New Baofeng UV-5R Radio
May/14/2012 07:30 AM
I had been looking at the new Baofeng UV-5R (pronounced either as Mao-Fang or as Bao-Fang - who knows with these Chinese names) UV-5R dual-band VHF/UHF handheld. How can you pass up a 4 watt handheld with charger for under $65 bucks? You cannot, I mean at that price, the darn thing is almost a throw-a-way if it ever breaks.
Believe it or not, I actually ordered and received mine from Amazon.com. About $62 delivered since I have their Prime Service.
Did not take too long to unpack and put it on the air. The first thing was programming the radio. I used the free open-source Chirp software which is much better than the free software Baofeng provides as a download. The radio also used the same programming cable as the Wouxun Chinese radios which I already had.
Once programmed it is somewhat intuitive. The instruction manual is pretty sparse as far as how to program and use the various features.
BTW, the radio is capable of transmitting outside the ham bands and is FCC Part 90 accepted. So you can use this radio for things other than amateur radio.
In any case, I have programmed some of the various amateur repeaters in the area and gave it a try. The first thing I noticed is that is has a built-in time-out-time. It is factory set at 15 second. I kept getting cutoff during conversations so I changed that to 45 seconds pretty quickly.
Audio reports are good and on receive it sounds very good. I even programmed some of the local police/fire frequencies into it to listen and it picked them up very well so the receiver seems to be more than adequate.
The display can change colors based on what the radio is doing. It is factory set to glow orange on transmit, blue when actually receiving a signal, and purple is the squelch is open and there is no signal.
On the charger, there is an LED that flashed quickly between red and green when there is no radio or battery being charged. That is really annoying. There should be no light on the charger when it is not charging in my opinion. It also glow red while charging and green when the battery is charged. You can charge the battery while attached to the radio, or even charge a stand-alone battery.
This is a great radio for a great price. Cheaper than the Wouxuns that everyone seems to be snapping up. For the new Technician wanting to get a new radio when they get their license, for less than $65 this is a great starter radio.
Oh, if you need help with the radio, there is a large group on Yahoo Groups that are there to help with any questions. As I said, the manual is not very good, so the group is your extension of the manual.
Believe it or not, I actually ordered and received mine from Amazon.com. About $62 delivered since I have their Prime Service.
Did not take too long to unpack and put it on the air. The first thing was programming the radio. I used the free open-source Chirp software which is much better than the free software Baofeng provides as a download. The radio also used the same programming cable as the Wouxun Chinese radios which I already had.
Once programmed it is somewhat intuitive. The instruction manual is pretty sparse as far as how to program and use the various features.
BTW, the radio is capable of transmitting outside the ham bands and is FCC Part 90 accepted. So you can use this radio for things other than amateur radio.
In any case, I have programmed some of the various amateur repeaters in the area and gave it a try. The first thing I noticed is that is has a built-in time-out-time. It is factory set at 15 second. I kept getting cutoff during conversations so I changed that to 45 seconds pretty quickly.
Audio reports are good and on receive it sounds very good. I even programmed some of the local police/fire frequencies into it to listen and it picked them up very well so the receiver seems to be more than adequate.
The display can change colors based on what the radio is doing. It is factory set to glow orange on transmit, blue when actually receiving a signal, and purple is the squelch is open and there is no signal.
On the charger, there is an LED that flashed quickly between red and green when there is no radio or battery being charged. That is really annoying. There should be no light on the charger when it is not charging in my opinion. It also glow red while charging and green when the battery is charged. You can charge the battery while attached to the radio, or even charge a stand-alone battery.
This is a great radio for a great price. Cheaper than the Wouxuns that everyone seems to be snapping up. For the new Technician wanting to get a new radio when they get their license, for less than $65 this is a great starter radio.
Oh, if you need help with the radio, there is a large group on Yahoo Groups that are there to help with any questions. As I said, the manual is not very good, so the group is your extension of the manual.
Let It Be Known/Ham Radio Deluxe
May/04/2012 10:41 AM
Let it be known to all hams that today, Friday, May 4th, Rod, WI0T, actually spent money and purchased version 6.0 of Ham Radio Deluxe.
As many of you know, money in Rod's pocket usually never sees the light of day. So today is a historic event.
We are hoping Rod continues to free up cash at the Hamvention in a few weeks. It will surely help stimulate the economy and put the U.S. back on the track to prosperity for sure.
BTW, Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) is an excellent full-featured radio control (multi brands and models of radios), digital multi-mode and logbook program. To learn more about this incredible program suite, go to:
http://www.hrdsoftwarellc.com/
In my opinion, HRD is a much better value than other paid radio control programs such as the N4PY application since you only have to purchase one license for ALL radios and the license key is not dependent on the individual computer it is installed on. What other programs like N4PY do not offer with their application which HRD does, is the logbook and the digital mode program.
The HRD folks will be at Dayton so stop by and visit their booth.
As many of you know, money in Rod's pocket usually never sees the light of day. So today is a historic event.
We are hoping Rod continues to free up cash at the Hamvention in a few weeks. It will surely help stimulate the economy and put the U.S. back on the track to prosperity for sure.
BTW, Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) is an excellent full-featured radio control (multi brands and models of radios), digital multi-mode and logbook program. To learn more about this incredible program suite, go to:
http://www.hrdsoftwarellc.com/
In my opinion, HRD is a much better value than other paid radio control programs such as the N4PY application since you only have to purchase one license for ALL radios and the license key is not dependent on the individual computer it is installed on. What other programs like N4PY do not offer with their application which HRD does, is the logbook and the digital mode program.
