UV-5R

[cheers]

Passed my Technician exam today, went to the Boxborough convention - was quite surprised that I needed to park 1/2 mile from the hotel - a lot of people there!
Everything was very well organized, now waiting for the call sign.
 
[cheers]

Passed my Technician exam today, went to the Boxborough convention - was quite surprised that I needed to park 1/2 mile from the hotel - a lot of people there!
Everything was very well organized, now waiting for the call sign.

Congratulations! I forget how long it took, but it's not nearly as long as an LTC. Once it's posted on the FCC website you're good to start transmitting.

I still don't do much with my license because I'm afraid of "doing it wrong", but a short term goal of mine is to overcome that. Nobody out there ever masters it; it's all about experimenting and playing around.
 
This thread has been around since 2012. Surely they have a newer model which has more "bang for the buck" by now.

Anyone know?
 
This thread has been around since 2012. Surely they have a newer model which has more "bang for the buck" by now.

Anyone know?

Not really. Baofeng has continuously made improvements to the UV-5R, and dollar for dollar, it's still one of the best HT's on the market.
 
So.. What am I doing wrong ?
I cannot connect to the Westford repeater :

Settings in CHIRP: (and the software will not let change the ToneSql to 74.4)
Capture.jpg


From repeater directory:

146.955-MAWestfordWB1GOF74.474.4Middlesex3807992011/01/04
 
So.. What am I doing wrong ?
I cannot connect to the Westford repeater :

Settings in CHIRP: (and the software will not let change the ToneSql to 74.4)
Capture.jpg


From repeater directory:

146.955-MAWestfordWB1GOF74.474.4Middlesex3807992011/01/04

Settings look right. Are you really close enough to hit it on low power?
 
Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong, but if your tone squelch is wrong you might be hitting it but not hearing it. Can you hear the repeater?

Also, like ghettomedic said you might want to set power to High.
 
I can hear the repeater traffic (announcements, other HAM traffic), but, I cannot get the courtesy tone back.

Increased the Tx level to high (8w), but, still no go.

I'm not sure where is the repeater physically, I live 7-10 miles south-east of Westford.
 
Let me just preface this by saying that I hate you all, and some in particular, you know who you are.

I got one of these UV5R a couple of weeks ago, and have unboxed it in the last few days. Suddenly, getting up to speed to take the general test is on my radar. I've got 4 or 5 tech tests with passing grades under my belt, and am slogging through info relevant to the general test.

I have been playing around with listening in on all sorts of things, and can't wait until I get a ticket so that I can start talking to some folks. I'm going to get the Nagoya 15.6" antenna, as the stock piece seems to really suck. I'll probably get a couple more radios to boot, so as to have comms in the event of a snowstorm, hurricane, or just dicking around in the woods or on the range. Is anyone using this unit as a tactical comms rig? I'm curious as to hands free vox options that would work.
 
Welcome to the hobby. It's kind of like guns in that it has 1,000 aspects, so no matter who you are you can find ways to spend your time and money.

I'm not an operator so I don't do much tactical $hit, but I volunteered at the Boston Marathon the last 2 years and it's fascinating how good the information handling is with just a bunch of guys standing around with and HT. The UV-5R is just fine. Lots of people working the Marathon either used a UV-5R or had it as their backup. I read it's audio quality and reception aren't quite up to what you get with a $200HT, but it's plenty good for "all but the most discriminating tastes".

In addition to the Nagoya antenna, cut yourself a piece of wire 19.5" long (almost any thickness works), strip one end and secure it under one of the belt clip screws. This "rat tail" forms a ground for the antenna makes the antenna into a true dipole. I've done tests and it makes an enormous difference (like 2-4 S-units). I just use a 8" Nagoya and the rat tail
 
I have been looking at the UV-82, not sure if I should jump to the high power version
Believe it or not, transmit power really isn't that important. Receive signal strength is a very exponential thing. On the usual signal strength meters that go from S1 to S9, each "S-unit" is a 4x change in receive signal strength. So the difference between the 4Watt UV-5R and the 7Watt UV-82 is about 1/2 of an S-unit. You'll never notice the difference.

