Comment by AmVess | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AmVess | Hacker News Reader

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I have a drawer full of new ones so I can show newbies how bad they are. The three that I have all perform differently; they are the same model.

You got one that may perform closely to specification, but frustration for the newbie arrives when they get one that performs poorly....if at all. This is the norm for Baofeng equipment. So you might spend $35 a few times until you get one that works well, and then another $25 for an actual quality antennae ($10 one you have is 100% a counterfeit). Already, the newbie is down $95 and at this point probably not happy with their new hobby. If they do graduate to more interest, that pile of Baofeng gear will be wasted money in a drawer somewhere.

Also, Yaesu and they like are hardly Pay To Win as you say (whatever that means). $165 is small amount of money for something that will last many years and will function as designed and when needed.

Further, the point of radio gear is to communicate. Try using a Baofeng for anything anywhere important for any length of time, and you'll realize they are nothing more than toys and not suitable for the task.

I think your argument is sound, but what OP is trying to say is, it's a $30 radio- and so long as you don't expect it to perform as well as a $300 radio, then it's fine. I have three Baofengs and they all work spectacularly well, because I purposely purchased non-knockoff models.

For a beginner, who's not sure if it's worth the time and money investing $300 on a radio that might not be used, it's a very good idea to start with a $30 radio first.

As an aside, I feel that consistently denigrating people's choice for less expensive hardware is a very big barrier to the hobby's adoption.

I've had many people tell me that it's one of the things that turned them away from the hobby. Others that still stick around simply avoid discussing what type of radio they're using (not an easy task, when you're rag-chewing, mind) simply because they don't want to deal with these arguments.

Yeah, there's an attitude(you see it a lot WRT the digital modes) to be very dismissive if it wasn't the route you took or a part of the hobby that you care about.

It's a shame because I feel like there's a ton of groups of people(younger, more diverse backgrounds) that would be around if they weren't pushed out. I know a few really sharp people who build their own hardware but got chased off because their aspect of ham radio didn't involve contesting/etc.

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