The factory squelch settings aren’t very good. CHIRP can be used to change them to more useful values. http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Squelch.php
I blame the factory Duck for part of the UV-5R’s slightly lower sensitivity (mine is far from being deaf). Better antennas are easy to find. Not very selective either but for <$30 US on ePay, what does one expect?
I’ve had mine 3+ years and it’s Ok for local repeater use, etc.
Thinking of connecting it to my cell phone for APRS. Many posts about this online.
Forget the clunky built-in menu system, use CHIRP to program these things.
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This may be of interest to some…
Symptoms of a “bricked Baofeng” can vary but the most common one seems to be inoperative receive mode after downloading a file via Chirp (or other software) to try to update channels and settings. On the UV-5RC kindly given to me the squelch was locked, regardless of the programmed setting and you had to press the “Monitor” button to force it to receive at all. Transmit worked fine.
The most likely cause is loading an image file FROM ANOTHER BAOFENG as a quick way to update the channels. Unless the internal firmware is the same revision you may “brick it”. Once you have done this, no amount of downloading and editing will fix it – don’t bother. The only way is to restore the factory image.
Solution:
-
Find the firmware revision number of your Baofeng. Hold down the “3” button and switch on. The display shows the firmware number briefly. If the top line says “REV” then the firmware revision is the bottom line. If the bottom line says ”BFB297” then the firmware revision is the top line. Don’t ask why, it just is. Mine said “BFB307 / BFB297”. -
Visit the site http://kc9hi.dyndns.org/uv5r/programming/CHIRPrecovery/ -
Find the file that corresponds to your firmware number, in my case BFB307(factory).img, and download it. -
Use your good friend CHIRP to load this file to the radio and your main problem is solved. -
Once you’ve checked it works then you can begin the task of updating the channels BUT YOU MUST START FROM THIS FILE and avoid the temptation to just copy from another radio. Unless the firmware number matches you’ll most likely just brick it again. -
There is also a “reset” option file available that fixes the problem and leaves all the channels blank.
There are plenty of other sites about Baofengs but this site seems to have all the image files for all Baofengs and similar handies conveniently gathered together in one place. Before I found it I wasted a lot of time being referred from one site to another, often with broken links.
73 Chris M0RSF
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My UV5R has a better receive than my FT857D on 70cm.
I recently worked Viki M6BWA on a summit in GW/SW on 2m without a problem on the 857 from home, ive got an X50 on the roof, but when she moved to 70cm she was down in the noise & I couldnt hear her, out of interest I hooked up the cheap UV5R to the same antenna & I could then hear her, unfortunately with only 4w she could no longer hear me, but it proved to me that they can out perform some expensive kit sometimes., or I have a particularly deaf 857 
I will be keeping mine handy.
Neil
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Try increasing the front end gain on 70 cm using the “hidden menu”. I did this and it made a big difference.
No, he needs to buy a tin of SWaR grease for his antenna.
I’d been calling on and off for 30mins. If he had his 817 with him why was he pigging about with a novelty radio?
I think I’ll offer to buy it from him so he can’t waste my time ever again when I’m trying to work him.
Thanks, I’ll look into it, ive not altered those settings from the factory presets.
Neil
I have a few of them. Every time they had a new one put O would buy another one I was hopeful for a better one. So I gave up and bought a IC92AD Best I have and love it
That’s not the case though. You could get “HAMerterised” versions of the commercial radios people like Kenwood and Yaesu were selling into industry long before the influx of Jing Tong, Baofeng, Puxing etc. hit the shops. The VX170 (mine’s a 2008 model) was on offer then for a £90 rrp. The VX120(150?) was a simplified display/keyboard and was cheaper. This compared well with the much higher priced FT-60 multi band radio. Similarly there are the very high spec APRS featured Yaesu radios which cost £££’s. But you could get big-3 radios cheap for a long time.
There is (was) one cheap make that were worth buying and they were the original Wouxun sets. Either VHF, UHF, dual band or 4m versions all worked very well for the price. There were more quality control issues and some of the felt a bit cheap, but the RF performance, you remember the RF performance is what you buy radio for, was good. But Wouxun radios were only slightly cheaper than big-3 sets.
Despite evidence showing that most of these Baofung radios have marginal TX spectral purity, despite evidence showing them to suffer from trivial overload, desense and cross-mod issues, despite evidence showing that side by side comparisons show them to not detect signals in a real world environment, there are people who think they’re fine and dandy. They’re not.
But if you persist in such delusional beliefs, then contact me because not only do I have the Brooklyn Bridge for sale but also Tower Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, The Millau Viaduct & Buckingham Palace!
OK on all points. When I got back into the hobby about 6 years ago, the available 2m or 2m/70cm HTs available in Australia started at around AU$300, which is why when the Wouxon UVD-1P came along at AU$99, I bought one and have used it both portable and mobile ever since - it is still my “go to” handheld despite having a couple of other ones. Only problem after 6 years the battery is no longer holding its charge, so I’ve just ordered a relacement battery at about €9 and I guess the rig will serve me well for another few years.
Ed.
I think you are wasting your eloquence, Andy! Those that are happy with them are happy with them, and won’t be persuaded, and I guess there is a place for “cheap and cheerful” because a lot get sold!
I have a 2 metre handy from an SK sale, marked as “Kington”, which is a robust little thing and seems to perform OK but the instruction “manual” is gibberish. Trouble is, I never use it, I would rather slip my FT817 into my “poacher’s pocket” and use that, it seems less like a toy and I can easily put a better antenna on it.
