Sometimes you see a screaming good deal and the little voice in the back of your head screams “wow!” Such is the case for a pair of UV-5R Baofeng radios – the AR-15 of the radio world – on sale for a very limited time for $27.99 at Amazon.
What do you get?
You get the radios and high-capacity batteries (which will run the radio for three or four days), three antennas (a little stubby one for close work, the standard antenna for general purpose and the 18″ Abbree whip antenna for greatest range) and a programming cable (because programming them from the keypad sucks). The batteries accept the Type C USB cables (which are effectively ubiquitous at this point – and you can charge from a cell phone power bank too!) which makes them easily chargeable without using the AC cradle (which is also included).
We’ve written about these radios a couple of times.
COMMS, PART II: What can radios do for you? What radios should I buy?
This deal at Amazon will serve as your starting point for building your own backup communications in case cell phones go down for whatever reason. Rapid radios aren’t going to save your bacon if cell phones are down. Conventional radios will allow you to communicate without using smoke signals or drums.
What will you need beyond these radios?
I’d strongly recommend an external magnetic mount for your vehicle so you can use your HT from inside the comfort of your vehicle and get much better range. For example, you’ll have to be within 3-4 miles of a repeater to use an HT inside the car. Put an external antenna on your roof and you’ll get 10-12 miles easy. Radio-to-radio range will also be much greater.
For those on a super tight budget, this one beats trying to use the radio inside the car, but you won’t get the range that you’ll enjoy with the Nagoya above.
What else? Just like you have spare mags for your gun, consider getting a spare battery.
If you need help programming these, read the stories above and watch the YouTube video tutorials.
Having a means to communicate with family and friends if cell phones go down is priceless.