Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The first Baofeng BF-F8HP I recieved had a problem with the sound on it. I could only hear if I had the microphone plugged in. I returned it and ordered another one. The replacement is very nice. I have 4 other Baofengs to compare this one too. The uv5r plus has the best sound with the least amount of back ground hiss when listening to people talk. The BF-F8HP has the best signal going out of the radio. I live out in the desert and its realitvley flat out here. We took all of our radios out and I drove down this long straight road. All the radios with the stock antennas became scratchy at about two miles but could still undertand what was being said. At 3 miles I could hear only one UV5R plus and the BF-F8HP. We switched antennas to aftermarket antennas and at 4 miles I could only recieve and transmit on the BF-F8HP to another UV5r Plus. At 5 miles I could not hear them but they could hear me on the BF-F8HP but I was scratchy and not every word was readable. At this point we pulled out our roll up slim jim jpoles and connected them to a tree about 6 feet up and we were both recieving strong signals. I drove up the road and stopoed at 8 miles and we could still hear each other. The could hear me better than I could hear them. Drove up another mile and same thing. Drove up the road till I hit 10 miles and we bith could still hear each other. They could hear me better than I could hear them. Drove to the 12 mile mark and tried again. We could both still hear each other but they were very hard to understand but I came across mostly clear with a little hiss. So the extra watts on this radio does help getting your signal out. My buddies were impressed with the BF-F8HP. We were in simplex mode. Haven't used it on a repeater yet but the extra watts couldn't hurt having.