BAOFENG UV-5G PRO GMRS Handheld Radio, UHF/VHF/Airband/220MHz/350MHz Scanner & Receiver, GMRS Repeater Capable, Long Range Two Way Radio with Programming Cable 15.5” ANT, Support Chirp, 2 Pack

In our area we can have devastating wildfires and the first thing to go is communication. Without any ability to track a fires progress it becomes impossible to know when and if to evacuate. This is very important when family and livestock are in danger. This small handheld radio allows us and our neighbors to communicate with each other and with local emergency agencies for up to date information. It works great, is simple to operate, has a long battery life and is a nice compact size. We recently ran a neighborhood check and the clarity was first rate. This is a great little radio at an amazingly affordable price.

We use it when off roading to keep in contact with other members in the group. It works very well, the battery life was good, we were on the trail for over 10 hours and it was still almost fully charged at the end of the ride.

This looks exactly like the classic UV-5R model except for the nameplate on the front & the writing in the battery compartment. It seems to take the same batteries, antennas, chargers, external speaker/mic, etc. It comes out of the box ready to go for GMRS channels & NOAA weather channels. It will receive AM air band and marine VHF FM. It does not transmit on air band, marine VHF, nor NOAA channels. The air band & marine VHF frequencies need to be entered manually in MHz. None of that is pre-programmed. It does seem to have a learn button, but I did not actually try to pair it to another radio. I just watched the search indication come on the screen. It is labeled as a GMRS radio & has an FCC ID number. The 2 pack looks to come with a second set of antennas for better performance & a programming cable. The single radio option does not have either. The drop in cradle charger has a 110vac plug coming out of it directly. There is no little power supply with a DC plug. This means that the car charger adapters and USB charge adapters will not fit this cradle. If you want car or USB charging, you will either need to buy a different cradle or buy a battery that accepts a DC charge cable directly. This battery does not have a charge port. It only charges from the cradle. The connector for the earpiece/mic looks to be the usual Kenwood K1 connector that is used on lots of Baofengs. Due to past problems blowing out speakers, I now turn the radio off before connecting or disconnecting a Baofeng to any K1 device. The UV-5G Pro does not appear to be a ham radio. It is unclear if it can be unlocked & turned into a ham radio. Chirp software does not show any frequencies to be disabled for transmit, but they are disabled somehow, perhaps in firmware, perhaps in hardware, I don't know whcih it is & I'm not planning to investigate. The original UV-5R was a ham radio that was capable of operating on GMRS frequencies. The UV-5R GMRS seems to be the same as the UV-5G Pro without the air band option. It also only transmits on the GMRS frequencies. The UV-5R GMRS had the same front label as the ham UV-5R & it was easy to misidentify the two. This one has a different front label & comes with an owners manual that says GMRS on it. If you want a GMRS radio that is probably actually legal to use in the US & also can receive NOAA, Marine, and Air Band, this is likely the radio for you. if you don't need air band, then the UV-5R GMRS can probably save you a few bucks. If you have a ham license, then the original UV-5R is probably what you are looking for & you probably already know that one well. One strange little issue made itself known. When listening to a NOAA weather station that was preprogrammed, the reception sometimes was quite broken & full of static. Changing to frequency mode & punching in the frequency manually gave good reception with slightly lower audio amplitude. Further investigation has determined that some of the NOAA channels in this radio were set up for narrow band reception. It appears that my local NOAA station is still transmitting wider band FM & that caused the issue. There is said to be a migration to Narrow Band operation (2.5mhz) but apparently not all stations are there yet. it seems that some still operate at 5, requiring wide band receiver operation for best results. The antennas that came with this were the best tuned for GMRS of the Baofeng & Abbree antennas that I have tested. In Chirp, this programs as a Baofeng UV-5X

Works as advertised. I just wish they would upgrade these to a USB charger rather than the charging cradle.

So far the work great. Much better range than simple FRS radios and great value. Invaluable communications for safety.

I have an old UV-5RA that I originally bought to use as a scanner (hint: don't bother). I never completely figured out how to work it and found that most of what I wanted to listen to was trunked anyway, but I liked the size, design, and features of the UV-5RA. So when it came time to buy GMRS radios this one caught my eye and I grabbed two. I haven't fully tested it handheld to handheld but I did hit a repeater ~40 miles away with a mag mount antenna on my truck (not included).So far I'm mostly happy with it (more details below), but time will tell. I've had pretty good luck at receiving with the standard antenna and halfway decent luck with the stubby version from Baofeng (not included). I have modified the programming with CHIRP to change the default squelch levels, remove any repeater channels that don't exist locally, add back in the ones I might want to use, and listen in on MURS frequencies. Also ordered some battery packs that can charge in the cradle or with USB-C, seems like a useful addition.One thing I noticed that I'm not a big fan of is that you can't change any settings on saved channels without using the programming cable. This seems kind of silly but some reading indicates this may be an FCC rule. However all the regular FRS spec walkie talkies I've ever seen can at least change CTCSS codes on the fly, and with this I can punch in whatever valid channel config I want in frequency mode then save it as a new channel, so I'm confused. The UV-5RA is the same way so maybe it's just a weird quirk with the firmware. I don't see it being a big problem but swapping codes without programming a new channel or hooking it to a computer would be a nice feature. I have my lower display set to show frequency instead of channel name to make this process a bit easier, should the need arise.Also when scanning for CTCSS / DCS codes this one will time out after several seconds of no activity and exit the menu unless I keep punching the scan button; my UV-5RA will continue to scan until it finds the tone or I tell it to stop. Cannot find any setting to change this, but it's not a deal breaker. For the price I guess I can't complain about any of these things too much.

I have has this radio before and it is great. These already have some programming and I love that! Very easy to use!

Seem to work well. Haven't used a whole lot yet. Able to easily program with Chirp. Would buy again. They would make a great stocking stuffer for Christmas.