I have been waiting for these comprehensive features, all in one transceiver, for years. The inclusion of the 222 MHz band with decent power is a big plus. This unit works as good or better than my Wouxun KG-UVD1P at a much lower price. The FM commercial broadcast frequencies received go all the way down to the studio to mobile unit communication frequencies band. This is important in Indianapolis with all of our events year round. It keeps our Ham Radio volunteers more informed about what is happening at each event. The only drawback of this unit is the inability via computer to extend the receive / send frequencies to cover other services that we are licensed for or need in emergencies or catastrophes. My Wouxun can cover my work and emergency frequencies (operating under their FCC licenses) in addition to my Amateur Radio licensed frequencies.I would highly recommend this radio to any Ham Radio operator. This is the best handheld that I have used over the last 40 years.

Great price. Good build quality, to my surprise. Great features- many settings. Nice two channel monitoring. Great distance. Good internal speaker. Works with many different bands. These do not work on 1/2 watt, so if you are on an FRS frequency, you will be using more power than legally allowed (even on low), so be careful. Anyone using this as a HAM radio, the Nagoya Whip Antenna is great. The dual-band antenna that comes with the radio is pretty good as well for a stock antenna. Buttons are sturdy, screen is bright, volume / on-off knob is nice to turn and looks even better. Battery lasts a LONG time! Charger is quite cheesy, doesn't sit well in the charger, but rarely have to charge because the battery lasts quite a long time. I can use this for days on end with the same battery. I absolutely recommend this. I looked into Kenwood and Motorola but they cost an arm and a leg, and I was skeptical to get this, but it's actually not bad at all and I'm glad I bought it. Just know that you do need a HAM license to broadcast using this, or a GMRS license if you are broadcasting using those channels, and remember that you are broadcasting with excess power even on low on FRS channels, so be aware of your usage.

Very nice tri-bander for the price. Very easy to program with the chirp software. I don't have a lot of hours on it yet but so far so good. Operation has the typical Bao Feng clunkiness but if you can get past that it's not too bad. I feel that a tri-band antenna should have been included.

I've owned a Baofeng UV-5R+ duo band talkie for 144/440, and a TYT TH-UVF9 220/440 dual band talkie for several years already. The advances are obvious in this new model radio.I bought the BTech UV-5X3 tri-band radio to only have to grab one radio when going to a hamfest, club meeting, et cetera. At less than $60, the syncing of the two lines of the display with frequency on Line A and channel name on Line B, as well as 3 bands in one small radio was the clincher for me. Heck...all three of these radios together is still only about half the price of a Kenwood TH-F6A and they do the job.The UV-5X3 also has a "real signal strength meter" as compared to its earlier siblings. It actually works for peaking on the received station. On the older radios mentioned above, if you opened squelch, you'd get a full 5 bar signal display. Not very useful...The free CHIRP software one can use to program frequencies, mode, offset, power level, et cetera is just OK. It doesn't allow setting any of the configuration functions of the UV-5X3 (e.g.: 2 line display syncing, display backlight colors for standby/receive/xmit). Those are only accessible through the somewhat tedious Menu structure. The good news is that once you configure the radio the way you like it, CHIRP will also download those manual settings to your computer. So, first build a CHIRP file with your desired channel frequency and name information.Blow that into your UV-5X3. When you're happy with it, go through the configuration Menues. Then download everything from the radio into your computer via CHIRP and save it under a new filename. You can then use this inaccessible configuration information for future uploads to the radio by updating that load for future changes to channel frequency content and name changes.The BTech USB programming cable uses a genuine FTDI chip, so it will work with any version of Windows O/S. (The older Baofeng cables from the UV-5R days used a counterfeit FTDI chip in them and will only work with Windows XP or earlier O/S's. I know this because I have both types of cables.)If you must have complete computer programming capability of the Menu based configuration functions, you'll have to purchase the RT-Systems cable and software for $49. If you only buy their software for $25, it will not work with the radio manufacturer's cable, but only RT's proprietary cable. Somehow, $50 for programming a $60 radio seems kind of silly to me. But then, I'm a cheap ham married to my lovely bride who is also a cheap quilter. Naw...strike that...we're simply frugal, and love each other madly.BTech included proprietary software that programmed both the frequencies and the configuration functions for their UV-2501+220 micro-mobile radio. It would have been nice to have that done for the UV-5X3 too, but (sigh...) NO. I suspect that if I pop for the next generation BTech micro-mobile once again, I will have to do the 2-step CHIRP for frequencies and manual Menu configuration function approach for the UV-25X4 also. (I already did buy one, but got someone else's returned and still-defective radio. See my other review on that. I, likewise, returned it.) I still will not spend $50 to program a $130 mobile. That's not my nature...and I know the older UV-2501+220 software won't program the next-gen mobile.I was pleasantly surprised to see a combo earpiece and mike included in the box with the UV-5X3 goodies, so it can be used without unduly attracting the attention of overzealous police officers while I'm talking and driving. Nice touch...I'd recommend to anyone they also get the 3800mAH long-life battery for this radio. Get yourself a speaker-mike, too, and you're set for many hours of pleasant operating on the air.I'm very happy I "took the plunge" and bought the UV-5X3. CCR's (cheap Chinese radios) have come a long way in a very short time.

Great Tri-band Ham radios, easy to use. Programming works great with the CHIRPS software, and it is easy to replicate from radio to radio. Good audio quality and battery life. It comes with two antennas, but if you want a single tri-band antenna be sure and order one at the same time.

This radio came very quickly and I started using it immediately. Thus far, for the money, it has exceeded my expectations .

Great radio for the price!Being an OM in the amateur radio hobby,I even found programing it manually a breeze once I figured it out.The instruction manual says that manually programing it could be difficult,but to an OT such as myself that has manually programed a HT on numerous occassions,I found this radio to be easily manually programed as any other!de KD4LTE