Baofeng BF-T1

 The Baofeng UV5R had a baby I guess...

The Radio that could(n't)

I got this radio for around $25 + free shipping from out west. I honestly bought this on a whim to see just how effective it could be in a place like Maryville. Given that we have no 70cm activity, I think this should do very well.

The biggest limitation is the maximum output power - a solid watt. Yes, 1.000 watts. You can go to 500mW as well but why?

As I write this my thoughts are all over the place about this radio. It's cool but...how functional is it? What's the maximum range it can go? Can I use it to access my packet node from across town? Is it a toy or a novelty?

Let's find out.

Unboxing

A bit of a change up where I got this from. I purchased this one from an eBay seller for about $25 + shipping as I had mentioned. I could've gone through AliExpress but I didn't want to take any chances. This one came with the programming cable. Be advised if you do purchase one of these, you'll most certainly need to also purchase the programming cable separately. 

Back in 2016 when these first came out, these were also packaged with a mobile unit that would boost its power output to 15 watts. This has since been discontinued and there's little to no trace of this unit on the internet. So sadly you're stuck with a solid watt if you purchase this radio as is. 

The one I got came with a programming cable. Again, make sure you check the listing so you're getting an included programming cable. The package arrived per usual without any visible damage, and everything was included as described. 

I plugged in the battery- OH MY EARS THAT'S LOUD!!! Yeah it's quite loud. Looks like the resistor mod is going on this without a doubt. I even only had it halfway up too.

It feels great in the hands, and it definitely is small enough to fit in a pocket. The buttons feel nice, and press very easy. The FM receiver works just fine - tunes in all sorts of FM radio stations.

The belt clip seems pretty weak. It's not as strong as the UV5R's and I can see it getting broken within a few months.

I cannot lock out frequencies, it appears. Yes, this will transmit on VHF, albeit not very well. I'd stick with only talking on UHF frequencies, but I can program in the NOAA weather channels so at least I'll have those on this radio. I've also programmed in my BBS/APRS frequency so I can use that soon too! One way to enable a form of TX lock is to program a 70cm TX frequency in for the NOAA channels. For example, if you have 162.425MHz for the RX frequency, program in 446.000MHz or another 70cm frequency in for TX, running it in split mode - problem solved!

So in all honesty, is this a bad radio? No, not really. As a daily yes, but as a backup or a go-bag radio? Absolutely a winner. The fact that you can charge it via USB is a HUGE win for this radio already. In addition, the flashlight actually is decent and the battery is definitely replaceable. So what else can you do with this radio to improve it?

Range Enhancer

I've seen many hams and non-hams do this but I figured I'd try it out myself. Since the BF-T1 doesn't have a removable antenna, we need to work with what we have.

We can use the concept of a passive repeater. Two high gain antennas - usually two yagis - are connected to one another via coax. One is pointed at the weaker radio (the T1 in this case) and the other is pointed towards the horizon or wherever you want to talk. It's effective for both reception and transmission. Not surprisingly, Peter VK3YE showcased how this works to receive a distant VHF CW beacon. He also demonstrated that transmission with this antenna is certainly possible too.

I'm planning to build it using a 2x4 as a support, mounted on something like a camera tripod, metal coat hangers or tubing for the elements, and left over TV cable for the coax run. Remember to keep the run of coax short. 3 feet or less should suffice for what I'm using it for. You can expect at least about 6dB of gain from this antenna. It's an experiment in progress so I'll build it and see what happens.

If you'd like to build it, here are the dimensions:

As you can see, it won't be very big, and that's the huge perk with UHF. Antennas and infrastructure are all very minimal and small in comparison to VHF and dare I say HF.

Was it worth the money for this radio? I'd say so. But again, don't expect 1 watt to get you very far. Best to use a passive repeater if you're using this for serious work with a yagi at the opposite side of the repeater in respect to the radio.