Charlie . . .


On Sun, 06 Nov 2022 09:39:54 -0800, "Charlie Thompson via groups.io"
<w5cdt@...> wrote:

Is there a physical mod to unlock these newer radios?

If you're referring to something else, please ignore this.

If you're trying to unlock it to transmit out of the ham bands, I read that the
FCC made them lock transmit to just the ham bands since they're not type
accepted for other services. They got into a lot of trouble several years back
over this.

I have some BF-888's and they're able to transmit on government frequencies, the
440 MHz band, and FRS/GMRS frequencies, too. Some got imported in packaging
that said they were license-free radios. I thought these were just FRS radios,
but they were much more than that, and nothing was even mentioned about FRS on
the box, just that no license was required to use them. Nothing could be further
from the truth, and even though I programmed them for ham frequencies, which
makes it legal for me, someone could program for FRS/GMRS and they would be
illegal there due to not being type accepted, also having about 10X the power
output allowed on FRS.

Donald KX8K






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

Did you implemented into Bao mic?

Petr, OK1RP

It would seem logical that in the manual they were coming from a default position where the offset is already at zero or off. Obviously the problem arises when one has already been doing some programming and the default is no longer the current status.

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A friend pointed out to me that to use the procedure in Section 6.10 of the manual, the offset specified in Section 6.11 must be zero. And I see that that solution works just fine, either by using Menu selection 25 to turn off the offset or by setting the offset to zero using Menu selection 26 prior to implementing Section 6.10.

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I guess I was proceeding under the impression that the two procedures would be completely independent, but it turns out not to be that way. Kudos to Ernie, W6KAP, for pointing that out.

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I think the manual should point out in Section 6.10 that correct implementation of the procedure is dependent on having the offset set to zero or turned off.

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73,

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Maynard

W6PAP

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Maynard . . .

On Sun, 02 Oct 2022 15:13:17 -0700, "Maynard Wright, P. E., W6PAP"
<w6pap@...> wrote:

My UV-S9 PLUS was advertised as a dual band radio with 8 watts output and the dual band part is correct. I don’t know about the 8 watts.

It's practice among the makers of Chinese radios to add the wattage outputs for
each band and total it. That's what they claim to be the output. Probably 4W on
2M and 4 watts on 440 MHz. It makes absolutely no sense except maybe in China.
Someone who has been affected should file a complaint with the Federal Trade
Commission.

An example is this one:



Here's what the store has to say about it:

"Baofeng advertises this as being a 15 watt HT. We tested several, on a "real"
wattmeter, we get about 8 watts."

So your best bet is to look at the specifications on each band by itself, not
the total claimed output wattage.

Donald KX8K






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

I think that the numbering might be confusing. ?My UV-S9 was advertised as a tribander and is but doesn’t feature the 8 watt output. ?My UV-S9 PLUS was advertised as a dual band radio with 8 watts output and the dual band part is correct. ?I don’t know about the 8 watts.

73,

Maynard
W6PAP

I understand some of these Baofengs can be put on 220 MHz. I don't know which
ones, or how to do it.

I also don't know how good the spectral purity of the signal would be.

Donald KX8K



On Sun, 02 Oct 2022 10:42:04 -0700, "Maynard Wright, P. E., W6PAP"
<w6pap@...> wrote:

I bought my UV-S9 mostly for 220 MHz use and it works fine on that band. I also have a UV-S9PLUS that does not receive or transmit on 220 but it wasn’t advertised as triband.

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

I bought my UV-S9 mostly for 220 MHz use and it works fine on that band. ?I also have a UV-S9PLUS that does not receive or transmit on 220 but it wasn’t advertised as triband.

73,

Maynard
W6PAP

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A more detailed examination of the manual that I received with the UV-5R reveals that the picture on the cover is clearly of a UV-5R or very similar radio. The cover reads "Two Way Radio UV-5R Series User's Manual."

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But the pictures of the unit inside the manual are clearly not of the UV-5R as they lack the "BAND" button. Examination of the BF-F8HP manual on the Baofeng website shows its contents to be essentially identical to the manual that I received with the UV-5R, although I haven't done a line by line check.

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One difference is in the pictures. The frame around the LCD and a few other small details are just slightly different, so maybe the manual that I have and the one Baofeng currently publishes are for different revisions of the BF-F8HP or maybe my manual is for some other Baofeng that has no "BAND" button.

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Interestingly, the two manuals that I received with a UV-S9 (tri-band) and a UV-S9PLUS seem to be identical to the UV-5R manual on the Baofeng website. Neither of these manuals mentions the tri-band capability and neither identifies the model for which it is intended.

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So maybe the procedure for setting up different frequencies that fails on my UV-5R is a procedure intended for the BF-F8HP or some other Baofeng and that doesn't work on the UV-5R.

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73,

?

Maynard

W6PAP

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I'm pretty sure it's copy and paste with CHIRP as long as you have the same data
fields in the same order. You could still do that if they're not identical but
you'd have to do it by columns or individual cells than by rows.