On the other hand, if I believe the literature the UV-82 is a whole new design, so it's probably a better radio, not that there's anything wrong with the UV-5R.
 
jibbr71;4695895Is anyone using this unit as a tactical comms rig?[/QUOTE said:
Not sure how "tactical" it is, but I just joined the Vermont State Guard (which is NOT an armed unit, please) and we use these. They put me in G6 because I have my ham ticket. [smile] First exercise coming up on 10/24; I'll try and remember to write up a report on how well they work for us.
 
Not sure how "tactical" it is, but I just joined the Vermont State Guard (which is NOT an armed unit, please) and we use these. They put me in G6 because I have my ham ticket. [smile] First exercise coming up on 10/24; I'll try and remember to write up a report on how well they work for us.

Maybe tactical isn't the right term. Mainly I'm looking for something I can use while running in the 70cm band and be hands free, so I can run my rifle, chainsaw, tractor, or whatever.
 
....and be hands free, so I can run my rifle, chainsaw, tractor, or whatever.
Ah, preparing for the zombie invasion. Now it makes sense. [laugh]

The throat mike is an interesting idea. I've never used one but I hear they're good in high noise environments but make you sound kinda funny.

Anyone have experience using the UV-5R's VOX feature? I've never used anything but the PTT switch.
 
Th throat mic seems to be a pretty good option. There are less expensive than the midland, so I'll probably try one of those for "proof of concept", and if it works, then upgrade when the cheap one breaks. It looks like the earpiece will fit under my earpro at least as well as the one that came with the Baofeng.
 
Th throat mic seems to be a pretty good option. There are less expensive than the midland, so I'll probably try one of those for "proof of concept", and if it works, then upgrade when the cheap one breaks. It looks like the earpiece will fit under my earpro at least as well as the one that came with the Baofeng.

The one that comes with the Baofeng is rubbish. I had to hold the mic directly in front of my mouth, entirely defeating the hands-free-ness of it.

Another option I was thinking of is if your earpro has a headphone jack to connect directly to that. The connector to the Baofeng is two pins: headphone, mic. You could wire it up anyway you see fit if you wanted.

Back in the analog cell days I had a handsfree earpiece that incorporated the mic into the earpiece. It picked up your voice via your jawbone and worked surprisingly well. An option like that would keep the "mic" beneath your earpro and might eliminate some of the noise.
 
The one that comes with the Baofeng is rubbish. I had to hold the mic directly in front of my mouth, entirely defeating the hands-free-ness of it.

Another option I was thinking of is if your earpro has a headphone jack to connect directly to that. The connector to the Baofeng is two pins: headphone, mic. You could wire it up anyway you see fit if you wanted.

Back in the analog cell days I had a handsfree earpiece that incorporated the mic into the earpiece. It picked up your voice via your jawbone and worked surprisingly well. An option like that would keep the "mic" beneath your earpro and might eliminate some of the noise.

A couple of friends have talked about cutting the cord and splicing in a 3.5mm jack to go the earpro, this would be a good option for the range, or when we're operating like DEVGRU.
 
Ah, preparing for the zombie invasion. Now it makes sense. [laugh]

The throat mike is an interesting idea. I've never used one but I hear they're good in high noise environments but make you sound kinda funny.

Anyone have experience using the UV-5R's VOX feature? I've never used anything but the PTT switch.

We use CavCom ear mikes at work for the guys that do abrasive blasting to communicate with their tenders outside the tanks. That's about as high-noise as you can get.

Not sure how a throat mike would work in the same environment.
 
I wonder if one of the throat mic setups would work well for that. Assuming it fits under your earpro, it would a convenient setup for shooting/chainsawing/tractoring.

http://www.amazon.com/Midland-AVPH8-Acoustic-Throat-Compartment/dp/B002CX0QLQ
I have used a throat mic for the last two years when working the Boston Marathon, no one complained about the sound. I did not try using box because I didn't want everything I said going out over the radio.

This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0090Q3KYI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
 
Back
Top Bottom