Hey guys, I'll repost
this article from my blog here.
Probably you already found a ton of articles telling you how awesome the Baofeng UV5R is, today
I'm going to do something different, I'll tell you all the defects I found in it.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's an awesome radio, specially considering the bang for the buck factor,
and I would buy another one without doubt, but I didn't wanted to write just another UV5R article...
So, lets get down to business.
- The manual sucks. The manual is just a few pages long, doesn't give you much details about the unit
and doesn't explain clearly how to program it. Lucky for us there is a great website with a ton of
information about the UV5R, check it here:
http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/- There is no reception power indicator, the indicator is binary, you are receiving something or you
don't.
- You can't update the firmware. The microcontroller is an OTP (One Time Programmable). Once
'flash' programmed at the factory, it cannot be changed.
- There is a known 'quirk' with the UV5R receiver. If a scanned channel has an R-CTCSS (PL) tone
of 136.5 Hz or lower, the receiver will not stop on that channel. R-CTCSS (PL) tones of 146.2 and
higher work fine.
- Scanning speed is really low, to scan 1 MHz at 5KHz steps it takes 59.65 seconds, while my Yaesu
FT270 only takes 7.45 seconds. Test was performed scanning from 147 to 148 Mhz without finding
any station during the scan.
- The charger input voltage is 10v, so you wouldn't be able to plug it directly to your car battery.
- Some people report a low mic volume, didn't happen to me, the solution is to carefully enlarge the
mic hole.
- The Alarm function. Man, WTF is that crap? When you push a button named "Call" to the side of
the unit, it will start emitting an alarm sound and turning on and off all the lights, and depending on
the mode it is configured it will also start transmitting the alarm! You gotta see that for yourself,
check it in the embedded video. Biggest problem with that is that the button is in a position that is very easy to push
by accident, in a tactical situation you are dead meat if that turns on. Also, there is no way to
deactivate the function programmatically, so I think the solution is to open the unit and break that
button, the problem is that you'll lose the FM radio if you do that.
- The flashlight, its very useful with the exception of the strobe mode that is totally useless, but the
problem is that is turned on by pushing the MONI button, so the chances of turning it on by accident
are really big, and in some situations that can ruin your day. Best solution, put some tape over the
LED or when you open the radio to break the CALL button, also disconnect the LED.
