12 or 13 years ago, in another life, I was a sales manager for a local Motorola 2 way shop. went to sell a local fire dept a new system and they were telling me all about these "new radios" that they were checking out and telling me that i couldn't compete with the price. I took a Baofeng, a Motorola, a Harris and a Tait radio. proceeded to throw all four radios against the building as hard as I could, (the Baofeng didn't survive that test), then I threw all the radios in a bucket of water. The fire chief decided he wanted his guys to have a radio that they could count on in bad situations. I got a decent sale on a Motorola system that day. The Motorola survived everything, the Harris died in the water and the Tait didn't have one of the features that they wanted.
As the Baofeng flew apart in multiple pieces against the concrete wall, one of the firefighters that was standing there said “I don’t think those would hold up”. Thank you Captain obvious. It was shortly after that I bought a couple of baofengs just to have them for that type of sales pitch. As an amateur radio operator I have a couple of those radios here at home, HOWEVER, I can’t imagine trusting my life to one of them.
@@happyjack880this is a great story. It's true, go with motorola if you're fine paying a few thousand dollars for maybe 2 of them. I wish I could find the shit Motorola released 5 or 10 years ago but I hear they destroy old radios they get through trade in programs specifically to prevent this. I just want an indestructible, idiot-proof, ip-68 dual band handheld radio with 5+ watts and digital. No screen or buttons needed, just a knob is good, but if the price and durability are right I wouldn't care. I want it for camping trips and canoe trips. Something completely waterproof and drop proof. I have ham friends and gmrs friends, where I go there are no repeaters or other people so this is specifically for communicating with my group, or hitting local ham repeaters when I'm not in the wilderness. Closest I have found is the retevis p62. No screen, good battery, power, dual band, durable. However, it's missing digital DMR support which is not such a big deal, but it's also missing the NOAA weather band receive capability, and that is a little worse. A lot of times if clouds start to come in, that's the only service we have to get a weather report, besides our own eyes. We currently have baofengs and anytones. I believe the baofengs would break, and I don't want to risk it with the anytones 😂 they don't claim to be waterproof, and nobody else in the group wants to risk it with an expensive radio that doesn't specifically say it's waterproof. We'd love to have something like the Motorola idiot proof radio but everything I can find from them is 5x-10x more expensive than anything comparable. I know Motorola has been good for awhile, but can't find any older radios that fit the bill. I know DMR is new, but little 2m handheld radios without a screen have been around for like 75 years now, you'd think there would be some options for normal people who don't have millions of tax dollars to spend, not just Motorola! If you, or anyone else, knows of any good simple radios like that for $300 each or less, that would be amazing and I would really appreciate it
I grabbed a UV-25 almost a month ago, best $50 Canadian I have spent on something radio related 😎 Mine is the temporary mobile radio in the truck I just got, hanging from the air vent with a piece of wire through it with the belt clip hanging on it. The radio just feels real whether it is or not LOL.
And with the harmonics it put out you were also probably transmitting in the military air band or maybe in the FRS/GMRS channels, who knows for sure! I'd never use one of those things. Buy a good radio instead.
Love my Yeasu HT, but IDK, after dealing with Baofeng quirks over the last few years, I was pleasantly surprised how well my TIDRADIO TD-H3 performs on 2m/220/440 and GMRS. And while the air band receive mode is faint, but overall it’s been my go to radio for the last 6 months, including in the car…plus, if it gets stolen, I’m only out $35 bucks. Thx for the review!
I ordered one that will be here Monday. Good video. I watched it 3 times. Couldn’t bring the courage to watch the ending. I clicked out all three times. Horrible thoughts so I avoided the viewing and the bad dreams of a flying radio. 😱😱😂😂😂
@@HamRadio2 I received the radio. It’s kind of novelty lol. The cool bendable antenna thingy has poor performance. I think it might be something used in the medical field 💩 😂. I got a few good signal reports after changing the antenna
I got this radio to go into my “poop and laughter” collection. Sits right next to my AR-152. In testing mine it put out 16w on a full battery and 11w on almost dead. It is dirty tho. Even when charging. I can’t charge this around any radio I’m using as it produces so much RI I have to charge it on the other side of the house. I have used it maybe 3 times in total and is basically a conversation piece sitting on my wall of radios. It’s basically a 5RM with a bigger battery, case, and speaker. Even programs using the 5RM file on chirp.
kinda looks like Baofeng is trying to reinvent the AR-152. Been less impressed with Fengs lately with the flood of quanshengs and all that reflashable firmware, Between the Quansheng and Radtel were getting a lot more from China for a lot less. Good vid, thanks ...
I'm just a weekend hobbyist, but for the price I'll stick to the AR-152 which has a longer history of trials and data. I do love the improved display though, much nicer.
