BaoFeng UV-82HP High Power Dual Band Radio

I have been a ham for 50 years but this is the first handy-talkie I purchased for amateur bands. I am generally not a fan of HTs. I have operated and serviced many VHF and UHF HTs back in the day. So, this review is probably biased a little bit towards what I've seen in commercial and industrial applications. Without considering the extra features for ham use, the Baofeng UV-82HT checks most of the boxes. Overall, it seems like a good radio. But, as some say, the devil is in the details. There are some great features and in my opinion some warts. That said, let's get to it. I think the great features (not necessarily unique) are: User Manual is well written and illustrated in English, and is actually helpful! Dual Push to Talk (PTT) / Dual Watch This is fantastic. One can monitor two frequencies at once: UHF/VHF; VHF/VHF; or UHF/UHF. To transmit to one or the other just press either the A or B PTT as applicable. A question is what happens if both have a signal at the same time? If you don't want this feature it can be turned off. Three programmable transmit power levels: High-Medium-Low For VHF: H=8 Watts, M=4 Watts, L=1 Watt For UHF: H=7 Watts, M=4 Watts, L=1 Watt Battery Voltage Display Press the “0” key for about 2 seconds and battery voltage is displayed; for example, DC8.2V It also displays the legacy battery ICON with bars to represent battery reserve. Ability to listen to broadcast FM, NOAA Weather, etc Press the F key below the PTT and listen to some tunes on FM Radio while your favorite repeater is idle. Reception of a signal on your active channel will interrupt broadcast FM radio and put you on the active channel. You won't miss a call. FM reception will resume after a little delay when the VHF/UHF signal ends. There is a scan feature for FM that will stop when it gets a signal, regardless of which scan mode is programmed. NOAA weather can be programmed from the keyboard in VFO mode or with software. With software you can skip the scanning of this channel. There is a built-in LED flashlight on top of the radio that can shine steadily or strobe. Comes in various colors How cool is that? I bought a blue one. Some of the warts Squelch threshold adjustment, or the lack thereof? The adjustment is made by programming a digit (0-9) into menu 0. The default setting is 5. Programming a 0 will open squelch continuously. I have tried different digits and there is little change in squelch threshold. Recently a weak, fading signal on 2 meters kept opening the squelch when nothing but noise could be heard. It could not be squelched – no matter what I programmed. Annoying! Like audio volume, squelch adjustment works better when analog. A dual concentric audio/squelch pot would be great. Scanning / Memory – Channel Mode There are 128 channels that can be programmed with either a VHF or UHF frequency, CTCSS, etc. However, the scanning rate is 3 channels per second. Obviously, scanning a large number of channels is impractical. You will probably want to scan only a dozen or so. A given frequency must be stored in a memory to scan it and each channel in memory will be scanned unless programmed to skip. With CHIRP this is easily done by placing an S into the skip column of the channel table. It doesn't appear to be possible to skip scanning a channel by a keyboard entry. VFO Mode Awkward and cumbersome. It enables manual programming via the radio keypad. The user manual suggests VFO mode is useful for experimenting in the field and programming is somewhat difficult at first. I would say its painful. You must first specify a vacant memory channel. This is problematic. You can scroll through the memory channels: 1,2,3... or enter a channel number from the keypad, but I have found no way to determine which, if any, channels are empty. Once programmed, a channel cannot be edited using the key pad. The channel must first be deleted. This insures that an existing cannot be overwritten. Scanning is possible in VFO mode. It can scan by incrementing the frequency in fixed steps as programmed in menu 1, STEP – Frequency Step. This scanning mode is very slow and probably not practical for many. Radio Case and Battery Case The radio case is pretty solid and feels good in the hand, but the bottom is not flat. There are two plastic nubs on the bottom of the case and two more on the bottom of the battery. There is also two rectangular depressions, one in the battery, another in the radio. If you set the radio upright on a hard surface it is unstable and can easily fall over. Not cool! Charger When placed on a hard surface, the charger can slide easily. There are four circular ridges on the bottom presumably for feet pads, but no pads were provided for my charger. Not a huge deal, but I fume when the charger, along with my radio, slides around with the slightest touch. Finally, the LED on the charger is red while charging, green when finished charging, and flashes multi-colors when you remove the radio. OK, maybe this is not a wart, but it annoys the heck out of me and it attracts small children. Why not just turn the LED off? Summation Any design involves compromises between performance, features, aesthetics, price, etc, leaving room for improvement. I think the UV-82HT is designed with a good mix of compromises. The radio has more features than I will likely use. It is very flexible. I have not tested any performance specifications. Perhaps I will in the future. Meanwhile, I can enjoy operating it. I like it a lot. It is an outstanding value. I give it 5 stars and my recommendation without hesitation. 73