Anyone have any experience with Baofeng BF-F8HP

williambmac

williambmac

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I've never had any type of comunication device in any of my Jeeps, mainly because I really know nothing about them or the technology.
I year or so ago I was going to install a CB but it never happened.
A few weeks ago one of my neighbors gave me this hand held device, a charger and a program cable.
He said he messed with it for a while but couldn't get it programmed.
Is it considered a HAM, GMRS or a 2 way?
How are you supposed to program it and do I need a licence for it?
Is it any good?
Again, I know next to nothing about it. Thanks.
 
It's a UV-5R except it has 8W max instead of 5W. Everything for a UV-5R will work with it, it's a great radio for trail communication. You can program it with software called CHIRP, there is a setting for the BF-F8HP. You can download all the channels pre-programmed if you want for things like GMRS. The radio will probably work on ham, GMRS and MURS. Some people also call the radio the UV-5RTP. This guy has great videos on the radio, he likes it, sometimes a little too much. You are supposed to have a licence for the ham bands, you are supposed to have a licence for GMRS and you don't need one for the five MURS channels. It doesn't matter, the FCC isn't going to give a shit.
 
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pagrey said:
It's a UV-5R except it has 8W max instead of 5W. Everything for a UV-5R will work with it, it's a great radio for trail communication. You can program it with software called CHIRP, there is a setting for the BF-F8HP. You can download all the channels pre-programmed if you want for things like GMRS. The radio will probably work on ham, GMRS and MURS. Some people also call the radio the UV-5RTP. This guy has great videos on the radio, he likes it, sometimes a little too much. You are supposed to have a licence for the ham bands, you are supposed to have a licence for GMRS and you don't need one for the five MURS channels. It doesn't matter, the FCC isn't going to give a shit.
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Thanks.
 
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It’s FCC certified as a 2 meter and 70 centimeter HAM Handheld transceiver. It will receive a broader range including FM broadcast and weather stations.

It is not certified as a GMRS radio. To the best of my knowledge, it will not transmit on those frequencies like the older UV-5R radios.

It’s not very intuitive to program using the keypad but it is doable. As mentioned above CHIRP is the easiest way to program but you need the Baofeng cable to make it happen.

I have mine set up with the majority of the 2m repeaters in the Atlanta area programmed in. Any time I take a road trip I plot some repeaters along my route and have those settings stored as well.

It works really well with an inexpensive mag mount antenna on a vehicle.
 
What @pagrey and @Wheeler said. I have one, and it was my first Ham radio. I think I'm more of a rule-follower than @pagrey is, but otherwise ditto to the above. Mine is sitting here at my desk, now that I have a mobile rig in the Jeep.

If you don't want it, you could get $30–$50 for it on here or on Facebook Marketplace.
 
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Thanks. I started watching some of the videos that @pagrey suggested. It does seem to be a bit challenging when it comes to programming. I'll watch some more videos and see if I can get the hang of it.
 
williambmac said:
Thanks. I started watching some of the videos that @pagrey suggested. It does seem to be a bit challenging when it comes to programming. I'll watch some more videos and see if I can get the hang of it.
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I much prefer using Chirp to program that one. My mobile rig I'll program manually, but not the little Baofeng.
 
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Wheeler said:
It’s FCC certified as a 2 meter and 70 centimeter HAM Handheld transceiver. It will receive a broader range including FM broadcast and weather stations.

It is not certified as a GMRS radio. To the best of my knowledge, it will not transmit on those frequencies like the older UV-5R radios.

It’s not very intuitive to program using the keypad but it is doable. As mentioned above CHIRP is the easiest way to program but you need the Baofeng cable to make it happen.

I have mine set up with the majority of the 2m repeaters in the Atlanta area programmed in. Any time I take a road trip I plot some repeaters along my route and have those settings stored as well.

It works really well with an inexpensive mag mount antenna on a vehicle.
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I know the newer imports were supposed to be blocked, but I have not found any 5's blocked. My 8w are a bit older so not sure about those. I bought 100 BF-888 UHf radios in October and all could transmit on GRMS freqs (using chirp).
 
