November 24, 2025 • 11 mins
Discover the Baofeng UV-5R Mini – the compact powerhouse that's revolutionizing handheld ham radio for beginners and pros alike! In this ultimate review and unboxing, we dive deep into why this mini version of the iconic UV-5R is a must-have for emergency comms, off-grid adventures, and everyday two-way radio fun. #BaofengUV5R #UV5RMini #HamRadio #TwoWayRadio #BaofengReview #AmateurRadio #HandheldRadio #CHIRPProgramming #EmergencyRadio #OffGridComms
Today's video is sponsored by M&P Coax - save 10% off of all products with code HR2CABLES at this link - https://hr2.li/cables
Purchase link
Black - https://geni.us/ri7nYf2
Yellow - https://geni.us/WPGkK7
Clear - https://geni.us/ODfqj
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.
Today's video is sponsored by M&P Coax - save 10% off of all products with code HR2CABLES at this link - https://hr2.li/cables
Purchase link
Black - https://geni.us/ri7nYf2
Yellow - https://geni.us/WPGkK7
Clear - https://geni.us/ODfqj
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't get too little Fang Bowfang UV five r Mini.
You've probably seen some videos about this. I'm not the
first one to do it, but I wanted to make
a video about it because I bought mine. I bought it.
I've heard several people say. In fact, I saw a
comment on one person's video, and I honestly don't remember
(00:21):
who this was, maybe too maybe to brought this up.
I can't remember right now. I saw a comment on
one person's video that said, did balfang send out test
units to all the YouTubers that were a higher quality
than what they're selling on their website? And the reply was,
you know, that's a good question. There's no way to
really tell. Not sure it's possible, but who knows. But
(00:43):
guess what. I didn't get sent a test unit. They
didn't contact me to send me a test unit. And
that's okay. I don't I don't really care. I've got
a direct line to Bowfang. I email them about questions
sometimes and they're very responsive directly to Bowfang, very responsive.
So this is the ub five R min. I bought
this on Amazon. I bought this directly on Amazon. I
(01:04):
will share a link to the Amazon purchase in the
description below, because if you guys use that, I'll earn
a qualifying commission because I am an Amazon associate. Right
first off, I want to show you the size comparison.
So this is obviously the Balfang Mini. Here in the
middle of this is a walks On UV nine popa
X ray from Better Safe Radio right there, and this
(01:25):
is the Radtel eight to eighty G, which that radio
is bigger than most radios anyway. That's a larger HT
than most of your hts are anyway. So there's the
UV five R Mini. Just size comparison. Most people know
what size this Walkson is, and this is larger. Obviously,
(01:48):
this is a lot smaller. I really like the size
of this thing, and quite frankly, I was worried that
it was going to be a poor performer. Now, the
thing I've always heard about Bowfang's is that when you
get a Balfang, the first thing you do you take
this antenna right here and you throw it in the trash,
and then you put a real intenna on it, such
as a signal stick or a ZBM two antenna something,
(02:09):
or maybe a Nagoya antenna something like that. I have
not done that yet. I have found that this antenna
seems to work. Okay. Maybe Balfang finally got the message
and they're like, well, we're gonna add a better intenna
to some of our newer radios. The radio that was
the most popular for the throwaway the antenna was the
original UV five R, and there's been about twenty seven
renditions of the UV five R since then, and this
(02:31):
is the latest rendition, so perhaps they fixed it. All
I know is that when I key up my local
repeater here, it actually works pretty well. Okay. So that's
the four forty two dot nine hundred ULYSS repeater case
five HWB testing and that's the that's the Uless repeater
(02:52):
right there. This right here is my and another thing.
It's dual PTT A and B right there you can see.
So I can elect the top and the bottom band
with the AB button right there. But if I wanted
to key up the bottom band, I just hit the
BPTT button and it keys that band right there. Now.
(03:17):
I have noticed that if you don't have that band selected,
then for whatever reason, you can't hear it. Like right there,
KC five HW that's my all star note the truck
right there. But if I switch it back to that,
I can key that one, but you don't hear anything
until you come back to it. Now, that's probably a
(03:38):
setting the menu that I haven't messed with, haven't gotten
that far into it yet, So perhaps that's easily there's
your flashlight. Perhaps that's easily fixed. But anyway, that's what
I've had. But you know, in anyway, switch back and forth.
It's probably not on dual watch right now, and that's
probably why that is. So there's an FM broadcast radio
(04:00):
feel like convictions, Okay, so you can that's what that
button is right there, standard Kinwood K connector on the
side over there, and the best part about it, I
think USB C programming on the battery. So all of
that is part of the UV five R Mini. Now,
the screen here in the menu system look a lot
(04:22):
like a lot of the later Chinese radios. Look I
think the UV twenty one, the UV twenty four, I
think it was the UV seventeen R. Several of your
Radtael radios, a couple of your Quanchang radios have this
very similar menu in them. So this seems to be
the new and improved easy to set up menu that
most of the Chinese programmings are using nowadays. I think
(04:46):
that most likely they're all made either in conjunction with
the same factory or by the same factory. I don't know.
