The complete article is at:
https://www.shtfblog.com/a-better-baofeng-uv-5r-instruction-manual/
Prepper Press / SHTF Blog
Baofeng UV-5R Instruction Manual
So, you finally did it. After buying the
AARL Ham Radio License Manual
and conducting
, you got your license, and then promptly went out to buy the very popular
Baofeng UV-5R radio. Such has been a path traveled by thousands of other hams throughout the
years, and you’ve likely discovered the same thing that the rest of us have. Though the UV-5R is
an incredibly affordable radio – coming in at around $25 or so, giving you an introduction into
ham without too much expense – it is one of the most difficult radios to learn if you're operating
from the standard instruction manual they include.
It’s often said that the UV-5R has the worst manual out of any radio within the ham
industry, and I’m convinced this is true.
Figuring out how your new radio works can be
incredibly frustrating and can feel as if you’ve just wasted your time and money. The included
manual has been the direct cause of countless hams setting aside both their radio and their desire
to learn how to use amateur radio.
Thankfully, learning the UV-5R is possible. Let’s take a look at what it takes to get your UV-5R
up and running.
Consider this the basic manual that should have come in the box.
A Note on CHIRP Software
If you’ve done any bit of research into getting your UV-5R up and running at all, you’ve
undoubtedly heard reference to the
. It is widely used as an “easy” programming
tool to program local repeaters into your UV-5R. I’m not going to even touch on it in this
manual.
In my opinion, CHIRP is one of the most user-unfriendly softwares that has ever been
created.
It’s absolutely terrible. I stared at CHIRP for hours and watched who-knows-how-many
YouTube videos to try to figure out what in the heck was going on. I’m serious, it’s absolutely
ridiculous.
If you decide to go the route of CHIRP, just know that you’re going to need to purchase a
specialized cable to attach from your UV-5R to your laptop. Older models of the UV-5R used to
allow “cloning” of different radios – meaning that if your buddy had a UV-5R already
programmed with all the local repeaters, you could just connect yours to his with
another
special
cable, and all of the data would be transferred to your UV-5R. For whatever reason, newer
models do not allow this.
