If you are an amateur radio operator, you most certainly have heard of baofeng radios. About ten years ago, boafeng was the go to cheap radio and it has amassed something of a cult following. I myself have a few UV5R5 versions of this radio and honestly, it works just fine and would do a new ham operator well as a first radio. However, has the baofeng met it’s match? There is a new kid in town and this radio can do a lot of things that the baofeng can’t but does that make the other radio better or is it just a toy?
Retevis came out with a radio called the RA79 and it seems to be a clone of the quansheng radio that can be found on amazon. This radio is very similar to the baofeng UV-5r with one major difference. The chip set is hackable and some really smart people have done just that. The good people at https://github.com/egzumer/uv-k5-firmware-custom/releases have released upgraded firmware for this radio giving it so many options you will be giggling like a school girl as you read more about it.
It would seem that the Retevis RA79 can transmit on some HF bands now. That’s right, your Retevis handheld can talk on 10 and 15 meters as well as 6 meters and a slew of other frequencies. Imagine that, your dual band vhf/uhf radio can now communicate on many more frequencies than before. That isn’t all, there is even a waterfall feature and so much more.
The Retevis RA-79 is am amazing radio that can do so much more than even expensive radios and I have to wonder if this is the future of ham radio.
If you haven’t had a chance to look at these radios, please take a moment to look at them. I really think you will be amazed at what these inexpensive radios can do. I know I was surprised when I got my hands on one.
Load of uninformed bollocks. Do not try to tx on HF with this; QRM.