WSS said:
I know the newer imports were supposed to be blocked, but I have not found any 5's blocked. My 8w are a bit older so not sure about those. I bought 100 BF-888 UHf radios in October and all could transmit on GRMS freqs (using chirp).
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I don’t have any experience or knowledge with the BF-888 radios and can’t speak to those. To the best of my understanding the FP8-HP is not FCC certified to transmit on FRS and GMRS frequencies. That doesn’t mean it can’t be configured to do so.

If you have info showing that the FP8-HP is FCC approved to transmit on FRS and GMRS would you mind passing that info along? I’m always looking to update my knowledge.
 
Wheeler said:
If you have info showing that the FP8-HP is FCC approved to transmit on FRS and GMRS would you mind passing that info along? I’m always looking to update my knowledge.
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The radio doesn't even meet FCC standards for ham bands, who cares about the other frequencies? It is kinda worthless info.
 
WSS said:
I know the newer imports were supposed to be blocked, but I have not found any 5's blocked. My 8w are a bit older so not sure about those. I bought 100 BF-888 UHf radios in October and all could transmit on GRMS freqs (using chirp).
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I've bought two recently, a 5W and 8W from the same vendor that sold me working radios six months ago and both the new ones don't work outside the ham bands. The radios appear identical.
 
Wheeler said:
Sure it does. It’s certified for 2M and 70cm. That’s pretty well known. Here’s a link to the certification documentation.
https://fccid.io/2AGNDF8HP/Test-Report/test-report-3718285
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Right, it has a piece of paper that says it's certified but if you test the output it doesn't meet the basic requirements so the the paper is worthless. That's my point, the paper doesn't matter if it isn't true in real life.
 
pagrey said:
Right, it has a piece of paper that says it's certified but if you test the output it doesn't meet the basic requirements so the the paper is worthless. That's my point, the paper doesn't matter if it isn't true in real life.
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I haven’t tested the output on mine. What results did you get when you tested the output on yours?

ETA: Where can I find the FCC guidelines for the basic requirements?
 
Wheeler said:
I haven’t tested the output on mine. What results did you get when you tested the output on yours?
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Using my TInySA I saw the same thing everybody else on the internet does, pretty bad harmonics when using the 70cm band. Outside the FCC limits. 2m is pretty good interestingly enough. It's fun to talk about but overall it's just talk, the radio works and if you get outside and play it'll do GMRS and 70cm fine. Yep, you'll be making some extra RF pollution but hey, so does our fuel pump.
 
pagrey said:
Using my TInySA I saw the same thing everybody else on the internet does, pretty bad harmonics when using the 70cm band. Outside the FCC limits. 2m is pretty good interestingly enough. It's fun to talk about but overall it's just talk, the radio works and if you get outside and play it'll do GMRS and 70cm fine. Yep, you'll be making some extra RF pollution but hey, so does our fuel pump.
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I take what everyone on the internet says with a grain of salt for good reason. There's a pretty high noise to signal ratio when looking for solid data. ;) I don't have any 70cm repeaters in my area, so that's a non starter for me personally. I've gotten quite a few good signal reports and none bad thus far using it for 2m. It's certainly suited my purposes just as well if not better than the more expensive Japanese HTs.

Thanks for the discussion. It's been enlightening.
 
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Wheeler said:
I don’t have any experience or knowledge with the BF-888 radios and can’t speak to those. To the best of my understanding the FP8-HP is not FCC certified to transmit on FRS and GMRS frequencies. That doesn’t mean it can’t be configured to do so.

If you have info showing that the FP8-HP is FCC approved to transmit on FRS and GMRS would you mind passing that info along? I’m always looking to update my knowledge.
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Like pagrey mentioned. It’s not a FCC cert. I have built quite a few GMRS repeaters and have not had any trouble with using any boafeng radio on GMRS.
 
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