On Wed, 3 Feb 2021 23:12:15 +0000, "John Stewart"
<johnstewart1999@...> wrote:

I can see why you'd say that. Really, I was asking if anyone knew what kind of radios these were. I'm guessing they're Baofeng units.

Without seeing the actual article instead of the one it linked to, I
don't know enough about it, but my guess it would be one of the
several Chinese made HTs like Wouxun, Baofeng, and some of the other
cheapies. Baofeng isn't the only inexpensive hand held, but the
Chinese ones in general are the low cost leaders. That doesn't mean
quality, of course, nor ease of programming.

Baofeng, at least, is supported by Chirp for many of their models.

I won a cheap Chinese HT (not supported by CHIRP) at our local hamfest
and sold it at the next one a year later for $5, including the $10
programming cable and software that I bought from AliExpress. Yes, I
lost money on a free radio! A fellow club member bought it so I felt
it might be put to good use. I was going to give it to a new ham but
as bad as it was to work with, I didn't want to give him a problem. He
bought a UV-5R.

I find my UV-5R difficult to program from the keyboard but easy with
CHIRP. If I didn't mind spending a lot more, I would have bought an
Icom, Kenwood, or Yaesu HT. I'm thinking about an Anytone radio that
has DMR built in. That would give me DMR with it and DStar with my
Icom 5100 mobile radio. I'm afraid of buying a Baofeng DMR radio for
fear that they didn't make it easy to use.

I mentioned the post being off topic so that it didn't lead to a long
off topic discussion about the coup. But since it's been quiet here I
certainly wouldn't lock this thread if it didn't get into political
matters or go on and on ad infinitum.


Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

开云体育

This is a bit off topic, but the link led to a different story.

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 11:47:09 -0800, johnstewart1999@... wrote:

Illegal Walkie-Talkies Behind Aung San Suu Kyi's Detention (newser.com)

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

Any bets on the manufacturer involved?

On Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:03:22 -0800, "jamesbaird@..."
<jamesbaird@...> wrote:

Does anyone know if the DM-1801 uses the same Software as the DM-1701?
I have the DM-1701 and I am getting a DM-1801.

I can't answer your question, but you might want to read the reviews
on Amazon.



and the questions just before you get down to the reviews. One person
said it reverted to Chinese menus twice. Several said there are bugs
in the firmware and software. One gave a suggestion on how to fix a
serious problem that involved a bit more than just the firmware
update.

Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

Does anyone know if the DM-1801 uses the same Software as the DM-1701?
I have the DM-1701 and I am getting a DM-1801.

First, the new pricing structure for NEWLY formed groups on groups.io
beginning January 18, 2021.

Basic (free) groups formed on or after that date stay free *up to 100
members*. After that, it will need to be upgraded to a premium group.
Premium groups ($220/year) are good up to 400 members, after which a
per-member fee ($.05 per month or $0.55 per year) is added to the $220
per year premium group fee. That will bring a burden on some new
groups, so I created some more ham groups that may grow, or flounder,
but I wanted to beat the deadline so those groups will not be charged
extra fees, or any fees, for that matter. If they take off and are
useful, that will be great. If they flounder, I might just delete the
group if members agree, or if there are no co-owners by the time I
review whether the group is worth keeping.

If you were thinking of creating a group for one of your interests,
THIS IS THE TIME TO DO SO before the new pricing structure goes into
effect. If you need help with that, email me *privately* and if I'm
not overwhelmed with requests, I will try to help. You must be willing
to assume group ownership as I will leave the group after creating it
and you've been made a group owner. If you need help getting started
with the group, I can hang around for a short while and direct you to
documentation on how to run a group.

As for the new groups I created last evening, I will list their web
addresses below.

Please contact me *privately* ONLY IF you are interested in joining
one of these groups AND ARE UNABLE to use the join button on the web
site or find the join process confusing. I would like to avoid what
happened when Yahoo closed their groups and I offered to help people
if they were unable to join themselves. I was overwhelmed with
requests to help, and I'm sure not all of those were from people who
had difficulty joining, so please give it a try yourself first. Go to
the site and press the join button on the group(s) you are interested
in. Follow the simple instructions and you will be approved. All new
members will be moderated for a short time so don't expect to post
immediately. There's only one moderator right now (me), and I work for
a living, sleep at night, and take naps because of my health condition
in late afternoons sometimes. I donate some of my time for community
work, am a minister, and have to wisely use my time.

