discoverfullpac

Well this is my first time posting in the Amateur Radio sections here at RR. I had posted some pics and initial impressions of my new Baofeng UV-B5 in the Shack Photos sections here at RR. I've only seen one other thread here referencing the radio and the person that started that thread had just ordered his. There is also a model UV-B6 that has a flashlight on top that replaces the channel/encoder knob. If anyone is interested here is a link to the thread I posted in the Shack Photo's section here at RR :
http://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/267105-new-ht-baofeng-uv-b5.html
Link to the Baofeng website with radio specs :
Product_BAOFENG official website_baofengradio.com
This little radio packs an awesome punch. It covers from 136-174 and 400-470 continuously. I'm going soon to take my ham exam, but I also am involved with emergency services as well as the Red Cross in local disaster response and currently working on training for the Disaster Services Technology team. One of the main reasons I picked the UV-B5 was the wide freq coverage & I needed something that was 'frequency agile' that could be set up in a pinch in case I didn't have time to get my Motorola's or Kenwoods set up, or if something changed while in the field.
It will do 5 watts on both VHF & UHF, and I've not noticed any degredation in performance even at the edges of the coverage bands. It will do scanning of the 99 memory channels, but it is somewhat slow. It also has a dual watch feature where you can select 2 different channels and it will 'bounce' back and forth about every 1.5 - 2 seconds, which could be perceived as a 'dual receive' by some but it's not truly a dual receive capable unit. It is programmable from the radio itself (VFO mode), PC software from Baofeng or the daily CHIRP software. You can assign alpha tags from the PC software or manually from the radio itself but it is limited to only 5 characters which can hamper things if you're trying to tag a ham repeater by the call sign if it exceeds that number. The radio comes with a 2000mah Li-Ion battery and drop in 'intelligent charger'. Only thing I've noticed about the charger is that the green light stays on all the time until you drop in the radio. I've gotten almost 36 hours out of one charge with moderate transmitting before the battery dropped to an unusable level. It has a dual band whip with the standard SMA connectors like Motorola and KW use. It has an orange button on top that acts as an emergency alarm. When pressed it transmits an alert 'siren' type noise on the selected channel and gives you a hot mic until you press the orange button again to clear it. On the left side of the body it has a PTT and 2 side buttons. As of right now only one of the side buttons works and it's assigned a momentary monitor which breaks squelch and then goes back to CTCSS/DCS when released. Hopefully somewhere along the way someone will come up with a way to use the other button.
I can't think of anything else obvious to hit on but if you have any questions please feel free to ask. If anyone wants I'll be happy to shoot you guys more pictures other than what I posted in the other thread. Thanks for looking !!!
** I forgot to mention that I purchased the radio on Amazon for $49.99 shipped from China. From the night I ordered it until it arrived at my doorstep was roughly 7 or 8 days.
EDIT - I decided to repost the pics here also to save everyone from having to go to another page. Hope you enjoy them and if anyone wants a more specific shot please let me know !!!
Full front shot

Close up shot of the UV-B5 display and buttons

Top

Antenna connector showing frequencies covered

Chasis shot showing factory sticker

Back of radio and battery

Radio in charger

Box and manual (Ignore the flashlight reference on the box as they use the same one for the B5 & B6