BaoFeng Radios

© Brooke Clarke 2015 - 2023

Background
Description
    UV-5RA
    UV-B6
Operation
DC Power
Antennas
    Stock
    D-130
    J-Pole
Mount
Programming
GMRS/MURS/FRS
    GM-15 Pro
Simplex Repeater
Tracking
Photos
Related
References
Links

Background 

The paint ball replica PRC-152 radio uses a stock BaoFeng radio inside the military case and control system.  On that page I listed a number of BaoFeng radios that might be the basis for the PRC-152.  These were chosen based on the frequency coverage of the PRC-152 replica radio.

At that time I got one of the UV-5RA radios, but it got moved into a container and I haven't seen it recently.

A couple of weeks ago a good freind started the process of reactivating his amateur call sign and after getting the one assigned by the FCC got a UB-B6 radio and started asking me questions about it, so I got one of them to help him.

These are very similar to the Yaseu VX-7R, but it's more expensive and has more capability.

BaoFeng seems to make radios that are good quality for the price.  The handheld radios are very similar.  One difference is some radios have a built in LED flashlight and others replace that with a second knob (the first knob they all share is the OFF-Volume control).

Description

UV-5RA

Dual band UHF/VHF FM radio 400-520 MHz &136-174 MHz. 5 Watt/1 Watt output.  FM entertainment receive only radio covering 65.0 to 108.0 MHz.
Can be used cross band for AMSAT operation.

Because of the Oct 2017 local Fire I got a couple more of these and some accesories:

Fig 0
BaoFeng
                      UV-5R and add-ons
The stock antenna is not shown.

What's missing is the special BaoFeng to BNC antenna adapter.

UV-B6

Dual band UHF/VHF FM radio 400-470 MHz &136-174 MHz.. 5 Watt/1 Watt output.  FM entertainment receive only radio covering 65.0 to 108.0 MHz.
Can be used cross band for AMSAT operation.

Operation

VFO Mode -or-Channel Mode

Press VFO/MR button for a couple of seconds to switch between modes.

Delete Channel

Select it by using up down buttons then hold down the FM button for 5 seconds to delete

FM Deviation

Note ham FM in the VHF and UHF bands uses what Baofeng calls wide FM or just FM and has 5 kHz deviation.  What they call narrow FM or NFM is what is used on commercial VHF/UHF radios with 2.5 kHz deviation.
Military radios use10 kHz deviation on their VHF low band radios with a channel spacing of 25 or 50 kHz.  If the deviation is smaller than the receiver expects the signal level will be lower.  So it's a good idea to use the widest deviation that the receiver will accommodate.  If the deviation it too wide then clipping may cause distortion.

DC Power

Fig 1 & Fig 2: The factory BL-5 battery is Li-Ion 7.4V, 1800 mAh.  The charging stand can be powered from the included Wall-Wart or an optional 12V Cigarette Lighter Cord.

Fig 3 & Fig 4: This generic 6 AA adapter.  With Alkaline AA cells the terminal voltage would be about (6 * 1.5 = 9V) and with Energizer L91 Lithium AA cells, with 20 Year Shelf Life, it would be about (6 * 1.7 = 10.2 V).  This makes an excellent backup battery.

Fig 1 CH-5 Radio Charging Stand
& Optional 12V car cable
BaoFeng
                      CH-5 Radio Charging Stand
Fig 2 BaoFeng 1800 mAh UV-5R & BL-5 Li-Ion Battery
BaoFeng
                      UV-5R & BL-5 Li-Ion Battery
Fig 3 AA Battery Adapter
BaoFeng
                      AA Battery Adapter
Fig 4 Six AA Battery Adapter
BaoFeng
                      AA Battery Adapter
Fig 5 Li-Ion 3800 mAh battery (on order)
BaoFeng
                      Li-Ion 3800 mAh battery UV-5R
Fig 6 3800mAh Battery 2.5mm USB Charger Cable For BaoFeng UV-5R UV-82 UV-S9 PLUS Radio 2.5mm plug - 9.2VDC no load.
As shown with cable plugged into battery but not plugged into USB-A the LED is on steady green.
3800mAh
                      Battery 2.5mm USB Charger Cable For BaoFeng UV-5R

Antennas

Stock

The stock whip allows the radio to transmit on all the bands the radio supports and also receive on all it's frequencies.  But the most important factor in getting good distance is not power so much as antenna height above the local ground because VHF and UHF are line-of-sight propagation.  So when at home some type of external antenna is very desirable.

