> My personal opinion is that some people dislike the idea that people may enter a hobby without serious financial commitment. Not having to spend $300 on a HT

> My personal opinion is that some people dislike the idea that people may enter a hobby without serious financial commitment. Not having to spend $300 on a HT means that unserious people might want to use a radio to talk about life instead of a radio to talk about radios. Agreed! But nevertheless, I'd say that adding a bit better filtering would go a loooong way, as would better quality control - and it wouldn't raise the price of the device too much. Baofengs et al are a somewhat decent way to get started and gain voice practice - I started on a Quansheng myself - but they're not useful for anything else than 2m/70cm repeater nets.