Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am taking my technician's license test next week, but couldn't resist pulling it out and playing with it. And you know what I did not notice about this radio? ITS MISSING THE "BAND" KEY. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to select the band, as all of the documentation... INCLUDING the documentation in the box... shows a band key! Edit: Okay. The NEW V2+ Version no longer has a band key. The Baofeng website has an FAQ section, an in that section the author states that the radio is now smart enough to set the band correctly when you put in the frequency. Excellent! Without knowing anything else, I started scanning the both UHF and VHF bands. I was quickly able to discover a couple of repeaters in my area. Once I had that info, I was able to determine that the repeaters were about 18-20 miles from my home. I am not sure if I will actually be able transmit to them, but out of the box this looks to be fun. Edit#2: I now have passed both my Technician's and General Class license, so I can test further. I purchased a programming cable and input local repeaters, simplex, Fire/Police/NOAA. With the standard rubber duck antenna, I am able to communicate with those repeaters 20 miles away... clear as a bell. I am able to pick up Fire/Police for the two counties that I straddle. Programming with the cable is a breeze. Programming by hand is relatively easy once you get the hang of it, but it is hard to keep track of 128 channels.