Baofeng BF-A5 reviews

Picked one of these UHF transceivers from a local amateur radio event for a very small amount of money. The first thing to say, is it is useless without a programming lead and software. The good news is that the lead is the same as other Baofeng HT's and the software is available from the Baofeng site. Use the BF-480 programming software, NOT the BF-888S one. The BF-A5 I purchased had scrambler set. This is easily sorted out with the software under "Beat Freq"

Once programmed, the radio performed far better than expected, and makes a good back-up HT. Working the local 70cm repeater, the radio gave good TX audio reports and has a fairly decent loudspeaker on receive. It may have no LCD display, but with audio announcements for power on and channel number, it is easy to use.

You get what you pay for, and the BF-A5 may not win any prizes. It does however get you an adequate 70cm HT (If you are a licensed Ham) for local contacts, for a very small amount of money.