Well, I don't know about "well under", the usual price from the China/HK sellers is around $48. Or buy from a US seller with US support for $65 at www.importcommunications.com . But at less than $50, these really are practically disposable. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Aug 30, 2012, at 4:38 PM, Colin McDonald <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> no, it doesn't talk much more than most of the common chinese ht's.
> However, it sells for under 50 bucks which gives you the radio, antenna, 
> desktop charger with wallwart and an ear bud head set.
> It has a full key pad and you can enter frequencies directly, as well as use 
> the key pad to access menus and make menu setting changes.
> It's a well made radio, has 4.5W output on VHF and UHF, and also has dual 
> stand by so you can monitor two frequencies at once, though not listen to 
> both simultaniously if you get my meaning.
> Basically it flips between two frequencies, if you want, and stops on which 
> ever one is busy.
> It does verbalize quite allot, though not frequency yet.
> What it doesn't verbalize is pretty basic and nothing that can't be easily 
> confirmed or set via the keypad.
> You can enter tones directly with the keypad as well making it easier to 
> know what you have set.
> It's similar to the wouxun uv d1p and d2p radios, but half the cost.
> It's also smaller than the d1 or d2p wouxuns.
> It's also compatible with kenwood and wouxun accessories like speaker mikes 
> and programming cables.
> I suspect it's the low cost that has made it quite a sensation around the 
> world.
> there are currently well over 2500 members on the uv5r yahoo group, and that 
> is probably a fairly small representation of the number of people who 
> actually own one.
> On the technical side, the UV5R has probably the best receiver sensativity 
> specs I've ever seen at 0.13UV on the VHF portion of the ham band, and 
> 0.14UV on UHF.
> harmonics are pretty good, though it does exceed minus 40DBC on the third 
> harmonic of VHF, which happens to be in the amateur UHF band anyway...the 
> rest of the harmonics on both VHF and UHF are far below 40DBC.
> The third harmonic on VHF is something like 37DBC, so 3 DB out of spec.
> The buttons on the UV5R are easy to feel and are a bit bigger than say on 
> the ic t90A or the th F6A.
> You have reverse and power adjustment functionality with single buttons on 
> the keypad, along with Scan.  It has full 16 button  DTMF capability on TX 
> as well.
> It even has ANI and PTT ID along with DTMST functionality for commercial 
> applications.
> you have full ctcss for rx and tx as well, and you can even set different 
> tones for tx and rx if you want.
> 
> The rx audio is very clear and commercial grade loud if you want.
> 
> You also of course have full tx between 136-174 and 400-470 out of the box, 
> and 136-180 and 400-512 with software modification.
> 
> Manual programming from the key pad to store memories and so on is very easy 
> as well.  You don't NEED software to program this radio...none of the 
> current software is accessible yet anyway.
> 
> hope that answers some of your questions?
> 
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Butch Bussen" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 11:39 AM
> Subject: Re: Baofeng UV-5R
> 
> 
>> Does this radio talk more than the others?  I must have missed posts on
>> this one.  Just curious what makes it better?
>> 73
>> Butch
>> WA0VJR
>> Node 3148
>> Wallace, ks.
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012, Bob
>> Martin wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi, Group:
>>> 
>>> Last night, I spent a whole bunch of time learning about The  Baofeng =
>>> UV-5R.  What an amazing package for the money.  Going to put the bug in =
>>> Santa's ear and hope that radio gets here by Christmas or sooner.  Some =
>>> of the material I reviewed on line came from members of this group and =
>>> that fact assured me that I won't make a mistake getting one.  The only =
>>> guilt trip is that I have 2 ADI HTs which work OK and which I can use =
>>> with sighted assistance programming.  I paid twice the going price of =
>>> The  Baofeng UV-5R for the 2 meter one and three times the price for the 
>>> =
>>> 440.
>>> 
>>> 73:
>>> Bob
>>> KC3FI
>>> EchoLink Node - 55127
>>> Please visit http://www.wan-leatonks.net.
>>> 
>>>