Hand held UHF

[Agronaught]

Typo.. 70cm not 80cm bands.

[Agronaught]

Just ordered one to see what they are like.

[MEGOMONSTER]

Just ordered one to see what they are like.

Ordered which one


Never argue with an idiot, cos he'll bring you down to his level, then beat you with experience. Y2K

[Agronaught]

BaoFeng UV-5R Plus, $60 delivered.

I have the wouxon and its a good radio for the money. Nowhere near as resiliant as my yaesu handhelds, but a fraction of the cost of those.

The uv-5t is useable on two amateur bands and technically covers the uhf cb frequencies. If its like the wouxong the standard antenna will be little more than a dummy load.

[MEGOMONSTER]

When you get it and use it, tell us about it and what you think.


Never argue with an idiot, cos he'll bring you down to his level, then beat you with experience. Y2K

[Ronin]

for the BaoFeng UV-5R, below is the steps on getting it programmed for aus UHF CB, this is provided u ordered the programming cable with it.


1.Download and Install the USB driver from http://pic.radioshop888.com/abc/soft..._Installer.exe (this is for windows7 64bit)

2. Install the software that came with the radio or use Chirp

3. plug in the USB programming cable into the radio and plug the usb into the computer, note down the com port that shows up.

4. Launch the BF5R software, it launches in chinese language, In the menu bar on top, click on 2nd option from left, select English.

5. Click on Communciation, select the Com port no. that you noted in the steps above.

6. go to the yahoo UV-5r group's file section, download the file "AUS_80CH_UHF_CB.dat" , I also have it incase u cant get to the group membership.

7. Click on File , Open and navigate to the location where the AUS_80CH_UHF_CB.dat file is located.

8. Click Program on Menu and click on Write to Radio.

9. Wait for the write to finish

10. Done.

[Agronaught]

Received the radio today

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355224710.099378.jpg

Feels nice in the hand, good weight and fairly solid. Tested it on some local amateur repeaters and the audio quality is good, Not as crisp as my yaesu but thats comparing a $500 handheld to a $50 jobby.

Will post more when i put it through its paces, so far im very impressed for the price.

[Agronaught]

Ok - the good news...

For a cheap hand held the radio performs will in both simplex and duplex operation, and includes most of the features you would want. There is a single memory bank of 128 channels which may or may not be suitable, personally I ran out and would have to reprogram depending on where I'm going but even that's easy enough with a decent programming cable and the right drivers. Audio quality is reasonable.

In testing the frequency was off, albeit minor but something to be aware of. This could just be the radio I have, hard to tell.

*NOTE* All testing performed into a dummy load.


Band:

2m Amateur - 145.525MHz (radio) -- Actual 145.530 (5KHz frequency drift) -- 6.7 Watts output.
70cm Amateur - 433.775MHz (radio) -- Actual 433.777 (2KHz frequency drift) -- 3.8 Watts output.
80cm (UHF) -- 476.650 (radio) -- Actual 476.653 (3KHz frequency drift) -- 3.9 Watts output.

So the radio has a minor but consistent frequency drift that will need to be compensated for in normal use. I have no means of identifying if this is just this handset of across all of the radio's, and as my measuring equipment has recently been calibrated it's unlikely to be a measurement error. Compare this to one of my Yaesu handhelds and frequency drift is only really notable near the operating temperatures of the device.

The stock antenna is a wast of time (IMHO) and should be replaced ASAP to increase the range and coverage of the radio.

So.. you get what you pay for, a lot of radio for $50 but not a sterling performer for that money either.

The bad news... They are highly illegal in Australia, even for licensed amateurs. As such owning and using one on any bands could land you in hot water, at best a confiscation and a warning, at worst a hefty fine and/or jail time. I have also heard customs are known to confiscate the radio's in transit it they find them as they can not be locked down to meet australian standards.

The following is an excerpt from the ACMA (australian communications and media authority).

One of these Chinese radios you are referring to would appear to be the following,

http://www.radioshop888.com/radiosho...FVBapgod6RoAkQ

The short answer is that unless these transceivers are somehow permanently modified so that it is impossible for the end user to operate these devices outside the amateur bands then they cannot be legally used in Australia.

This is because this transceiver, as manufactured, is easily programmable by the end user to operate on any frequency within the following VHF and/or UHF bands,

1. 136-174MHz,
2. 420-520MHz

Because of this, these transceivers would definitely not meet the requirements of the applicable Australian mandated radiocommunications standards for operation outside the amateur bands - there are no Australian mandated radiocommunications standards applicable to devices operating exclusively in the Australian amateur bands.

Omitted... I can include the relevant standards if people are interested.

Note I'm not here to argue the validity of the above - contact the ACMA if you want further clarification.

In summary... for UHF CB go and buy a cheap uniden, GME (aussie company) or similar and save yourself some grief. I'll be shelving the unit I have, and may use it for a one-way balloon mission or similar one day.

[MEGOMONSTER]

I guess that was an unfortunate waste of money.

[Agronaught]

Sorry. I only received the acma information a short while ago.

Cheers