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boafang uv-5r
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My new Baofeng UV5RA that I won on an eBay auction (under $35) arrived a couple weeks ago, and I've been real pleased with it so far. It took a little getting used to programing it manually, but I have all the FRS, GMRS, MURS, Marine, local 2m/70cm repeaters and some simplex and even some local EMS stations programed and it seems to work just fine. I did order the longer Nagoya NA771 antenna for it. The included PTT mic/earpiece sounds better to me than the internal mic when I recorded some transmissions made to another radio to test the difference. The battery lasted over a week on the first charge, but that was only playing with it a couple hours a day and most of that was just reception, scanning and playing with the flashlight not very much transmitting.
I bought one just to use for listening to local communication. I could never figure out how to program it, it's been in the closet since i got it. I think i was getting close once I downloaded CHIRP, but i accidentally reset the thing somehow and the next thing i knew it was speaking chinese and everything was wiped out, i gave up.
Chirp is the easiest way to program them and actually very simple. As long as your PC "sees" the HT you should be good to go.
Once you've save the original image file and modified it, you can just reload it to the HT. As many times as you like! There is a setting in the tabs... under the "memory" tab, click "settings", then click "advanced settings", and change your "voice" announcements to English. Then save it.
I frequently travel with mine, and will use the "Radio" tab, and under it is the "Query data source" tab. You can download whatever area you travel to via "RepeaterBook" to download repeaters for whatever State/County you need. Then import all those to your image file, and upload to the UV-5R. Change it back to your original modified image file when you are back home. Once you do it enough times, you'll get the hang of it. Keep in mind, you really can't screw it up or break anything.
Tons of help here: Baofeng UV5R UV82 UV82X GT3 UVB5 Information Site, Ham Radio, BaoFeng, Walkie-Talkie
73,
Brett
So i decided to break out the HT and try this again.
I have already installed the right drivers and everything, so getting my PC to recognize the baofeng isn't a problem. I have CHIRP, got it all hooked up.
Just a few questions.
If all I am doing is wanting to program a few frequencies in there to listen in on local repeaters, can i just go to the Radio tab, Import from stock config? I'm using whatever it pulls up from the repeater book.
Is just simply having the right frequency in there and having the memory channels saved to the HT enough to listen in? Or are there other things I need to do like set the tone, offsets, etc. or can i leave those alone? I do not intend to transmit with the device as I am not licensed, i'm just jusing the radio to listen and to try to become familiar with repeaters, frequencies, and programming my first ham radio.
I have about 15 frequencies saved, tried to enter the local police frequency, fire dispatch, etc. But when I scan the channels, I never hear anything except for some beeping on a couple of channels which I think might be the calling frequencies?
edit-
well, somebody broke squelch and i could hear some talking on one of the channels while scanning, so i must be figuring something out. Also I can hear the police dispatch! Great sounding, loud audio on this HT.
I was really frustrated with this thing when i first got it, but it's actually pretty cool. Glad I didn't sell it. The battery was charged when I got it, played with it a little bit, and then put it in the closet where it's been for about 3 months. Still fully charged!
Hopefully I find more frequencies to listen to.
I have already installed the right drivers and everything, so getting my PC to recognize the baofeng isn't a problem. I have CHIRP, got it all hooked up.
Just a few questions.
If all I am doing is wanting to program a few frequencies in there to listen in on local repeaters, can i just go to the Radio tab, Import from stock config? I'm using whatever it pulls up from the repeater book.
Is just simply having the right frequency in there and having the memory channels saved to the HT enough to listen in? Or are there other things I need to do like set the tone, offsets, etc. or can i leave those alone? I do not intend to transmit with the device as I am not licensed, i'm just jusing the radio to listen and to try to become familiar with repeaters, frequencies, and programming my first ham radio.
I have about 15 frequencies saved, tried to enter the local police frequency, fire dispatch, etc. But when I scan the channels, I never hear anything except for some beeping on a couple of channels which I think might be the calling frequencies?
edit-
well, somebody broke squelch and i could hear some talking on one of the channels while scanning, so i must be figuring something out. Also I can hear the police dispatch! Great sounding, loud audio on this HT.
I was really frustrated with this thing when i first got it, but it's actually pretty cool. Glad I didn't sell it. The battery was charged when I got it, played with it a little bit, and then put it in the closet where it's been for about 3 months. Still fully charged!
Hopefully I find more frequencies to listen to.
Last edited:
I got mine before I got a ticket, too. It's a great way to familiarize yourself with programming the HT, and also to listen in and learn how the guys operate in your area.
If you import from stock, it just has the testing frequencies that were programmed onto the UV-5R from the factory. Sounds like you got it figured out though. You mention Police dispatch... there are also railroad frequencies that you can listen in on that are within the span of this HT.
I can usually scan on a full charge for a full day. If you just pick a frequency and listen, you could probably do 5 full days without running out of juice. Transmitting will run it down considerably faster, of course.
There are some settings recommended on the Miklor site that I posted, and it's worth changing them via your menu settings. Easy to do, and it makes sure you have everything set correctly.
Glad you got back to fiddling with yours and have it working!
73,
Brett
Where is this section at on the site? I've looked around but couldn't find anything on recommended settings.
I looked up all the nearest repeaters for my area and have the frequencies saved as channel memory presets. Very happy about that. Now I can finally listen to the local Ham club's weekly net.
Sorry for the delay... I've been really busy. I re-visited the Miklor site, and he has changed the format up a bit. And, the guy that used to just have a list of settings in a step by step format, now has pictures added on his site.
Here it is:
WP4AOH
A lot of the stock settings for the UV-5R are wrong for Ham use (it is a commercial HT, after all). Check the link and you'll see you might have some things set wrong for transmitting, mostly. It will help you once you get your ticket. Hope that helps!
73,
Brett
for some reason my baofeng will no longer sync up with my computer, I keep getting errors when I try to Upload to my radio in Chirp. says it can't find the specified file.
I tried reinstalling the appropriate driver but it didn't help.
What should I do?
I tried reinstalling the appropriate driver but it didn't help.
What should I do?
Remove chirp and the adapter drivers. Download and install CCleaner(google it) and run it to clean out the crap in the registry. Reboot and run CCleaner one more time. Install the adapter first after which look at the device manager and see what com port its assigned. It should be com 3 if available. If the PC is seeing the adapter then install Chirp and set it to work on the com port you saw in the device manager. This should get you up and running. If not then the adapter is defective or there is a conflict.
Edit: What version of Windows are you running? If it's 8 or 8.1 then it's game over.
I have not heard of anyone getting it working with Windows 8.
Have a look here for more inforation: CHIRP Software Guide - Miklor
Also look for more info here: http://www.miklor.com/
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