Review on Black BAOFENG UV-5R Dual Band Two-Way Radio by Steven Gray

The box says professional, but inside the instructions say Amateur, which I regard as slyness. Like, amateur walkie-talkies. Everything you need for work is included in the kit - a lithium battery, a mains charger, an antenna, a clip and a wired hands free headset. We chose red walkie-talkies, although black and several other variations were available. The case is made with high quality, does not creak, but its shape is somehow frivolous. Reminds me of a toy. The walkie-talkies are really small, almost miniature. Sold in boxes one at a time, we took two pieces. The buttons are good quality rubber. Surprised, when you press the buttons, the radio confirms with a voice. In English or Chinese (or you can turn it off). The LCD screen has a multi-colored backlight. In standby, receiving or transmitting mode, the screen lights up in different colors. The main function of the walkie-talkie is simple. Press the PTT button and speak, release and listen. Otherwise, there were questions at first. At first glance, the control of the radio is complex and incomprehensible. The instruction is in English only. But everything is written clearly, so I sat down and figured out what was what in 10 minutes. It is convenient that the radio can operate not only in the fixed frequency channel mode, but also in the frequency selection mode. Take it yourself and enter the operating frequency with numbers. With this feature, I was able to quickly tune the walkie-talkie to the frequency of one of the radio channels of our old walkie-talkies, and now we have four walkie-talkies, turned out, that can communicate with each other. If anyone thinks that the voice confirmation of the pressed buttons, the backlight of the screen and other "whistles" only eat up the battery, then keep in mind that everything is turned off in the menu. There are four levels of battery saving mode. The walkie-talkie can work as a conventional FM radio receiver, and the frequency range is wider than that of car radios or music centers. Something from 65 megahertz to 108 megahertz. There is a built-in flashlight, like on some push-button cell phones. It can constantly shine, or it can blink, giving an alarm signal. The radios hold a charge well, but in the active operation mode, the batteries last for a work shift of 8-9 hours. The noise filter works well, the "left signals" almost do not break through. It seems to me that the real power is not 5 W, but less, since the signal from the basement still passes with strong interference (although the old walkie-talkies only transmitted hiss from there). But the sound quality is very high. It looks like it's broadband. Not like on those old police radios, on which it was impossible to make out either the voice of the speaker or the text that he utters. Two frequencies are displayed on the screen in the operating mode. Conventionally, these are A and B. If something is wrong on one, you can switch to another with one button. It's comfortable! True, it is inconvenient that if you accidentally switch to another, you will not hear if you are called from the first. For professionals, walkie-talkies have some codes, ciphers, tones, you can connect the walkie-talkies to a computer through a special cable that is not included in the kit and change these system settings. I did not quite understand, but it seems that on our scale this is not required. The range in the city is highly dependent on buildings, power lines and interference, and can be described as quite good. 500-1000 meters exactly. What puzzled me a little is that 135MHz and 27MHz are not supported, that is, you can’t catch the driver’s wave.