BAOFENG - UV9RPlus - Radio Review

 Hello and Welcome Back... Taking a look at the Baofeng - UV9RPlus..

 

I recently purchased a Baofeng radio, the UV9RPlus after my son took my trusty Baofeng GT3 camping and decided to keep it...

Has it improved in a few years between the GT3 & the UV9RPlus ?...

NO

First thing i noticed once i got this radio is the lack of the little twin headphone socket type programming input, instead changing it to a flat pin type that needs a different programming cord (that doesn't come with the radio) (see below)

Why did they change, i hear you ask..? 

Probably because the radio now boasts waterproofing and having 2 headphone type holes in the radio wouldn't help.. Would have been handy to include in the box instead of waiting another month for the cable...

The second thing that annoyed me was the microphone input. There is a tiny hole in the front and you literally have to yell into the radio to get across the radio waves.. I tested the UV9RPlus listening on another radio and could hardly hear myself.. 

The solution was to get a very small drill bit and bevel out the plastic hole so that its a little bigger being careful not to push too hard in and damage the microphone... the end result (below)

While drilling out the small hole probably took away the waterproofing a bit, at least you can hear the radio transit now.. and i'm not going to have it near water anyway..

Another thing i noticed was the arrow up & down buttons have to be pushed hard to get them to change..

On the Good Side, it was cheap... only $45 - 60 on Ebay but be sure to get a programming cable or you could try to manual program the radio, if you have a spare few hours or so..

#Baofeng

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