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Comment by dbcurtis | Hacker News Reader

Please don’t get a Baofeng. Those things put out incredibly dirty signals. They are RF polution you can carry in your pocket.

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Do not listen to this person. The baofengs are perfectly fine radios which have gotten thousands of people re interested in ham radio. I have probably a dozen various models of them and use them for all sorts of things and love every part of it.

The GP is right though. Their specs suck; the only upside is that they’re cheap to buy new.

For the value, you’re better buying a used Kenwood or Yaesu.

Oh cool, which model? Where should I buy one? Can I buy 10 of them to pass out at burning man as 911 radios?

What are your needs? eBay/hamswap/craigslist. You shouldn't; handing out a radio designed for licensed radio spectrum to random people would be irresponsible.

Hmmmm, a fair point, though at the same time most countries allow you to use any radio without a license for emergency purposes -- I don't have an amateur radio license yet, but keep a cheapo Baofeng on me when we go offroading or hiking outside of cell-reception. Could honestly save a life. If it's all you have, hang on to it!

Emergency use is explicitly allowed by the FCC. And thank god. We’ve had to call 911 over the baofengs for life threatening emergencies in the past and have very probably saved at least one persons life.

I know that in the US "amateur stations" may use "any means at its disposal to attract attention..." as allowed under part 97. I'm a ham, so I'm qualified under those rules.

I've never heard of permission for unlicensed operators. Do you have a source you could point me towards? Preferably something from the FCC, or a law that pertains to them.

It’s part of part 97 like you’re saying:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/97.403

> § 97.403 Safety of life and protection of property. No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.

It defines as amateur station as:

> (5) Amateur station. A station in an amateur radio service consisting of the apparatus necessary for carrying on radiocommunications.

Which I read is being related to the physical equipment.

I’m also almost positive that this was a question my license test.

At the risk of becoming a totally-internet-lawyer, `amateur radio service` is defined in `(2) amateur radio service` which refers to `(4) amateur service` which has the wording `duly authorized persons`.

I don't think it breaks down the way you read it. /But/ in an emergency, it probably won't matter to you if it helps you live through the emergency.

Quite apart from their quality, a VHF handheld is possibly the most boring possible introduction to amateur radio. There is so much more you can do that is so much more interesting than hearing 80 year old retirees talk about their prostates on the local repeaters.

Does this imply there's a radio frequency that's not dominated by retirees? ;)

HF feels considerably harder to get into. If you're a city dweller your only antenna choice is probably a magloop. VHF has options for things like satellite and ISS contacts, and the fact that it's local makes it seem a bit more relevant and community-driven.

2.4 GHz ;)

Hmm not sure I agree, I was able to pick up SSTV transmissions from local amateurs and from the freakin' International Space Station, by decoding the audio signal with my iPhone.... That was pretty amazing and fun, with just a cheapo HT. That said, for even less $$ you can get an RTL-SDR and pick up soooooo much cool stuff :)

Even worse for me. Local 2m users are quite nasty people here. They’re either plainly racist Brexit fanboys or hate their wives and nothing else.

You'll get old too...

I am old already! I’m just not nasty :)

Look at the Baofeng data collected by ARRL:

http://www.nf9k.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ARRL-Lab-HT-T...

And others:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjEl6dciLS0

I have one, but I only listen with it. Cheapest radio ever. It's better than having no radio at all! For example in an emergency, or when you're on forest service roads that logging trucks drive down (where they are required to broadcast their position over radio) :)

What would you recommend instead?

I've heard that kind of argument before and the usual recommendation is a setup that costs hundreds of dollars.

Basically, it's gatekeeping.

Nah, it's pretty fair to recommend against Baofeng if the person wants to actually make regular, long-term use of their radio, especially for transmission. This guy did some tests with a UV5R to show just how out of [FCC] spec it is https://imgur.com/a/up2ne -- the spurious emissions are clearly noticable. Or watch this video, it's almost scary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs8twTaO62Y Anyways, you can get a totally capable HT for $100. In general I don't think anyone is intentionally gatekeeping. Maybe a couple people, but overall most amateur radio operators just want quality signals coming in :)

Buy a Yaesu.

Is there anything near their price that can get people up and making QSOs that is much better? Possibly the Yaesu FT-4X but that's $85, so considerably more than the UV-5R.

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