They're all made in China. They're all very similar, and
Balfang's one of the main brands you see coming out
of China. But are they made in the Balfang factory
or elsewhere? I don't know. I don't know what did
Balfang usually has stuff out before everyone else does. So
(05:06):
today we're gonna put this on the meter. I'm gonna
put it on this tiny essay right here, bring this
down here, turn this on, put that on the tiny essay.
And also we're gonna go over here to the radiocam
and I am going to put it on the radiocam
and see what kind of power out we get from that.
(05:26):
HT Now, today's video is sponsored by Mesi and Polony
Coax out of Italy. You can always save a ten
percent discount on everything in their store at the link
in the description. Blow at the Gigapart's website, goople on
code of HR two cables. We'll get you ten percent
off of all Messi and Plony coacts, connectors, adapters, tools, items,
(05:47):
everything you want for your coax needs inside the shack,
inside the truck, and elsewhere. Shop Mezzi and Plony at
the link in the description blow and be sure to
tell them that ham Radio two point zero sent you.
So let's check this up real quick, one zero two
meters calling frequency here, and then we're gonna set up
(06:09):
our tiny SA accordingly. So we're gonna go in here
to measure harmonic one four six top five to two
mega hurtz enter it again, okay, and then we're gonna
go back into level or uh yeah, level, and we're
(06:32):
gonna go to e x t gain minus forty times
one okay, And now we're gonna key up right here.
We're gonna see what it does. Oops, okay, I'm on
an offset. So let's go fix that real quick. It's
(07:04):
gonna change the direction to none. That's gonna there we go. Okay,
Now there it goes right there. That's a pretty clean
signal for a fang right there. Okay, it's got a
second harmonic that's down here at the negative thirty five range.
(07:24):
That's not bad. That's a pretty darn clean signal. For
a fang. First harmonics write at zero, which is pretty
much where it should be, and that second harmonic doesn't
hardly move. Okay, good, good, Okay, now we're gonna do no, No,
(07:48):
it won't even go to two twenty. Okay, I didn't
think it would. I wanted to check. Okay, now four forty,
so we're gonna change this over here level. We're gonna
(08:20):
keep up for forty right there, Okay, Okay, it's got
an a harmonica up here around the negative twenty five range.
So it's a little bit dirty, a little bit not bad,
not bad at all. That's a little bit got a
(08:40):
little bit harmonic up here. But all this down here
looks really good. First harmonic plus ten. That means it's
probably transmitting a little bit higher power on the full
forty band than it is the two meter band. No,
that's okay. That's good for a bowfing radio. That's really
really good. Okay, so far, I'm impressed. I'm impressed with that.
I am not surprised really that it sounds that good
(09:01):
on the repeater. I mean, I've used it and it
sounds good on the repeater. I'll I get good response
from the repeater on it, and now I'm not so surprised.
So let's put it on the meter to see what
it's doing over here. All right, we were already on
the four to forty band, so we're gonna stay on
four forty six dot zero and we're gonna key this
up here. Okay, so four watts on four forty on
(09:21):
high power. We'll go back to the two meter band
there and key that up and three point five watts.
So three point five watts on high power on two
meters and about four watts on high power on four
to forty, which is not surprising that it's doing more
(09:42):
on the four forty band than the two meter band,
because the harmonics were a little bit higher on four
forty than it was on two meters, so three and
a half four watts something like that. Test results might
vary a little bit. Sometimes I get to comments like, well,
I tested it on my meter and I was getting
five wats, I was getting six watts, or I was
not getting as much as you were getting something like that.
(10:03):
What you have to remember is, first of all, all
the meters kind of have a variance in there, if
they're not all exactly the same, And second of all.
A lot of the times, the quality control it some
of these factories is less than ideal. Okay. So if
I get especially with like a rattel or a TID
radio or something like that, if I get one of
those radios and it's off by half the power or
(10:23):
twice the power from what you're getting, is probably a
quality control issue in the factory where the radio was built. Okay,
does it work? Sure? Can you communicate with it? Absolutely?
You know, But overall, I've been pretty happy with this
UP five R I was this mini version of the
UP five r CAC five HWB testing, and I've thought
(10:47):
it was a pretty good radio. I was pleasantly surprised
about how well it worked and how well it sounded
both on the transmit and receive audio. So check out
the link in the description blow. I will share once
again my Amazon link to this because I was not
sent this radio, not a sponsored at at all sponsored
the videos MESSI and PLONIKOAKX, which is the coax we
just used on the testing meter. So check out the
(11:09):
link in the description below. Let me know if you
have one of these UV five R minis what you
think about it? Which one did you get? They come
in different colors also, and there is a clear one.
