Wrightracing.net wrote:I am thinking about the Boafeng UV-5R+ Price $38
So what is your long term experience??? What do you have?
I have 3 Boafeng UV-5R that I use regularly and they still work great after a couple years of Arizona/Baja heat and dust... Just ordered the new BaoFeng BF-F8HP, which is an 8 watt vhf version of the UV-5R, thus the "HP" high power name. The first one I got would not charge, so I returned it and I am waiting on the new replacement to arrive this thursday. Amazon is really good on the returns. I just printed off a shipping label for free and UPS picked it up.
Technically, I believe the new boafeng 8 watts is not a legal handheld transceiver. They are limited to 5 watts for FCC compliance.
I also think and "shootouts" that don't use the exact same antenna configuration from unit to unit is sort of apples and oranges.
Also, if I was to fully disclose my setup... I use a crossbanding receiver pretty much all the time with my handhelds, so for the most part they are as good as my mobile in terms of what I am able to RX/TX.... The handheld works pretty good for a 6-8 miles on the uhf side and the mobile carries the next 20+ miles on the VHF side for the simplex (truck to truck) stuff in Baja.