I agree that the UV88 has some advantages over & is better quality than the UV5R I probably would only use the 10 watt setting if I'm way out in the boonies & need extra oomph I was hoping to find a US reseller & try one out, I may see what it would take to buy from the Canadian reseller & hope there's not too many hoops to jump through with Postal, Customs, etc It's definitely a CCR, but for US$30, it doesn't feel or perform like a bottom tier disposable. Belt clip goes on the battery, not the radio itself.ĭespite these annoyances, I think the TYT TH-UV98l offers more bang for the buck than a Baofeng UV-5R.Battery life seems a little bit shorter.Front panel menu / programming is fairly similar to UV-5R a bit more intuitive in many ways, but there's some not-so-obvious menu options.Occasionally defaults to a split channel A / VFO B mode (or vice versa), but no way to do it manually or in software.Have to pre-tune frequencies or channels, and upload to CHIRP or TYT software, to set them as the default channels for reset.NOAA 162.55 on A? Here's the B tuner instead. When tuning to a NOAA weather channel in dual listen mode, sometimes the receiver will switch to the other tuner.Defaults to lower / B tuner after reset.("Colors" in the documentation really means light level.) No way to set or extend the LCD backlight time.Touchy volume control that goes from silent to LOUD in a 10 degree turn.Can't press and hold up/down buttons to quickly advance through channels or frequencies.Up button is left of the down button, like this:.One-time keypress combo to unlock expanded coverage.CHIRP support isn't as complete as with the UV-5R.You have to hunt down a downloadable version yourself, and it's not on the English language version of the TYT site. It's also for Windows only, and only works when I run it as an administrator, both on a dedicated Windows machine, or Bootcamp on an Intel Mac.
TYT UV8000E VS BAOFENG SOFTWARE
TYT programming software has a lot of Chinglish.Quirks and annoyances, compared to the UV-5R
TYT UV8000E VS BAOFENG MANUAL
The Retevis version of the owner's manual is online, and it's much better than the Chinglish TYT manual, or the regular UV-5R manual. The Retevis RT85 is the same radio in a slightly different case.Definitely NOT kosher on 2m / 70cm amateur bands in the US. Probably not a feature most of us will use. Three FM modes - narrow, mid, and wide.LCD display is much brighter and easier to read.When I used a Unicode star for one of the color star channels, the display showed something that looked a bit like a mangled star symbol.) (I think it might support some Unicode, too, although I don't know for sure. Memory names can use both uppercase and lowercase letters.(No memory names for FM broadcast radio, though.) 26 dedicated memories for FM broadcast radio.Not nearly as prone to overloading, or randomly breaking squelch when there's no carrier, even with the squelch set to 1.Buttons have a tighter "snap", and the "underbutton" feels less likely to slip out of place.
Supports CHIRP, though it doesn't offer the same level of customization as with the UV-5R.
(A "proper" Baofeng programming cable doesn't work, despite looking similar.)