UV-5R Mini

[TACAIR]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis   use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand.  

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

[Moab]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis  use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand. 

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

I wasn't taking these very serious before I read your comments. And the early prices I saw didn't impress me. The battery thing still sucks. How much are the batteries? How long do they run? And do they offer larger ones? 

[NT2C]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis  use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand. 

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

I wasn't taking these very serious before I read your comments. And the early prices I saw didn't impress me. The battery thing still sucks. How much are the batteries? How long do they run? And do they offer larger ones?

No larger batteries that I can find.  I bought 2 batteries for $21 each, but you can find them on Aliexpress in the $16 range.  I'll get you a runtime when I've had a chance to use them more, but it looks like about 36 hours receive-only on a fairly low-usage local repeater.

[TACAIR]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis  use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand. 

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

I wasn't taking these very serious before I read your comments. And the early prices I saw didn't impress me. The battery thing still sucks. How much are the batteries? How long do they run? And do they offer larger ones?

for RX only, the battery does well.
I use the 20/80 formula for use/battery life.

The OEM battery is 2200 mAh, so good size for such a small radio.   There is a AAA battery pack, something I always try to have for each HT.  Right now, I'm waiting for them to show up on Amazon, the one on market now is via TEMU, a no-go for me.

At  $40 for a pair, I see no risk and buying a pair to play with.  At 5 watts, makes a it deal for me as I have a ham license and they play well on V/UHF.

[Moab]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis  use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand. 

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

I wasn't taking these very serious before I read your comments. And the early prices I saw didn't impress me. The battery thing still sucks. How much are the batteries? How long do they run? And do they offer larger ones?

for RX only, the battery does well.
I use the 20/80 formula for use/battery life.

The OEM battery is 2200 mAh, so good size for such a small radio.  There is a AAA battery pack, something I always try to have for each HT.  Right now, I'm waiting for them to show up on Amazon, the one on market now is via TEMU, a no-go for me.

At  $40 for a pair, I see no risk and buying a pair to play with.  At 5 watts, makes a it deal for me as I have a ham license and they play well on V/UHF.

To be honest I prefer multiples of a normal sized battery over larger extended batteries. In most of my use cases portability outweighs needing a heavier, bulkier radio. 

Like everything else - I'm wishing I'd waited to buy so many electronic things this year. I bought a battery station 2 months ago. And every battery station is on deep discount now. I think in prep for that new battery tech coming out of Wyoming. 

[TACAIR]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis  use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand. 

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

I wasn't taking these very serious before I read your comments. And the early prices I saw didn't impress me. The battery thing still sucks. How much are the batteries? How long do they run? And do they offer larger ones?

for RX only, the battery does well.
I use the 20/80 formula for use/battery life.

The OEM battery is 2200 mAh, so good size for such a small radio.  There is a AAA battery pack, something I always try to have for each HT.  Right now, I'm waiting for them to show up on Amazon, the one on market now is via TEMU, a no-go for me.

At  $40 for a pair, I see no risk and buying a pair to play with.  At 5 watts, makes a it deal for me as I have a ham license and they play well on V/UHF.

To be honest I prefer multiples of a normal sized battery over larger extended batteries. In most of my use cases portability outweighs needing a heavier, bulkier radio.

Like everything else - I'm wishing I'd waited to buy so many electronic things this year. I bought a battery station 2 months ago. And every battery station is on deep discount now. I think in prep for that new battery tech coming out of Wyoming.

The AA cell battery trays are a heavier, but are the same size as the OEM batteries.  This applies to my Bo Fangs and to my ham rigs.

I keep a 4x AA/AAA cell charger in the auto, using the 'USB" port to charge.

These new Minis use a USB-C port - now I wish everything had a -C port for charging.

[Moab]

These feature HAM+GMRS+FRS+MURS out of the box.

Current version of CHIRP supports the Minis  use any older UV-5R programming cable
Under $40 for the pair (Amazon)

New menu system
Color screen
5 watts out
Smallest yet
single button push for WX band
screen icons both easier to see and understand. 

Uses oddball battery pack w/contact in middle of battery pack 
comes with the USB-C charger cable.

Good, clear audio for TX and RX

I see these as a good 'parking lot comms/shopping center intercom for me and my DW.

******
I can hear, if not talk to all area ham repeaters, eve th eones out i the valley (60+ miles away)

Amazon sells an adapter to use 'ham' BNC-F base HT antennas.

Worth a look

BTW - ALL current FCC rules still apply.

I wasn't taking these very serious before I read your comments. And the early prices I saw didn't impress me. The battery thing still sucks. How much are the batteries? How long do they run? And do they offer larger ones?

for RX only, the battery does well.
I use the 20/80 formula for use/battery life.

The OEM battery is 2200 mAh, so good size for such a small radio.  There is a AAA battery pack, something I always try to have for each HT.  Right now, I'm waiting for them to show up on Amazon, the one on market now is via TEMU, a no-go for me.

At  $40 for a pair, I see no risk and buying a pair to play with.  At 5 watts, makes a it deal for me as I have a ham license and they play well on V/UHF.

