Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV
I have no interest in any of those cheap Chinese ham radios because their makers do not support the ham radio community (DXpeditions, convention booths/exhibits, etc.) the way other companies do.
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I personally don't care for some of the companies that tend to use proprietary techonology. Look at D-Star, Icom owns that; the only radios that can contain D-Star technology are Icom radios. I fail to see how that's really supportive of ham radio; something I feel should be more open. Icom feels like the Apple of Ham radio....sure..they support the hobby...but they're acting like they're only doing so to get people to buy their radios and push their technology. I'd love to do D-Star stuff; but I'm not going to pay a ton of money for a radio because only one brand of radio does it.
There are other systems just as good as D-Star; but no ham wants to really support it. Sometimes I feel like they're basically all catering to the way ICom is pushing the hobby.
So, you've got your reasons for hating Baofeng; I've got my reasons for not considering purchasing from the other companies. I mean, if anything...Baofeng is at least putting radios on the market that are cheap enough to make people get in to the hobby...if I hadn't found cheap Baofeng radios...I wouldn't have considered even trying to get my license.
The other companies do it; only because people are paying the sometimes inflated prices for a radio. Maybe Baofeng just doesn't have the profit margin to do so because they're more worried about getting radios in to the hands of people.