![What Communication Device Should I Get?? [1000x1000 - 346KB]](https://pic8.co/sh/nDJ6lM.png){kind=link}
The USB thing must be new, none of the extended packs I have offer a USB port.
I see, you mean the coaxial port on the side of the battery. This still requires the charging cable because there's no intelligence in the battery itself, it's all in the USB-A end of the device. Applying 5V directly to it probably would destroy it.
The Yaesu device I have literally charges from an old 7V transformer DC supply. You can run it on anything as long as you give it around that voltage.
Yeah, the Baofeng isn't quite as cheap as it first looks once you add up all the pieces you need. Even once you buy them all it's still not an ideal solution.
When I bought mine one of the guys in the local club said " You have to be careful leaving that in your car. I left mine in the car seat and someone broke my window and put two more with it."
It is an interesting little radio for what it is. But if you begin to put money into all the little pieces you need to flesh it out, you can easily approach the cost of just having bought a better unit in the first place.
That is true about the cost.
The only thing I really bought beyond the radio was the programming cable. the radios were usually hamfest specials with an extra battery and an extra antenna which I promptly threw away because Diamond antennas don't look like that (and it tested bad on a NetAn.)
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