Review on Radioddity 10 Watt Programming Batteries Earpiece by Mike Davis

Appearance: The radio makes a very solid impression. More like a brick than a bar of soap to describe the BF-UV82. The antenna and volume knob are swapped, but that's a very minor thing (all my other HTs have the antenna on the left and the volume knob on the right). The orange keys contrast perfectly with the black case. Functionality: One of the biggest improvements is the display. This display is very bright and easy to read. Channel names can contain up to 10 characters. The updated menu simplifies keyboard programming. This radio uses standard Kenwood 2-pin accessories and SMA-F antennas. The speaker is very loud and clear, making the QSO easy to understand. Power: This radio is advertised as a 10 watt radio with transmit power. When I connected this radio to my SURECOM SW-102 SWR/Wattmeter along with my MFJ-261 Dry Load Breadboard, I got the following: Low* UHF @ 444MHz - 7.44W High, 5.69W Average, 0, 96 watts on low when tested on US ham radio on the 2m and 70cm bands. Some of the loss is likely due to cable losses between the meter and the radio. Transmit/Receive: In my experience, this radio is very sensitive to reception - on par with my Yaesu RT65. Transmission to the included rubber duck antenna worked great for very local repeaters and simplies at all power levels. When I hooked it up to my Nagoya NA771 and Radioddity RD-771, the radio worked even better and I was able to broadcast to a repeater 40km away (it's on a mountaintop). My transmission voice messages were also very good. Programming: This radio is very easy to program using the keypad and menus. Easy to understand. Unfortunately, CHIRP does not support this radio yet, BUT Radioddity has programming software for this radio on their website. Their programming software is very simple. Recommendation: Since Revain doesn't give a half star, I'm giving it 4.5/5 stars. The biggest critic is the radio, which lacks the nominal power of 10 watts. Otherwise this is a very solid walkie-talkie for a beginner tech grade user. It is durable and very easy to use. I definitely recommend this radio for new/beginners. PROS: * New updated and easy to read display * User-friendly menu allows for easy programming from the radio * Loud speaker, clear transmission * 2 batteries included * The radio itself looks really sharp! Again, this was probably due to the cable between the radio and my Surecom SW-102 meter. * No CHIRP support yet. Radioddity is working with CHIRP to add the GA-510 to their list of compatible devices.* No built-in inter-band repeater capability.