Baofeng UV-5R range/how to use/setup for greater range?

[rds801]

The Baofeng will get you started but I would recommend that you get something better. Find a used FT-60.

Problem with the Baofeng radios is they get overloaded real easy. Baofengs have trouble "hearing". You can have a Baofeng and a more expensive radio side by side and the more expensive radio will hear stations that the Baofeng will not hear. I had 2 Baofengs. Gave one away. I use a Yaesu FT-1D for 2m FM.

If you still want to get one, see if you can find something on Craigslist. They are not expensive but the cheaper you can get it the better.

As far as how far you can transmit, you should be able to get more than a couple miles with them. Make sure you get a better antenna than the stock rubber duck antenna. A good inexpensive antenna is an MFJ Long Ranger telescopic whip. I have it and it performs pretty well. The furthest I've reached with it was 150 miles from a high summit, using my Yaesu FT1D not the Baofeng.

Getting up high will help you get out further. From the summit of Mt. Bachelor I was able to use the stock rubber duck antenna and reach out 127 miles to another station that was also on a high peak. Both those contacts on 2m FM.

I also have a roll j-pole and a portable Arrow 3 element yagi.

Good luck with everything. Study for the tech exam and you will do fine. Also, if you want to study for your general as well you can take both same day same price. If you're feeling really lucky you can go for Extra too.

 

[XoXSciFiGuy]

Is the 8W Baofeng still the best bang for your buck for around $50?

More power, more range. I still want to get one. YES.
The two most popular upgrades for these radios is a better antenna and a bigger battery.

 

[ATCclears]

@Lasers I am happy with the 8-watt Baofeng for the price.

If you want something less expensive look at the Baofeng UV-3R+.
Smaller than the 8-watt Baofeng

• Downside of no label for a memory channel (e.g. cannot save and display that channel 001 is say FRS frequency 01).
• No adjustable volume. It's on or off.

MINI Baofeng UV-3R+Plus Walkie Talkies Dual band UHF/VHF Ham CTCSS Two-Way Radio | eBay

BAOFENG UV-3R+ plus VHF/UHF Dual Band Radio 136-174/400-470Mhz. This is original BaoFeng UV-3R Plus dual band radio. 50 CTCSS and 104 CDCSS. Frequency Range VHF 136-174 UHF 400-470MHz (Dual Band). RF Power Output UHF:2W.

www.ebay.com

 

[ATCclears]

As @cigars mentioned, get your license.

There is no test for the GMRS license. It is simply an online application and covers your family.
General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS)

The base-level ham license is known as the Technician License. You can take practice tests online, buy a book, and there might even be a local ham club in your area offering a class. If you want to transmit far/further then you'll likely need the next step up, which is the General license.

 

[rds801]

When it comes to ham radio power 8w to 5w isn't even worth fretting over. My FT1D is a 5 watt radio. I never wished I had an extra 3 watts. Lol.

When you start studying for your ticket you will read about it.

 

[dobeman]

If not, stay off the ham bands please.

it is ok to listen in. Agree - not ok to transmit without license. I am studying for the HAM license so this is fresh in my mind.

 

[The Heretic]

it is ok to listen in. Agree - not ok to transmit without license. I am studying for the HAM license so this is fresh in my mind.

Except in an emergency. Even so, most people should be able to get their HAM license if they study and practice.

 

[dobeman]

Except in an emergency. Even so, most people should be able to get their HAM license if they study and practice.

yep.. so far in my studying, this isn't complicated stuff. at least for the Technician license.

 

[Kruel J]

When it comes to ham radio power 8w to 5w isn't even worth fretting over. My FT1D is a 5 watt radio. I never wished I had an extra 3 watts. Lol.

When you start studying for your ticket you will read about it.

Yep, 5 watts to 8 watts is pretty meaningless. Having a quality 5 watt HT is more important than a sub-par 8 watt.

 

[The Heretic]

Yep, 5 watts to 8 watts is pretty meaningless. Having a quality 5 watt HT is more important than a sub-par 8 watt.

