Baofeng UV-5R

[Briggs 2.0]

Yep, that's the plan. I really want to get in on the radio thing. It's a good little thing to have and learn about, plus it's fun to use when visiting places around the country when camping or whatever.

Does it have the weather band on it? I believe there is a weather station that updates weather 24/7.

If you're near the coast you will get the coastguard weather/storm warnings on UHF.

http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Wea ... -Schedules

[Wingfoot]

Yep, that's the plan. I really want to get in on the radio thing. It's a good little thing to have and learn about, plus it's fun to use when visiting places around the country when camping or whatever.

Does it have the weather band on it? I believe there is a weather station that updates weather 24/7.

The UV-5R has a very large frequency span, & depending on your location you can hear everything from private business users & shop/local security, to marine bands, licensed amateur frequencies & licence free PMR channels, as well as access to the regular FM public broadcast frequencies from 65-108Mhz on receive only that includes weather information.

The UV-5R is capable of transmitting on nearly all of these frequencies of interest (but not 65-108Mhz) & so you have to be aware of that & act responsibly with it, so do your bit by respecting the band plans that are out there, & get the relevant licence, but if ever the SHTF that versatility may prove invaluable, licensed or not, I would rather have one & importantly know how to use it than not.

The best thing is that they are so cheap there is no real reason why anyone should not include one in their preps, play with it, find out how to work it, & stay in contact with your family should the phone grid go south & you never know you may just find some new friends through it, I certainly have so far.

Good luck.

Wf

[Wingfoot]

How tough is your baofeng ?

https://youtu.be/kZCDBsBuhmg

[dangerman]

Fanks lads, I'm convinced.

I'll be purchasing one imminently. I keep seeing videos showing how to set them up and it looks complicated, but it's worth a crack I reckon.

One more quick question - if I got two, can they communicate to each other easily? What is the predicted range in an urban vs country environment? My brother lives about three miles away as the crow flies across the city, I'm thinking that it would be a useful way to stay in contact.

[The-Mendologist]

Fanks lads, I'm convinced.

I'll be purchasing one imminently. I keep seeing videos showing how to set them up and it looks complicated, but it's worth a crack I reckon.

One more quick question - if I got two, can they communicate to each other easily? What is the predicted range in an urban vs country environment? My brother lives about three miles away as the crow flies across the city, I'm thinking that it would be a useful way to stay in contact.

As long as they are both on the same frequency they will work ok.
Urban environments will hamper the TX and RX a bit but will be much better out in the free air of the countryside, however just for laughs, i can get to the HW 70cms repeater in Romford with my UV5R from indoors on the surecom aftermarket antenna, the repeater is some 14 miles away as the crow flies. So not bad really for the 4 watts output.
So i think you will be able to get your brother ok.

As for the weather bands, i have an old radio scanner and that has the weather band frequncies on it and i have never heard anything on those freqencies in all the years i had it, maybe they only work in the US as it is an american made scanner i got from Tandy years ago.

[Wingfoot]

If I may I would like to share a few of my thoughts as a newly qualified M6 with this radio & how I got to where I am with it currently.

I think for many folks who are just starting out with ham radio one of the first challenges is understanding just where to listen & how to make sense of it all.

The UV-5R has a notoriously useless instruction manual, so I found the many YouTube videos on how to program & use it invaluable, get a programming cable & download the "chirp" software, this makes programming one or more radios with the same frequencies far easier.

The UV-5R is a dual band radio, so you have the choice of the 2 metre or 70cm frequencies, both of these bands have repeaters that are available which increase your range considerably.

For example, Dangerman said he is located in Liverpool, there are quite a few 70cm repeaters in & around the city, I used the RSGB UK-REPEATERS website to locate them & others close to my own location to get the frequencies & ctcss tones needed to access them, again YouTube videos on how to program repeaters into the UV-5R are all out there.

http://www.ukrepeater.net/70cm.htm

I added all the repeaters within a 40 mile radius of my home to the radios channel memory, as well as a number of simplex frequencies for direct comms, store these simplex channels either side of the calling frequencies as it makes for easier operating.

Not all repeaters are created equal some are better than others in terms of power & height above the surrounding terrain, I live in Shropshire, just East of Telford in a semi rural outlook & can access the 70cm repeater that is just a little north west of Wrexham, it's a repeater with a big footprint & means I can get into Birkenhead, Liverpool & north Wales with only 4 watts out of my Baofeng connected to a Diamond X50 on the house, I think that is quite good for the relatively small outlay ive invested in my set up, the footprints for each repeater are available to view, just click in the repeaters registered callsign to see the maps via the link I posted.

I also joined a couple of dedicated radio forums, which along with the comms section here answered many of my early questions.

Search the net for details of your nearest amateur radio society & go along to one of their meetings & introduce yourself, ask if they run the foundation training course, most clubs do, many of the guys who were on the course with me all had UV-5R's so take it along with you, it's a good ice breaker !

Once I got into a club I found the guys & gals to be a veritable mine of information & helped me choose my base antenna set up & also where to go to buy much of what I needed, that saved me a lot of time & I expect quite a few pounds as well.

The only problem I'm having now is not enough hours in the day to get all my household chores done, I lose hours each day now just listening in on everyone's comms


73's

Wf

[TheOldHObbit]

2015-12-19 11.28.14 by Britfan, on Flickr

Got this in the post this morning. Cant wait now to get my x2 UV-5r5's

[Hamradioop]

Weather Band is an American service around 163 Mhz if I remember correctly. The is no UK equivalent as far as I know

[TheOldHObbit]

Well they arrived, just need to learn how to use them now, so many different menus, totally confused.

[Opinel]

The 5R is ok but the GT3 is much better with the receive being sorted and an extra claimed 3w of output taking it upto 8w from 5w .
But with the 2m/70cm mobile radio's now down to the £70 mark , you may find one of these a better investment as a first base station unit as they will blow the socks off a 5R hand held and will certainly keep you interested in the hobby more than the 5R .
But of them all i like the 3R , less power at only 3w but much easier to handle and work due to the std twisty tune knob on the top .
And the addition of a chimney or gable end mounted 2m antenna will give you great coverage , Myself being able to work the Lincoln repeater some 20 miles away using the GT3 through my home brew chimney mounted 2m antenna .And i would reccomend that you buy a new/ used copy of the ARRL Antenna book , usually around £5 used at club meets / rallies etc .You get around 900 pages packed with info and idea's to get you on the right track .
If you go HF , i use a std £20 cb silver rod antenna mounted on a sat dish mount fed through a MFJ 971 antenna matcher - It gives me a 1:1 swr on 10m to 40m and a 1.5:1 on the 80m band ( all at between 3 to 5w power ) on my Yaesu FT101E that allows me to talk all over the world , i just have to keep calm and wait my turn to get through the gigawatt traffic . But read the ARRl book is my best advice .