THIS is the radio I bought.
Been looking at them for a long time & the price drop to $25 just finally got me over the edge.
Also picked up the USB programming cable for it too.
I know I need a license to use it & I can't operate it on the frs/gmrs bands because it's too powerful, even tho you can program it to.
I know these are pretty well regarded radios, tho bit quirky  & manually programming kinda sucks. Hence why I bought the cable.
I guess what I'm looking for is feedback from owners/users.
Tips & tricks about the radio.
Reading I've already done says use CHIRP (chip?) & skip baofengs software.
Is the technician license really important or will the general be enough?
Kind of excited & at $25 if I decide it's not for me I figured I could easily break even.
Anyway, rambling.
Thanks folks!

Congrats! Now get your license and use the radio. The Technician class license is a very simple 35 question test.

BTW, I know a lot of people who use their Baofeng on MURS, license free frequencies, set to narrow TX and lower power. Technically the radio is not rated for MURS service but no one got in trouble for this yet.

Welcome in!  Here is my Start Here Page from my Ham Radio Podcast that was birthed here on ARFcom.  It'll help get you going **along with the Stickies at the top of this forum page!!!

Now be very careful not to drop it on a hard surface!

The battery latch will break off and you'll have to glue the batt on like I did

I will agree with using chirp instead of the factory software. Start with your tech, play around and see what you think

Yes, most definitely use CHRIP to program it.  It is technically possible to program them through the front panel of the radio, but don't even bother.  Skip the Chinese software.

See if you can get a CHRIP file for the Baofeng from a local ham and just upload it to your radio, that would be the easiest way to get started.  Otherwise, try to get a list of local repeaters and an idea of which are the most active.  Last option is to check out repeaterbook or radioreference and download whatever repeaters they have (they don't always have all of them).  CHIRP also has the option to download by city or county or something, but again they don't have everything.

Amateur licensing goes Technician > General > Extra in that order.  You have to pass one before you can test for the next highest.  If you decide to, you can pass all tests in 1 sitting and go from "zero to extra" in 1 day for the same test fee (if any).

The Technician license is all you need to do everything that your new radio will do, but most here recommend at least testing to General, and in the same test session if possible.  The Tech test is stupid easy (ask about the 8 y/o kids that aced it), and there is a TON of overlap of the information for the General exam.  General opens you up to the good stuff (HF) if you decide you ever want to, for minimally more effort.

Find a local club and go say 'hello', they'll tell you what you need to know to get started.

The speaker/mic jacks are prone to failure after an absurdly low number of connect-disconnect cycles. Since the programming cable uses the speaker/mic jack, I recommend against using an external hand mic or headset to save the jack's finite service life for programming the radio.

Not knocking the Baofeng as I have several. Just pointing out something that might save you some grief later on. If the jack does fail on you, there is a fix for it to restore the radio's audio but this fix makes it so the programming cable can't work.

"See if you can get a CHRIP file for the Baofeng from a local ham and just upload it to your radio,"

Absolutely DO NOT DO THIS.

If your radio is a different version  you very well may mess it up badly.

Start here:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/664274_Baofeng_UV_5R_information.html