I currently have a pair of Baofeng UV-5R radios, looking to add to my collection. Just for local range. I've been looking at the Tidradio TD-H3, Quansheng UV-K5, Baofeng UV-17R Pro, and Radtel RT-470X. They each have features that sound good but I can't decide which to get out of these options.
Disclaimer: I don't know that much about the transmitting side of portable radios, I just turn them into police/fire/emergency services scanners.
But for that purpose (and for the price) I like the Quansheng UV-K5. The firmware is easily flashable and customizable. I like the NOAA alerts and the fact it will pick up FM radio in emergencies. It also apparently has some digital radio decryption features but I haven't had the time to test that in my area.
The TD-H3 also looks interesting, I'm just waiting for an aliexpress sale to pick one up to play with.
Thanks! I'm sure most of these cheaper handhelds are going to work basically the same for transmitting.
I think one of the bigger AliExpress sales is later this month, spring sale or something? I've been leaning towards the Quansheng mainly because of all of the custom firmware available. I didn't realize it could pick up NOAA alerts. Have you played with the spectrum analyzer?
The TD-H3 also has a pretty wide receive range and a nice looking screen (annoying text printed on the side of the screen though...would have been better left blank)
I didn’t realize it could pick up NOAA alerts.
Yeah, it scans the NOAA channels in the background and when it hears the alert tone, it switches over to that channel even if you're listening to something else. At least it's supposed to, haven't had any bad weather to test it.
Also no, I haven't messed around with the spectrum analyzer function on it. I've got a RTL-SDR that I normally use for that.