Baofeng DR-1801 Review

To start with, the Baofeng DR-1801 fits in my large hands fairly well. The only thing I don’t really like is that it is a little short. For those of you without large or extra large hands, you will probably like the size. Fortunately, all of the edges and corners are fairly rounded so even though the bottom of the battery sits in my palm, it’s not uncomfortable.

The radio is fairly thin as is the belt clip, this causes my index finger to overshoot the PTT button just slightly. It does not affect functionality, and again, this is due to my large hand size. The belt clip is thinner than most, which makes me wonder about its durability. I do like the fact that the bottom of the belt clip has a hook on it to keep it on your belt even when you’re moving around, getting in and out of a vehicle, or bending over.

Buttons on the front have a nice tactile feel and are reasonably well spaced. The one thing I do not like on the Baofeng DR-1801 keypad is the center navigation button with the four arrows on it. The actual buttons behind this pad can be difficult to press and seem to have an awful small area for you to press for them to work. I realize there’s not much room here that they could have used to make this bigger, but after using it for a while navigating menus, the edge of my thumb starts to get a little sore.

The side buttons also have a nice tactile feel, and are covered in a comfortable rubber which adds substantial grip to your finger. Unfortunately, the PTT button suffers from one of the same issues as a lot of current radios in that if you don’t have your finger centered, the top and bottom of the button may not depress the switch underneath. This problem is less pronounced than a lot of other radios I’ve tested, but it is there. Most people are unlikely to notice.

On the top deck of the Baofeng DM-1801 is one knob that controls the power and volume. It is reasonably smooth and has very little slack when turning the radio on, however, it has substantially more slack when turning it off. I also think that there is too little resistance, making the volume extremely easy to change if you brush up against anything, which I often do getting in and out of my car or putting on and taking off a jacket.

The screen is a very nice monochrome LCD. It is not fancy, but it has more than adequate resolution to be easily read. The backlight is even, and a nice light blue color that enhances the contrast. One thing you will have to deal with is that the screen is relatively small for the menu structure of a DMR radio. There are typically a lot of options on DMR radios, making more screen real estate a reasonably important thing to look for.

The bottom of the Baofeng DM-1801 has four little feet where it sits on the desk. These are the only contact points the radio has with the surface. They do not take good advantage of the area present on the bottom of the radio and do not appear to be very even. This makes the radio wobble when sitting on a desk and extremely easy to knock over.

I mentioned the small screen and menu earlier, and when you couple that with the issue with the center navigation button, it makes programming the radio from the keypad unpleasant. You can’t really program this radio for DMR from the front panel anyway, however programming analog channels is possible, just not fun.

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Even though the Baofeng DR-1801 is a newer radio than the previous DM-1801, it still does not have USB-C charging. They did update the encryption, added an SMS function, and significantly sped up it’s scanning performance. On the downside, as of this review, OpenGD77 does not appear to be compatible. Of course, most people who buy this entry level DMR radio wouldn’t be interested in upgrading to custom firmware anyway.

Performance:

Even though the Baofeng DR-1801 is a newer radio than the previous DM-1801, it still does not have USB-C charging. They did update the encryption, added an SMS function, and significantly sped up it’s scanning performance. On the downside, as of this review, OpenGD77 does not appear to be compatible. Of course, most people who buy this entry level DMR radio wouldn’t be interested in upgrading to custom firmware anyway.

Images:

Radio Specifics:

Test Images:

• Dual-band analog 2m/70cm
• Tier I & Tier II DMR
• 1024 channels
• VOX
• SMS
• Time out timer
• Wired copy
• Emergency alarm
• Digital encryption

I do like the desktop charger that comes with the bow thing dr-1801 however I very much and surprised that there is no usb-c charging option. I could not even find an aftermarket battery for the radio with a usb-c charging port. Of course being an entry level DMR radio there are not as many options and kits as there are with many other analog radios.

Conclusions

So now it’s time to ask if I would recommend the bow thing dr – 1801? Like with most radios, that depends. I think this radio is an excellent introduction to DMR for its price. Intermediate to advanced users will want to look somewhere else. As a successor to the DM – 1801 it is an improvement, but clearly just an iteration on a theme.

To make a long story short, if you are new to DMR, and on a budget, or are not sure how into DMR you want to get, then this is an excellent choice.

Here are some reviews of the radio!