The clear one's more expensive than the rest of them.
I just got the black one because I just wanted
to make a video with it. The only reason I
bought it was to make a video with it. So
which one do you have? How do you like it?
What do you think about it? Put a comment blow
We'll catch you next time.
Don't get too little Fang Bowfang UV five r Mini.
You've probably seen some videos about this. I'm not the
first one to do it, but I wanted to make
a video about it because I bought mine. I bought it.
I've heard several people say. In fact, I saw a
comment on one person's video, and I honestly don't remember
(00:21):
who this was, maybe too maybe to brought this up.
I can't remember right now. I saw a comment on
one person's video that said, did balfang send out test
units to all the YouTubers that were a higher quality
than what they're selling on their website? And the reply was,
you know, that's a good question. There's no way to
really tell. Not sure it's possible, but who knows. But
(00:43):
guess what. I didn't get sent a test unit. They
didn't contact me to send me a test unit. And
that's okay. I don't I don't really care. I've got
a direct line to Bowfang. I email them about questions
sometimes and they're very responsive directly to Bowfang, very responsive.
So this is the ub five R min. I bought
this on Amazon. I bought this directly on Amazon. I
(01:04):
will share a link to the Amazon purchase in the
description below, because if you guys use that, I'll earn
a qualifying commission because I am an Amazon associate. Right
first off, I want to show you the size comparison.
So this is obviously the Balfang Mini. Here in the
middle of this is a walks On UV nine popa
X ray from Better Safe Radio right there, and this
(01:25):
is the Radtel eight to eighty G, which that radio
is bigger than most radios anyway. That's a larger HT
than most of your hts are anyway. So there's the
UV five R Mini. Just size comparison. Most people know
what size this Walkson is, and this is larger. Obviously,
(01:48):
this is a lot smaller. I really like the size
of this thing, and quite frankly, I was worried that
it was going to be a poor performer. Now, the
thing I've always heard about Bowfang's is that when you
get a Balfang, the first thing you do you take
this antenna right here and you throw it in the trash,
and then you put a real intenna on it, such
as a signal stick or a ZBM two antenna something,
(02:09):
or maybe a Nagoya antenna something like that. I have
not done that yet. I have found that this antenna
seems to work. Okay. Maybe Balfang finally got the message
and they're like, well, we're gonna add a better intenna
to some of our newer radios. The radio that was
the most popular for the throwaway the antenna was the
original UV five R, and there's been about twenty seven
renditions of the UV five R since then, and this
(02:31):
is the latest rendition, so perhaps they fixed it. All
I know is that when I key up my local
repeater here, it actually works pretty well. Okay. So that's
the four forty two dot nine hundred ULYSS repeater case
five HWB testing and that's the that's the Uless repeater
(02:52):
right there. This right here is my and another thing.
It's dual PTT A and B right there you can see.
So I can elect the top and the bottom band
with the AB button right there. But if I wanted
to key up the bottom band, I just hit the
BPTT button and it keys that band right there. Now.
(03:17):
I have noticed that if you don't have that band selected,
then for whatever reason, you can't hear it. Like right there,
KC five HW that's my all star note the truck
right there. But if I switch it back to that,
I can key that one, but you don't hear anything
until you come back to it. Now, that's probably a
(03:38):
setting the menu that I haven't messed with, haven't gotten
that far into it yet, So perhaps that's easily there's
your flashlight. Perhaps that's easily fixed. But anyway, that's what
I've had. But you know, in anyway, switch back and forth.
It's probably not on dual watch right now, and that's
probably why that is. So there's an FM broadcast radio
(04:00):
feel like convictions, Okay, so you can that's what that
button is right there, standard Kinwood K connector on the
side over there, and the best part about it, I
think USB C programming on the battery. So all of
that is part of the UV five R Mini. Now,
the screen here in the menu system look a lot
(04:22):
like a lot of the later Chinese radios. Look I
think the UV twenty one, the UV twenty four, I
think it was the UV seventeen R. Several of your
Radtael radios, a couple of your Quanchang radios have this
very similar menu in them. So this seems to be
the new and improved easy to set up menu that
most of the Chinese programmings are using nowadays. I think
(04:46):
that most likely they're all made either in conjunction with
the same factory or by the same factory. I don't know.
