Baofeng 5 Watt Handheld $60.00

[Pickle]

Perusing through forums and came across a video review of this little gem of a radio.
Little 5 Watt for $39.00 (Baofeng UV82) and programing lead for $12 ( ebay lead )
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Once programmed you get an 80 channel UHF with FM radio and works a treat. Need to test a bit more out in the bush for range but around the suburbs so far has been impressive.
Heres the youtube review I first spotted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeJ2tzFeHPU&t=546s
Dave

[Ian H]

I've had one for a few years and have been very happy with it. Never tried out any long range communications but around the same area it is fine. No different to the other one I have which is a Uniden.

[NFT5]

128 channels. Are some of those on the ham radio bands?

[pajeromack]

128 channels. Are some of those on the ham radio bands?

Yes. It also does police, marine and emergency services bands.

These radios are not approved for use in Australia. There's a $10,000 fine for possession of a radio transmitter without relevant license, as per the Radiocommunications Act 1992.

That aside, these radios are not particularly good. From a technical perspective they have a wide open front end which leads to receiver desensitisation from nearby commercial channels, especially in metropolitan areas. I found performance to be worse than your average handheld CB radio.