Hi,
If you want to buy a radio and need some advice for updated Dragon Mart shopping experience as of April 2016, please read on (as there is no update on this subject for a long time)...
I had my first club member drive yesterday, without a radio of my own, thinking to see what people use so I can make a bit more informed decision at the buying time (and thanks to Iskander for lending his spare one to me). Just after the event, I went to Dragonmart. If you are not a regular visitor like me, you will be assured you can get lost easily, and quickly find out the shop keepers do not know what they are selling.
First to know, the radio is banned in this country and your your options will be limited to what is sold in DM, your online order will most likely to be returned back from the customs.
Nearly all the shops I found they showed me two or three models of the radios with programmable frequencies (that is what is recommended by the club, "buy the one with the keypads"), mainly Motorola MT-777 (220AED) and Kenwood TK-UV3 (350AED). They do not have them on display but show you the manuals and if you want to buy, they say they will bring. Needless to say, they are all fake brands, you would not know what you would be getting. Further, you are not sure what frequency range as they come in different flavors per their manuals. Motorola ones show both VHF or UHF, you think it would be dual band but it is not, one or the other. Kenwood is advertised as dual band, but the manual had eight different frequency options to chose from. So, all confusing.
After visiting many shops I nearly give up, but by luck I entered one last shop and they showed me something different and she said "yes, we know almost 4x4". She showed me a
BAOFENG UV-5R (200 AED) and another Motorola model (fake for sure and more expensive). Neither of these two radios were available in any other shops I visited. I decided to buy a genuine Chinese radio than a fake Chinese one. She also said she knows the frequencies that the club uses and she quickly preset all the 14 channels listed by Al Shamsi below in this post.
I checked the internet on the next day about the buy and there are good source of information you can find on reviews, programming and operations, just search youtube and google. The device is highly rated for its value (selling 30USD in amazon). As the manuals are piece of crap (this is true for all make and models), you would need the information you can find from the internet, at least in order to preset the channels. Some radio amateurs or pros in US, UK and NZ taking this device seriously and producing additional information on the web. This exercise made me think that I made the right choice as you would not be sure how accurate the information in the internet for the fake brands.
If you also like to buy the same radio, the shop is located one of the back aisles, the shop BAI13, close to the hardware/machinery shops. I also attached the shop photo and the radio itself hoping to assist the new buyers. I will buy a second one to have a pair so I can use for other occasions.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2904[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2905[/ATTACH]
I hope this post helps my fellow drivers...
Cheers