But I don't want anyone to not join one of these groups because they
find it difficult to join.

YOU CAN JOIN ANY OF THESE GROUPS BY EMAIL by sending a message to the
subscribe address. Take the web address name at the end of the URL and
change it by adding [email protected] to it.

For the FT-757 group (as an example):
/g/FT-757GX
Send an email to this address:
[email protected]
no body text is required in the message, just the address, but to make
your email program happy, you can put the word subscribe in the
subject and message fields.

These new lists are email reflectors only with no storage (a change
that was made almost a year ago by GIO's owner). If I had created them
before February 2020, they would have storage. We will work something
out for storage if the groups get large enough and have a need for
that.

I will need moderators for these new groups, and soon after they get
on their feet, a co-owner who has some real interest and hopefully
experience with these different brands of radios.

Contact me off-list if you are interested in volunteering with any of
these groups. I will help you out with anything you need to know about
how to manage a group as a moderator or co-owner.

I will list the NEW groups first, then list the other amateur radio
groups I created.

Note that most of these are not model-specific and are
"general-purpose" groups for a BRAND of radio or a general-purpose
group for a type of equipment. I did not create any group for which
there already was a general-purpose discussion group for that brand of
radio, like Drake and some others. I am not interested in amassing a
lot of groups to manage. My purpose is just to see that interests in
major amateur radio brands are covered by some group for our amateur
radio community.

Let me know *privately* if I missed a MAJOR brand of vintage or
current brand of amateur radio and I will decide if I want to create a
group for that, but I'm not interested in managing lots and lots of
ham groups. My purpose is to get these groups created so they will be
grandfathered under the old pricing structure and won't cost the group
owner (me) money based on how many members there are.

Antennas will be covered by our ham-antennas group, so I didn't think
creating a new group for the major makers of antennas would be useful
and might just splinter the community across more groups. The antenna
tuners group is not approved yet but should be by later today so you
should be able to join in a few hours if you're interested.

The NEW groups are:

Alinco /g/Alinco-Amateur-Radio
Antenna Tuners /g/Antenna-Tuners
Anytone /g/Anytone-Amateur-Radio
Collins /g/Collins-Amateur-Radio
EF Johnson /g/EFJohnson-Amateur-Radio
Kenwood /g/Kenwood-Amateur-Radio
MFJ ham equipment /g/MFJ-Amateur-Radio
National /g/National-Amateur-Radio
Swan /g/Swan-Amateur-Radio

Existing groups created previously:

Baofeng /g/Baofeng
CHIRP radio programming tool /g/CHIRP
Yaesu FT-757 /g/FT-757GX
Yaesu FT-767GX /g/FT-767GX (only 1 member, me)
Ham radio antennas
Ham Radio Help group
Icom /g/ICOM
Icom 746 /g/Icom-746
Icom 746 Pro /g/Icom-746Pro
RF Amplifiers



Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I



----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

The next message is about some new groups I created to have a
general-purpose discussion group for some brands of amateur radio
equipment and radios before groups.io's new pricing structure goes
into effect Jan 81, 2021.

It is a long message, so I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I
cross-posted it to all the groups I manage.

I will be looking for moderators for the new groups and even some of
the established groups, so if you're interested in helping, please
email me privately about this.

For the rest, please read my next post. It's a long and detailed one.

Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

The following files have been uploaded to the Files area of the [email protected] group.

• /Baofeng UV-5R CHIRP Programming Guide IWillPrepare.pdf
• /Baofeng UV5R-UV82 - CHIRP.pdf
• /Beginners Guide - CHIRP.pdf
• /CHIRP Programming - Miklor.pdf
• /MemoryEditor-Understanding CHIRPs Columns - CHIRP.pdf

By: Donald Hellen

Description:
Miscellaneous guides and documents for CHIRP

MK . . .

On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 21:30:58 -0400, "M. K." <ka2mce@...> wrote:

And the BF-888's are NOT license-free.some sellers are programing them with GMRS/FRS stuff and calling them "license-free"The BF-888's are not type accepted under part 95, so no GMRS, and the FRS rules are even MORE restrictive.Also, the 888s are NOT 5 watts-2.5 to 3 at best.

When I bought them at Hamvention I thought they were FRS radios. I
quickly realized that these were not license free but could be
programmed to the 440 amateur band and would make cheap HTs.