Aren't the harmonics supposed to be measured as X-dB down from the fundamental, vs. just measuring their absolute power? IE, subtract the levels of the peaks to find if in compliance?
It seems to me without having both radios to compare that the UV-25 and the new UV 5RM are pretty much internally the same except for the NOAA stations which you can program your self anyway. They both have 10 watts. I have the UV5RM and its pretty good...
Hey Jason.. I love the reviews you give on the radios, very very infomative. Thank you very much for all your reviews!! My handle is Sudhakar & Call Sign is VU3LLC, QTH Bangalore - India. I was thinking about buying Baofeng UV 25. My thought is that, since my activies on UHF / VHF would be limited, can this radio be a replacement for a basestation? Or is it still worth to buy a UHF/VHF Basestation? Most of my activities would be on HF, So that I am thinking of investing on a good HF transceiver. What do you suggest?
Nice review, but I don't believe throwing a heavy HT in the air proves it's durability, as there are many ways it could landed and produced different results.
No, I covered this in my review but firstly there’s no battery thermometer (the observe pin isn’t connected on the pack either) - but the main issue is that the battery controller is stuck at 720mA even using the external pins so it won’t charge any faster with an external charger even if it was charged by a higher current/voltage charger.
All the Tri-band (220MHz) have bad hi harmonic Leakage....Outrageous hi level Harmonics "Sneak" thru the 220 MHz tuning circuit & reach Antenna connector.....
You know instead of throwing that radio up in the air and letting it come down and bust it you could have get that radio to somebody that maybe to use it when the grid goes down . just a thought to patch along
Please note that if you order the Baofeng programming cable from Radioddity for this radio it WILL NOT work with the UV-25. It was built with too much material around the plug-in and WILL NOT seat into the radio programming receptacle. They have zero clue that this is an issue and sent me a replacement that was exactly like the first even though I clearly explained the issue.
I've one like this radio and power of it, is true though but not on 145.000 it only powers about 7 watts you will get 10 watts on the 150.000 frequency, I don't know why is it like this because it supposed to do its best 145.000 and near anyway thank you for your good review 👍
@@HamRadio2 Thank you for that. It's a heavy one, and prob the heaviest radio I got next to the Harris Clone by Baofeng. PS - I love the Brand New Midland GMRS radio ...Price was higher, but honestly...the "build quality" is a 10 and the cool tones you can use too (with the roger beep on)
Nice but i gave up on Fengs. My newest cheap HT is a Retevis RA 89. IP68 and works far better on duplex. Feng 68, also IP rated, worked as well as tin cans and string on VHF marine bands. Retevis works well. Thanks and 73 KF0NNQ.
Funny to see a huge radio.. I mean Cell phones were small.. now the phones are like mini ipods.. Ham Hts coolness is small... now maybe a trend is comming back.. and we will see Bricks comming back with crazy battery life.. since no more Ni-cad.. it will be Li-ion, prolly have a recive time of 2 Months.. LOL
Not really a fair test because I don't see you or any other tuber throwing their expensive radios in the air on concrete. I fair test would probably result in most radios not doing so hot.
Lo Ordinata ho visto video che da circa 10w come hanno scritto e buona ricezione...💪all'ultimo non conveniva farla rompere peccato lanciata in aria così....😱
Baofeng needs to work on that 20ft drop test and five minutes in a puddle of water. People would buy a tough radio. Not saying it has to be tank proof. And Baofeng could use the money to clean up those frequency bands. Baofeng is coming around.
now you have clean harmonics. now if I buy that UV-25 I may get different results. China radios do that. I tested many UV-5R radios and all over the place. some real bad some real clean . and a bunch so-so. with UHF we have no set standards for harmonics. I just use the VHF ones. 10 watts ? I wont put that much RF buy me. hold it away when transmitting. 73's
I love my uv5r but I also hate it, was my first radio which was gifted to me. I been on a kick mobile transceiver lately, I really love my ft-817 being portable. I wouldn't mind having a magnetic loop antenna to try out one day. 73 to yea and have a great day.
destroying this radio is sorta counter productive for the radio hobby,MAYBE i should throw my yaesu,and kenwoods up in the air,this is my opinion,the mame brand radios,especially the yeasu should take lessons from the chinese how to make a radio that lasts longer then the warranty,the yaesu,and kenwwood both stop receiving once you get out of the ham bands,the chinese radios do not have this problem,BUT,they are somewhat noisy around other devices,since 90 percent of my radio stuff is mountain roads,and out in the sticks,i will will take them any day over any of the NAME BRAND RADIOS.
