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The Baofeng GT-3TP was a purchase that I thought for sure would be my new daily carry radio, and wound up staying at home. Read on to find out why.
I really liked the looks and specs of the Baofeng GT-3TP when I first saw them online, so it didn’t take long for me to have one delivered so I could play with it. On Amazon, it showed a really nice screen with 8 watts of output power with a really nice looking black and dirty yellow case complete with a black PTT button as shown below.
Once it arrived I immediately noticed the Baofeng GT-3TP was more orange than dirty yellow, did not have a black PTT button, and after a little testing, did not come anywhere near its claimed 8 watts of power.
To that disappointment, you can add that the Baofeng GT-3TP’s Call and MONI buttons above and below the PTT button are super squishy things that have absolutely no place on an amateur radio. Yech!
Another interesting quirk of the Baofeng GT-3TP is that most handheld radios these days have a higher power output on the 2m band than the 70cm band, not this one! The Baofeng GT-3TP outputs only 2.9 watts on 2m, but ups that to 4.5 watts on 70cm. That makes the Baofeng GT-3 dual-band unique in my collection of handhelds.
So yeah, not at all happy at this point. But then something funny happened, I started using the Baofeng GT-3TP and found it was actually a pretty good radio!
The Baofeng GT-3TP antenna is a completely different style than other Baofeng radios, and remarkably good at 2m while lacking quite a bit on 70cm. Since I don’t use 70cm much except for digital and this isn’t a digital radio, that really didn’t bother me that much. I do like the fact that when I wear it on my belt the antenna is so flexible that it never stabs me in the side, even when I get in my car wearing it. Score one for the Baofeng GT-3 antenna!
The in-hand feel is pretty good, although I find myself holding the Baofeng GT-3TP differently than most of my other radios and I really like the belt clip which is shaped a bit differently than standard and has a slot cut into it which helps with the whole sport look thing.
I was expecting the orange sides to be made of a grippy rubber type material, it is not, but it does have some texture in places that help you hang on to the radio. If you are looking for grippy rubber, the only real piece of that on the Baofeng GT-3TP is on the power/volume knob on the top of the radio, which is actually pretty nice. I am not sure why they felt the need to make the knob chrome, but oh well. That is one of the glaring differences between the Baofeng GT-3 and UV-5R. Get it? Glaring? I crack myself up.
What I found really interesting with the Baofeng GT-3TP dual band was the transmit audio and signal quality. The transmit volume is about average and there is a little too much treble but unlike a lot of other radios it doesn’t tend to overdrive any part of the voice too much so your speech is pretty clear even at long ranges. Looking at the spectrum during transmitting, the radio seems dead-on accurate and clean, both of which can be difficult to find in less expensive radios.
The Baofeng GT-3 programming is straight forward, just like any other Baofeng radio from the keypad or using CHIRP. Just don’t expect much from the tiny little Baofeng GT-3 manual! Of course, that isn’t anything you haven’t read a dozen times in every Baofeng GT-3 review.
Photos
Baofeng GT-3TP Test Results:
| Screen readability | Good |
| In-hand feel | Good |
| Included antenna | Very Good |
| Construction quality | Good |
| Belt clip | Good |
| Programmability | Good |
| Transmit audio | CLICK TO LISTEN |
| Maximum power output (2m/70cm) | 2.9 watts / 4.5 watts |
| Size | 303 * 61 * 50 mm |
| Actual weight | 7.4 oz |
| Baofeng GT-3TP manual | CLICK TO DOWNLOAD |
| Programming software | CLICK TO DOWNLOAD |
| Baofeng GT-3TP Overall score |  |
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Conclusions
I hope you enjoyed my Baofeng GT-3TP review!
I have a 10 year old GT-3TP radio, without FCC license.
Shortly after I bought it, FCC required a license for Chines radios.
CALL button stopped working, it turns on Fm/Am radio and other functions.
Took the radio apart, the rubber button inside has an extension that pushes an on/off switch, but the rubber pin extension is points somewhere else, so can’t activate the switch.
I stuffed some soft paper material around it to keep it straight, it worked for a short while, but stopped again.
So, I either junk it or try to repair it again.
GT-3TP supposed to be a water proof radio that’s why it’s case rubberized.
Nice radio though, it has a nice sound.
👍
I could be wrong, ask my wife, but as far as I know all radios operating on the amateur radio bands in the USA regardless of country of manufacture have required an amateur radio license to operate since the Radio Act of 1912. If you are talking about certifying radios for amateur radio use (even with a license), I believe that would have been Title III of the Communications Act of 1934 (part 90), although it has been updated quite a bit since then.