IIRC, doubling your power will only extend your range by 25%

When it Comes to RF, Distance Plays Tricks with the Mind

When it Comes to RF, Distance Plays Tricks with the Mind

www.rfvenue.com

 

[Kruel J]

IIRC, doubling your power will only extend your range by 25%

When it Comes to RF, Distance Plays Tricks with the Mind

When it Comes to RF, Distance Plays Tricks with the Mind

www.rfvenue.com

Sounds about right. And most cheaper HT's have lousy antennas so it really makes almost no difference. I actually did some testing with an 8 watt Baofeng against my Yaesu FT-60 and the Yaesu was clearly better into the repeaters.

 

[The Heretic]

Sounds about right. And most cheaper HT's have lousy antennas so it really makes almost no difference. I actually did some testing with an 8 watt Baofeng against my Yaesu FT-60 and the Yaesu was clearly better into the repeaters.

Antennas are easily replaced. I bought a number of Baofengs because I did not feel bad giving a $20 Baofeng to my kids or my neighbors. Eventually I will get something better.

 

[BrentN]

IIRC, doubling your power will only extend your range by 25%

When it Comes to RF, Distance Plays Tricks with the Mind

When it Comes to RF, Distance Plays Tricks with the Mind

www.rfvenue.com

Sounds like the inverse square law applies.

 

[baker3gun]

I have the 8w baofengs. They work pretty well.

My nearest test center was a 3 hour drive. I used the available free websites that offer the memorization approach. The process is somewhat educational, especially if you already have some basic electronics knowledge.
I studied 30 minutes a day for a while, then sat for all 3 exams on the same afternoon. I was the only person to sit for the extra. I failed it by something like 6 questions.
I chatted with the examiners during the breaks. Two of the guys were really nice. The third was a word that starts with a d and ends with ick. He was pissed that a clueless noob could read the interwebz and nearly pass the extra. Whatever.

Almost everyone involved in amateur radio is relaxed and nice and helpful. Almost.

Anyway, I started learning. I bought 2 different whips and a cheap SWR. I made 2 yagi's. I played with tuning. I bought some Ed Fong roll-ups and good coax.

On a return drive from the Bay area, I stopped on a private drive on a clearing about halfway up the Sierras and appealed to listeners on Diablo1 for three antenna tests. I tested the 2 whips and the oem antenna (rubber duck). 70 miles as the crow flies. I was able to communicate with all 3, but the rubber duck was the clear scratchy winner. All three were scratchy, but the rubber duck was tolerable. The two whips were unpleasing to the 2 guys on the other end. One of them told me to just stop and go back to the first antenna.
In the future maybe, I want to do some better testing with SWR and field strength gear to see if I can make those whips work better. I mean, longer must be better, right?

I raised an Ed Fong roll-up in a pvc pipe about 9' above the peak of my metal roof in Baker County and started listening. I looked up some regional repeaters and hailed. My record for clean 2m Baofeng 8w HT conversation is the Heppner repeater 70 miles away. I talked with a guy who was 58 miles NW of Heppner, so 128 miles total.

The Ed Fong j-pole is by far the best antenna I have ever connected to my little Baofeng HT.
I bought mine in 2015.
Ed's Antennas
If you have two 100 yard rolls of twine, and a bow and arrow, and 75' of coax, you can string a line between two huge trees and then throw another line over the first, then hoist the Fong j-pole up and get busy. In the national forest, this changes a Baofeng 8w HT (or any other HT) from a 2 mile device to a 50+ mile device.

I did all that stuff in 2015.

I need to get back into it. i want to try echolink, and HF, and work a satellite. Just gotta find the time. Like many people, I wanted a shtf radio capability. I achieved it, then got distracted by other things.