To be honest I prefer multiples of a normal sized battery over larger extended batteries. In most of my use cases portability outweighs needing a heavier, bulkier radio.

Like everything else - I'm wishing I'd waited to buy so many electronic things this year. I bought a battery station 2 months ago. And every battery station is on deep discount now. I think in prep for that new battery tech coming out of Wyoming.

The AA cell battery trays are a heavier, but are the same size as the OEM batteries.  This applies to my Bo Fangs and to my ham rigs.

I keep a 4x AA/AAA cell charger in the auto, using the 'USB" port to charge.

These new Minis use a USB-C port - now I wish everything had a -C port for charging.

I replaced all the bats that came with my UV5Rs with USB c charging. It's just to simple. And easier to carry a battery bank and solar/DC charger for charging. And ditch the cradles. They take up as much room if not more than a radio. And iirc you can buy splitter cables to charge multiple radios from one port. Which lessons the amount of cable you have to carry. Not the easiest find. Or maybe I was looking for a better deal. But yes. USB c for the win. 

I recently had to buy a USB c data cable to connect my phone to the head unit in my new rig. I'm in the Phillipines so finding anything quality is hard. And data cables have to be tested well for data and charging. Most charging cables here don't even do fast charging. Let alone a data cable. Finally found one. Got home and realized it was USB a to usb micro a. Those older ones with the two tiny prongs. I haven't seen those used in phones in years. And didn't think I needed to look that close. Lol. 

[TACAIR]

Everybody makes  choices based on personal experience / local conditions.

I go with AA cell back up battery trays owing to being able to buy fresh AA cells even at the Arctic circle in Russia Confederation (Komi Republic's)

 The AA cells can also power my flashlights, sw radios and a host of other devices.

[Moab]

Everybody makes  choices based on personal experience / local conditions.

I go with AA cell back up battery trays owing to being able to buy fresh AA cells even at the Arctic circle in Russia Confederation (Komi Republic's)

 The AA cells can also power my flashlights, sw radios and a host of other devices.

I think that is a wise strategy. I wish more items still offered an AA battery tray. I would imagine there is a battery bank that takes alkaline AAs with a USB c connection? Is that a thing? That would be a universal thing to solve the same problem. But I guess you'd be recharging a radios battery pack with it? Rather than powering the radio wired to a battery bank. And I assume you'd have a loss of stored energy? 

Sometimes my brain hurts from all the battery options these days. Lol. I remember when AA alkaline or AA nimhs were the only choice. Better we have all these choices. But also tired of buying new options every 3 years as well. Lol 

[TACAIR]

I've settled on , for now, NiMH asw the 'best 'choice for AA cells.

I have recently added a pair of LiFePo batteries.  Very light weight, very energy dense.  Very low voltage loss while in storage.

[Moab]

I've settled on , for now, NiMH asw the 'best 'choice for AA cells.

I have recently added a pair of LiFePo batteries.  Very light weight, very energy dense.  Very low voltage loss while in storage.

So your using your AA packs for your devices to run Nimh AA bats? I would have thought that's just a backup to use AA alkaline in an emergency. How much do you get out of the AA nimh battery packs vs the USB c battery packs that came with your radios? 

I guess you have the advantage long term of replacing the nimh AAs. Whereas once a solid USB c battery pack goes bad it's done. 

I picked up a medium sized (1400ah?) Bluetti ac180p battery station and 350w solar panels a few months ago. It's completely changed my approach to powering electronics. Once I'm settled I will for sure be setting up a large home solar system. And playing around more with building my own battery stations with LifePo batteries. But I have to say the ability to easily take this power station with me in and out of the car is a huge change. Or anywhere I go. Running Starlink here (or anywhere) is a huge change. But I foresee being able to connect to satellite internet from just about any phone in our near future. TMobile already offers it technically. I think there are limitations. 

[TACAIR]

The NiMH battery packs run the radio while the USC-C charges.

The the OEM packs go back in while the AA cells charge.   In a pinch, I can use regular LA AA cells.

[Moab]

The NiMH battery packs run the radio while the USC-C charges.

The the OEM packs go back in while the AA cells charge.  In a pinch, I can use regular LA AA cells.

I like the idea of the AAs still today. If the solar ain't solaring. And your battery packs are dead. At least you can cop some alkalines from somewhere and have that second or third option. Good on you. 

I used to be solidly in the camo of rechargeable AAs. Just for this reason. But more and more I fall to the side of solar and rechargeable battery banks and battery packs for my radios or electronics. And 18650s. So many things dont run with AAs anymore. And just to many extra pieces of crap to carry. Two regular sized battery packs for each radio, a battery bank, and a small solar panel for on foot. But not much more in a car as I figure I can recharge all of it off my invertor. And a large battery station in the car. 

At one time I had everything set up for AAs nimh or alkaline. 

[Moab]

@TACAIR 

I think I have some of these. Still need to buy the splitter charging cables. Have you used these yet? Alot if batteries are being produced with this charge capabilities. And most reports are their very good. This is about AAs with USB c charging built in. 

https://www.makeuseof.com/didnt-expect-usb-c-aa-batteries-to-be-this-good-but-here-we-are/