Btech MURS V2 Review

The Btech MURS V2 is a reasonably compact radio, actually smaller than a Baofeng UV-5R, but much taller. This means it fits reasonably well into your hand, even if you have larger hands like mine. Where things get interesting is the PTT buttons, one for each VFO, are angled slightly. The top one is angled down, the bottom one is angled up. To me, this makes the bottom one very easy to press while making the top one a little awkward. It also means that each of the buttons is smaller than on most radios.

As far as the buttons on the front panel are concerned they are spaced well and operate pretty well, however, they are a tiny bit stiff. I am also not a fan of the color of blue on the buttons, as they can be hard to read if you’re in a hurry. This may be because of my older eyes, but to me, it seems like they should have made the blue slightly lighter.

The knob on top if the Btech MURS V2 works extremely well with very little slack before the own off switch. It also rotates quite smoothly. I very much like the shield on the side of the knob, which helps prevent accidental volume adjustments. This shield might be a little too small to completely eliminate the problem, but it should help considerably.

Even though the Btech MURS V2 is a thinner radio than many, it sits very well and very stable on the desk. The feet on the battery and feet on the radio are very level and even though the radio does not weigh that much it is remarkably secure sitting on the desk.

The LCD is typical for this type of radio, being set back quite a ways from the glass, which causes some shadow and can make it difficult to read the numbers. The backlight is reasonably even but obviously the brightest on the right-hand side. It does a good job of lighting everything up so that you can see it and virtually any kind of lighting condition.

The belt clip on the back of the Btech MURS V2 is very stable, long enough to hold on to virtually any belt, and has an angled piece at the bottom to make sure that the radio does not come loose whether clipped to your belt, in your pocket, or on your seatbelt.

In the beginning, I talked about this radio being made from the Baofeng UV-82HP, and holding the radios next to each other makes that extremely obvious. In fact, if I were to switch the Baofeng sticker for the Btech sticker on the two radios, no one would know the difference. Why is this important? The most important reason I can think of is that both radios can use the same batteries, same belt clips, and same antennas. The UV-82HP does not have USB-C charging on the battery, like the Btech MURS V2 does, but it is otherwise identical.

This relationship also means that you can program the Btech MURS V2 with the same programming cable, using the same chirp software, with the same radio profile, as the UV-82HP. In fact, the programming menu on both radios are virtually identical. There are only some minor differences related to bands.

These commonalities, and substantial abilities, make this one of the most flexible MURS radios available.

An important distinction between the Btech MURS V2 and the UV-82HP is the fact that the Btech only transmits on MURS frequencies, as it should. Yes, you can enter other frequencies into the radio such as 2m and 70cm ham frequencies, and you can receive just those fine. Pressing the PTT button while on one of those frequencies will result in the radio simply beeping at you. This allows you to give the radio to anyone you want, including people without a radio license, and they can only use it for MURS.

Performance:

The Btech MURS V2 comes with an antenna which is quite good at MURS frequencies. Unlike many antennas on these type of radios, it is not designed to be used on multiple bands. Since the radio is built off of a dual-band ham radio, and you can absolutely receive 70cm Transmissions, I expected the antenna to be at least reasonable on that band. It is not.

The spectrum analysis of this radio is where I got disappointed. The Baofeng UV-82HP has a pretty good-looking spectrum, especially for it age and price range. This radio, however, has an output spectrum that looks like a thumper from Dune. Probably half of the carrier has little to no power, while the other half looks reasonably good. I have no idea what would cause this.

The Btech MURS V2 also doesn’t do anywhere near as well as the UV-82HP when it comes to spurious emissions. Not only does it have substantially more emissions above the -60 threshold, but the base has substantially more noise all the way to 800 MHz. I should point out that this is really not a bad looking spurious emissions chart for a Baofeng radio, it just happens to be notably worse than the UV-82HP.

Images:

Radio Specifics:

Test Images:

• Fully MURS certified
• 200 customizable channels
• NOAA weather channels
• IP54 weatherproof
• CHIRP programmable
• FM radio
• TOT
• Busy channel lockout
• DTMF keypad
• Multiple scanning modes
• Dual-Watch
• Adjustable squelch
• USB-C charging
• 1800mAh battery
• CH-8 desktop charger
• USA warranty and support from Btech

I really like the fact that the radio can be charged via USB-C or in the same desktop charger that charges my UV-82HP. If you are using the Btech MURS V2 in a business environment, or something like a school, the desktop chargers make a lot more sense. If you are traveling or using them to communicate between vehicles during long trips, then having the USB-C charging is very convenient. I also like the fact that unlike some MURS radios, the battery is extremely easy to remove and replace, allowing you to keep fully charged spare batteries nearby and swapping them out when needed.

— Find out what battery fits the Btech MURS V2 with our battery finder tool —

Conclusions

This is an interesting radio, it has several things it took from the UV-82HP that I really like. The downside is, it seems like internal electronics are not necessarily one of those. I would have thought that a newer model would have at least as good the transmission quality as a radio that’s a decade old. I would have thought wrong.

So does this mean that I would not recommend the Btech MURS V2? The answer to that depends on what you want out of your radio. If you were looking for a radio with a lot of capabilities in addition to just being a MURS radio, that is weatherproof and has a ton of accessories out there on the market and won’t break the bank, this might be your radio. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a radio or set of radios to use out of business or to use in any situation where you have quite a few radios being operated by non-radio people, then this might not be the radio for you. In that case, check out the Retevis RB-17V instead.

Here are some reviews of the Btech MURS V2!