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A few weeks ago I ordered a set of Baofeng VT-C2 "FRS" Radios because I wanted something that my friends could use in times of emergency or when out camping, hiking, etc. I hadn't had much time to play with them until yesterday when I went to do a range test. I set up one of the units and a handheld with a much nicer antenna on it side by side, set my camera up to record, and went on a walk through the city calling out each block as I went.
I was especially interested in how far I could get going through a dense neighborhood. Could they be used in times where the power and communications are down? Was it something I could buy a bunch of and hand out to people I care about? Well... The answer is I don't know.
When I got home to check the footage to see how far I could receive and transmit only the VT-C2 was picking up. Very strange. I checked the settings and channel on my other handheld and everything was fine.
I plugged one of the VT-C2s into chirp and tried my best to find a profile that would allow me to dump them. Turns out the BF-T20 (we'll get to that in a minute) profile works just fine. After getting everything pulled from the radio I was appalled. Here wis the dump. If you want it in a csv or text file click the links.
| Frequency | Tone | rToneFreq | cToneFreq | DtcsCode | DtcsPolarity | RxDtcsCode | CrossMode | Mode | TStep | Power |
| 462.125 | TSQL | 69.3 | 69.3 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 462.225 | 88.5 | 88.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W | |
| 462.325 | 88.5 | 88.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W | |
| 462.425 | TSQL | 103.5 | 103.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 462.525 | TSQL | 114.8 | 114.8 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 462.625 | TSQL | 127.3 | 127.3 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 462.725 | TSQL | 136.5 | 136.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 462.825 | TSQL | 162.2 | 162.2 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 462.925 | DTCS | 88.5 | 88.5 | 25 | NN | 25 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 463.025 | DTCS | 88.5 | 88.5 | 51 | NN | 51 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 463.125 | DTCS | 88.5 | 88.5 | 125 | NN | 125 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 463.225 | DTCS | 88.5 | 88.5 | 155 | RR | 155 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 463.525 | DTCS | 88.5 | 88.5 | 465 | RR | 465 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 400.225 | DTCS | 88.5 | 88.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
| 460.325 | 88.5 | 88.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W | |
| 469.95 | TSQL | 203.5 | 203.5 | 23 | NN | 23 | Tone->Tone | FM | 5 | 5.0W |
If you're not a radio nerd you're probably looking at that being like okay? What's that mean? Well, to be 100% clear, this is all very against the FCCs rules in regards to FRS. Feel free to click that link or read on.
FRS (family radio service) is meant to be shared by everyone on 22 predefined channels with a bandwidth of 12.5khz. I'll slap a table up with the frequencies and power limits just so you can compare. As a general rule you have a power limit of 2W, except on channels 8-14 it drops down to 0.5W. Also, 12.5khz is narrowband fm (NFM) and not FM. With all of that being said, look again at both tables and tell me what things don't fit within the well defined radio space that is FRS.
| Channel | Frequency | Power |
| 1 | 462.5625 | 2W |
| 2 | 462.5875 | 2W |
| 3 | 462.6125 | 2W |
| 4 | 462.6375 | 2W |
| 5 | 462.6625 | 2W |
| 6 | 462.6875 | 2W |
| 7 | 462.7125 | 2W |
| 8 | 467.5625 | 0.5W |
| 9 | 467.5875 | 0.5W |
| 10 | 467.6125 | 0.5W |
| 11 | 467.6375 | 0.5W |
| 12 | 467.6625 | 0.5W |
| 13 | 467.6875 | 0.5 |
| 14 | 467.7125 | 0.5 |
| 15 | 462.550 | 2W |
| 16 | 462.5750 | 2W |
| 17 | 462.6000 | 2W |
| 18 | 462.6250 | 2W |
| 19 | 462.6500 | 2W |
| 20 | 462.6750 | 2W |
| 21 | 462.7000 | 2W |
| 22 | 462.7250 | 2W |
I guess you've probably figured it out by now.... nothing on the VT-C2 is within regulation or even has anything to do with FRS. But, if you look on Baofeng's website you'll see that it doesn't mention FRS but it does mention that it does have an output power of 0.5W and 2W on it but the chirp dump came back with 5W. I don't have the equipment to measure the output wattage of the handhelds so I'm going to give them some grace and say that maybe they're within the limits maybe... except that there was no distinction between high and low on the chirp output.
When we look at the AliExpress page where I bought mine from it does however say that they are FRS/PMR radios. It also mentions that it's 2W so we'll just believe them on that.
So now let's get weird. You remember before when I said that the bf-t20 profile was able to download off of chirp? Let's look at the Baofeng T20. They look very very similar don't they? The difference is that the VT-C2 is supposedly a 0.5W/2W FRS radio (and is the model listed on the actual device) but, the T20 is a 5W UHF Ham Radio. Looks like I'll be ordering a t20 to do a teardown and compare.
I'm not sure what to make of it until I get a T20. Maybe it's just dishonest advertisement on AliExpress, Temu, eBay, and where ever else they're sold. One thing is for sure, it's not an FRS radio.