Baofeng UV-17R Review

The Baofeng UV-17R is more curved than the typical Baofeng radios. The vertical edges and even top and bottom are substantially less squared off than other radios. The only exception to this is the belt clip which is still angled enough to not cause it to dig into your hand, but is more angled than rounded. The problem with holding the radio is that I have to move the radio quite a bit up in my hand for my index finger to fall on the PTT button, which causes it to feel extremely short in my palm and out of balance.

I mentioned the belt clip above, and it appears to be one that used on several different Baofeng radios. This is both good in that it has been refined to have good spring tension and angle sides so that it doesn’t dig into your hand, however those angles don’t match the curves on the rest of the radio. This is more cosmetic than anything, however it just looks odd. The clip has an L at the bottom to prevent it from coming off your belt, however I prefer a hook as it will do a better job when you’re moving around, getting in and out of your car, or bending over.

The buttons on the front of the Baofeng UV-17R are large, well spaced, easy to read, and have an excellent tactile feel. I like the fact that both the numbers and the text labels are the same color, too many radios today use a much lighter low contrast color for the text, making it hard to read. The buttons on the side work quite well and feel good, although the top flashlight button is a little hard to press. I also find the PTT button to be far too low on the side to comfortably grip the radio.

The knob on top is smooth, rotates well, and has very little slop in the on-off switch.

The screen on the Baofeng UV-17R is a fairly common 1.77″ full color LCD used on quite a few of these radios in this price range. The color is good, the contrast is good, and the text for the frequency is large and easy to read. What I don’t like is that you cannot read the screen if the backlight turns off, and the backlight is set to turn off after just 5 seconds. To make it worse, there is no way to change that from the radio itself. You have to hook the radio up to a computer in order to change the backlight timeout in programming software. Very annoying.

The base of the radio is broad, and the radio appears to have a fairly low center of gravity so it sits on the desk reasonably well. I say reasonably well because the four little bumps on the bottom that actually contact the desk are not spaced as wide as the base of the radio, meaning it could be far more stable than it is.

One thing about this radio that puzzles me is that the battery screws into the back of the radio. While I can understand this on radios that are supposed to be extremely waterproof, those radios typically have a specialized connector for the microphone and headphone jack, whereas this radio does not. It also is not advertised as waterproof. With typical radios I can carry a spare battery and swap them out as needed, however, to do that with this radio you also have to carry a flat head screwdriver.

Programming the Baofeng UV- 17R from the radio is fairly straightforward. When you press the menu button the bottom half of the LCD turns into the menu leaving the frequency on the top half. With the size of the screen, this gives it plenty of area to display information. Even though the menu is slightly different and a lot easier to read, the basics of the menu structure and terms are all what you would expect from a Baofeng radio. My only real complaint is that as I said above, you can’t change the LCD backlight timeout from here.

— Find out what battery fits the Baofeng UV-17R with our battery finder tool —

The Baofeng UV-17R series of radios are programmable using CHIRP with a standard Baofeng programming table. I used the cable that I bought for my original UV-5R that’s over 10 years old. While many of these radios have their own CPS software released by the manufacturer, there is no reason to use it as CHIRP handles hundreds of radios, has better support, and is usually superior software.

Performance:

The Baofeng UV-17R puts out 3w on 2m and 3.1w on 70cm. I am impressed by the fact that it is so consistent on both frequencies, which is quite unusual. Well you may be thinking that three Watts is not a lot of power output, and technically you would be correct it is reasonably in line with radios in this price range.

The good news is the factory antenna that comes with this radio is exceptional for a factory radio. Is it as good as some of the Nagoya or Diamond replacements? Absolutely not. However, compared to other factory radios, it does a great job. Return loss is approximately -24 at 2m and -23 at 70cm. SWR is almost exactly one at both frequencies.

When looking at the transmitted signal of the Baofeng UV-17R using a spectrum analysis, the signal is not bad, fairly coherent, fairly consistent, an overall fairly good. Of course this is compared to other radios in its class so the bar is not that high which is why I keep saying fairly.

Where things get bad is in spurious emissions. At two meters, this radio has five harmonics above the FCC recommended limit of -60. This translates into somewhere around 20 to 25% of your transmit power being wasted on frequencies you don’t care about. It also causes excessive interference inside the radio, which generates heat and RF feedback. The end result is a radio that doesn’t transmit as much power as a power meter would suggest, and will probably have a much shorter life than a slightly more expensive radio.

Images:

Radio Specifics:

Test Images:

• Dual band 2m/70cm
• NOAA weather and alerts
• 999 channels
• LED flashlight
• Wireless frequency copy
• VOX function
• FM radio
• Drop-in charger includes with most versions
• USB-C charging (Plus and Pro versions)
• GPS (Pro version)

One thing to keep in mind about the Baofeng UV-17R is that only the Plus and Pro kits have USB-C charging, and only the Pro (also sometimes calls the GPS version) has the GPS. What’s interesting about this, is that all three versions have the GPS logo on the top of the radio. If you see one of these in the wild and notice the GPS logo on the top, don’t assume it is the Pro version.

I do like the fact that all three versions of the radio include a drop in charger. I enjoy having USB-C as an option, especially for travel, or to take to the office, but the ability to walk in the door and drop the radio in the charger without having to fiddle with wires, plugs, and port covers is more convenient for me for daily use.

Conclusions

Would I recommend the Baofeng UV-17R? No. It doesn’t feel too bad, and the screen is pretty nice, and I do like the buttons on the front. The problem is the screwed-in battery is inconvenient, the PTT button is too low, and the spurious emissions massively reduce and already mediocre power output. Even the original UV-5R is, in my opinion, a superior beginner radio.

Here are some reviews of the radio!