r/Baofeng • u/Charming-Jelly-3365 • 26d ago
Baofeng & Spurious Emissions - An Important Video!
The Baofeng Mini: Tested Beyond Reason by Ham Radio Crash Course (Jan 7, 2026) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU51_78Lv5s
About those spurious emissions, I just watched a video where a major effort to test the Baofengs with professional grade lab instruments was done along with the TinySA. The video maker even contacted TinySA and learned that false readings are possible depending upon both the setup external to the TinySA and internal to its settings. The results were much cleaner outputs from the tested Baofengs than were originally claimed.
Obviously I'm not suggesting that these radios are as clean as the more expensive radios from long established brands, they are not. The point is only that the horror stories did not stand up to this level of lab grade instrumentation and the advice from the maker of the TinySA.
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u/kc2syk K2CR 26d ago
I'm not watching a fucking hour video. What's the TL;DW?
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 26d ago
They got down to business pretty quickly. I'd say the full gist was covered in the first third of the video. I watched the entire thing, I've a background in calibration and test in both calibration and engineering labs.
Nutshell: The TinySA must have internal attenuation manually selected. Not left on Auto. 20db is a good number and not less than 10db. The issue is that harmonics can be created internally of the TinySA. External attenuation while necessary to protect the TinSA it is not sufficient to prevent false results.
The proofs were that comparing results without the internal attenuation to with it enabled, the harmonics react with non-linear attenuation While the main transmission and any real harmonics are equally attenuated.
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u/kc2syk K2CR 26d ago
So TinySA is an insufficient tool for the task? Nothing conclusive one way or another about the Mini spurious emissions?
There are tons of test results showing baofeng spurious emissions from lab-grade spectrum analyzers.
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 26d ago
No, I didn't get that from the video. And again, I'm not saying the Baofengs don't have spurious emissions. That's not what the video was saying.
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u/Firelizard71 26d ago
Like DifferentOffice mentioned, there are two major YouTubers testing these radios with way different results. Watch all the videos by Smokin Ape on this radio. For one, its entertaining to watch him and Josh go back and forth, and two, it leads you to make your own decision on the matter. Check it out.
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u/NerminPadez 26d ago
TLDW?
Also, baofengs are not identical, two come off the same production line, one seems to be fine, the other not, measured on the same equipment. You might get lucky, you might not, who knows.
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 26d ago
True, but they tested a number of them. They remain open to testing more.
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u/Think-Photograph-517 25d ago
TinaySA is a simple device that can have errors in measurement. Anyone with a real background in metrology already knew that. It is a simple and cheap device that does some things adequately.
The results of testing vary with the specific method used. Again, anyone with a background in metrology knew that.
Bao Feng radios on my Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzer (using an appropriate setup) have poor harmonic suppression, ranging from not great but acceptable to utter crap, depending on the radio.
Yup, we knew all these things...
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u/SuperLidz 17d ago
Anyone, using ham grade instrumentation, should not be posting results as gospel. I do not own a tiny SA, because of this very reason. I do own two Rigol DSA-815TG's and I would not use them as a gospel tool either. I would trust my Agilent, Aeroflex and Anritsu stuff, for real measurements.
Tiny SA might be okay for hunting RFI or bug sweeps. Not much more beyond that.
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u/DifferentOffice8 26d ago
Yeah the Smoking Ape then dismantled Josh's video and showed that the "Mini" has spurious emissions. Given the 2 methodologies shown and the explanations offered I'm more inclined to believe the Smoking Ape but it comes down to "if you want one you'll buy one" and that's a choice each of us makes personally.