BTECH UV-50X2 (Second Gen.) Mobile 50 Watt Dual Band Base, Mobile Radio: VHF, UHF Amateur (Ham)

This radio was purchased to replace a 22 year old Ham Radio Kenwood TM-V7 with a failed "cool blue" display. I did not get the optional programming cable because I like to field program my transceivers for familiarity sake in an emergency. On a scale of 1 to 10 I think the manual is a 5. It was very lame in describing how to set a split memory for a repeater into a memory channel. I don't think Btech could have made it more confusing if they tried. You can program a split into a VFO position but not transfer it to a memory position! Yikes! What were your engineers thinking? Secondly, there was no info in the manual about what mic buttons to press to enter text. After two hours of trial and error I finally figured it out. On the positive side, the VHF high power was 56 watts and 40 watts on UHF using an HP 8924C Service Monitor. The output spectrum was also clean of spurious signals. After a 24 hour burn in, the radio was surprisingly cool to the touch. It takes very little power on idle. For the price and the ability to display four frequencies at once, I think the radio is a great value. Bob, WX2NJ

First impression: Fits the BTech radio mold - first class rig! Many color options for display are nice and can customize for your eyes. I like the dark screen with lighter text. Just easier to see. Just got it programmed with CHIRP and discovered a few things you will need to know. First, the power supply connection is not labeled. The red wire goes to the positive terminal while the black wire goes to the ground terminal. Next no where in manual does it indicate when or how to utilize the PC-04 programming cable. I have several BTech UV-82HP HTs. On these you turn radio off, connect via program cable, then turn radio on. I contacted BTech and they advise can plug in program cable to UV-50X2 at any time, radio on or off. I tried and works. In CHIRP on 'Settings Tab' there are many options. It took me quite a while to figure out which options correspond to the menu items on the radio. But once found and options selected, radio is programmed and works great. Menu system very similar to that of UV-82HP so if familiar with most Baofeng HTs will have no problem with this Baofeng mobile. Internal speaker sounds nice and Tx/Rx reports indicate full quieting. I will update this review after a few weeks use.Update 24 April: Still impressed with this rig. Read reviews on BTech UV-25X2 for some tips on CHIRP and Menu programming that work on the UV-50X2 as well. I continue to tweak settings like squelch to fit my taste. No problems found with radio. Fan kicks in when long Tx but reasonable decibel level and goes off quick. If you are in Channel mode and wish to change to a different channel you can of course turn the lower left dial. However, a much quicker way if you know the channel number is to enter the number on the mic keypad. The rig will move to that channel. Remember all channels are two digits so channel 6 would be keyed in as '06.' I keep a list of programmed channels near my rig so finding the channel number is easy.

I've always been a Yaesu guy for both my mobile and handheld transceivers, but I bought a couple of "disposable" Baofeng UV-5Rs to hand out as loaners and have been nothing but impressed with how well they've held up to real-world use. Now that almost everyone is using a Baofeng UV-5R, there's a large track record of reliability.When my mobile Yaesu FT-8800 broke, I considered replacing it with another Yaesu, but after some consideration and comparison of the specifications, I decided to go with this Baofeng instead. So far, I'm VERY impressed with it. I thought I would be somewhat disappointed by "downgrading" from a premium brand to an entry-level brand, but I honestly like this Baofeng/BTECH better. Its build quality is easily on par with the Yaesu. The learning curve has been straightforward, and programming it with CHIRP is as easy as can be. It mounted in my Jeep directly into the Yaesu's mounting bracket, and all the power, antenna, and external speaker hookups plugged right in. I really like the display and its ease of use. I'm still adjusting the microphone gain to optimize it for the noisy environment in my Jeep, but everyone I've spoken to has reported great QRK.