DMarley wrote: ↑Tue Mar 20, 2018 5:22 pm
Spot has been known to be unreliable due to the management of the network. Might as well purchase a real PLB/EPIRB.
Whereas, depending on your location, and most US locations have plenty of amateur radio operators and repeaters, there will likely be plenty of listeners hearing your broadcasts in an emergency, as well as plenty HAMs ready to lend a hand.
The beofeng radios are infamously known for their garbled and freq-bleeding Tx. The operator will never know it until someone alerts him to this. These units are not quality tested or checked half as rigorously the Japanese brands, and many don't work after a few minutes of use, if at all.
If you want to be cheap and purchase the beofeng, then you will likely end up spending just as much or more than you would spend with a decent yaesu or other quality japanese-made radio after you replace that broken baofeng with another.
These are facts, not just opinions.
I haven't seen these widespread problems with Baofeng radios at Crestline, and a lot of cheap radios get used around Crestline. I'd say their squelch was crap, though there are software fixes that help quite a lot. You probably shouldn't buy one without also getting the computer interface for it.
Most audio problems I've heard have been stupid setup problems -- overdeviation or simply not tuned to the right frequency. And no amount of mfr inspection is going to help with that.
And please, please, please don't buy
anything without getting your Amateur license. It's 55 stinkin' questions, all of which are available for study on the Internet. There is no Morse Code requirement to get access to everything above 50 MHz. There is undoubtedly a Volunteer Examining Committee somewhere near you charging $15 to take the test.