Love them or hate them, Baofeng makes radios with a lot of bang for not a lot of bucks, which is why their radios are a very popular choice among new hams for a first radio. I’ll admit it: my first ham radio was a Baofeng BF-F8HP that I bought on October 17, 2017 (the day after I got my first callsign assigned) from Amazon for the staggering price of $62.89.
I have no complaints about mine that can’t be offset by the purchase price. Sure the scanning is slow, the included rubber ducky antenna is almost worthless, and the radio is nearly impossible to program without a computer. However, with CHIRP and a programming cable, they are actually very easy to program, and with an improved antenna like the Nagoya NA-771, it is a decent performing little radio that I still use frequently when I need a handheld.
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