Waterproof Baofeng UV-9R Plus MK1 Ham Radio - 8W Max Power, 2200mAh Battery, IP67 Dust/Cold/Water Resistant - for Outdoor Adventures, Emergency Communication & Survival Situations

I am a previous owner of the Baofeng UV-5RA that worked flawlessly and was actually my first radio. This UV-9R Plus is my second handheld radio that got delivered yesterday (04/08/21). The build quality looks great and seems like it can take a mild beating. The accessory port from which you program seemed to have white corrosion or a white stain over the PCB. In addition to that, the cover that comes pre-installed seems to have a good seal but when you connect anything else it does not sit flush making the seal useless.When i first put it all together and turned it on, i tested the reception for the stock antenna. Using my local police dept. frequencies reception was very bad. I waved it around and reception would come and go, i had to tilt my radio to the side but it would still drop the signal. I did buy two of these and switched the stock antennas and by the looks of it one of them was faulty but still, reception was not great. Never the less the fix for this was to upgrade the antenna. Programing the radio was easy, i bought a baofeng brand data cable which brought the disk with the various programs for different model radios but both the manual nor the amazon listing specified which to use because the closest option was the UV-5R. I ended up using CHIRP which has multiple radio brands and models to choose from including the UV-9R.When i first looked through the manual i found it to be very generic compared to the UV-5RA manual. There were menu options that were not included such as the R-Tone, and a incomplete description on what all the options in the menu do. Overall this Manual covers the UV-5R and the 9R, 9R Plus and older models.Over all I am happy about this purchase only because i was convenient enough to have a after market antenna which without it would make this radio a paper weight. I didn't need the Baofeng radio programing software at all. I personally prefer CHIRP.Pros:- Cheap- Dual Band Transceiver (VHF/UHF) + FM Radio [67-108mhz]- Water resistant for 15 mins at 3 meters- Good build quality- Listen to both channels/frequencies at the same time- Power/Volume nob guard- Two piece removable belt clipCons.- generic Baofeng manual (incomplete)- stock antenna reception horrible- not water resistant for 30 mins at 3 meters as advertised- not 8 watts of output (5 watts max) as advertised- poor water seal on accessory port (except the stock cover)Water resistance - 3/5 - because it only holds up half the time it advertisesEasy to use - 4/5 - Incomplete manual for those starting in Ham RadioBattery life - 5/5 - I have not testedStock Rx/Tx - 1/5 - Very Bad Reception with the stock antenna. Had to upgradeBuild Quality - 5/5 - Clean, well built, easy to put together, good for bigger handsUpdate (5/13/21) the battery life is great it can last for as much as two days (until I chose to charge the radio. This is not the complete operation time from full charge to no charge) just receiving frequencies.This radio works ok, but its not chirp compatible yet and the antenna has the issue where you can't fit any aftermarket antennas on it, if you want a radio like this buy the PRO version of this radio. its also significantly cheaperI use murs channels at work this one has terrible reception and randomly cuts out mid conversation edit : radio has failed all together and started to catch fireImpossible to program. I retired from 25 years of commercial radio and had my amateur ticket for even longer, and this radio is so ridiculous to program it takes about 50 or 60 steps to program each channel. The manual is written so poorly in poor English and is so illogical it's impossible to follow the steps and program each channel as written. Completely useless. But since it was so cheap it isn't worth the gasoline to go take it back. Just another doorstop in my ham shack. In this day and age there's no excuse for this to be that hard to program. Unless you are a solid engineer from Baofeng don't waste your time. Lesson learned now I'll buy what I really want for a handheld that's much more user-friendly.I thought this would be an upgrade from a UV5R... I was very wrong. The sound quality on this radio is completely unusable. Also tye FM radio function did not work correctly. My local station comes in loud and clear on my UV82 but this radio was picking up an entirely different frequency.I ordered 4 of these. They were all returned units. None came in the manner that they come from the factory. They all appeared to have bee opened, removed and put back in the box. Ive order 5 of these in the past and they come packaged very specifically. Not happy. And I’m being charged to return.Had 2 older radios worked great, thought these would be better. Full of static and can’t talk to anyone over 100 feet away. STAY AWAY FROM THESE THEY ARE JUNK!!!!!