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Episode Transcript
Brand new for twenty twenty five, a new Balfang UV
seven Bravo. It is a Triband radio and after putting
the battery on with this little screw in the back
here and sent in it all down, it looks like
it's waterproof and IP sixty seven rated.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I think it is.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're going to take a look at it right now, okay,
UV seven Bravo. This is a brand new radio. It
came out a few months ago. It's not brand brand new,
but it is new for twenty twenty five. And of
course I love doing the Balfang videos because these are
always real popular. You guys always really like those. We're
going to test this radio today. I'm gonna put it
on the tiny Esa. We're gonna do some spectral purity testing,
(00:38):
and i'm gonna put it behind me here on the
Antellotron power meter and we're gonna do some power testing.
The first thing I noticed about it, besides the battery,
I mentioned the battery right here. There's a USBC port
right there, and this once the battery kind of sinks
down in there, you tighten it down with a flathead
screwdriver and it really seals it along the edges here,
so that's really good.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Put your belt clip right here.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You can attach it right here with these screws right there,
and that will attach to the radio body itself, not
to the battery. So you can change out batteries and
have multiple batteries, but all use the same belt clip
on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And of course the charging port is on the USBC
charging port, I should say, is on the battery itself,
not on the radio. Look over here on the other
side of the radio, there's a standwood kinwood K connector
right there and a dual flashlight on the bottom there.
That's always fun volume knob up down channels. This channel
indicator right there is what changes channels up down right there,
(01:31):
changes frequencies when in VFO mode. And you've got a
single PTT on the side over there with an extra
button on the side that will turn on the FM
broadcast radio.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So let's take a.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Look at the overhead. This is the manual that you get.
Pretty good manual really, it's a small text and kind
of hard to read, but it'll tell you everything that
you want to know right there, pretty well written for
Chinese radio menu, not bad there at all. So this
is once again single PTT here. This turns on the
FM broadcast radio right there. Hit that button again, it
turns it off. It does transmit this one. Well, that's
(02:00):
the menu right there. Okay, So this one right here,
this blue button right here switches between the top and
the bottom band. Okay, there's probably buzzing in the KC
five HBB. There's probably buzzing the microphone. Lack y up,
that's just a standard thing. Because I'm transmitting right next
to my microphone here. It will transmit on two two
four dot five KC five HBB testing. Actually the calling
frequency is two two three dot five right there, KC
(02:22):
five HWB testing. So we're gonna test that in a minute.
We're gonna put it on the meter and see how
much output power does. And I might put that on
the tiny Esa as well. Again, standard Kinwood K connector
USBC port on the battery back here, dual flashlight on
the bottom, so it's always fun. And then this radio
has Bluetooth that will allow you to program the radio
with BLUETOOTHS. And when we go over here to Balfang's website, Okay,
(02:44):
this is where I bought this radio on Amazon. Okay,
so I'm gonna share a link in the description blow
on Amazon, but Balfang radio dot Com. A lot of
the times I will talk about a Balfang radio, a
new model that maybe is not as well known or
nobody's heard of yet, and they'll be like, no, this
is a copy. It's not a real thing. If you
go to balfang radio dot com, that's their official website,
and if you find the model there, then you know
(03:06):
it's a real thing. There's a difference between the five
RM and the RM five I think it is. And
I asked them about that one time and they're like,
the five rms rs one of them. I don't remember
which one it was right now, I have the email
from them. They said, one of them are they're both ours,
but one of them was made for specific customer. So
one of them we sell on our website and one
of them the specific customer selles. I'm like, okay, so
they're both basically the same radio. But if we go
(03:27):
over here and look at balfangradio dot com, you can
see the app is right there pictured on the smartphone,
and then it's got one review with a one star rating,
and if you click down here onto this review. It's
set fifteen minutes ago. This review was left today. Great,
this app is a real mess. It throws all my
previous settings out and messes up the radio. Really Balfang,
(03:49):
what a mess. So the only review on this radio
is about the app. Okay, this is actually and I
could see that. Okay, if the app is terrible, I
don't know. I am not going to download and install
the app today. This is the same app I believe
that works with the UV five R Mini that we
just reviewed and a lot of the newer Balfang radios.