The HRD folks will be at Dayton so stop by and visit their booth.
Looking forward to Dayton Hamvention 2012!
May/01/2012 12:36 PM
The Dayton Hamvention is just a couple of weeks away. The excitement is building. Seems manufacturers have been holding off on announcing new products instead preferring to make the new stuff public at the Hamvention!
The product pricing is great at Dayton. Anything you could possible want can be bought at the Hamvention.
Plenty of friends to meet, food to eat and alcohol to drink! Three days of fun!
I'll let you know what I saw, bought and saw at Dayton. So visit after the Dayton Hamvention to read my comments and see the pictures.
The product pricing is great at Dayton. Anything you could possible want can be bought at the Hamvention.
Plenty of friends to meet, food to eat and alcohol to drink! Three days of fun!
I'll let you know what I saw, bought and saw at Dayton. So visit after the Dayton Hamvention to read my comments and see the pictures.
More Poor Spelling and English from Hams
April/30/2012 09:31 AM
Wow, so a ham sent me a note about the new repeater he had set-up. Very nice of him to send a note.
When I went to QRZ.com to look up his call, here is what he had written on his profile page. I have deleted the information from his post that would have identified him. I used the letter "X" in the following post to show what I modified and I also substituted (name) for their actual names.
"MY SELF WITH XX8XXX (name) AND YY8XXX (name).CO SPONCER A REPETER IN THE NORTHERN KY. CINCINNATI OHIO AERA IT IS A OPEN TO ALL REPETER. THE FREQ.IS XXX.XXX TONE XXX.Xhz IT HAS AN AUTO PATCH AND BACKUP POWER SYSTEM. CALL ANY OF US FOR THE AUTO PATCH CODES. PLEASE FELL FREE TO USE THE SYSTEM ANY TIME."
Here is a better way to write this with spelling and gammar corrections:
"(name) XX8XXX, (name) YY8XXX and I co-sponsor a repeater in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio area. This repeater is open to all amateurs. The frequency is XXX.XXX with a +5 Mhz offset and a XXX.X Hz tone for access. The repeater has an auto-patch and a back-up power system. If you would like to use the auto-patch, please call us for the access codes. Feel free to use the repeater anytime."
Seriously folks, what is the general public going to think about amateur radio and amateur radio operators in general if they read information on our hobby written in horrible English and spelling? Especially when we are talking about the spelling of very basic words such as "area."
I would also like to mention that the use of all caps is the Internet equivalent of yelling. Come on people, learn to use the shift key.
Is the above example representative of the kind of English, spelling and writing skills that they are teaching in our public schools? If so then the future of our country and amateur radio is frightening to me. No wonder the United States is losing its competitive advantage in the world.
CW should not have been the filter. Maybe a test that included the writing of a simple English composition should have been given along with a test on theory and rules.
When I went to QRZ.com to look up his call, here is what he had written on his profile page. I have deleted the information from his post that would have identified him. I used the letter "X" in the following post to show what I modified and I also substituted (name) for their actual names.
"MY SELF WITH XX8XXX (name) AND YY8XXX (name).CO SPONCER A REPETER IN THE NORTHERN KY. CINCINNATI OHIO AERA IT IS A OPEN TO ALL REPETER. THE FREQ.IS XXX.XXX TONE XXX.Xhz IT HAS AN AUTO PATCH AND BACKUP POWER SYSTEM. CALL ANY OF US FOR THE AUTO PATCH CODES. PLEASE FELL FREE TO USE THE SYSTEM ANY TIME."
Here is a better way to write this with spelling and gammar corrections:
"(name) XX8XXX, (name) YY8XXX and I co-sponsor a repeater in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio area. This repeater is open to all amateurs. The frequency is XXX.XXX with a +5 Mhz offset and a XXX.X Hz tone for access. The repeater has an auto-patch and a back-up power system. If you would like to use the auto-patch, please call us for the access codes. Feel free to use the repeater anytime."
Seriously folks, what is the general public going to think about amateur radio and amateur radio operators in general if they read information on our hobby written in horrible English and spelling? Especially when we are talking about the spelling of very basic words such as "area."
I would also like to mention that the use of all caps is the Internet equivalent of yelling. Come on people, learn to use the shift key.
Is the above example representative of the kind of English, spelling and writing skills that they are teaching in our public schools? If so then the future of our country and amateur radio is frightening to me. No wonder the United States is losing its competitive advantage in the world.
CW should not have been the filter. Maybe a test that included the writing of a simple English composition should have been given along with a test on theory and rules.
WAS Digital Modes Only
March/22/2012 10:10 AM
The ARRL just processed my Worked All States (WAS) Award for two-way communication with all 50 states using digital modes only. That is my third WAS Award.
I have my original award using paper QSLs only, then I did it again this time using only electronic QSLs from Logbook of the World (LoTW), and now WAS using Digital Modes only using all electronic QSLs. Next on the WAS bandwagon will be WAS using just RTTY. Only four states away from that one.
I am also working on DXCC on 10 Meters only. At 89 countries now and have worked enough, just waiting on the QSLs in LoTW to come through. People, please do the uploads to LoTW. It is much easier and cheaper than paper QSLs.
I have my original award using paper QSLs only, then I did it again this time using only electronic QSLs from Logbook of the World (LoTW), and now WAS using Digital Modes only using all electronic QSLs. Next on the WAS bandwagon will be WAS using just RTTY. Only four states away from that one.
I am also working on DXCC on 10 Meters only. At 89 countries now and have worked enough, just waiting on the QSLs in LoTW to come through. People, please do the uploads to LoTW. It is much easier and cheaper than paper QSLs.