Radioddity GA-5S Test and Review
Radioddity
GA-5S Test and Review
©CGG August 2018
A
well-presented, small and powerful pocketable dual-band radio with many useful
settings.
Badged
Radioddity, it appears to be from the same stable as the Baofeng series of
radios.
The radio
arrived in a well packed double layer box, with radio, antenna and battery on
the top tray layer; charger and base plus the User Manual, ear piece/mic lead
and wrist-strap below. The charger is a CE approved 10v unit with a UK plug, and
the charger base a 3 pole variant of the Baofeng CH-5 base for the battery to
drop into. Without a battery inserted the LED flashes red/green, then red whilst
charging and green when the battery is fully charged. 5 hours for first charge,
then 4 hours for routine re-charging. 1800mAh gives a useful battery life
between charges, and is a good balance of size, weight and capacity. Accessories
for the Baofeng UV-5R appear to be compatible with this radio. Data cables,
Speaker/Mic’s etc., but not the battery, different, but still 1800mAh capacity.
The User Manual
supplied is of variable usefulness. It appears to be for a UV-5 series radio,
with images of that radio being shown and much of the information applying also
to the UV-5. However, it explains the basics for new users of the Baofeng /
Radioddity series of radios. Note that the VFO/Memory button on this radio is a
plain round button plus a white circle, not a named button as described in the
manual. The Band button shown in the manual does not exist at all. The A/B
Channel button is very clearly labelled.
The tri-power
settings make for better communications in rural forest or city locations with
the extra lift given at high power. Low power for local use helps to save
battery life. The User Manual tells me these powers are 8w/4w/1w which is
slightly misleading. The advertising listings tell me it is 7W/5W/1W; the
printed information on the box tells me it is 7W/4W/1W.
The
multi-colour LED changes colour between standby, transmit and receive. These
colours can be changed. Useful, perhaps, in poor light.
The radio is
similar in size to the UV-5 series of radios, very pocketable and easy to carry.
Build quality is good and solid, clear keypad and display. All quick settings
and menu settings are easily changed on the well laid out familiar keypad ,
with bigger buttons on this radio, that make operation easier
The menu
system will be familiar to any users of other Baofeng range of radios - like the
GT-5 and UV-5R. The menu buttons and up/down buttons are used to scroll through
the many settings, or use the keypad printed shortcut keys for the most popular
settings or to lock the keypad.
The Call
button accesses the broadcast FM radio, (or long-press for the alarm function),
scanning through this band quickly locks to good local signals. Audio is good,
and reverts to the monitored band when a signal that opens the squelch is
received. Sensitivity to weaker signals was also fine.
I found it
rather easy to press the Call button while intending to press the PTT, as these
buttons are part of the same moulding, rather than fully separate. With gloves
in colder weather, this may happen more often. I found that using the third
finger, instead of the index finger for PTT helps to reduce the times this
happens.
The Moni button
opens the squelch, or long-press activates the flash-light.
Audio is clear
and sharp from the large speaker grille, and transmit audio reports are also
good. The tri-colour screen backlight is interesting, but not especially useful
in daylight.
Several tests
of output power were made with a fully charged battery into a 50ohm < 1:1.1 VHF,
and 1:1.2 UHF SWR meter and dummy load. Results are as follows, with readings
taken mid-band:-
VHF High at
5.5W, VHF Med at 4.5W, VHF Low at 1.5W
UHF High at
6W, UHF Med at 4.5W, UHF Low at 1.9W
A fair
result, although the high power on VHF was a degree less than specified. The UHF
high power is closer to specification. Due to these readings, I cross checked
with another meter. Remembering that overall antenna gain, efficiency and a low
SWR make a lot of difference to the final radiated power. In field use,
performance was very satisfactory.
No excessive
deviation on narrow band was detected. RF noise rejection and adjacent channel
rejection are very good. No spurious emissions of concern were noted
The standard antenna is
fine for most general local use, but highly recommended is the Diamond SRJ77CA
antenna or at least the Nagoya NA-771 at a lower price.
These high gain
antennae do make a useful difference in the field – as against measurement
test-bench results. They do make the most of the radio’s abilities in
fluctuating mobile situations. Naturally, the larger base-station antenna or
mobile car antennae all return better results as expected.
The 127 active
memories are very easy to program with Chirp, (free download, donation if
useful) and the settings are straightforward to adjust and re-send to radio if
an error is made in initial setup. The usual Prolific v3.2 driver and cable are
required. More detail on this interface is on Miklor’s excellent radio website
www.miklor.com. Cables are available both on eBay and Amazon. Look for UV-5R
compatibility on the data cable.
Chirp… When
selecting the radio name to download for programming, set the radio choice in
Chirp, August 2018 release, as a Radioddity GA-5S. Many choices are available,
in both the work and basic settings of the radio in Chirp. Callsign or other
startup display info can be set as well as voice, (on or off), and beep
settings. Repeater standard splits and odd splits are easily set up. These are
much more difficult if programming the radio by the keypad.
Note that
squelch range settings can also be set in Chirp. A very useful facility for very
noisy or very quiet locations… All as standard for most of the current Baofeng
dual band range.
Reversing
channels for listening to repeater inputs is achieved by pressing Scan briefly
and again to return to normal. Long-press on the Scan button to start scanning,
press again to stop.
It is usually
recommended that Menu Settings of 35, 36, 37 and 39 should be set to OFF for
repeater operation in the UK and also to prevent a lot of excessive tones being
generated on both send and receive.. This applies to this radio also, and is
easy to set.
As usual TDR is
the dual watch setup, and this is also a feature that is easy to turn on and off
as required.
Overall, this is
a good all round hand held transceiver that is a real pleasure to use. Intended
for both Amateur Radio and professional users at a good price, it feels well-
built and solid. The radio performs very well in all the tested environments,
and operation quickly becomes easy and familiar. This radio is very good value;
albeit at a moderately higher price than some Baofeng dual-power models.
Pros:
Compact and
pocketable
Easy to use
Many useful
features
Good value
Good power
for easy communications in ‘real-world’ use.
Very good
battery charge life
Baofeng
accessories compatibility (excluding battery and charger base)
Easy to
program by computer
Clear buttons
and menu system
Cons:
High Power
measured a little low on test bench. (Not a problem in practice, though)
Easy to press Call instead
of PTT. (This gets better with familiarity)
