Howyas All,
Curious about how to get in to CW for 2 meters and 70cm? Unsure if it is for you but wouldn’t mind dropping a couple of bob on a cheap, hackable HT and hopefully excited enough to want to give CW on 2m and 70cm a go?
Brilliant! The more the merrier!
Thankfully, getting in to CW on 2 and 70 is now made a lot easier thanks to the versatile, hackable and reasonably priced Quansheng K5 handheld radios and the community that has grown around them.
Notably around recent developments in custom firmware for the K5 that have introduced a plethora of capabilities to allow the little handheld to punch well above it’s weight.
I’ll try not to drown folks in too much technical detail, rather outline the steps you need to take to get up and running armed with a Quansheng K5 and a compatible CW key.
There are some caveats that are firmware dependent, which is important to note.
Part One: The Radio
Before you do anything, you will need a Quansheng K5 handheld radio. These are available from a variety of stores online. The cheapest place I’ve found them are on Ali Express, though be prepared to wait a couple of weeks for shipping.
You might also save a few bob by ordering from sellers in bulk, perhaps as a group buy. If you want your radio(s) a bit quicker you could try sellers within EI (if any, I am unsure) or where you live, or try Amazon etc.
Part Two: The Firmware
Once you have received your radio(s), you will then need to overwrite, or flash, the stock firmware with one of two custom firmwares available.
There are several flavours of custom firmware available, the two we are interested in for CW are IJV Mod and CEC.
Now, this is where you have your first choice to make. Both firmware flavours are capable of CW (amongst other additional features), but they both take a different approach. I’ve made an easy bullet list below.
- If you choose IJV Mod you are only able to operate CW using a straight key. You can use a paddle, however it will only work as a straight key. You could add a keyer to the chain I suppose, but that’s more gear to carry.
- If you choose CEC you can operate CW using a straight key or paddle.
- For both flavours of firmware, you will need to create a custom 3.5mm cable with resistors in-line, or you can use the Quansheng PTT button to operate as a straight key.
- For IJV Mod only you can modify the internal PCB and avoid having to make a custom cable. This is the route I chose. You can use a paddle with IJV Mod by adding a pico keyer in-line. I chose not to do this as it’s another device to add to the chain. Quansheng’s are reasonably cheap, so I went the hardware modification route instead.
- IJV Mod is available in the latest revision version 3.60. However, multiple sources online report that version 2.95 is the better choice for CW at the present time. I chose to install v2.95.
You can take a look at both the IJV Mod and CEC firmware pages at the following links:
IJV Mod download site: Quansheng K5 Firmware Mod (IJV Mod)
CEC download site: Introducing UV-K5 Version 0.3Q (Stable version, added FT8 QSO)
Part Three: Internal Modification (Optional)
Rather than muck about making custom cables, I decided to go a different route and modify the internal PCB of the Quansheng.
Modifying your Quannie in this way will mean you don’t need to make a custom cable but will still need to use a straight key (or a paddle that will function as a straight key).
It’s a fairly straightforward modification, just a little fiddly so you may want a magnifying glass and a steady hand for it.
The folks at SOTA+ have made a good video about the internal modification and the instructions to follow in order to complete it successfully. This is the video I followed and credit to them for the great resource:
Part Four: The Best Bit! (NOT OPTIONAL!)
Fire up your Quannie, set it to CW Mode in the menu system. Punch in 145.050 on VFO A and 432.050 on VFO B and start hammering out some sublime CW on our beloved 2 meter and 70 cm bands!
It’s time to stop our complaining that 2 and 70 are dead bands. They’re only dead because folks are not picking up their rads and yappin’!
Now, with the Quansheng custom firmware and low price-point, it’s even easier (and cheaper) to get involved on 2 and 70!
I don’t want to be the lone soldier though! Let’s use the bandwidth provided to us and make 270 great again, not just on FM, but on SSB, CW, SSTV and all more!
How about some SOTA and POTA CW on 270? Some 270 SSB (or CW?) DX?
What can you do? I can’t wait to see what folks minds come up with. I hope you enjoyed my little guide and found it useful.
Over to you!
73 DE EI3lH. 
) you could then perhaps look to move on to an 817/818, 857, 991 or a vintage all mode. There is of course the 705, 905 and FTX radios too.
