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Users of the Baofeng UV-5R also get to contend with completely random versions of firmware installed by default. I have bought a lot of radios now due to breaking them, having them confiscated etc... and none have had the same firmware. But doing squelch hack and having a good antenna does WONDERS to avoid noise. My current setup is a UV-5R with a longer 25cm whip antenna as my primary radio, 5W broadcast.. small light package for wearing around the neck), and a backup is the larger UV-5RH with USB-C charging(10W, bigger battery that lasts multiple drives (did 5 drives in a row without recharging), but it is bulkier and i think its heavy and annoying when wearing on a lanyard. (thats why its the backup!) Get the cable, get an antenna, squelch hack if possible,.. then enjoy noise free comms (most of the time )

Another small thing to add, ppl buying 10 watts radios thinking awesome reach and crisp comms during drive, have to bear that with a bigger radius, you will be inviting bigger chatter as well. I bought Kangda thinking the same, especially to see improvement for long convoys and realize I can hear the whole village or Emirate, so now I use the setting for 5 watts, which is plenty for a single convoy.

The simplest starting point is to become familiar with how the squelch function works on your radio. This basically raises the threshold (the floor) at which your radio will make transmissions audible. Very weak or distant signals can be screened out, whereas stronger signals (such as from radios in the convoy) remain audible. In my experience this screens many of the nuisance signals from construction workers. The use of more sophisticated modes would be great for many reasons - but it also requires a level of setup that might be beyond the scope of our weekend drives.