Donald KX8K



On Thu, 29 Sep 2022 19:32:07 -0700, "kf7rcm@... via groups.io"
<kf7rcm@...> wrote:

Nice thing is I can just copy and paste the frequency block from my Yaesu ft-60r straight into the UV-5R. Not sure if you can do that woth CHIRP, but I would imagine you could

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

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Hi, Donald,

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I suspect that you are right about most folks using CHIRP or RT Systems. I haven't tried either because I program in just a few repeaters and that seems to go ok after you get into the swing of it. Just don't forget the right number of presses of MENU and EXIT.

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I want to stay familiar enough with the process so that I can use it when I am somewhere in the woods or in a vehicle away from home with no computer. So I know the process and I carry a little sheet with just the function numbers I need for both Baofeng and Wouxun, some of which are different.

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I suppose that I need to download CHIRP and give it a try.

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Hi, Wayne,

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Most of the other HTs I own are older (some with thumb wheels). The only older one that would be a candidate for moving the memory would be the VX-150 and I haven't checked that out.

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Of course, I could probably easily use the software to move what I have in either of the other two Baofengs or Wouxun to the "newer" UV-5R.

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I guess my main concern is that someone relatively unfamiliar with amateur radio will buy a UV-5R because of its low cost, will open the manual, read it, and attempt to use the first process for setting up offsets that he or she encounters and that will be the one that I can't use successfully. For someone familiar with repeaters, the procedure seems a little odd and the next section includes a more familiar process. It shouldn't be a problem for someone who has been on the air for awhile, but it might be a frustrating stumbling block for someone new.

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An interesting, maybe amusing, error of no consequence in the manual I received with the UV-5R is the labeling of a key in the drawing on the front cover as "EIXT."

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On the other hand, errors like this are sometimes useful in identifying the version number or date of a manual.

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73,

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Maynard

W6PAP

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I went ahead and purchased the RT systems program. First time I've ever paid more for the programming software than the radio.
Nice thing is I can just copy and paste the frequency block from my Yaesu ft-60r straight into the UV-5R. Not sure if you can do that woth CHIRP, but I would imagine you could.
Wayne/kf7rcm.

Maynard . . .

On Wed, 28 Sep 2022 18:45:22 -0700, "Maynard Wright, P. E., W6PAP"
<w6pap@...> wrote:

I don't really need this procedure, but I'm wondering whether I'm getting it wrong or whether anyone else has run into this.

I think the vast majority of UV-5R owners use CHIRP or RT Systems software for
programming memories, repeater offsets, etc. In my opinion, it's difficult to
program from the front panel. Not impossible. But when such software is
available (and CHIRP is free), I'll choose the easy method.

So I can't verify what you're seeing, but maybe you discovered a mistake in the
coding of the OS in the radio, or in the instructions. If most people do use
software for programming theirs, you may not get many answers on this.

Donald KX8K



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

Here's an interesting one,
Suddenly around January this year the screen on my 5RT stopped having anything on the display (well if you get the angle and lighting just right you can just about make something out). It was working fine the day before and I discovered it upon lifting it out of the charger and turning it on. Thinking perhaps its just got too cold as it was in an out building with no heating that it was just a screen fault, so I purchased a new one and fitted it, but alas it was no better. I then did a factory reset before taking it apart again and this time cleaned the contacts on the board, the new screen and zebra strips with some isopropanol. Still no better, however I noticed if you press lightly on the screen the display momentarily works. I put the radio to one side and only had another look at it the other day, I cleaned the board again, tried another screen then scratched my head as it's still no good.
So I thought I might as well ask on here if anyone has any ideas as all I can think of now is its either a component failure, a hidden setting or to try reflowing the board. Yes I know they are cheap and some consider throw away, but it would be nice to fix it.

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I bought a UV-5R because the price was so low and it works fine, essentially the same as my UV-S9PLUS.

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The manual received with the UV-5R includes more detail than do the manuals received with my other Baofengs and it includes two methods for adding offset to channel memories. The one that I've been using for years with Baofengs and others is described in "6.11 Repeaters Programming" in which one enters the repeater frequency, the offset frequency, the offset direction (+ or -) and, if required, the CTCSS frequency. That works fine with any of my three Baofengs.

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The manual describes, in "6.10 Manual Programming," a different method in which the repeater frequency is stored first, followed by an audio announcement "received frequency" and then the frequency to be used to transmit to the repeater is entered and stored in the same memory location. That procedure is followed by an announcement "transmit frequency."

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This procedure can be carried out with either my UV-5R or my UV-S9PLUS, but with both Baofengs, the offset that results is actually twice the desired offset, at least on two meters which is the only band I've tried. If I enter, for example, a repeater on 145.430 MHz and it requires a negative offset, I enter the second frequency as 144.830 MHz. But when I access the stored memory channel and key the transmitter, the frequency transmitted is actually 144.230 MHz.

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I don't really need this procedure, but I'm wondering whether I'm getting it wrong or whether anyone else has run into this.

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73,

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Maynard

W6PAP

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