I programmed the pair for the 440 band and have FRS frequencies in for
receive. I have some real FRS radios by Midland and another brand so I
don't really need the 888 for FRS, but I thought in a true emergency
anything goes. If I have it with me and can't raise anyone locally on
the 440 band, I can use FRS and maybe get some help.

The 888 package, though, did say "license free" on the outside in
prominent lettering.

Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

Most of the counterfeits are still able to transmit out of band.
They have dominated the market to an extent that it is not easy to find a real Baofeng.
Bob N5TX

I've read several articles and a YouTube video about Baofeng HT's that
were made before the US forced them to lock the transmit range to stay
within the amateur bands.

Many of us have older ones which can transmit well outside our bands.

Anyone know the latest on this? If I understand correctly, we can use
them inside the amateur bands just like our home built equipment which
COULD be used to transmit out of band signals. I know their BF-888
"license-free" radios once were able to transmit on the amateur bands
as well as GMRS and FRS frequencies at I think 5 watts.

Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

The memory channel name? is limited to 6 or 7 character depending on the radio.

So, I have dealt with this problem by using the airport code for a city, followed on the same line by a V for 2m or U for 70cm and then a number.

For example:

Charlotte North Carolina airport code is CLT.

MY HT channel's labels:
145.23 ? CLT V1
145.29?? CLT V2
146.94?? CLT V3
147.27?? CLT V4
442.65 ? CLT U1
444.175 CLT U2
444.60?? CLT U3

Nearby Concord NC's airport code is JQF.

146.655? JQF V1
442.525? JQF U1
442.250? JQF U2
444.775? JQF U3

In smaller cities, I just put in the airport code plus V or U.

Lexington NC airport code is EXX.

!46.91? EXX VHF
444.50 EXX UHF

This? it allows you to have a city indicator and individual channel label all in one memory name.
While this is not optimal, does work.

73
Dan
AI8O

Thank you Andy.

Just to follow up, I've now ordered and received a pair of BF888s' - just under ?20 on Ebay, inc? 4 batteries, two chargers, and a programming lead- not a Prolific copy either.

(We've been on an trip, hence the delay in ordering etc.- we normally travel a lot in our motorhome (RV) and this virus business has prevented that so we take any opportunity we can.)?

I've started the modification process,? essentially inhibiting the voice prompts, removal of the case (some people reuse it, I don't plan to), removing the torch LED, mic and disconnecting the speaker.?

Next comes reducing the power out to between 50 and 100mW (yes). There are several methods people use to do this but removing the PA device seems to be common. The variation is how the driver is then linked to the output.?

Then there are some wires to add- COS (Carrier Operated Squelch),? Audio In / Out,? PTT, plus GND and power of course.?

The construction of the BF888 is very neat. Quality is acceptable rather than high. (I was an Engineer in the defence industry before becoming a teacher).?
The remarkable thing is the price. The ?20 includes taxes (20% VAT alone) and shipping to me.?

?73
Brian
G8OSN

Brian . . .

On Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:54:40 -0700, "Brian Reay via groups.io"
<g8osn@...> wrote:

As I mentioned, I looking for an 888 ideally to modify for use in an Allstar node. As you may know, this involves, as a minimum, picking up some internal points:
audio in/out, PTT, COS. I also plan to reduce the power to (about) 100mW (or less) to limit coverage. Obviously the battery will be replaced by a PSU.

I actually know nothing about what you're doing (Allstar nodes), but I
found the 888S on Amazon.co.uk:



You might look further but this is a 4-pack of them for 42 Pounds
British Sterling. If nothing else, if you only needed 2, you'd have
spares in case you mess one up.

You can probably find a pair of them for about half of that on ebay or
somewhere else.


Donald -- AD8DY
Formerly KJ3I


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

Thank you Donald, a most comprehensive reply.

I assume from your? "import" comment that you are in the USA, I'm UK based (although I have a USA licence, sorry license!- W8OSN?
used on, all too infrequent, visits). We, don't have issues with Baofengs being imported- which is, of course, a double edged sword but good?
for us amateurs.

You clearly know the Baofengs in detail, including their site. I have a few. I use Linux or Mac with Chirp (mainly Linux) for nearly all my programming
(save a few old bits of PMR kit which it doesn't cover).? As you almost certainly know, Linux copes with most? USB / 232 chips, even the clones.?

