Communications during disasters or for providing security for a large geographical area is of high importance. There are many different manufacturers of radios and a whole plethora of different technologies and features that can be put into them. One of the radio manufacturers that I am sure you may have heard of in the prepper community is Baofeng. One of the main reasons many preppers have one of these radios is because of the price, they go for around $30 - $60 for most of their models. So what exactly does the Baofeng radio do? Let me go over some legal aspects and why some radio operators need a license and others do not.Ham radio is the go-to way of communicating either a short distance or around the world with the right equipment. Anybody that wants to transmit on any of the ham radio bands needs a license that permits them to use the frequencies allowed for their particular license. The technician license is the most restrictive and needs to be the first test that you pass to get a ham license. Most licensed hams stick with this license since they are only interested in using the VHF and UHF bands. Two of the most common bands are the 2 meter band (144 MHz) and 70 cm band (440 MHz). Most of the Baofeng radios will allow you to talk on either of these bands. The portable versions of these radios can output about 2 - 8 watts of power. Mobile or base radios will generally put out about 50 - 100 watts of power. The antennas on these radios are easily replaceable with better performing ones or to connect a radio to a mobile or base antenna. Before using a Baofeng or any other portable or mobile ham radio, it needs to be programmed with the desired frequencies and offsets and tones if using a repeater.
Another type of radio you can use is the Family Radio Service (FRS) radio. These are the ones you usually find in most stores and usually come in pairs. No license is needed to operate these radios. They are easy to operate since they have few buttons and don't need to be programmed. You just go to the channel and sub-channel that you want and you are good to go. FRS operates on the UHF band, between 462 and 467 MHz and is limited to 2 watts of power. This gives them limited range, maybe a mile or two if you are lucky. Don't be fooled by their packaging that says they have a 20 - 30 mile range. That is just not going to happen, even under the best of circumstances. The antennas on these radios are permanently mounted and cannot be changed. This is done on purpose to keep their range short and interference to a minimum.
CB radio is still used by some people. No license is needed to operate on the CB frequencies. CB uses the HF band, around 27 MHz. Most of them have a set of 40 channels, no programming is necessary. The power limitation is 4 watts on AM. Some CB radios allow you to operate on upper or lower side bands which has a power limit of 12 watts. These are the legal limits, but I can tell you that there are many people out there that are using way more than that. They either modified the radio or are using an RF amplifier to get a farther range. There is also a multitude of different antennas that can be used, either for mobile mounting or base mounting.
Now that we have seen these three types of radios, let's concentrate on what the Baofeng radio can and cannot do. As stated above, we know that the Baofeng radio can be used to talk on the ham radio band, but it will also transmit on other frequencies, such as those used by FRS and GMRS radios. I didn't mention GMRS above because it is only used by businesses and does require a license. Most of the Baofeng radios can also receive stations such as FM broadcast stations or even local public service stations like fire, police and EMS. This can be handy for listening in on what is going on around you. The Baofeng radio also has a dual receive option. On the display are two frequencies that you can listen to at the same time. Good in some situations.
What can't the Baofeng radio do? This is where I know I will get some people mad with what I am about to say. Let's look at programming the Baofeng radios. This can be done with either the keypad on the radio or by using the software and programming cable. The software and programming cable method is by far the easiest and recommended way to go. You can either use the Chirp program or the Baofeng software. One would think using the Baofeng software would be the right way to go, but it isn't. The Baofeng programming software as well as the radio is plagued with bugs. The programming software will not open on your computer unless you have the programming cable plugged into the computer. When the program does load, it loads in the Chinese language and if you don't know what menus to navigate to, it's hard to get it to display English. I'm sure Baofeng is aware of this, since they actually recommend using the Chirp program and not their own.
There are items in the menu you can view using the keypad, but are unable to change unless you use the programming software. One of these options is the Busy Channel Lockout (BCL). Let's say you are scanning your programmed channels and one channel has interference or you do not wish to listen to it, there is no way to skip it without a computer. This is just one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on a radio. Every other radio I have used, you can easily skip or block a channel from the scan.
As for the firmware on the radios, I have seen a couple of times where the radio will stop receiving. You can view the signal strength meter show that it is picking up a signal, but it will not play it over the speaker. This is a glitch in the firmware and is remedied by re-flashing the firmware onto the radio using the Chirp program.
The audio quality on the Baofeng can also be improved. At times it is hard to understand what someone is saying over the radio. If you are in a noisy environment and need to turn the volume up, the audio can become distorted.
The range seems to be limited as well, not what you would expect from such a radio. One day my friend and I did a brief test and maybe only got a one mile range between our two radios. Remember that you get what you pay for. The Baofeng radios are cheap, but they lack the reliability and features of some other ham radios out there.
So if you want to get a radio, what type should you get? If you don't want to get a license, the best bet is to go with a FRS radio. They are easy to operate and are reliable, but with limited range and functionality. If you want more range and don't mind getting a license, ham radio is the way to go, but not with a Baofeng. Some great ham radio manufacturers are Kenwood, Icom and Yaesu. Personally I have the Yaesu VX-6R like the one pictured below. This radio will not only receive everything the Baofeng can, but also other stations like AM radio, air traffic and shortwave radio. It is also much more durable and is water resistant. The only downside with these brands is you will not be able to talk to anyone using the FRS frequencies. They are made for transmitting on the ham bands only. My best advice, if you are going to get your ham radio license, save up a little extra money and get a decent and reliable radio. Baofeng will just give you problems and not be reliable, which is not good in a disaster scenario.
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