Recently I was driving home and listening to some hams on a distant 10 meter FM repeater talk about this
radio.

I joined the yahoo UV-3R group, and started reading reviews on them.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UV-3R/

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/9749

On the yahoo group, I found a ham in  Florida selling them $60
shipped with programming cable.

I've been playing with the radio for about a week.

It's so tiny, it's very easy to carry drop it into a cargo pocket and go.

It's not as nice as my FT-60R,  but for $50, it's a hell of a deal.  


PRO:
Long battery life.
Good Receive
Easy to program
Super compact
LED flash light
FM broadcast receive
136-174   400-470 Mhz
Surprisingly loud speaker
Same SMA connector as my  YEASU's
DSP

CON:
Scans slow
No way to "lock-out" or "skip" memory channels
from scan.
Comes with 1 VHF and 1 UHF antenna ( replaced it with a DIAMOND SRHF10 )
Doesn't have auto repeater shift

These would be great for monitoring Dakota alarms.

Do they come with a keypad?

How do they compare to a VX-3?

Ahhhhh, I knew there was a reason I needed some of these!

For $50, it would be fun just to have as a beater.  

Almost ordered one but it looks like it has some harmonic issues on TX.

He fixes that with a 47pF capacitor


from the yahoo users group....

I think that I need one of these.

Exactly

Can you IM me a link to the seller you purchased from?

No coverage of the shortwave or AM broadcast bands.

The VX-3 ships with one antenna that covers both the 2M and 70cm bands. However, the VX-3 programming software isn't free.

How easy is it to program without the cable/software (FPP)?

EDIT –– Also, could you PM me the sellers info. Sounds like a good purchase.

I plan on getting one to attach to my pack so I don't tie up the VX-7.  I mostly just need one channel for short range comms with BlammOJr while hunting at the farm, a backup channel and one for crossbanding off my truck to a local repeater.  I think this will fit the bill.

If you aren't in a hurry, you can order from ebay from various sellers. The radios are made by Vero Telecom and re-branded by Baofeng (as well as others like Magiksun, Comtex, etc.)

Also, note in addition to "tactical" black, you can get red, blue, or camo. There is supposed to be a yellow one, but I've not see it for sell yet. I've got a black one, but want the yellow as a BUR (back up radio) for my BOB. The yellow looks to be pretty hideous, so it should be easy to spot. Also, you can use the VX-3R AA battery case (with a slight modification) to power the radio.

There are two versions of the radio - the older one only has 12 menu options. The newer ones have 18. Also, the new ones should start showing up with the FCC number on them since they were recently approved.

The three biggest complaints/issues have been the spurious transmissions on the harmonics (as mentioned by someone earlier), loud receive audio, and a chopping issue on receiving. Given the FCC type acceptance, there has been mucho speculation about the harmonic issue being resolved. Also, some are reporting that the volume issue has been fixed. The chopping issue does not seem to be wide spread.

The general perception is that this is a great radio for the price.

I've gathered other UV-3R info and put it all here:
http://www.brickolore.com/p/baofeng-uv-3r.html

Cheers,
Brick