Modifications, Frequency lists, CHIRP images, Hacks and Tips for your UV-5R (and similar) Handy-talkies.
This repo is just a place to share my tricks, mods and CHIRP images that I use for my Baofeng/Pofung/BTECH/Tenway UV-5R radio. Over the next few weeks, I will be adding to this readme useful links and resources. I am also studying to become a licensed Ham Radio operator, so this will act as my space to keep notes and a tab on helpful resources. I know others are interested in Ham radio, and thousands of people own these little handy-talkies, so I wanted to share stuff that I have learned.
This is not meant to teach you how to become licensed, I myself am not yet licensed. It is not to provide legal direction, these radios are capable of transmitting on restricted frequencies!
Be carfeul what you do with these radios! DO NOT BE DUMB!
"With great power (a whopping 5W in this case), comes great responsibility" - Uncle Ben
The UV-5R is a cheap, Chinese-made VHF/UHF Ham radio. It can transmit on frequency ranges of 136-174Mhz and 400-520MHz. The original versions were limited to 400-480Mhz, the intermediate versions then gained an additional 40Mhz headway on the upper side of the UHF band. The newest radios sold in Canada/USA now limit the range so that it is impossible to transmit on GMRS/FRS frequencies.
Whether you are licensed Ham or not, it is ILLEGAL to use these radios to transmit on GMRS/FRS frequencies in Canada/USA, except in an emergency situation in which case anybody can transmit on any radio (regardless of licensing requirements).
The Radio Consists of the main body, an antenna, and a battery pack. Antennae come in many shapes and sizes, but I like to use the whip-style antenna. I personally have a knock-off Nagoya 771 (I think). For batteries, I have 2x extended packs and one standard pack. They are advertised as 1800mAh and 3800mAh respectively.
My Radio body is branded as "Tenway UV-5R Pro" but it is the exact same thing as the UV-5R from Baofeng, Pofung, BTECH, etc. They are all knock-offs of each other, and I wouldn't be surprised if your model is called "UV-5R PRO ULTIMATE XLT MANY POWERS 100km EDITION" (spoiler alert, it's just a UV-5R).
I use CHIRP to program and configure my radios. You can manually create/edit channels in the field, but you are limited to numbers only. With the use of CHIRP you can batch program multiple channels with alphanumeric characters, this makes it a LOT easier. Download CHIRP from here.
You also have the ability to pull frequencies such as local repeaters from various websites, all without leaving the program. This simplifies the programming process as everything is done automatically, NO COPY/PASTE!!!!
Hardware:
- 15.6in whip antenna
- Extended battery packs
- Radio customization
Software:
- Channel presets (programmed)
- Radio prefrences
- add CHIRP CSV and IMG files
- add useful frequencies chart pdf
- gear writeup
- links