Wednesday, July 13, 2016

New Baofeng UV-50X3 Radio Released



Baofeng Tech released a new mobile rig today, the UV-50X3.   From their press release:
BaoFeng Tech announced today the release of the BTECH UV-50X3 (https://baofengtech.com/uv-50x3), the first available full duplex, tri-band radio with an extended receiver range. The UV-50X3 combines some of the most requested features into one complete radio making it the perfect radio for both base and mobile users alike.
I for one am very excited about this radio!  Having a detachable head is great, allowing greater flexibility mounting options than previously.  A huge addition is the ability to receive Air Bands (and HAIR Bands via AM/FM).  Listening to air traffic is always fun, especially for me, as I am a private pilot.  This is a tri-band transceiver (144/220/440), and should fulfil the role of big brother to the UV-2501+220.

The UV-50X3 has something very unique also, in that it is the first ham radio that is only programed via CHIRP!  This makes programing so simple, and allows users to take the same memory channels from other radios, and import them into the 1000 memory slots available in the UV-50X3 with ease.  You'll have to pick up a PC05 programing cable (also available on Baofeng Tech's website - click on accessories on the right side).  Checkout their YouTube video to see how easy it is to program:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-9HbWiVPb4

With other features like cross-band repeater (REALLY!!!), full duplex and 5W/20W/50W selectable power, I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on one of these and check out the features!  In the meantime, check out Miklor's review - as always - he has done a fantastic job of reviewing and giving us all the details!

With the progress the Baofeng Tech is making, I sure hope to see an HF rig soon!  What do you think?


2 comments:

  1. Yes, I love the fact that it's programmable through Chirp. However, they are moving into a new pricerange and they need to prove they have stepped up in quality if they want people to take them seriously. I don't expect them to move into HF anytime soon.

    http://www.qrpblog.com/2016/07/baofeng-uv-50x3-new-mobile-radio.html

    Cheers,
    Razvan.

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  2. I am a little nervous about the new price range ($340) as it is $200 more than I've ever spent on a radio, with my most costly radio at $130 for an FT-2900R 75W 2M-only. Most of my HTs are in the $30-50 UV-5R and UV-82X range and $100 UV-2501s.

    I am cautiously optimistic and loving this radio so far. I will post more as I play with it more. I'm about to use CHIRP to give it a go with my big list of repeaters in the SJV.

    Can't wait for the APRS unit, and I really want to test this thing out with 9600 PKT. To me, this is a real Kenwood D710G-killer for two Benjamins less (well, we'll see how much that APRS add-on costs), plus we get 1.25M as well (albeit just at 5W, but still, most of the repeaters around here are either A-OK at 5W or just not going to be any good without a yagi anyway).

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