

Out of the box you are able to program it from the on board keypad. So the battery test results should be viewed as scanning\standby life. During the battery test I did transmit a few times, but it wasn’t anywhere near constant usage. Due to a snow storm that was approaching my area I decided to stop the test and place it back on the charger in the event I needed it, but I’m fairly confident that it would last another 24-36 hours. I wanted to see how long the battery would last, so I left it powered on continuously for over 24 hours while scanning the thirty-some repeaters and other frequencies I have programmed, and the battery meter only went down about 30%. Powering it on for the first time in about 8 months I was amazed to see a full 100% charge on the battery. It was fully charged when I put it in the backpack, and I recently pulled it back out to spend some time trying to program it. During this time it wasn’t even powered on. Now I must say that once I purchased and installed a mobile rig in my vehicle the 5R got little use, and was kept in my backpack that I carry to work every day. You cannot beat that!Īfter using this little rig for a year I have to admit I really like it.

As of the date of this posting, the current price on Amazon is $29.40 plus shipping. I was attracted to the price immediately. A fellow ham friend of mine (my Elmer – if you don’t understand the term “Elmer” just click here) pointed me towards the UV-5R as the radio I should possibly start out with. I basically wanted something inexpensive that would allow access to the local repeaters I have in my area. Being a newbie to the ham radio hobby, I didn’t want to invest several hundred (or even thousands) of dollars just starting out. About a year ago I purchased a Baofeng UV-5R as my first dual-band handheld radio.
