Boafeng Uvr5 - Any good???

[BoneyT]

Looking at getting first pair of radios for me and the boy. Doing it on a budget and have looked into the Boafeng UVR5 on eBay etc. Cheap and cheerful? Or Cheap and nasty?! Would appreciate your thoughts on these specifically and alternatives, but not sets at over £50.

 

Thanks a million!!

[Impulse]

I use a UV-5R+ (it's a UV-5R with more metal bits) and it's fantastic. Cheap and cheerful definitely describes it and I've managed to convince a bunch of my friends to radio up because it's not as expensive as we all thought.

 

Radios are like... the most slept on piece of kit for any airsoft loadout. Having comms, even if it's just with 1 other person, is so incredibly useful and I wholly endorse more people radio-ing up.

[EDcase]

I was  thinking of getting a set though I'm not convinced of their usefulness since my son and I usually split up and I imagine it would be very difficult to co-ordinate.

 

What do people think about these?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164690089977?hash=item26584b57f9:g:QbUAAOSwe-NgWpxv

[Rogerborg]

52 minutes ago, EDcase said:

What do people think about these?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164690089977?hash=item26584b57f9:g:QbUAAOSwe-NgWpxv

 

Intriguing.  2W is way over the PMR 0.5W limit, and there's no reason that you couldn't build something usable at that price given that the mind-bogglingly well featured UV-5R comes in at just a bit more for a pair.  They could be a peach or a lemon, you'd have to take a gamble to find out.  I'd see if there are any Amazon reviews for those or equivalents.

 

If you do push the boat out a little, the UV-5Rs are great, and favourites with sites. They are decent out of the box with good range, long battery lives and more features than you could ever use (I use mine as an FM radio to play the bangin choons of Smooth FM)  However, that's actually a downside of them.  You can make them talk to just about anything, but the interface is unintuitive and I'm forever forgetting how to (e.g.) set CTCSS sub-channels on them.

 

Something simpler might actually be an asset.

[Tommikka]

1 hour ago, BoneyT said:

Looking at getting first pair of radios for me and the boy. Doing it on a budget and have looked into the Boafeng UVR5 on eBay etc. Cheap and cheerful? Or Cheap and nasty?! Would appreciate your thoughts on these specifically and alternatives, but not sets at over £50.

 

Thanks a million!!

Please note that for radios there are two legal types:

 

PMR446 operates on the UK legal frequency range.  You don’t need any licence etc.  They work perfectly well at the normal distances played in airsoft

 

Baofengs should be operated on a licenced frequency, so you need to buy a licence.  They are commonly programmed to illegally operate in the PMR446 range - they are overpowered and can be programmed out of the range so are not legal to operate unless you purchase your own licence or programme them to operate on someone else’s licenced frequency with their permission

The description for other linked handset does not identify its frequencies, but its maximum power exceeds PMR446 levels.  So it also needs a licence, and needs to be able to be set to the frequencies provided to the licensee

 

The simple answer is PMR446.  Any make, any model.  You just need to try to stick to a similar generation as throughout the years the frequencies have been slightly expanded upon.  
Buy a pair of a current model and you can talk to each other plus the majority of PMR users if you wish

(There are plenty of primary and sub ‘channels’ available if you just want to communicate between the pair of you and avoid others)

 

When choosing a model check the battery options.  Supplied rechargeable battery packs will last the day or a weekend for most people 

But if you’re very vocal, when they start to get old, or if you forget to charge them then it’s very useful to have ones that you can pop out the battery pack and put in some AAAs etc

[BoneyT]

That’s really helpful, many thanks!

[EDcase]

Yep, thanks for the info guys.

Sounds like a bit too much fiddly hassle for me though 😏

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by EDcase

[Rogerborg]

11 minutes ago, EDcase said:

Sounds like a bit too much fiddly hassle for me though 😏

 

 

That's where PMR446 radios come in.  They're generally very simple, just pick a channel out of 16 and push-to-talk.

 

On all but the most basic you can select a CTCSS "sub channel", but realistically at a typical airsoft site you won't have to, just switch to another channel if you get cross-talk.

 

They are fun and add another aspect to the LARPing, but consider the difficulty in communicating with or inspiring fellow airsofters even when they're in the same foxhole.

[EDcase]

Yeah, I've done a search for PMR446 WTs and found the Retevis RT24 and Baofeng BF888s look interesting.

I'll see at my next game if they would come in handy.

 

[Barny]

19 minutes ago, EDcase said:

Yeah, I've done a search for PMR446 WTs and found the Retevis RT24 and Baofeng BF888s look interesting.

I'll see at my next game if they would come in handy.

 

Ive got the uv5r, never had any use for it as I've no friends 😥

[EvilMonkee]

Yeh 2W is enough to reach the moon.....

[Rogerborg]

11 hours ago, Barny said:

Ive got the uv5r, never had any use for it as I've no friends 😥

 

A solution presents itself in three words...

 

9 hours ago, EvilMonkee said:

Yeh 2W is enough to reach the moon.....

 

Horny. Moon. Princesses.