As I mentioned, I looking for an 888 ideally? to modify for use in an Allstar node. As you may know, this involves, as a minimum, picking up some internal points:
audio in/out, PTT, COS.? I also plan to reduce the power to (about) 100mW (or less) to limit coverage. Obviously the battery will be replaced by a PSU.?

Modifications for the 888 are well documented and, while I am confident I could probably work out the details for another version, why reinvent the wheel ;-)

We have a number of, what seem to be, badged Baofengs available here- too many to list. Many are sold for use on our (rough) equivalent of the FRS system - PMR446.
Technically, they don't meet the PMR446 spec but our equivalent of the FCC (OFCOM) are, to put it mildly, less than interested in enforcement.? Unless you are VERY naughty, the chances of getting into trouble are just about zero.? Not a good situation in my view.......



73
Brian

Brian . . .

On Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:36:41 -0700, "Brian Reay via groups.io"
<g8osn@...> wrote:

I’ve noticed some advertisers on EBay etc mentioned BF888(s) in the title but the detail description mentions the BF88(E).

Is this just a manifestation of Baofeng’s habit not being exactly consistent with model numbers?

This web site says the 88E is an upgraded version of their 888:



But "upgraded" to me means they don't have the amateur band coverage
now, and I think they were forced to change by the US FCC so that they
didn't have so wide a coverage that they could interfere on other
licensed frequency spectrum.

I did see that the 88A and 888 are listed there as having 400 to 470
MHz coverage in the chart below comparing 4 models, but the E model
isn't listed there. Closer to the top where they mix the A and E
models together it says it has coverage from 462 to 467 MHz.

There is a contact us button/link at the top of the web page so you
can find out yourself from the seller. You can also download the
manual from that page.

If you only need 462 to 467 MHz, then it probably doesn't matter.

I can say that the 888 was programmable to put it in the 432-450 MHz
ham band because I did that, and programmed some channels for
FRS/GMRS. The 888, I believe, puts out 5W. The A or E model appears to
be limited to 2W. It also covers the PMR band is but it's limited to
0.5W. There are 8 FRS and 8 PMR channels pre-programmed for you. Page
22 of the user manual, however, seems to say that it may be illegal to
use on the FRG, GMRS, or MURS bands, though this doesn't cover the
151-154 MHz MURS frequencies in any case, so this may be boilerplate
text pasted into the document without editing.

That's about all I can tell you except the 888 has a wider bandwidth
if you need that. However, those can't be legally imported anymore as
far as I know but they're still available on Amazon for $21.99 per
pair.



And you can (not legally) run the full 5W on any frequency between 400
and 450 MHz. You'll probably need to get the cable if you're going to
program it, and the cable costs as much as the radio if you want one
that's practically guaranteed to work:



It has the REAL FDTI chip and it works. I can confirm that since I
used the same for my UV-5R with CHIRP. If you want to discuss CHIRP,
join that group:

/g/CHIRP

Though there are only 25 members so far.

As for cheaper cables, buy them at your own risk, knowing ahead of
time you may be wasting your money. Some will not work even though
Windows detects the counterfeit FDTI chip but the driver from FDTI
will fail once it detects that it is not the real thing. That's how it
was explained to me anyway.

If you go to buy one of those, read the reviews. One that costs $13.65
has mostly good reviews but there were some complaints that it didn't
work on their Baofeng UV-5R radios. Also, this one uses the Prolific
chipset, and that seems to be somewhat problematic, hit or miss. The
FDTI chips just seem to work out of the box if they are the true FDTI
chip and not a knockoff. There's another one for $9.99 and though it
has the Baofeng brand on the USB end, it could be a counterfeit.

The only issue I had was with the CHIRP software. The default chosen
COM port was 3 and that didn't work, so I chose the only other one
listed in the software, COM port 4, and it worked.

If you want a book on programming with CHIRP, you can get this one for
under $10:



However, the author deals with a cable using the Prolific chipset. It
was generally helpful but many pictures in the book had such tiny text
in the screen captures of CHIRP that you may need a magnifier to read
them clearly. The chipset aside, it gave me an idea of what to expect
and I had my UV-5R cloned in no time and transferred to a friends
radio quickly.

There's probably enough information online that you can skip the book,
or just have at it when you get your radio, the cable, and CHIRP
installed.

Donald


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP