Monday, December 29, 2014

Baofeng GT-1 First Impressions

So my Baofeng GT-1 arrived today and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box. First was the little manual which is in perfect English, German and French plus a small card advertising Baofeng's 'Brand Reimagine' from Baofeng to Pofung. Also in the box was the usual charger, earpiece, antenna, 2 pin to 3 pin adapter plug and of course radio and battery.




The supplier sent me the orange version instead of the yellow version that I ordered but it matches my GT-3 and GT-3TP which is good so no big deal there. The radio is really solid and well built just like it's older brother; the BF-888S. It has orange PTT, monitor and flashlight buttons plus the speaker mic socket is also orange. The belt clip is alot stronger feeling than the BF-888S and the antenna ever so slightly bigger too.



The charger is slightly reworked but like the BF-888S has the LED which drains the radios battery if it is left in there without mains power.

The radio is programmable in CHIRP software using the regular Baofeng programming cable on the BF-888S setting. I think I'll programme this to my local UHF repeaters and the 8 PMR channels for the UK. I plugged the radio in to check what was pre-programmed in and it is on random frequencies from 437.15000 to 469.85000 with a mixture of CTCSS and DCS codes in use (click to enlarge).


RX and TX audio is great, just like the BF-888S and all in all the Pofung GT-1 is a great little radio for £12.

Thanks for reading as always.

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, Lewis!

    I just ordered two HT-1 handhelds from eBay at $13 apiece, including tax and shipping. I intend to do the same as you have, which is to program the 14 FRS channels (low power) and two local ham repeaters or GMRS simplex (high power). I presume since you mentioned you programmed yours for the equivilent in the U.K. (PMR446), they are 500mw compliant on low power, and of course narrow bandwidth.

    My primary interest is how well will they perform on cruise ships, as I have a website that specifically addresses that topic (cruisewireless.com). Some have reported good results with 902-928 MHz unlicensed frequency-hopping, spread spectrum handhelds, and of course the crew uses UHF DMR handhelds, however they have the benefit of an onboard repeater (as per ITU and FCC regulations).

    Have you had any experince with these radios on cruise ships?

    73,

    Robert WN5P

    ReplyDelete