Better than the UV5R but falls short of being a good value

I’m not going to get into a lot of fluff about a sub-$30 radio. It was $60 when it came out, at that price on paper it was a good value. Now, at $22-29, it is still a good value, just not a great one. Let me explain…

The Baofeng 5RH Pro is advertised as an 8W HT, covering 2m\1.25m\70cm bands with NOAA weather alerts\channels, GPS, and built-in APRS functionality. For $60, not a bad deal. For $30 it is a great deal. Then you go to use it and things aren’t as cool as you thought.

TX\RX: It sends. It receives. The sound quality in both directions is pretty good at this price point. I checked it with my TinySA and it was clean, no harmonics breaking the threshold. Way to go Baofeng, nice work.

TX pt 2: It isn’t 8W, or at least mine is not. I’ve seen a handful of reviews on this radio. One got 7W on 2m and 4 on 70cm, they didn’t test 220. The other couple didn’t test the power.
I did.
4.9W on 146.520.
1.3W on 225.000
3.9W on 446.000
Not 8W. Not even 7W.
This is a 5W radio (my example at least).

GPS: It has one. You can turn it on and off. You can even get a lock… eventually. Outside in a clear sky it took 5 minutes to get a lock. Sitting the dash of my car with full view of the sky driving down the road, 13 minutes. Cloud cover? I’m still waiting. The 5RH (non-Pro) has a flashlight, the Pro does not, that’s where the GPS antenna is. Not sure really the value of the little lights on these radios anyway but if it matters to you, get the standard radio.

APRS: Technically it has it. You cannot set the frequency to beacon, it will do so on whatever the active channel is. You cannot set your symbol. You cannot set your message. You cannot set an interval, every 15 seconds if you want it or not. You cannot send messages. You cannot receive messages. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200.

Mine was advertised to have Bluetooth. It has the menu item for it.
It does not have BT.

Pre-set US Weather bands is nice, but most newer radios do that so this isn’t as much a feature as an expected function. And it does function.

The front end is average for this class of radio and doesn’t seem to get overwhelmed unless you are in the same room.

The screen fonts are nice sized, if a little 1999 in design. Scanning is quick and it shows you what it is scanning, unlike some newer radios. Downside is if you are in single-channel MR mode, it shows the frequency and not the channel name, no matter what you have the settings at.

It holds 640 channels. Not bad. Better than the 99 of the original UV5R, not as good as some of the radios that will hold 999 channels. Kill me if I need that many programmed. Not only because my brain would break having that many options to talk, this radio is not supported by CHIRP. Yeh, you have to use the ugly, clunky, looks-like-written-in-VB6-around-2001 interface. Even programming in 30 repeaters is not fun.

Battery life is average for this class of radio and it can be charged either with USB-C or the included cradle. I got about 8hrs standby out of mine with an occasional TX when several were doing POTA and SOTA in my area.

The stock antenna, while not crap at SWR of 1.3, is too short and too much of a compromise covering 3 bands to be useful for more than a mile or two. With an 19″ ABBREE tactical, I was able to hear repeaters over 20 miles away and even at 5W open one at 12 miles in hilly central NH. Not bad.

It does come with the lanyard that I always throw away, a belt clip that takes some creative gymnastics to screw down because of the angle + spring strength, the charger, and my package came with the programming cable. Oh, and of course the poorly translated, font-so-small-need-a-microscope-to-read manual. Fortunately, if you’ve owned a Baefeng or any of the clones, you really don’t need the manual. Well, except for the software, which even with the manual is still a stinking pile of crap.

In the end, is it worth $60? No. $30? Sure, but for that same money you could get a UV K5 Plus with the same advertised features that actually work, a better screen, CHIRP SUPPORT(!), and a few bucks left over to put towards a good antenna. For a couple $ more, you could get a UV-25 Pro GPS with 11W and a battery that lasts longer than the center of a Tootsie Pop (though that radio is HUGE). I’ll have reviews of both of those coming soon, along with the disappointing TiDRADIO H3 Plus.

Author: Scott

General class operator