Our latest GMRS handheld is a Baofeng GMRS-9R, which is an updated version of the IP-67 waterproof rated UV-9R. In the photo below are all the items that came with the radio, including a charging base and adapter, belt clip, lanyard and manual. The radio as ordered did not come with a PL2303 USB programming cable or Chirp software to program it. Here’s how setting up the radio went after charging it up overnight.
Why We Keep Coming Back to The Waterproof Baofengs
We enjoy using these inexpensive little handhelds from Baofeng, even though they don’t feature a superheterodyne receiver and may pick up a bit more cross-channel interference in the city, we find that’s really not an issue for where we live, which is in a suburban area – and where we use the radios the most – somewhere way off the beaten path. These handhelds are waterproof, (see photo above, yes we did that!) repeater capable, and we’ve had good luck with the Baofeng GMRS-9R predecessor, the UV-9R when we’ve carried them off-road and in our backpacks.
Testing The Range of The Baofeng GMRS-9R
Our helpful ham friend on the far side of town (7 miles) was able to go into his backyard and call us from his Btech-V2. We had no trouble talking that far on channel 16, with only a bit of static. Next we tried a local repeater at around 28 miles away. We weren’t able to “kerchunk it” (don’t do that too much, you’ll get called out!) but after changing to a Abbree AR-152 (see our review of that antenna) we could talk to another licensed GMRS user who gave us a good signal report of “almost full quieting” into the machine.
Setup of the Baofeng GMRS-9R With Chirp
Caution: When unscrewing the waterproof side port to install the programming cable don’t lose the small screw. There’s nothing holding it in and ours hit the floor and bounced away – never to be seen again.
The first thing we did after powering on the radio was to press the green menu key and scroll using the channel up/down buttons until we found Voice, pressed channel up to select Off and the pressed the Menu key once more to save our selection. Disabling this feature, along with the Beep feature (hit Menu then 8) helps to preserve our sanity when programming the radio. We also confirmed VOX and Roger Beep were off since we don’t use these.
Next we used a programming cable that we already owned, along with the latest version of Chirp to program the radio with our local repeater’s tone, along with setting our “family GMRS channel” using tone squelch on one of the 23 available DIY channels. We noticed that the GMRS-9R wasn’t a supported radio in Chirp (yet), but found that selecting UV-9G worked for programming the GMRS-9R.
Testing Power Output of the Baofeng GMRS-9R
We hooked the radio up to our Surecom SW-102 and running into a dummy load (so as not to broadcast over the air when testing) we measured 3.16 watts on channel 16. Baofeng radios often put out much less than advertised, in case you’re wondering why it wasn’t 5 watts. Power output of the GMRS-9R was higher on channel 1, at 3.65 watts. This was disappointing, since some of our other UV-9R radios have measured almost 5 watts, but at least we won’t be draining the 2800mAh battery as fast.
How Waterproof is the Baofeng GMRS-9R?
For an imported radio that cost less than a fast food meal for two, you must take some things, like the advertised watts of RF output and IP67 waterproof rating, (good for 30 minutes at one meter depth) with a grain of salt. Still though, if we’re going to carry a GMRS handheld in the great “out yonder” we want it to be at least very water resistant, unlike our Btech GMRS-V2 that we got soaked while we were kayak fishing. (Water entered the display on that radio which is advertised as IP54, during a heavy rainstorm). See our review of the Btech GMRS-V2.
We placed the Baofeng GMRS-9R under two inches of running water in our local stream and went and had some lunch up on the riverbank for about half and hour. When we came back and retrieved the radio, all was well and there was no sign of water ingress. Two weeks on now, it’s still working great.
Baofeng GMRS-9R vs. UV-9R
This is really just the same radio as the Baofeng UV-9R. The only difference we could tell was when we downloaded the radio’s data from Chirp was that unlike our previous UV-9R channels 1-7 were indeed set to wide-band FM, as they should be. The only channels on the GMRS-9R set to narrow-band were 8-14, as is required by the FCC. It’s a minor thing, but we do like the buttons better than the UV-9R, as well as the more modern looking face.
We noticed that when you press and hold Scan, it picks up (and stops on) all NOAA weather channels, which is annoying. There’s no way to fix this from the keypad, but using Chirp we could add “Skip” next to the NOAA channels, removing them from scanning.
Pros and Cons of The Baofeng GMRS-9R
Pros
- Cheap – Currently costs less than $40.
- IP67 Waterproof
- Repeater capable.
- Decent speaker, good audio compared to some other handhelds.
- Upgraded antenna from previous models.
- Compatible with Nagoya NA-701G and NA-771G antennas
Cons
- Output of just over 3 watts is much less than advertised.
- NOAA channels should be skippable from a keypad command, not just from Chirp
- Aside from the keys and face-plate, not a significant upgrade from the UV-9R
Would We Buy it Again?
When it comes to value for our money, it’s just really hard to beat these radios. The quality is decent, Baofeng’s waterproofing seems adequate, plus we’ve had pretty good luck with range and battery life. If any of our current GMRS handhelds bite the dust, we’ll probably replace them with a GMRS-9R or whatever new, very slightly different model of the UV-9G that comes along next.
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