About eight months ago, I purchased a Wouxun KG-UVD1P two-band HT. Overall, I’ve been very happy with it. Last week, I purchased a Baofeng UV-5RA. Apparently, Baofeng is coming out with a new model soon, and as a result, are trying to dump these units. I bought mine for $30 from some vendor selling through Amazon, although now it looks like the cheapest price is $33.55.
It’s been interesting to compare the two units. This is by no means an exhaustive comparison, but just a few things that hit me from playing with the Baofeng for the last couple of days:
- Programmability. As is commonly noted, the Wouxun is much more easily programmed than the Baofeng. It was relatively easy for me to figure out how to program the memory channels of the Wouxun. So much so that I decided not to purchase the programming cable. I still have not been able to program the memory in the Baofeng. Unlike the Wouxun, you have to separately program the transmit frequency and the receive frequency. I still have not mastered this procedure.
- User documentation. The user documentation for the Wouxun is much better than the documentation for the Baofeng. The Wouxun comes with both a user manual and a quick reference card. The Baofeng come with a very thin manual that doesn’t seem to include instructions on how to program repeater frequencies into the memory channels.
- Voice. Both radios can be programmed to announce, in either English or Chinese, things like operating mode and memory channel. The Baofeng voice sounds much more like a computer generated voice. The Wouxun English voice has a notable Chinese accent.
- Antenna. Since I purchased it, I’ve only been using the antenna that was supplied with the Wouxun. It seems to perform pretty well. I’m not so impressed with the Baofeng antenna. Not only does it not do a good a job as the Wouxun, it actually gets a little warm when I transmit on high power. I’m going to have to replace it.
All things considered, I’ve decided to do one of two things with the Baofeng. I’m either going to pass it on to one of my Tech class students or hack it like KK6BWA has done. I think that either would be a worthwhile thing.
I purchased a Wouxon KG-UV6D v2 last summer and I have been very pleased with it, too. I purchased it when my Yaesu HT died. I wanted to see the quality of these “cheap” radios and I was not disappointed. Great to see your comparison and read about your experience.
Now, how about a push-up pole/mast write up? On Saturday, I participated in “Jamboree on the Air” in a field where push-up masts were essential. I really like a fiberglass pole that had strong sections all the way to the top (i.e. top section was round tube, and not a wispy whip). I think he said it was used by power companies to remove fuses, maybe. (A.B. Chance was the manufacturer, I think. Something with Chance in the name). Any suggestions on solid masts would be appreciated.
Here’s an update on my Baofeng experience:
I’ll think about writing something about push-up masts in another post.
I have the Baofeng. Learning curve to program manually, but I eventually figured it out. I prefer to use the Baofeng software. The radio has its shortcomings, but still represents good value at about 1/3 the price of the Wouxon. BTW, I would never stick with the stock antenna for any HT. At the least, pick up a Nagoya 771 (cheap – $5 and seems to perform better than my similar Diamond) and add 19.5″ + 6.5″ (VHF, UHF) wire counterpoises. Big improvement in TX and RX.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the two radios. I’m not a Ham. I’m contemplating it but mostly I just want to get some radios figured out so that I can connect with my kids while we’re camping or keep track of them during an emergency (I live in earthquake country.) I bought a Kindle book by a guy named Brad Smith (“Are you radio prepared?”) that has been helpful. At the end of the book he talks about the Wouxun. Looking at it on Amazon I noted the Baofeng is $35 vs $100 for the Wouxun. Thinking I’m in the market for at least two, I thought I’d look into it a little. Your post was helpful. Think I’ll bite the bullet and buy a couple of the Wouxun’s. I’m not looking for a master’s credential in Chinese radio programming; I’ve got a reasonably simple objective and I’d like to make sure I’m able to accomplish it if things are a tad stressful. Sounds like Ive got higher odds of accomplishing that with the Wouxun.
After poking around re the GMRS license, I think I’ll skip sending $85 to the good folks in DC for the time being. The only FCC enforcement bit that pops up is for a Lexus dealer and a biotech firm. Since I’m neither and not headed in either direction, I can’t imagine the FCC will come looking for me. I am contemplating figuring out a GMRS base station at my home though. I suppose if I am both industrious enough and competent enough to figure all that out, I’ll send in a check (and spend the requisite hour figuring out how to get it to them which is my actual grind about the thing.) At any rate, thank you again for your helpful thoughts. I’m sure I’ll forget about the extra hundred bucks or so long before I’d get over getting wicked ticked off because I couldn’t figure out how to make the Baofeng transmit or receive any purposeful noise.
I purchased two BaoFeng BF-8FHP and one BaoFeng 82-UVHP radios from Amazon. I was intending to replace 3 Wouxun KG-1UVDP radios. I use the radios for when I fly and they interface with my flying helmet.
The BaoFeng BF-8FHP wouldn’t interface with my helmet wiring even though the connectors are identical (no coms). The BaoFeng 82-UVHP did interface with my helmet wiring.
Computer programming the BaoFengs was a mind bender. I gave up.
I sent the BaoFengs back to Amazon and bought Wouxuns.
I have now four Wouxun KG-1UVDP 5 watt radios. I have a simple question.
Is there a piece of radio test equipment that I can use to see if the radios are performing close to what they should. I would like to be able to test the basic aspects of the radio comms. The local radio shop charges more than the radios are worth for testing.
I suspect some of my Wouxun radios are failing.
Can it be done for less than $300.00? Thank you.