The Guerrilla's Guide To The Baofeng Radio

by NC Scout

The Guerrilla's Guide To The Baofeng Radio is a handbook for those finding themselves in an austere environment, an underground resistance, or going into harm's way with one of the most common pieces of communications equipment in the world. Going far beyond simple programming or what's written from the Amateur Radio perspective, this manual goes in-depth on how to communicate, creating a communications plan, improvised wire antennas, digital operations and encryption in an easy to follow, step-by-step format based on combat proven methods. Whether you've just invested in a few of the inexpensive radios for an uncertain future or find yourself in rough corners of the world, this manual covers how to create communications where there otherwise would be none.

Genres: Reference, Military Fiction, Nonfiction

156 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2022

Reviews

[Txelen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most of the information in this book is available free elsewhere, there are many errors, the book needs an editor, and it ends with plans for a surprisingly bad project.

“The Guerrilla’s Guide to the Baofeng Radio” includes VHF & UHF FM frequency allocations, a user manual for the Baofeng UV-5R, radio procedures, radio propagation, techniques to defeat eavesdropping, and a few DIY projects. Some of the material is USA-specific.

Most of the information in this book can be found better elsewhere. There are free and well-detailed user-created manuals for various Baofeng models. Military radio procedures like over/out/break, templates like SALUTE, and the nine-line are easy to find. Publicly released Army and USMC field manuals cover radio concepts and radio usage correctly and in more depth. There are thousands of antenna plans and instructions to make them online. The cryptography in this book is rudimentary.

GGBR contains many errors. For example, incorrect frequency ranges for both the 70cm and 1.25m amateur radio bands in the USA (I’ve included a photo along with relevant regulations at top). “MHz” and “mHz” are confused frequently; the first means megahertz and the second means millihertz, two very different things. Decibels are used without specifying any reference; does the text mean dBi, dBd, or something else? “In a handheld radio the physical antenna is the positive half and the built in ground is the negative half” is one perplexing statement; are AC and DC being confused? This is just some of what I noticed.

This book’s focus on the Baofeng brand is strange. Baofeng is just a company that sells cheap radios. There’s nothing special about Baofeng-branded radios, the tactics described in this book could be done with another brand of UHF/VHF radio. Claims like “If [pirate radio stations] are set to an even decimal, only those equipped with Baofeng radios will clearly hear it...” are strange; even an inexpensive USB SDR dongle will happily receive on even-numbered FM broadcast frequencies.

Many illustrations are copy/pasted from other sources. The figures on pages 74 & 80 are from an Army field manual, as are the charts on p. 48. The nine-line on p. 54 is from a company’s website. The Yagi antenna on p. 84 is a screen grab from some else’s Youtube video, complete with a mouse cursor in the middle. The antenna plans on p. 127 are from a Canadian amateur radio hobbyist’s website. Even the figure on p. 19 is from the UV-5R manual. None of these seem to be attributed to the original creators. The non-copied illustrations are mostly not good; some are poorly-lit photos and others appear to have been made in MS Paint.

GGBR includes instructions for several DIY projects that I would rate from “meh” to “don’t do this.” The antenna designs are fine but there are many free plans online. There are instructions for connecting a tablet to a UV-5R to send text messages using an app; I have to wonder why one couldn’t just read the app manual.

There is an appendix with instructions for connecting two Baofeng UV-5Rs to make a repeater; this DIY project is particularly bizarre. For brevity’s sake I will limit my comments to two of the more egregious problems.

First, using a handheld radio as a repeater output is not a good idea. Radios get hot when transmitting. Repeaters transmit a lot. Purpose-built repeaters are designed for this, handheld radios are not. A handheld radio used as a repeater output is at risk of overheating, especially inside a small box as per this book.

Second, this Baofeng Centipede of a repeater can cause problems for other people. The output frequency has been chosen carelessly; it’s on the 2m band portion used by amateur radio satellites and very close to the input frequency of the FM voice repeater aboard the International Space Station. The ISS repeater is regularly used by radio amateurs and occasionally by astronauts on the ISS. See picture, which shows both the book and the 2m Frequency Spectrum Plan relevant to North Carolina.

GGBR appears not to have been proofread; there are typos on almost every page. This shows the general lack of effort evident throughout the book.

I did like a couple things. The anecdotes about military service in Iraq and Afghanistan are interesting. It’s nice to encourage people to make their own antennas rather than just buying stuff.

In sum, avoid “The Guerrilla’s Guide to the Baofeng Radio.” There are many errors, a lot of illustrations are copy/pasted, there are better free sources for almost everything inside, and it ends with plans to build an overheat-prone satellite interferer.

[Chris Mccoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was torn between 3 and 4 stars, went with 4 because this was a first outing for the author. It could really use a revised edition. The information contained is great. The formatting of the book is awful. I know he was going for a military manual look, but having to bend the binding to an extreme in order to read it is awful for the book itself. A fair amount of typos could easily be fixed. There is a reference to "appendix b" which should be chirp settings, but the actual appendix b which the book contains is "sample soi." The chirp settings appendix does not exist. Those couple of problems aside, the book is full of useful information put together in a straight forward and easy to understand way.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

First some non-content concerns - the typesetting is poor. The text is run into the binding crease, top margin is all but nonexistent, and the font is difficult reading.

The book is about the author’s tactical communications ideas, and very sparse on actual Baofeng specifics.

Even the limited Baofeng recommendations (swap to BNC vs SMA antenna connectors as an example) lack any descriptive how to go about the swap.

Correctly retitled the book does offer NC Scout’s Burshbeater Training take on tactical commercially available handheld radio usage.

[Steven Sobotka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is succinct in its approach to conveying highly useful information about off-grid communication with respect to this particular handheld radio. I've read it front to back and also jumped back in for various items that I wanted to refresh my memory.
Recently paid to attend a hands-on, modern 0ff-grid comms class for the Baofeng UV-5R, taught by a former Naval intelligence officer. (he covered radios, mesh networks, ATAK, etc.) Among other reference items, he had a copy of this book on the table. Nice addition to a comms bookshelf.

[Robert Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best resource I have found on my endeavor to learn about radios. NC Scout is a real subject matter expert and uses a multitude of real world examples to help the reader understand the concepts being taught. I will be buying more copies of this book and distributing them to people that I care about.

[C Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exhausting in depth or breath but an excellent starting point into the world of communication with regard to non permissive environments. Much like other areas of life, skills are superior to gear, but good gear enhances skill. Highly recommend reading and passing around to those in your tribe.

[Trocki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book!

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you need to conduct guerrilla warfare with the Baofeng UV-5R.

[Kyle Crockatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The info contained in the book is excellent. However the formatting of the book was distractingly horrible. I'd still recommend it if you can get past zero graphic design...

[Jason Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great resource to get your Baofeng radio set up along with a primer on tactical/clandestine comms (radio agnostic).

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

It should be named Guerillas guide to communication.

Very good.

Obviously aimed for people who like warfare/ham radio.

Not much on actual baofeng radio usage.

[Coger Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gave me too many antenna projects, but I wish there was an update to what repeater device I could use to make an ammo can repeater.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of interesting stuff in here