In fact, there's a shot of the UV thirty two
right there, So that's another Balfang that I have that
(04:10):
I'm gonna be making a video about really soon. That
one of the right over there, the UV thirty two,
kind of like a Motorola copy or that other radio
I did a while back, something like that. So I
probably will do an video about the app itself and see.
But this app is supposedly works for multiple radios, and
this one bad review I've read about it is that
really the only thing I've ever heard about it. I
haven't really heard much about that app at all. So
let's put it on the tiny essay and see what
(04:31):
we can see. All right, we set up the tiny essay,
I'll show you what settings I used in a second
one forty six up five to two.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Right now now, I did.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
A and you can see at the top of the
tiny SA screen right there, it's coming up at one
forty six stop five. I did a purity test on
the UV five R Mini and I was pleasantly surprised
that it was pretty clean. This one does not look
like it is the same thing. I'm gonna let go
of it and reset just for the heck of it.
But we did a test a while back on the
five RM, the one I mentioned the model I mentioned
a minute ago, and it was really dirty. So bwfang
(04:58):
seems to be kind of hit or miss on radios.
This one right here. Being a try band, I was
kind of hoping it'd be cleaner, but so far does
not look like it's great. You've got a second harmonic
popping up right there around four hundred and thirty nine megahurts,
so that's even within the amateur radio band.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Got a fourth harmonic right there, popping up somewhere around
five hundred and ninety mega hurts something like that. So yeah,
not the cleanest signal in the world. Okay, disappointing, but okay,
let's try the two twenty band. I wonder how clean
it is there. So we're gonna go here, and we're
gonna go to measure harmonic and I'm gonna change it
to two two three dot five mega hurts. Enter it again,
(05:32):
and I'm gonna go back in here and choose level
and say ext gain of minus forty times one, And
now we're gonna key up on two two three dot five,
which is the bottom band on the radio right now. Okay,
freaked out on me a little bit at first, but
then it cleaned up two two three dot five right there.
There's a little dip right there on the just to
the right of it, but it's not actually reading a
harmonic so okay, we're not on an offset. The radio's
(05:55):
on the correct frequency, so we're good there. Okay, cleaner
on two twenty than it is on two meeta. Okay,
well good, okay, So let's check the four forty six band.
Ah wait, let's do four four to six. You see
all this information that popped up here, it's not transmitting
right now, So Okay, once again, we're gonna go back
(06:17):
and choose measure harmonic four four six dot mega hurtz,
go back and choose level minus forty times one, and.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
There we go. Let it reset for forty six right there.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Okay, there is an eighth harmonic up here. It says
it's it like two point nine gigahertz, which is kind
of what we saw with the UV five R Mini
a while back as well. But that's a pretty clean
signal on four forty. Okay, So I'm both disappointed and
impressed at the same time because guess what I was
looking forward to the fact that this was a tryband
radio that incorporated the one point two five meter two
twenty band and one of my favorite bands. So I'm
(06:52):
gonna have to try to see what it sounds like
on that band soon. But the kind of dirty on
two meters two twenty and four to forty look pretty
darn good. That tells me it's prob'll gonna be doing
more power on two meters than the other two because
it's probably pushing too much power. Let's put it over
here on the inteletron meter and see what we can see.
