Review on 📻 Enhanced BAOFENG UV-82 VHF UHF FM Dual Band Transceiver Two Way Radio by Tyler Kota

This radio isn't for the casual user looking for an FRS or VHF radio, but it's great when you need both and flexibility. Programming a radio for the frequencies FRS, GMRS and VHF is laborious. I made a Youtube video that explains exactly how to do this with no prior HAM experience. Search "Baofeng FRS GMRS VHF Programming UV-82 UV-5R" on Youtube. Most of the videos I've seen were based on HAM experience or didn't show the whole process, but mine is for beginners with no experience at all. The main problem with the radio is that it is difficult to set the FRS/GMRS privacy codes. While most FRS/GMRS radios have a very quick menu item for setting this code, you cannot set it on a computer programmed channel as I will show. Why program channels? Because manual programming takes forever and doesn't give you channel names. So you really want to use the CHIRP software to program it, but then you have to make sure none of the channels have private codes (CTCSS), otherwise you won't even be able to hear transmissions unless you have the same private code. They really should have allowed per-channel CTCSS settings to be overridden, as some settings do. The solution is that if someone tells you to connect to channel A using privacy code B, you must carefully reverse engineer frequency channel A and then switch to frequency mode to get that frequency, then the CTCSS code reverse engineer and eventually you will probably want to save it as a channel and switch back to channel mode. Wow! Two other annoying issues I've encountered and others have mentioned is that the programming cable, even if it's an OEM Baofeng cable (ignore the sticker or the shape because mine wouldn't be OEM by that standard should, but it was). be pressed or rubberized to the radio so that it works reliably. The second problem is that the squelch is practically useless. Some channels have interference and no digital squelch can turn it off, unlike analog radio with a squelch control where you can turn channels off at any time. A major design flaw is that FRS channels 1-7 and 15-22 are not limited to 2W. as required by the FCC. You can change this manually or in CHIRP, but it must be included in the firmware. Still, amazing technology for $25 if you're willing to be the programmer and provide tech support to whoever uses it.