NAGOYA NA-771

This is a more efficient antenna than the stock rubber duck and so should give more range.  See Fig 0 above.

D-130

I got this discone as a wide band receiving antenna to feed the Agilent E4404B 9 kHz - 6.7 GHz spectrum analyzer covering 25 MHz to 1.3 Ghz.  But it turns out it's rated for transmit on many ham bands (50, 144, 430, 904, 1200 MHz) (6, 2, 0.7, 0.33 0.23 meters).  The antenna is an open circuit for DC, so should be disconnected from all devices when not in use because of possible static or electrocution of the connected device.

Missing are the FRS (Wiki, 462 MHz), MURS (Wiki, 151 MHz) and GRMS (Wiki, 467 MHz) frequencies

J-Pole (Arrow antenna OSJ 146/440)

This is a DC short type antenna so offers a lot of protection to the radio in bad (lightening) weather.  But it only operates on 146 & 440 MHz.  Both of those bands are covered by the D-130.

Mount

 Folded Metal Baofeng UV5R Mount.

Shown on UV-5R with 3800 mAh battery
below UV-5R with stock battery.
Works on both.
FoldedMetal
                      Baofeng UV5R Mount.

Programming

CHIRP free software allows copying the existing settings from a radio to a .img file or loading a radio with a .img file.  This includes most of the possible settings of the radio.
Miklor has a lot of related information.

GMRS/MURS/FRS

The UV-5R radio can be programmed to work in these services, but may not be compliant in all respects.
GMRS (Wiki), MURS (Wiki), FRS (Wiki)  in addition the radio can listen only to the standard FM broadcast band, which may be useful in my area in a emergency since in the October fire they had current information.

GM-15 Pro (BaoFeng)

This is a radio where the Tx range is limited to GMRS frequencies (Wiki), both simplex and repeater.  The radio is FCC type accepted and requires an FCC license.

Simplex Repeater

Found this with eBay title:  Simplex Repeater Controller RT-SRC1 for under $50 including shipping from Hong Kong. On order 9/24/2019 -
seller's web page: http://www.radioshop888.com/radioshop_product.php?id=104072
Also see: Radio Shack Simplex Repeater Controller (19-345) Conversion for use with Military radios with U-229 Connectors -

Tracking

By using a simple transmitter on 433 MHz (Tindie: UHF Radio Beacon for Lost RC Models), Micro 433 RF UHF Tracker,  RC Beacon: Tracking Guide - the beacon transmitter has some programmable functions such start delay time, Tx frequency, delay between transmissions, RF power level, Tones, &Etc.  Uses CR2032 coin cell battery.  Up to 15 km (9 mile) range.

This is different from the Key, Object & Pet Location Tags that depend on Bluetooth and a smart phone.  This is a classical Radio Direction Finding system.

Photos

UV-5RA

UV-5RA Fig 1
BaoFeng
                      UV-5RA UHF/VHF 2-way radio








UV-B6

UV-B6 Fig 1 Overall Front w/stock antenna
BaoFeng
                      UV-B6
UV-B6 Fig 2 Front display & keys
BaoFeng
                      UV-B6
UV-B6 Fig 3 Reverse SMA to BNC ant adapter
BaoFeng
                      UV-B6
UV-B6 Fig 4 Speaker-mike
BaoFeng
                      UV-B6
UV-B6 Fig 5 Secret Service type ear-mike
BaoFeng
                      UV-B6




Related

H4855U "Paint Ball" Replica Radio (Bowman
PRC-152 paint ball replica
VX-7R Yaseu - more expensive than the BaoFeng radios and much more capable

References

YouTube: Ham Radio Crash Course:
Baofeng UV5R Family Radio Programming and Settings Part 1,
BaoFeng Ham Radio From Noob to Skilled in 60 minutes, 1:14:14 - A table of contents is in the extended Description.
 13 Mar 2022: Defense Express [English]: "Not having analogues" the army of the Russian Federation uses the Chinese Baofeng radio stations, the seized documents "speak" about it -
YouTube: CHIRP *NEXT* New Program for Baofeng Ham Radio (GMRS, FRS, MURS), 21:38 - Chirp -

Links

PRC68, Alphanumeric Index of Web pages, Contact, Products for Sale
Page created 15 Oct. 2015