BTECH Mobile UV-50X3 50 Watt Tri-Band Radio: VHF, 1.25M, UHF, Amateur and Commercial Radio

Have this installed in my POV, easy, simple, and loud. Would definitely buy again!

So I've used this daily for 3 months for GMRS and paired with mild and antenna. It's a very good radio and easy to operate. It hasn't failed me yet. Coming from a kid who grew up with a dad who was a big ham and had lots of Kenwood and yeasu radios

I bought this because I have only owned btech/baofeng products and I have enjoyed them and I understand how to program them with CHIRP and I wanted a base/mobile tri band with some power behind it. It is too expensive for what it is… no question about that… but it works. The 220 or 1.25m band is weak. I have yet to make a contact on that band on any radio including this one.I like the big screen. The knobs and menus are easy to use and navigate. The sound is good. I get good reception using a Nagoya Rb50 mag mount and tb320a on a metal file cabinet near the window. I’ll eventually run coax for an outdoor antenna.You’ll need a power supply if you’re going to use it as a base station. It’s another cost to factor in but if I’m going to ham I’d need one anyways.I give it 4 stars because it is good. It does what it says but it’s too expensive. In hind sight, I’d save $ and buy a 25x4 for mobile or put the coin towards an icom 7100 or yaesu 991a. Those 2 are a totally different price point, however. It’s not a bad radio at all. Its not great either. It’s good. It’s just too damn expensive.

I first purchased this radio about 4 months ago and loved all the features. After about 2 months one of the volume buttons became intermittent so i returned it to the company and received a prompt reply. Within a week or two the faceplate was repaired and returned. About a month ago I had another problem with the unit (faceplate) freezing up and I submitted another repair request and returned the radio for another repair. Instead of repairing the unit the company sent me a new radio. Wonderful customer service in support of a great radio!

The best radio you can get. Easy mount, great sound, coverage and many frequencies. Definitely a must have for off-road jeeping👍

I like the radio it’s a good idea. Keeps falling off the windshield and also when I want to change the frequency it don’t change. It keeps freezing up on me. I can’t turn it off. I have to unplug it from the main power every time. I wish I returned it when it started doing it but I was trying to give it the benefit but it’s not worth it any more. Comes with a nice fan so it won’t get hot.

After a month, the unit quit transmitting on all bands. Sad, because I liked the unit.

If you were impressed by the basic usability and affordable price of the Baofeng UV-5R handheld transceiver, you might be tempted to buy this knockoff of the out-of-production Yaesu FTM-350AR as a base or mobile radio. Be forewarned: this unit has a lot more rough edges and higher price than the UV-5R, and you may not find it as suitable an alternative as the UV-5R is in the handheld market.Examples of rough edges: it cannot use CTCSS tones on both transmit and receive. You can configure it to use CTCSS on transmit (misleadingly labeled, "TONE ENC") or receive (labeled, "TONE SQL"), but not both! When loading memories and configurations with Chirp software, it will magically and automatically change some of the display settings, showing channel names where you've specified the display of frequencies instead. Furthermore, the dual-VFO reception feature is practically nonexistent, as receive on the right-side VFO strongly attenuates the left-side VFO so you might as well not have a dual-receive function at all. And when scanning, the "SKIP" function button does nothing at all, most notably, not actually skipping the current memory, as it's supposed to.Most importantly to my setup, the EXT SPK jack is extremely shoddy. When connected to an external stereo set of speakers, be careful! The power-on/power-off impulse may be powerful enough to blow your speakers! It makes a very loud "bang," and I've had to plug it into an audio compressor/limiter to protect my stereo. It also has a very high noise floor that isn't audible through the built-in speakers, but when using external speakers, I'm happy my comp/limiter also has a noise gate function. It's supposed to be a stereo output, too, but all I ever hear anything on is the left channel, regardless of which VFO (left or right) is receiving audio. (Yes, I've double-checked the audio settings, and it is in stereo, not mono mode.)The user interface and documentation are quite poor, as has been noted about many Baofeng radio products in the past. Since this is a knockoff of the Yaesu FTM-350AR, but with no GPS or APRS functions, I have downloaded the manual of that radio and it's helped, but there are many menu or operation controls that are unintuitive, nonstandard, or just poorly labeled.But here's the bottom line: I'm keeping this radio. I've figured out how to work around a lot of the bugs, and I get five-by-full-quieting reports over the local repeaters, and it scans the memories as I expect. Since I'm using it as a base station, I can leave it plugged into a computer running Chirp and make updates quickly and easily. I have plans to experiment with the 220 MHz band, as well as the cross-band repeater function. I initially intended to return it for a refund, until I figured out that "TONE ENC" was their mysterious term for transmit CTCSS, but with that resolved, this radio serves my simple needs at a "fair but not awesome" level.The biggest problem is that it only costs a few dollars less than some of the other brands that, one would hope, have better quality control, less-noisy audio, more usable interface, and better documentation. This radio is not the screaming deal that the UV-5R has become famous for. I'm keeping this radio because I've become acquainted with its quirks and rough edges, and thus have had some pleasant conversations and good times with it, and I've learned from it. However, my recommendation to potential buyers is: if you're not interested in the 220 MHz band, you can probably find a Yaesu FTM-100DR for cheaper than this BTECH unit. The Kenwood TM-V71A is only a few dollars more. Keep looking, and only come back to this one if you have to have a "killer feature" like 220 MHz, and are okay with dealing with a radio with "character."