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Author Topic: Cheap Baofengs  (Read 2428 times)

Offline pkveazey

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #25 on: March 27, 2017, 10:46:01 PM »
This is almost on topic. A while back I found a pair of Baofeng tri-power UV5Rs on Amazon for about $60. I got them and put the large battery packs on them. Then I attached one to my bugout backpack and the other to my wife's bugout backpack. We're both Hams. The other day I noticed that they still are selling them but 2 for $65. The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself to buy another pair. My first VHF mobile radio was a 10 watt Yaesu and it worked great in the car. Presently, I have a 5 watt Baofeng in each car as well as a TYT 9000 radio. I monitor the 65 watt TYT just in case the wife calls me on simplex. I then have the dual band HT for scanning the Ham VHF and UHF bands and not missing a call from home. When the two 8 watters arrive, I'll swap them out. Normally I see those 8 watters for about $60 each. The S meter on those 8 watters actually work. The older UV5R's S meters are either full scale or off. In the car, I use the cigarette lighter plug and adaptor instead of the batteries. If someone wants a cheap Mobile rig, that's a pretty easy way to go dual band mobile. Don't get long winded because those 8 watters will get hot pretty fast.
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Offline JoJo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #26 on: April 05, 2017, 06:19:21 PM »
 I got an email from my credit card co. which said I received a credit for the amount of the Baofengs  but not the shipping. Half a loaf is better than none.
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Offline Nemo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #27 on: April 05, 2017, 09:07:58 PM »
I still cannot figure out how to claim the refund on ebay.  Tried every way and even tried to follow their directions but no joy.

Nemo
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Offline JoJo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #28 on: April 05, 2017, 09:38:23 PM »
 @NEMO  Here is the link I used to get resolution it took about a week.   

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/item-not-received.html



 
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Offline Nemo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #29 on: April 06, 2017, 10:46:41 AM »
Yeah I found a place to let me file a request and copied/pasted the email they sent me.  That stated that if I did not receive the items I was already verified to get the refund.

So, lets hope it goes well.

With all this, and having had a headache in the past, I shop Ebay very very little.

Nemo
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If you need a second magazine, its time to call in air support.

God created Man, Col. Sam Colt made him equal, John Moses Browning turned equality to perfection, Gaston Glock turned perfection into plastic fantastic junk.

Offline JoJo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #30 on: April 06, 2017, 01:03:38 PM »
 @Nemo
 Same here, I think I only made five purchases on Ebay. This was the only bad one. I don't have Pay Pal and I don't intend to get Pay Pal.   

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In principle, no less than in practice, socialism is the ideology of thieves and tyrants.

Offline Erick

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #31 on: April 06, 2017, 03:31:12 PM »
I've made some good buys on ebay before.
Despite this experience I think I may want to use it  abit more as amazon is getting too successful in my mind and I dont like emerging monopolies
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Offline Nemo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #32 on: April 06, 2017, 06:55:13 PM »
Walmart  bought up some Chinese corporation and is going whole hog into the online market.  They had their "no shipping charges" limit at $35 when Amazon was at $49.  Amazon dropped their limit to the same.

I expect the battle to continue.

Nemo
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If you need a second magazine, its time to call in air support.

God created Man, Col. Sam Colt made him equal, John Moses Browning turned equality to perfection, Gaston Glock turned perfection into plastic fantastic junk.

Offline pkveazey

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #33 on: June 06, 2017, 03:20:58 AM »
In an earlier post, I said that when the 8 watt BaoFengs show up I was going to swap out the 5 watter's in the cars. Well..... If I try to use high power, the cigarette lighter battery eliminator shuts down. I did a little research and found that the battery eliminators have over voltage and over current protection. That's a good thing and a bad thing. The adapters self protect(good thing) but I can't use high power on them(bad thing). Actually the over voltage protection is really just a voltage regulator that drops the 13.8 volts down to 8.35 volts. 8.35 volts is the same voltage that the battery chargers provide for the 7.4 volt batteries.
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Offline Nemo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #34 on: June 06, 2017, 10:02:38 AM »
Still no joy from eBay.  Their system is too complicated for me to mess with, but I shall battle on.

Anyone have a direct email to a person or complaint dept there?  I really dislike the click this, this, select issue, click here system.

Nemo
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If you need a second magazine, its time to call in air support.

God created Man, Col. Sam Colt made him equal, John Moses Browning turned equality to perfection, Gaston Glock turned perfection into plastic fantastic junk.

Offline Nemo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #35 on: June 06, 2017, 10:33:38 AM »
HA, did some more looking, not covered under their money back thing if you buy as a guest.  Remind me to not do eBay again.

Did them once way back, not happy.  But they did do refund back then, after long fight back and forth. 

Either way, No More.

Nemo
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If you need a second magazine, its time to call in air support.

God created Man, Col. Sam Colt made him equal, John Moses Browning turned equality to perfection, Gaston Glock turned perfection into plastic fantastic junk.

Offline JoJo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #36 on: June 06, 2017, 01:41:05 PM »
Amazon is no different. I ordered two items for our vacuum cleaner from one dealer which was to be SHIPPED FREE. They shipped one item from one dealer which charged shipping and another item from a different dealer who wanted to charge shipping. Canceled one item but the other was on its way.
 Will not do business with Amazon again.
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In principle, no less than in practice, socialism is the ideology of thieves and tyrants.

Offline Nemo

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #37 on: June 06, 2017, 08:08:43 PM »
The way things are looking, the local hardware or electronics shop may just stay in business.

Nemo
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If you need a second magazine, its time to call in air support.

God created Man, Col. Sam Colt made him equal, John Moses Browning turned equality to perfection, Gaston Glock turned perfection into plastic fantastic junk.

Offline voyaginator

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #38 on: August 15, 2017, 10:25:37 AM »
I know this is rather an old thread but just wanted to mentioned that friend of mine has been using the Baofeng UV-5R for many months, very happy with it   :D so decided to get a pair  https://goo.gl/LiRdkf price still going down, quality is not the HD Yaesu but definitely much cheaper   8)
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Offline Jackalope

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Re: Cheap Baofengs
« Reply #39 on: August 15, 2017, 08:17:07 PM »
You get what you pay for...  I wouldn't trust my life to them, but they're fine as disposable radios, or for trading, or to loan out to folks. Out of the 70+ plus that I've dealt with, only two have gone bad, and one was bad out of box.  They don't take abuse too well, but hey, they're a $25 radio, including charger.
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