UV-5R

Well my 5r came i now to figure it out and get my license

Make sure you look up your local PD/FD and listen in on them!

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If you don't already know, spare yourself the agony of trying to program it manually and get the programming cable and use Chirp.

(Listen to this guy. He's obviously been there [laugh])
 
I thought I had ordered the cable but apparently between adding it to my cart and restarting my computer it was moved to a save for later so I need to add that and the antenna back and order it
 
Yup.
And it receives the FM music band.
And you can program it for talking on the usual walkie-talkie frequencies: FRS, GMRS. ( though technically it's not legal to transmit on the walkie-talkie frequencies. *** )

*** because the radio is not certified for transmission on those freqs.

It'll work just fine, and no Ham license required, but because the FCC hasn't said it works, you aren't allowed to click Send It.
 
And there's something in the rules stating a no-license walkie-talkie can't have a detachable antenna.

Yup:

FRS doesn't require a license...

FRS transmitters have a maximum power of ½ watt (500 milliwatt) effective radiated power and integral (non-detachable) antennas.

https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/family-radio-service-frs

and GMRS does (and it's outside the ham bands)

If you operate a radio that has been approved for both FRS and GMRS, and if you limit your operations to the FRS channels with a maximum power of ½ watt effective radiated power and an integral antenna, you are not required to have a license. (Note that some dual-service radios transmit with higher power on FRS channels 1 through 7; these radios can be used without a license only on FRS channels 8 through 14.)

https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs

The UV-5R will operate on these frequencies but break the two main rules: power and detachable antenna. Your odds of getting caught are pretty slim, but your ham license gives you so many better capabilities it's hardly worth bothering.
 
Anyone know the difference between the "plus" and the "pro"?
I asked this of someone when I was buying one and they told me it is just the way it is packaged, different case designs. The internals were supposedly all the same.

Keep in mind this is third party non verified information. i do sort of believe it though as the same software works with them all.
There is a Yahoo group with some very knowledgeable people when it comes to the Boefeng radios.
 
For the UV-5R and a beginner, is it better to use Chirp or the Baofeng software? I am trying to figure out how to program for the local repeaters/tower as well as local southeast MA police fire. If anyone has a file/cheat sheet that would help me set it up correctly I would appreciate it.
 
For the UV-5R and a beginner, is it better to use Chirp or the Baofeng software? I am trying to figure out how to program for the local repeaters/tower as well as local southeast MA police fire. If anyone has a file/cheat sheet that would help me set it up correctly I would appreciate it.

I think you will find chirp better once you have the correct version and cable.
 
I watched a youtube vid that said the Baofeng software allowed you to use different frequencies for receive/transmit so you could change them to ensure someone did not broadcast illegally on a police channel lets say. Is there a way to do that in Chirp?
 
I watched a youtube vid that said the Baofeng software allowed you to use different frequencies for receive/transmit so you could change them to ensure someone did not broadcast illegally on a police channel lets say. Is there a way to do that in Chirp?
As far as I saw the chirp software does everthing the OEM does and more.
For channels you want to monitor but not transmit all you need to do is not but in teh transmit freq or the offset or the PL, eliminating any of those will keep you from activating a repeater you shouldnt be.
 
As a side note, it is not hard to program the scanner by hand. This is how I did mine initially. It is a little convoluted but it is not hard. Kinda like a Ruger MKIII field strip.
I bought the cable and software to back it up more than I did to program it.
 
Chirp is great. One word of caution though. If you plan to buy more Baofeng radios, just know that they may have variations in the firmware and if you try to just upload a copy of your chirp file from an older radio to the new one, you could render it useless. I've done it. It's not a permanent brick if that happens and the http://www.miklor.com site is a great resource for recovering from such situations.

I believe the new version of chirp will actually prevent you from uploading a "bad" file, so it may be a non issue now.

The way I upload my saved file of pre-programmed frequencies is to download the frequency list from the new radio, delete whatever is there and just copy and paste the entire frequency list from the old file to the new one and then upload back to the radio.
 
When using Chirp, has anyone noticed that when you load an image file or import a .csv file, all of the ToneSQL fields turn back to 88.5? I spent a ton of time yesterday entering a bunch of repeaters and when I saved the file after uploading to radio, all of that field changed when I tried to reopen it to upload to an other radio. Talk about frustrating.
 
I am picking up one of these and downloading chirp.. can someone send me that database to load or do I have to enter it manually?
 
CHIRP will automatically import repeater info from repeaterbook for you, I just don't remember how to get there through the menus at the moment. If I sit down on my other computer this evening I will post the steps.
 
I am picking up one of these and downloading chirp.. can someone send me that database to load or do I have to enter it manually?

Sorry it took a few days, things have been busy.

attachment.php


This will let you pick your band, state, and county, then it will populate a window with all the repeaters in that criteria. Once you download your radio, you can then copy/paste the repeaterbook window into your radio window and upload it.

chirp.png
 
Sorry it took a few days, things have been busy.

attachment.php


This will let you pick your band, state, and county, then it will populate a window with all the repeaters in that criteria. Once you download your radio, you can then copy/paste the repeaterbook window into your radio window and upload it.

View attachment 169174

Thanks man!
 
Ok radio will be here tomorrow. I got 4 tabs of repeaters in the software. I know 90% of these are never going to be used. Do I just delete them? Can I compile it into one list?

Also,
Once it downloads the the location tag go with it?

Thanks in advance
 
Ok radio will be here tomorrow. I got 4 tabs of repeaters in the software. I know 90% of these are never going to be used. Do I just delete them? Can I compile it into one list?

Also,
Once it downloads the the location tag go with it?

Thanks in advance

You can copy and paste the repeaters you want into one tab, but once you paste it into your radio window, the location data goes away. I would suggest setting up one tab the way you want it, export it to .csv, then print it from excel so you know what channels are what. Once it is set the way you want, them paste that list into the radio window and upload it. I never figured out how to program alpha numeric labels in these things, if you even can.
 
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