The Baofeng UV-5R is very popular among ham radio enthusiasts, and for good reason! It is a dual band radio (2m/70cm) with tons of options at an almost unbelievable low price. This has made the UV-5R a perfect choice for amateur radio newcomers as well as a must-have for long time hobbyists.
The biggest complaint with the Baofeng UV-5R? The lack of documentation. Baofeng is a Chinese manufacturer and these products are imported (this helps explain the low price). It is pretty common for imported radios to have poor documentation, and the UV-5R is no exception. A printed users manual is included with the radio, but it doesn't even scratch the surface in explaining the many functions of the UV-5R.
Looking for a better option, I stumbled upon The (Chinese) Radio Documentation Project. This project aims to create quality documentation for popular but notoriously poorly documented Chinese amateur radios. The project, created by Lennart Lidberg, produces open source documentation that is released under an extremely generous license.
Fortunately for us, the radio that they have started with is the Baofeng UV-5R. They have released version 1.0 of their manual and it is detailed, illustrated, and extremely well written. Anyone who was hesitant to purchase this radio in the past because of poor documentation can now scratch that concern from their list.
Writing manuals like this one is a very time consuming process and it is extremely generous that they are releasing the documentation to the community for free. If this manual was helpful to you, I would encourage you to visit the project web site and make a donation. Donations show that the work was appreciated, and will encourage them to keep the documentation up to date and add other products in the future.
Another point of info: in the last 4 years, Beofeng has changed the antennas they supply with their radios, and they now supply one of the most efficient manufacturer supplied antennas on the market as per both real-world tests as well as MFJ antenna analyzer results... Far too many people complain about these radios without hands on experience. The only issue I have found and as an engineer solved with a simple power jack and a silicon diode is the lack of exactly that, a power jack. I also put a linear voltage regulator in a cigarette lighter plug to keep the voltage down to 8 volts going into that jack. But this is what a ham does.. the total cost of this including the radio was under 29 bucks. 5 bucks nore for a beofeng mag mount antenna. How cheap can you go fora 5 watt dual band to keep in the glove box? And yes YOU CAN program them by hand. its easier than programming in BASIC....
When I say to show the channel on the bottom of the screen, it stays locked on channel 0. It does not change the channel number when i manually change the number? Any ideas?
Thanks
Thanks for this site! I got my Extra Class license in the early 1970s, but it was a "Technician" kid I work with (KC1ICC), who turned me on to the Baofeng. Your extensive documentation manual is extremely useful, and I've now got the gizmo up-and-running on a couple of repeaters, one of which is located on a mountain top about 60 miles away, in Western Mass. The fact that I'm able to hit that distant repeater with a useable signal, employing only the "long whip" antenna and the Baofeng's 5-watt output, absolutely astounds me. However, with appropriate humility, I've also got to say that I've funded the "kid" who recommended it to do all of the Baofeng programming for me. So I get to just kick back and have fun with it. Hey, for $30 bucks, this little radio is a "steal" -- but an Electrical Engineering background is apparently a huge asset in trying to get the dang thing to work. Such is life in the contemporary cyber-world.
As for your question about static, what band and frequencies did you assign to those channels? The UV-5R is an analog radio. Is it possible those are encrypted, scrambled or digital transmissions you receiving? If so, "static" is all you will hear.
I donated $10.00 to help you along in your work.
Andy.
thanks,
Jdark40
Based on your comment, it is possible your radio may not be programmed to receive any frequencies. The Baofeng UV-5R usually needs to be programmed to specific frequencies out of the box. The radio can be programmed from the keypad through the menu on the radio itself or through a PC with a programming cable and software such as CHIRP.