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The Baofeng 5 Mini – a great little backup #amateurradio #hamradio for the car or home for under AUD50 (USD30)

Andrew Woodward

I know there are holy wars in amateur radio when it comes to Chinese v Japanese/American/English radios (and yes, others).

I completely understand that. By default, I hate “cheap Chinese junk” whether it’s electronics, tools, clothes, indeed anything. I also hate IP theft.

I’ve looked Baofeng radios for a while and thought they were plain ugly. They mostly reviewed well, however, from a radio perspective. This made me “Baofeng curious”.

Mid-2025 I saw the Baofeng UV-5R Mini. It was AUD50 (USD30) and could transmit on 2m, 70cm and CBRS in AUS and receive air band. It also could be programmed by an iPhone app via Bluetooth, Chirp and a Windows app from Baofeng. It also had USB-C charging. And it was small unlike most oversized Baofeng units. And unlike other Baofeng radios, it didn’t look like a design from the CCCP in the 1960’s. I became “Baofeng curious”.

I got the radio. I was impressed via AliExpress. It has a good build quality, it fells solid, it works well as a radio and is pretty simple to operate. All in all, it was very good value for money. The only downside was AM air band which was scratchy.

That was last year. This year I saw there’s a “Mark 2” version called “Baofeng Mini-5”. It’s just as good and they’ve fixed the air band AM issue. And it’s AUD40 (USD25). 

I grabbed one and it lives on my car dashboard with one VFO on the local AM air band control tower and the other on my local 2M FM repeater. I hook it up to a Diamond external or hood chassis mount antenna. I’d recommend getting a Nagoya “Rubber Duckie” antenna for it as the supplied antenna isn’t great.

With the radio and a few other bits and pieces, you can have a great back-up or car kit for well under AUD100 (USD60). Or just get the radio for AUD43 (USD28).

Review and comparison

Suggested car or backup kit

24 February 2026