Bill
The UV-25 Plus Baofeng "Beast" !
This radio, is, without a doubt the beefiest and most solid radio in the Baofeng line, with a 5200 MaH USB-C rechargeable battery that is nearly the entire length of the radio. The on/off knob is really solid, and has a metal fitting on top to stabilize and support its use.
This radio will TX on 3 different amateur radio bands. VHF 2 meter & 220 MHz band and UHF 70 cm band!
After charging, I went through the menu items from the keypad, and it is very similar to the normal Baofeng menu, and will be easy to use if you have any experience with Baofengs or other handheld radios. It is VERY easy to program from the front panel, even with little experience. Instead of the normal shortcuts printed in blue on the keypad, it is actually like a cell phone keypad for entering alphanumerics for frequencies and channel names. Very nice!!!
I used a normal Baofeng programming cable and was able to enter a few banks of frequencies (yes, you can now set up 10 "zones" of 100 channels or frquencies each and select the bank or zone you want to use). Selecting UV 21 Pro model within CHIRP works great, as does the factory CPS software. No surprises here!
The radio not only came with a good size flexible gooseneck antenna that allow easy adjustment for chest packs, but it also came with a little "stubby" antenna for shorter range, lower power ops.
It also came with a very nice carrying case with a shoulder strap, a charger, a USB C cable for charging and a speaker mic and the usual earpiece/mic. A lanyard also came with it as well as a belt clip. With the size and weight of this radio, I left the belt clip off so my pants wouldn't fall down, and the carrying case was perfect for carrying it.
The initial testing on all 3 bands showed an incredibly clean signal with any harmonics well below legal limits. They were VERY WELL BELOW, and I am impressed with how clean of a signal it puts out.
The ad said it was a 10 watt radio. While I have never seen ANY handheld radio put out exactly what it advertised, this radio did EXACTLY THAT! I measured a full 12 watts on high power (no I didn't use the antenna it came with near my head) on 144.50 and slightly below 8 on 220MHz. I did get 9.87 on the 440 band! Very impressive to finally buy a radio that does what it promises. I was able to hit a repeater about 17 miles from my house that is sometimes hit and miss with my other "5 watt" handhelds. Listening back on another radio, it was clear, very well modulated and full quieting into the repeater. About 4 other operators made contact on other local repeaters and gave great signal reports back. The audio from the speaker was actually pretty loud at full volume, and should serve everyone well even in noisy environments.
This radio also has GPS (which only took 1 minute to lock on position outside. It also locked on position in my 2 story house on the bottom floor) and is able to transmit location information to other UV-25 Plus radios and I learned that Baofeng said it will be forward compatible with any newer GPS equipped radios they produce. I didnt have any other capable radios to check it, but I did monitor it on an SDR and did hear the position info go out when it was sent.
Overall, I really like this radio. It is a BEAST! More than TWICE the ouput of other handheld radios, almost 3 times the normal battery capacity, and a very clean operating system and clean output. Is it heavier? Yep. Is it bigger? Yep. Feels like a real radio. That battery is gonna last an extremely long time on lower power outputs, but has the power to really blast a clean signal when you need to. The display is nice and large and although it does wash out slightly in sunlight as all color LCD screens do, I found it to be easily readable even in bright light.
Oh, AND it receives airband AM and FM broadcast frequencies as well, with very clear sound.
With the bigger battery, all the included accesories and tons of resources and support from a well known radio manufacturer, I think this radio provides extremely good value.
The shipping from Sharkoo, who is an authorized Baofeng distributor, was lightning fast and communication was great. I may have a reason to give away my UV5's and upgrade to a couple more of the UV-25 Plus. I think it will prove to be a dependable and solid performer.