Noob stuff I learned:
The baofeng oem rubber duck is pretty good.
You can buy whips that match the SMA connector on the Baofeng radio, or you can buy whips that have the more rugged BNC connector and also buy an SMC-to-BNC adaptor, but be advised that the adaptor may attenuate your signal.
Never push the transmit key on any radio that is not connected to a reasonably matched antenna apparatus. You will damage the transmitter.
There's no such thing as one antenna that is perfectly optimal for both 70cm and 2m.
70cm is better for urban whereas 2m is better for rural.
The oem rubber duck should be better for 70cm than for 2m, but it works really well on 2m.
"Real" radio appears to begin at wavelengths greater than 2 meters.
Coniferous needles absorb signal, especially between March and November when the sap is up. The effect is greater on 70cm than 2m. Deciduous trees can also attenuate, but have less impact than pine needles. Tree attenuation disappears above 6m wavelength.
Antenna is everything.
For VHF and UHF, higher antenna is better antenna.
Signal attenuation and noise are reduced when the impedance of the components of the transmission apparatus are closely matched. IOW, use high quality connectors and transmission lines and antennae.

Have fun!

 

[rds801]

Rubber duck antennas are not good. They are usable. If you just want to use repeaters, the stock antenna will fit the bill. If you want simplex communications get something better. Like I said in an earlier post MFJ Long Ranger is what I recommend to replace the stock antenna.

 

[baker3gun]

It's all relative.

Baofeng UV-82HP has a scan function. It is slow and bad.
It is a much much better scanner than a bag of frozen peas.

I live 30 miles from nearest town. I don't have a scanner. I almost never use a scanner. I have Baofengs. I almost never use them.

I programmed 5 channels into mine for scanning: state patrol, local fire district, sheriff, S&R, and PD.
When something big happens, I use a Baofeng as a scanner.
Works great.
Muuuuch better than a bag of frozen peas.

I tried my scanners with 3 different antennas: whip 1, whip 2, and the oem rubber duck. The oem rubber duck works best; clearest reception.

My kit does not make normal use of the oem SMA antenna connections on the baofeng radios.
I use adapters and BNC. My oem rubber duck is mounted to a male BNC adapter. My radios have BNC female adapters screwed into the SMA connectors. My whips are BNC.
I chose this setup because it allows more antenna changes than SMA is made to withstand. SMA can be a 'fragile' connector. BNC is rugged.

So. My oem rubber duck is not oem. It has SMA-BNC and BNC-SMA adapters inserted between it and the radio.

Someday, I may do some testing to compare a pure stock baofeng duck to my adapted duck. Just to see if there is a difference.

Back to frozen peas and relativity...

2m is crap. Baofeng is crap. Rubber ducks are crap.

10m and longer is better for all comms. Good radios are better than crap radios. Good scanners are better than baofeng HT's. Good antennas are always better than any portable antenna you can screw into an HT.

BUT.

A $35 baofeng with a rubber duck is infinitely better than a bag of frozen peas.
In my experience, so far, the addition of a whip did not improve the kit's ranking on the scale of peas-to-perfection.

The addition of a Fong antenna did. Wow!

A $35 baofeng with a $20 Fong creates an incredible bang for the buck.
Which is always going to be attractive to a large group of people who have no wish to spend real money or real time on radio.

It's okay for a person to love motorcycles, archery, reloading, vintage lenses, tube amplifiers, and golf, and therefore have zero time or money for radios, and still buy a couple of cheapies to store in cookie tins.

Rubber ducks can be good.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[Lasers]

The addition of a Fong antenna did. Wow!

Which one?

 

[baker3gun]

DBJ-2(ham) .

Back then, he also offered a DBJ-2(murs), which I bought. I've never tried it out yet.

 

[EHJ]

Which one?

I get repeaters 60 miles away with a DBJ-2 in a pvc pipe on my roof with a 5 watt ht.
Same antenna at 50 watts from an 857-D and I can nearly reach halfway to Tacoma on simplex alone.

Ed's Antennas

email: [email protected] phone: 408-245-8210 mailing address: Ed Fong 1163 Quince Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94087 Updated April 15, 2024 We are back from Spring Break. East Coast distributor - ...

edsantennas.weebly.com

These are great.

 

[Lasers]

Honestly, I must live next to a few of you.

There's a couple houses I drive by in my neighborhood, daily. They have 20' antenna and I used to wonder what they were for!