A Radio I Hate To Like

I make no secret of the fact that I don't like Chinese products, of any type. From hand tools to computers to major appliances. It's not a quality or value for money issue, it's geopolitics. China is at war with the US. Most Americans are blissfully ignorant and don't understand what's going on. They are delighted that cheap Chinese goods are on the shelves and in the aisles of every retailer across the US. But here's the disturbing part - China is well aware that they are in an economic, geopolitical, and even low intensity non-kinetic war with us. Worse, we're helping them fund this war. Every Chinese manufactured item you buy, whether it's a $1.00 bag of washers from Amazon, or a $1,500 refrigerator from Home Depot, a portion of that sale goes directly into the coffers of the the Communist Chinese Party and the People's Liberation Army. 

Sadly, Chinese made products can not be completely avoided. Decades ago many well established US brands like Apple and Microsoft raced to move production to China. At the time it made good economic sense. Those goods were labor intensive to manufacture, China had plenty of cheap labor, and the country was hungry for business in the high-tech fields. This relationship came at a long-term cost to the US and her allies; in exchange for dirt-cheap labor, China was using this new manufacturing relationship to strangle our domestic manufacturers struggling with high labor costs, and to steal our technology.

How does this intersect with today's topic - a radio I hate to like? Well, I recently needed to get familiar with the CHIRP radio programming software, and understand how to use it to program Baofeng handheld radios. Problem was, I don't have any Baofengs. I never had any respect for them. Someone gave me a  UV-5R years ago (or maybe it was a door prize) and after playing with it for a time I concluded it was an ugly piece of work, both in design and function. But at around $20/radio I could understand why they are so popular. My preference is for the Japanese manufactured Icom and Yaesu HTs.

OK, but I still needed a cheap Baoefeng to practice on. While trolling the internet for Baofeng pricing I remembered Josh over at Ham Radio Crash Course singing the praises of the relatively new Baofeng Mini (UV-5R Mini). He touted the form factor and overall build quality, which was much better than the original 5R, and the fact that in all tests, it was 'clean' on both 2 meters and 70 centimeters. The ARRL did a review and gave it a passing grade for spurious emissions. 

In fact, at the 2026 Huntsville Hamfest, Josh dropped by the ARRL area where they were set up to do testing on HTs that visitors wanted to have checked. When Josh asked them, they commented that every Mini they tested had passed the emissions test with no problem.

So off to Amazon I went, and found that the Mini's were selling for $30 for a two pack - two radios, two antennas for each, and more. I figured for $15 dollars/radio I couldn't go wrong. All I really needed them for was to practice CHIRP programming. 

This is the current deal on Amazaon - $34 for two, but it's a better deal than I got since it includes
two speaker mics and two earpieces

When the package arrived I was pleasantly surprised. The build quality and ergonomics are both very good - I mean really good. The screen, though small, is clear, and has good resolution. The backlit keypad is very well laid out and although the keys are small, they are easy for my fingers to hit without making mistakes. The sound is remarkably good. It's not Kenwood good, but for the radio's size it is very clear with good range, and the volume can be cranked up with minimal distortion. I get good audio reports from the folks on the repeater, so no problems there.

Charging is simple - you charge the battery pack directly via its own USB port. This means you can charge batteries when off the radio. 

The only drawback I've found is that the supplied stubby antenna sucks and the longer antenna is too heavy for the little radio. The stubby is a true dummy load - it gets HOT when used on 2 meters. It's OK for 70 cm, and as I use the radio around my neighborhood I can easily hit our local UHF repeater on 444.600 using the stubby. Most of the time, however, I'm using a Diamond SRH320 I had laying around. 

The package available on Amazon does not include a programming cable, but those are available for about $8.00. The cable uses an FTDI chip, so make sure you download the FTDI driver on your computer before using it.

Although the radio is a bit chunky, that makes it feel really nice in the hand, and it's still small enough to carry comfortably in a shirt pocket.

Left-to-right, the Icom ID-52, the Baofeng Mini and the diminutive and oh-so-cute Yaesu C-508A

Are there any negatives? When you consider this is a $15 dollar radio my answer is no, not really. In fact, it's far better than I would have expected for a radio that costs about what a coffee and a breakfast sandwich will run you at your local Starbucks. 

If you know me you know that I can't do a review of something without getting a little philosophical. I'm impressed with this little radio because it's both a very good radio that offers exceptional value, but also because it fills a niche that the big name Japanese manufacturers abandoned a while ago - the inexpensive yet high quality starter handheld radio. I can't knock Icom or Yaesu for making the decision to leave this market segment to the Chinese. I'm sure someone in the Icom product development lab looked at the Baofeng Mini and said, "Hell, we can't compete with that". 

Do I feel a little guilty about intentionally buying a Chinese made product? Honestly, I do. But I also realize there's no other options available in this low priced handheld radio market. I'm soothed by the fact that Chinese Communist Party's profit off of my $30 will barely cover the cost of a paper napkin in a People's Liberation Army mess hall.

So to wrap it up, this little radio is now one of my daily drivers. I slip it into my shirt pocket when I'm out walking the dogs and can ragchew with my friends on the local repeaters. If I drop it and it breaks, or I get caught in a downpour and it gets fried, no worries. It's a $15 dollar radio, and I've got a second one sitting in my shack ready to go.

Recommended.

W8BYH out

(Quick update. While writing this review I found out that Baofeng has introduced an update to this Baofeng UV-5R Mini. The update is confusingly named the 'Mini Baofeng UV-5R' It too is available on Amazon at a slightly higher package price. Reports are it's essentially the same radio, but with a changed keypad layout, slightly better audio and better filtering for the air band frequencies.)