TH-UV88

The TYT TH-UV88 is a reliable, solid handheld amateur radio at a budget friendly price. It's a great alternative to the original Baofeng UV-5R, mostly for its durability. Like it's lower end counterpart, the TH-UV88 can also be programmed with CHIRP. Now there is one more reason to choose the UV88 over a UV-5R. The TYT TH-UV88 now supports USB-C charging!

Not long ago, TYT introduced a new 2200mAh lithium-ion battery pack with a built-in USB-C charging port for the TH-UV88. We are excited to announce that the TH-UV88 we sell now includes this upgraded battery in the standard package!

The TH-UV88 originally included a standard, 1400mAh battery pack by default. But we changed all that. Now, when you buy a new TH-UV88 from Buy Two Way Radios, you get the 2200mAh TYT-BATT-UV88-USB-C battery upgrade as part of the deal, and at no extra cost!

A bigger battery, USB-C charging option, and a budget-friendly price to boot. In a TYT-Baofeng matchup, the TH-UV88 wins this one hands down.

A few weeks ago we were excited about the release of the TYT TH-UV88 radio. This "Baofeng killer" has taken the ham radio community by storm. With new radios, bugs are ALWAYS expected and the TH-UV88 is no different.

A few days ago a customer pointed out that they were having trouble with scan not receiving. We tested this with several radios and were able to confirm that there was indeed a problem. We made TYT aware of this and they immediately jumped in to action and had a solution within 24 hours!

The turnaround time was impressive, but maybe even more impressive is that a radio in this price range has upgradeable firmware!  

A programming cable and a PC running Windows is needed for installation. The only change in this update is the scan fix, so if scan is not something you need or use, you do not need to install the update.

Installing the Firmware

1. Download the firmware update and extract the contents of the .zip file into a folder.
2. Connect the radio to your PC using the programming cable.
3. With the radio OFF, hold down the PTT button AND the top programmable side key (P1) while turning on the radio. Depending on your radio version the indicator light will be steady green or red to indicate the firmware is ready to update.
4. Double-click the file named UV88_98_UpData.exe to launch the TYT firmware update tool.
5. In the update tool, choose UV88 for the Model and 57600 for the Baud Rate. Also select the Port that corresponds to your programming cable.
6. Click Open and select the file UV88_Eng_BQ1_25_20200430.hex, which was included in the .zip file.
7. Be sure that you have plenty of battery life before starting the update, and do not power off the radio during the update!
8. Click the Updata button to perform the firmware update. 
9. If an error occurs during the update, do not turn off the radio. Instead, close and restart the software, then click the Reset! button in the software. After the reset, try the update again.

TYT has updated the TH-UV88 radios being shipped to the United States and VFO mode is now disabled out of the box. Normally, pressing the # key on the keypad switches between channel and VFO mode. On the new radios, this doesn't happen. Most likely this is TYTs way to ensure that radios being shipped into the country aren't able to be programmed to transmit outside of the amateur bands, the only frequencies for which they are authorized.

It is understandable that TYT would want to restrict the radios to amateur frequencies, however it's not clear why they chose to accomplish this by disabling VFO mode. Fortunately there is an easy way to unlock the radios and re-enable VFO mode.

1. Turn the TH-UV88 radio OFF.
2. Hold down both the 1 and 7 keys.
3. While holding down those keys, power the radio ON.
4. After you hear the voice prompt "seven", release both keys.
5. VFO mode is now enabled.

This procedure does not directly switch the radio into VFO mode. It unlocks and restores the ability to switch between channel and VFO modes by pressing the # key.

We talk about a new Bluetooth enabled, smartphone controlled and programmable mobile amateur radio from VGC. We also tell you about a TYT radio that rivals the Baofeng UV-5R in features, performance, and price and take some of your comments and questions from our blog and our forum.

Intro :00
Billboard 1:11

The new VGC VR-N7500 Mobile Amateur Radio 1:31
We tell you about the new VGC VR-N7500 50W Dual Band Mobile Radio With APP Programming. We tell you about some of its cool smartphone controlled and programmable features, what we liked and didn't like about it, and whether or not this could be the next generation ham radio. Want to see it up close and in action? watch our new VR-N7500 YouTube video!

The TYT TH-UV88 Dual Band Radio 34:03
We tell you about the TYT TH-UV88 Dual Band Analog Radio and speculate whether or not it could become a serious competitor of the ever popular Baofeng UV-5R.

Questions and Answers 48:13
Comments and questions from readers of our Two Way Radio Blog and members of the Two Way Radio Forum. Check out and join the new and improved forum! It's free!

Wrap up and Close 53:38
Send in your comments and questions for Danny, Anthony and Rick to show[at]buytwowayradios.com. Feedback on this and other topics will be read by the hosts and included in future episodes of the show. If we read your comment about this episode on a future episode, we may send you a free Two Way Radio Show t-shirt! Visit us at www.twowayradioshow.com!

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