Got Baofeng?

Red Marley

Red Marley

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OK, I’ve ordered a Baofeng UV-5R. Before I download CHIRP, is anyone on here using CHIRP on an iMac running Catalina OS? If so, any problems?

Full disclosure: I’m not a ham, and I know squat; don’t plan to get a general license unless something changes my mind. I don’t need another hobby. I ordered the radio because I want to learn about this avocation, and to have a means of communicating (at least receiving) directly that is separate from phone and internet.
 
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@Red Marley

let me know what you think of that radio... been thinking about one of them for off-road and emergency use.
 
Jeffncs said:
@Red Marley

let me know what you think of that radio... been thinking about one of them for off-road and emergency use.
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I don’t know if I am qualified to have an opinion, but I’ll let you know. Programming looks harder than Chinese algebra
 
Red Marley said:
I don’t know if I am qualified to have an opinion, but I’ll let you know. Programming looks harder than Chinese algebra
Click to expand...

The programming is what gave me pause. There’s a YouTube out there from a guy that makes it look super easy....
 
Jeffncs said:
The programming is what gave me pause. There’s a YouTube out there from a guy that makes it look super easy....
Click to expand...
Me as well, I got Chirp, the radios and the cable. I haven’t put the time in to learn it.

@Button Pusher
 
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I ran the Chirp on my windows PC, used one of the frequency lists from one of the other ham radio forums.
The radio is OK for the money, it won't pickup much inside the steel frame building I work at night.
 
I got my tech license, finally figured out how to program it. Actually talked to trcubed on it. Put it down, and never picked it back up. Why is HAM hard?
 
noway2 said:
It’s obviously not that hard, you got your ticket and talked to Terry. That equals success. Like anything, if you could master it in a day, it wouldn’t be any fun.
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It obviously is hard, programming the damn thing is like splitting the atom.
I want them to work with minimal operator input.
Like a phone.
 
fieldgrade said:
It obviously is hard, programming the damn thing is like splitting the atom.
I want them to work with minimal operator input.
Like a phone.
Click to expand...
You did set the radio to English and not Chinese right? :p

Programming is a little bit of a pain, at least until you understand the duplex offset and “tone” function, which I admit took me a while to get.

The easiest way is to download an excel sheet from repeater book dot com and import that.
 
noway2 said:
You did set the radio to English and not Chinese right? :p

Programming is a little bit of a pain, at least until you understand the duplex offset and “tone” function, which I admit took me a while to get.

The easiest way is to download an excel sheet from repeater book dot com and import that.
Click to expand...
2nd that. If you can right click, left click programming is easy
 
Many amateur clubs have repeater files you can d/l to program your radio with CHIRP.
 
Pro tip :

Manually program anything into memory on the radio first.

Then connect it to the PC and download the data. Modify that data.

That way your data file is exactly the way the radio wants it.
 
fieldgrade said:
It obviously is hard, programming the damn thing is like splitting the atom.
I want them to work with minimal operator input.
Like a phone.
Click to expand...

Programing analog fm with chirp is easy, DMR is where the code plug writing gets fun.

This stuff ain't rocket science, if a dumb redneck like me can do it, anyone can.

As always, I'm happy to lend a hand if anyone needs it but I have no experience with Mac computers.
 
Red Marley said:
I don’t know if I am qualified to have an opinion, but I’ll let you know. Programming looks harder than Chinese algebra
Click to expand...

It's really not. As long as your cable works properly (one type is trash) then it's no harder than filling in an excel spreadsheet. I managed it!
 
Get your radio and play with it. That's the best way to learn.
@Button Pusher,
I got an external antenna and a sma female to so239 jumper to connect the radio to a cable and put the antenna outside 15 feet up and I can work the local repeater as well with my 5watt baofeng as I can with.a 25 watt mobile radio. You could use that to get out of your metal building.

Play around; have fun.
 
Car0linab0y said:
Get your radio and play with it. That's the best way to learn.
@Button Pusher,
I got an external antenna and a sma female to so239 jumper to connect the radio to a cable and put the antenna outside 15 feet up and I can work the local repeater as well with my 5watt baofeng as I can with.a 25 watt mobile radio. You could use that to get out of your metal building.

Play around; have fun.
Click to expand...
Rented building so I can't hang any external antenna, I have my TS-700 to monitor the repeaters at work.
 
Get an aftermarket extendable antenna. It makes all the difference in the world. I got one for a 1 watt Siemens HT and was able to hit Grantsboro and New Bern repeaters from my front porch just south of Greenville NC full quieting. A couple of times (when conditions were right) I hit the Raleigh big whip (forget the frequency) and was able to chime in on their nightly forum. They said it had a little static on it but not much. The antenna is where it's at.


