. It actually had turned me off of Yaesu and I started looking at Icom for a bit... But Icom prices made me return to Yaesu. I ended up recently purchasing a Yaesu FT-70DR for $175 and it blows every other HT I own out of the water for picking up signals, sound clarity, sound range of the speaker, and it outputs about 6.5W and has Fusion abilities. I should have just spent the extra money the first time. (Wattage tested on high power at 146.480 MHz on all radios. I know that doesn't say everything about a radio but my testing instrumentation is very limited so it's that and anecdotes about how well I can pick up weak/distant weather radio stations is all I can provide first hand. :))

This used to be true but they changed it a while ago

I can't imagine the K6 receiver is better than anything mentioned here, except for maybe the 'feng radios. The fact that you can hack it and add features is nice, but since those features aren't available from the factory, that says alot about the company itself.

@@HamRadio2 Yes, the receiver is not as good as the more expensive radios, but under 30 dolars is the best. I have the k5, k6, uv17, 5R, h7 and from those radios the k6 is by far the best. The only “better“ thing from the uv17 is the flash light. I dont know if you already bought a k6 but if there is no one in your inventory. its a cheap great and fun radio even without using the alternatives firmwares

@@Nacho.100 I personally think that flashlights are a joke on radios, anyway. No... I don't think I have a K6, but I have seen them. I'll check on picking one up, thanks for the feedback

@@HamRadio2 You wont regreat it, its a little full feature and power efficient device for its price.

Maybe one of the Cotre radios

Maybe. Price?

Haven't seen that one

Nah those are crap

Not a bad viewpoint, tbh

How do you know if it is spectral pure or not?

Looking for my first one. Would like good bang for the buck.

PL tone? Or upgrade the antenna?

I've seen that one. Maybe I'll pick it up

Same radio as that Radioddity that was on my list last year

The Wouxun UV9x radios are full duplex

@@HamRadio2hmmm can’t seem to find that model.

@@gliderrider UV9x, where the "x" means ANY of the UV9 models. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0uazI60XEQE.html

Not natively but with something like a Digirig, sure

Everything I listed here is better than that one

Not familiar

The title of the video is "best" not "newest"

Those are junk

I have a useless wouxun uv9d mate . It stopped receiving audio through the speaker or headset zero support from wouxun..

Is this under $100?