How to best use a box of Baofengs? (thelemmy.club)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by nocturne@slrpnk.net to c/amateur_radio@lemmy.radio

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I believe they are all BaoFeng UV-5R+/UV5R.

They were recommended for us when off roading to communicate between vehicles, but never seemed to work great at that.

Somewhere I think I still have the usb programming cable for them.

Edit: apparently the intent of my post was lost in my poor wording of the title. It has been updated to better reflect that I would like to use them, but for what? And how?

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[-] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 31 points 1 month ago

They will work well for communication between vehicles, but you need to connect them to mag mount antennas. A car is basically a faraday cage. Radios don't work well inside unless you're running 900 MHz or higher.

[-] DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 month ago

Save them for the collapse of society 😅

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 month ago

Done. Now what?

[-] DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

LOL, I’d suggest a USB power strip to keep them charged. If you really want to get rid of them something like a local Boy Scout troop maybe? Obviously they have issues, there might be some other outfit like a local ARRL group.

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

Well yes, but can they be used as police scanners? Weather update radios? Or are they strictly to communicate with another hand held?

[-] TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

They have a recieve range of 134-176 I think and 420-480, as long as it's standard analog you should be able program in some fun things to listen to.

I have one setup for railroad frequencies and I hear some unique conversations.

[-] DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

My radio dummy tip (I’d definitely not an expert) is definitely go outside when scanning for interesting stuff to listen to. It took me a few afternoons of scanning to find anything, let alone anything interesting. Hopefully you’ll have better luck :-)

[-] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

Send them to me 😁

We use them for Scout camping, and they work pretty well for that, but we're rarely spread out too far and not inside metal cages

[-] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 month ago

Makeshift Repeaters would be an obvious solution :)

[-] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Donate them to storm chasers?

[-] elperronegro@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Apart from use as walkie talkies we can sometimes tune in and listen to the ISS as it passes over our location

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

That sounds neat! Found a guide for it. Also if you use iOS there is a sky app called Night Sky that sends notifications when the iss is about to fly over your location.

https://www.ico-optics.org/how-to-listen-to-iss-on-baofeng/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/night-sky/id475772902

this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2026

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