The FT60 is enjoying a discount now with the FT65 about to come out. However, the FT65 is probably worth the extra money just for the benefit on its Li-ion battery.
I see there’s now an FT-70DR in the works which will add Fusion to this line-up.
For RSGB members this month’s RadCom has a feature on cheap(ish) hand-helds and using them for the FMAC contests (SOTA gets a mention too). It’s a bit thin on the ground as regards technical comparisons. The old UV-5 types aren’t considered, but there’s a more recent Baofeng and the Wouxon with the big colour display, along with Yaesu and others.
As with most things its each to their own. I have owned handhelds from Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu and a couple of Baofengs. Without doubt the best is the Yaesu VX7R. I made the mistake of selling mine and thought I was upgrading when I bought a VX-8. Bad mistake, I managed to find a dealer who had some brand new VX7R’s in stock so traded the VX8 in. The VX7R is a keeper, best handheld ever bar none.
73 Chris M0RSF
Hello Simon. Thanks for your input. I would like to add, if I may, that anyone who is thinking of buying the Yaesu FT65 should read the reviews posted at www.eham.net and compare with those for the FT60.
TheFT65 has been on sale in the USA for some weeks now and though there are only a few reviews, to date, they make interesting reading.
My own SOTA experience, (as a chaser only), has been with an FT60. This is the only radio I use on VHF/UHF and it has served me very well during the time I have been involved with Sota.
Best Wishes, 73 de Paul M0CQE.
A local has found that this applies to several different models of the Chinese Radio’s when used with his loft mounted co-linear, but oddly they appear to work normally using just the whip antenna.
I admit that I have one too, it lives in the car and goes almost everywhere with me. BUT only because it is so cheap it is disposable. If I drop it would I care - no, If I lost it would I care - no, if someone stole it (ha ha ha) would I care - no. If any of the above happened to my Icom, how would I feel then - rather different would be an understatement. Do I rely on it - No. It comes with me on club events when we are communicating amongst each other. SOTA, no. Is it worth the money, yes it is and I would buy another one, however I expect what I pay for, and when I don’t pay a lot I don’t expect a lot.
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I have two, the original UV5-R & the latest UV5-RC plus (bought at the Blackpool rally).
I have never been disappointed in their performance, because to be honest I didn’t expect them to perform well at all. Compared to other handhelds I own they are much more vulnerable to overloading of their front ends by strong signals either close in frequency or by blocking via their IF’s.
I would never use one where my life depended on it, then again I wouldn’t rely on any single means of communication, especially out in the wilds.
Even handhelds from the big three suffer under certain conditions (see my video of a VX7-R on G/SP-017 Billinge Hill as evidence) & the Baofeng is far less resilient under those conditions. If you live near a commercial site, especially one with pager transmitters then you will struggle with a Baofeng & even some more expensive brands, especially if you connect them to an outdoor antenna, but that is not what they are designed for.
After a week, my first impressions of the latest UV5-RC plus, is that it is an improvement over the earlier versions & I had no problem programming it with a few repeaters on the way home from Blackpool & working them as I would expect to do with more well known brands. I will be doing some direct comparisons with other radios under various conditions while I’m out & about will report my findings here.
Thanks & 73,
Mark G0VOF
It’s amazing what can be done with a handheld from a summit.
About three or four years ago, I carted a shed load of gear up GW,SW-001 Pen y Fan (not recommended). Amongst it was an X-300 colinear a couple of aluminum poles and a Wouxun KG-UVD1p. The Wouxun was attached to the colinear and over 80 contacts, 11 of them s2s were knocked off on 2m without suffering any pager noise. With probably the exception of contesting, it’s still the biggest SOTA VHF haul from that summit.
Mike
2E0YYY
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I was in Sydney on Thursday afternoon and was offered a bargain price on the Sydney Harbour bridge, with an Opera House thrown in. I bought one last time I was in Sydney so I turned it down.
Re the cheap HTs I think the point is that while some of them work fine, others don’t. This is usually referred to a quality control failure.
But the underlying architecture is the main problem. A radio that can receive and transmit on any frequency from just above DC to just below daylight does not have tunable tracking filters on its front end and a 10kw TV signal will dominate the attention of the front end and the mixer, more to the point. It saturates and the gain on the desired frequency is severely reduced.
And the big three brands are not blameless either.
From Black Mountain in Canberra, where the TV and FM broadcast transmitters are located along with a zillion other services, there are only a few HTs that can withstand the local interference, most of which is on either the FM band or the digital TV band somewhat further up the spectrum (but not on half of 1296).
With various Yaesu and Icom HTs having been tested there, as well as the Baofeng and others, the results are a mixed bag. Mostly, a stubby helical is the best antenna to use, its built-in 10 to 20 db of attenuation helps remove some of the big local signals. The other thing that’s worth doing there is to tip it over so the antenna is horizontal and get the other station to do the same. Not particularly directional but best signal when broadside to the other station.
At the same site, the ft817 does fine…
I think my Icom V85 comes next and the Yaesu VX5 is the least interference-tolerant of my HTs. Haven’t taken the ICQ7A out for an excursion for some time. (It is resting, but not in the same sense as the famous parrot. )
73 Andrew VK1DA VK2UH
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Yes, Andrew, we have noticed that Vicki’s, M6BWA, VX7 (and mine) get swamped by broadcasts and pagers. A swap to the ft817 brings in the chasers. Also the helical stick brings in less signal than the dipole, so the saturation stops and the chasers come in, even without your neat idea of gaining a bit of direction from using horizontal.
73,
Rod