I partly agree on a couple points. from decades of experience I have generally good opinions of Icom and Yaesu radios. Ive accidentally drop tested all my amateur HTs, LMR portables and scanners. A couple just plain died because an internal connection or component broke. Others barely had a scratch. As a result I've often thought that scanner manufacturers could take a lesson from amateur radio designers but they are two different markets. In general what separates the the tough from the wimpy radios are battery attachments, antenna connectors, knobs and display screens. If you want a tough radio you are going to pay for it. All radios are a compromise. In my experience Icom and Yaesu have had winners and losers. I had a Kenwood HT decades ago but I don't remember much about it. As far as your opinion that Japanese radios are inferior outside the ham bands, you need to realize that they are designed for Amateur Radio. If you need an LMR part 90 radio then an amateur radio is not for you. The Chinese radios often claim to be part90 and even though hams buy them they are obvious oriented to LMR licensed users. Amateur Radios are NOT type accepted LMR radios so I don't expect the same performance outside the amateur bands and I don't need or want OOB transmit. Also consider that even aftermarket antenna don't perform equally over their entire claimed band limits. Decades ago I needed a backup radio for my job and although my Icom 24at could RX up to about 900mhz it couldn't Tx outside amateur bands. So I bought a used Icom U-16 which as a bonus operated down on 440mhz, but not as sensitive as the 24at. BTW I really needed a dusl band LMR but Icom didn't make one. In fact I think that only one manufacturer made a dual band LMR at that time and it was extremely expensive. No radio is gonna please everyone.
There's still no getting away from the poor performing direct conversion on receive because of the chips these Chinese radios use. My ex-wife was trying to get back with me so she bought me two identical Baofeng UV-5Rs from Amazon (8 watt versions). I programmed them with the same memories that I have in my VX-6R and new Kenwood TH-D75, excluding the 220 on the Baofengs because they wouldn't do 220. I put them all in scan mode, scanning those 70cm and 2m frequencies of all the simplex channels used in my area and about 70 repeaters (most Utah and southern Idaho repeaters). The two real radios beat the Baofengs badly. The Baofengs would constantly stop on memory channels from household interference that the two good radios rejected. They got interferred with by LED lighting, Wifi, Bluetooth, switching power supplies and also they overloaded more easily from strong broadcast AM and FM. Not to even mention the intermod. But oops, I mentioned it anyway. The only way the two Baofengs could scan reliably was if I went somewhere in a parking lot far as I could get from common interference. My Yaesu is double conversion for VHF and UHF and my Kenwood is double conversion on band 1 and triple for band 2. My two Baofengs are relegated and set aside only for emergency use if I absolutely have to use them. I'd resort to my old Radio Shack HTX-202 before I'd even turn on my Baofengs. I consider them mere toys. I'd rather have my new Kenwood TH-D75 cut in half and unusable than 50 of those cheapos. It would still be worth more!!
Sounds more like HT snobbery. Baofeng's are far from perfect, obviously. It's pretty obvious that people try to use the lowest hanging fruit for clicks on YT. More like sad actually. Look at me...I made fun of a Baofeng. Congrats, you're the 400th person to tell us all about the sad little Baofeng. Show us on the doll where the Baofeng hurt you. Oh wait, you need clicks...NVM. It's a good radio for those starting out in ham. Sorry if that's not convenient for you. Yes, there are better and more sophisticated radios out there. So go buy one. It all comes down to clicks and snobbery.
I want one of these and watching you destroy it for no reason was disheartening. What a Waste! You could have gave it away! A Raffle, Something. I am just upset that I watched you ruin a great radio that had nothing wrong with it for NOTHING. That would have made a great radio for a youth or new ham! Geesh! It Proved Nothing and now we have no power test which is why I tuned in. No Icom or Yeasu would have survived that fall either. Ridiculous sensationalism for clicks.
It's disappointing to see Baofeng continuing to sell radios with illegally high spurious emissions. It's even sadder to see hams keep buying them. That 293 MHz second harmonic is in a military aircraft band. One day, the FCC will force the amateur service into using type-accepted radios. We'll have ourselves to blame.
I'm not a Baofeng hater, (I have two of them but would never use them to transmit and talk with). I'm more like a good radio liker. There's a difference. If you tried out a Kenwood TH-D75 for one week, you'd never go back.
@@markr.1984 Baofeng's are a category of radios that introduced many, many people to ham radio when the high end radio category thumbed their noses up at them. They are cost effective and do what they advertise. No, they are not equivalent to high end HT's. When I see reviews of people nit picking them over crap issues for clicks it's easy to see right through any objectivity. Clickbait a-holes suck.
A waist or chest high drop test would be more real world than throwing it in the air the way that you did. Throw a 400.00 or 500.00 HT in the air like that and I’m sure that there would be failures.