They're all made in China. They're all very similar, and
Balfang's one of the main brands you see coming out
of China. But are they made in the Balfang factory
or elsewhere? I don't know. I don't know what did
Balfang usually has stuff out before everyone else does. So
(05:06):
today we're gonna put this on the meter. I'm gonna
put it on this tiny essay right here, bring this
down here, turn this on, put that on the tiny essay.
And also we're gonna go over here to the radiocam
and I am going to put it on the radiocam
and see what kind of power out we get from that.
(05:26):
HT Now, today's video is sponsored by Mesi and Polony
Coax out of Italy. You can always save a ten
percent discount on everything in their store at the link
in the description. Blow at the Gigapart's website, goople on
code of HR two cables. We'll get you ten percent
off of all Messi and Plony coacts, connectors, adapters, tools, items,
(05:47):
everything you want for your coax needs inside the shack,
inside the truck, and elsewhere. Shop Mezzi and Plony at
the link in the description blow and be sure to
tell them that ham Radio two point zero sent you.
So let's check this up real quick, one zero two
meters calling frequency here, and then we're gonna set up
(06:09):
our tiny SA accordingly. So we're gonna go in here
to measure harmonic one four six top five to two
mega hurtz enter it again, okay, and then we're gonna
go back into level or uh yeah, level, and we're
(06:32):
gonna go to e x t gain minus forty times
one okay, And now we're gonna key up right here.
We're gonna see what it does. Oops, okay, I'm on
an offset. So let's go fix that real quick. It's
(07:04):
gonna change the direction to none. That's gonna there we go. Okay,
Now there it goes right there. That's a pretty clean
signal for a fang right there. Okay, it's got a
second harmonic that's down here at the negative thirty five range.
(07:24):
That's not bad. That's a pretty darn clean signal. For
a fang. First harmonics write at zero, which is pretty
much where it should be, and that second harmonic doesn't
hardly move. Okay, good, good, Okay, now we're gonna do no, No,
(07:48):
it won't even go to two twenty. Okay, I didn't
think it would. I wanted to check. Okay, now four forty,
so we're gonna change this over here level. We're gonna
(08:20):
keep up for forty right there, Okay, Okay, it's got
an a harmonica up here around the negative twenty five range.
So it's a little bit dirty, a little bit not bad,
not bad at all. That's a little bit got a
(08:40):
little bit harmonic up here. But all this down here
looks really good. First harmonic plus ten. That means it's
probably transmitting a little bit higher power on the full
forty band than it is the two meter band. No,
that's okay. That's good for a bowfing radio. That's really
really good. Okay, so far, I'm impressed. I'm impressed with that.
I am not surprised really that it sounds that good
(09:01):
on the repeater. I mean, I've used it and it
sounds good on the repeater. I'll I get good response
from the repeater on it, and now I'm not so surprised.
So let's put it on the meter to see what
it's doing over here. All right, we were already on
the four to forty band, so we're gonna stay on
four forty six dot zero and we're gonna key this
up here. Okay, so four watts on four forty on
(09:21):
high power. We'll go back to the two meter band
there and key that up and three point five watts.
So three point five watts on high power on two
meters and about four watts on high power on four
to forty, which is not surprising that it's doing more
(09:42):
on the four forty band than the two meter band,
because the harmonics were a little bit higher on four
forty than it was on two meters, so three and
a half four watts something like that. Test results might
vary a little bit. Sometimes I get to comments like, well,
I tested it on my meter and I was getting
five wats, I was getting six watts, or I was
not getting as much as you were getting something like that.
(10:03):
What you have to remember is, first of all, all
the meters kind of have a variance in there, if
they're not all exactly the same, And second of all.
A lot of the times, the quality control it some
of these factories is less than ideal. Okay. So if
I get especially with like a rattel or a TID
radio or something like that, if I get one of
those radios and it's off by half the power or
(10:23):
twice the power from what you're getting, is probably a
quality control issue in the factory where the radio was built. Okay,
does it work? Sure? Can you communicate with it? Absolutely?
You know, But overall, I've been pretty happy with this
UP five R I was this mini version of the
UP five r CAC five HWB testing, and I've thought
(10:47):
it was a pretty good radio. I was pleasantly surprised
about how well it worked and how well it sounded
both on the transmit and receive audio. So check out
the link in the description blow. I will share once
again my Amazon link to this because I was not
sent this radio, not a sponsored at at all sponsored
the videos MESSI and PLONIKOAKX, which is the coax we
just used on the testing meter. So check out the
(11:09):
link in the description below. Let me know if you
have one of these UV five R minis what you
think about it? Which one did you get? They come
in different colors also, and there is a clear one.
The clear one's more expensive than the rest of them.
I just got the black one because I just wanted
to make a video with it. The only reason I
bought it was to make a video with it. So
which one do you have? How do you like it?
What do you think about it? Put a comment blow
We'll catch you next time.
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