Even my Baofeng walks the dog with a longer antenna. The circuit is cheap, so it won't do what a comparable Yaesu will. But the improvement is remarkable.

The sad part is that there's so little traffic these days that it hardly matters. I work all over Eastern NC. I got permission to put my mag mount dual band antenna on my work vehicle. Using my Yaesu FT8900 (nice radio). I found little-to-no traffic on VHF/UHF (or 10 meters with a longer whip). It's probably better around RDU or Charlotte. But East of I-95 I got squat. So I took the radio out of my work vehicle.

There's the occasional nightly/weekly chat with the same few members sharing which doctor appointments they went to that day and how hard the bread was on their sandwich at lunch. That's about it.

I've been a HAM for about 6 years now. I think I got into it a few decades too late. I was rebuilding a really nice HF radio and never even finished it. It didn't seem worth the hassle to get it done and string up a dipole. If national/international traffic isn't any more interesting than local traffic, it hardly seems like a worthy use of my time.

I understand why preppers might want to have one around in case communications completely break down when "they" shut off the interwebz. By that point, all the rules/laws of HAM will be out the window and the air waves will be the wild wild west.
 
two fingers said:
Get an aftermarket extendable antenna. It makes all the difference in the world. I got one for a 1 watt Siemens HT and was able to hit Grantsboro and New Bern repeaters from my front porch just south of Greenville NC full quieting. A couple of times (when conditions were right) I hit the Raleigh big whip (forget the frequency) and was able to chime in on their nightly forum. They said it had a little static on it but not much. The antenna is where it's at.


Even my Baofeng walks the dog with a longer antenna. The circuit is cheap, so it won't do what a comparable Yaesu will. But the improvement is remarkable.

The sad part is that there's so little traffic these days that it hardly matters. I work all over Eastern NC. I got permission to put my mag mount dual band antenna on my work vehicle. Using my Yaesu FT8900 (nice radio). I found little-to-no traffic on VHF/UHF (or 10 meters with a longer whip). It's probably better around RDU or Charlotte. But East of I-95 I got squat. So I took the radio out of my work vehicle.

There's the occasional nightly/weekly chat with the same few members sharing which doctor appointments they went to that day and how hard the bread was on their sandwich at lunch. That's about it.

I've been a HAM for about 6 years now. I think I got into it a few decades too late. I was rebuilding a really nice HF radio and never even finished it. It didn't seem worth the hassle to get it done and string up a dipole. If national/international traffic isn't any more interesting than local traffic, it hardly seems like a worthy use of my time.

I understand why preppers might want to have one around in case communications completely break down when "they" shut off the interwebz. By that point, all the rules/laws of HAM will be out the window and the air waves will be the wild wild west.
Click to expand...
The antenna is where the best bang for buck is...

Eastern nc here; I have found that things are quiet but every time I throw out my callsign someone answers.
 
What antenna for the Baofengs?
 
 
Not HAM related, but this thread reminds me I need to do some research on programming Baofeng's. I've got two BaoFeng's, both BF-F8HP (UV-5R 3rd Gen) intending to use them to expand my wife's racecar radio network which is a Motorola setup (and she has associated FCC licenses for three programmed channels).

I can hear the Motorola discussion over the BaoFengs, but none of Motorola handhelds can hear me if I talk. You can talk between the two BaoFengs though.

Not sure if this is possible to be done via CHIRP.
 
To hell with this damn Baofeng and amateur radio nonsense. Can't seem to do anything with it but get WX and commercial FM. Screw that. I got CHIRP but I can't get either my Mac or PC to recognize the USB cable, even bought another cable specifically for it. Found and installed drivers, no dice; can't use it. If they can't make this shite a little more user-friendly in this day and age, I'm not going to waste any more time screwing around with it. I may use the radio for FRS/GMRS, but any programming I do is going to be manual, on the radio, and it will be minimal. Over and out!
 
Red Marley said:
To hell with this damn Baofeng and amateur radio nonsense. Can't seem to do anything with it but get WX and commercial FM. Screw that. I got CHIRP but I can't get either my Mac or PC to recognize the USB cable, even bought another cable specifically for it. Found and installed drivers, no dice; can't use it. If they can't make this shite a little more user-friendly in this day and age, I'm not going to waste any more time screwing around with it. I may use the radio for FRS/GMRS, but any programming I do is going to be manual, on the radio, and it will be minimal. Over and out!
Click to expand...

Have you tried plugging it in, Powered up and then restart your computer?

I've done this with other things and had them finally recognize
 
No, I didn't restart with it powered up and connected. I'll try that - but my patience for this kind of nonsense is LOW.
 
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