All right over here on the testing bench. Today's video
is sponsored by Mesi and Poloni Coax, which is the
(07:13):
coaxs we're about to plug into here. You can save
it ten percent discount off of all of their tools, coacts,
connectors and everything at the link in the description below
with the coupon code of HR two cables. HR two
cables get you ten percent off and thank you Messi
and plenty for supporting this channel. Okay, one thing I
did not show you yet. There are two power settings
on this radio, high and low transmit power of high
(07:34):
and low. We're gonna go into let's see radio said,
we go into program channel and the second one down
is transmit power high power and low power. So we're
gonna leave it on high power. We're gonna go here
to one forty six five to two, which is the
national calling frequency that we should all be monitoring on
a daily basis five watts.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
This is advertised as a five watt radio, so.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
To me that that's exactly where it should be. Okay,
and now since I've got it on the bottom band,
I'm just going to switch bands for forty six and
make sure still on high power. Good on the bottom band,
We're going to key that up three point two watts
on four forty and I'm going to change two two
three five zero zero. We're gonna still on high power
in that bottom band right there, yep, just like that,
and we're going to key that up.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So four and a half four point three watts there.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So about just over five watts on two meters, just
over four watts on two twenty and about three and
a half watts on four forty.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So overall pretty decent.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I mean something. I think I mentioned this earlier. I
can't remember if I did now or not. This came
with like this Nagoya style antenna. It does not look
like a regular Balfang antenna. Looks like a Nagoya seven
seven zero I think is it is seven to seveny
one is the extended intenda the longer win. This looks
like a standard Nagoya antenna.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It's not marked.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It doesn't say anything on the bottom of it. It
says dual band one thirty six to one seventy four
and four hundred and four eighty. It doesn't have a
brand name on it, so who knows. Possibly all from
the same factory in China.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Who knows.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
But let's see if we can get somebody on the
let's program a channel. I'm going to show you guys
how to program a channel real quick, okay, So I.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Put it in.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We're in VFO mode for four to two dot nine there,
and I'm gonna go to program channel here. Transit power.
We're gonna leave that on high bandwidth should already be
yea's wide. Okay, receive CTCSS, I'm gonna leave off. We're
gonna turn on transmit CTCSS and we're gonna go to
one ten dot nine, which is what this repeater is
on right there, okay, And then I'm gonna go, oops,
(09:15):
it took me back two menus okay, back in here.
No encryption, signaling channel memory, busy lockout offset okay. So
we're gonna say okay, and I'm gonna go back into
it just to make sure, yep, Okay, it's still there.
Offset is five mega hurts and direction is a plus.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Now there we go. That's the channel right there. When
I key up, it should key up four four seven
dot nine hundred, and it is.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And there you go, right there.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
It keeped it laying down on the while laying down
flat on the desk, it keyed the repeater KC five
HWB testing actually gets into it better at a horizontal
configuration than a vertical configuration KC five hw B testing.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And there you go. That sounds a little bit k.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
K LM and you're coming through good here.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
About eight by eight. What is that? Okay?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I think it was KATE four JLM if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Thank you for the comeback.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm testing a new HT here from my home in Grapevine.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Just wanted to see what it was. Sounded like, kjell
and you're done real good right there. You old pitstetic
but still completely readable.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So it sounds like a.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Really good HD.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't know why it works better horizontally though, It's
just something about the electronics in this building.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Okay, appreciate that. Thanks for the comeback. In seventy three
k C five hw and there it is right there.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So that is the bellfang UV seven Bravo and sounds good,
good clean audio on transmit and pretty decent audio with
all the electronics around here in the hamshrack. So I'll
leave a link to this in the description below. You guys,
let me know have you seen this radio yet. I've
not seen any videos on YouTube about it, but it
came across I subscribed to the balfang radio dot com
(11:02):
emails and it came across my feed. I don't know
a couple of months ago. I should have made this
video before now, but I really haven't heard much about it,
and I was interested in it because it was triband
so far, so good. A little bit of a dirty
signal on two meters. But has anyone seen this? What
do you think about it? If so, let me know
in the comments below. And if you did like this video,
check out these videos over here because YouTube thinks you
want to watch those next seventy three guys.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
We'll catch you next time.
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