BaoFeng UV-5R

[1 ADAM 12]

I recently purchased this radio for a friend (that did not want to spend much money) and have learned that programming it is a beast. The manual does not go into detail on how to do any programming. I have the desired frequencies, tones, offsets, and shifts but can't figure out how to save a frequency as a memory channel. I also can't save an "alpha" tag to a frequency. I have read some reviews that say you must have the software to accomplish the programming successfully. I have read some reviews that say the programming software only works part of the time and is not user friendly... Does anyone have this radio or has programmed a BaoFeng that would give me some tips?

[milkman21218]

I used the factory software to program mine. But it does not like Win7. Works on XP. Try Chirp Software I'm told that it's much better by many friends that use it. It is FREE. But I have not used it.

CHIRP SOFTWARE
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[Kaos]

I used the factory software to program mine. But it does not like Win7. Works on XP. Try Chirp Software I'm told that it's much better by many friends that use it. It is FREE. But I have not used it.

CHIRP SOFTWARE
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I really prefer the CHIRP software. I have a Baofeng UV-82L and really like it....well once I got it programmed. Also, make sure your usb driver is correct. I had trouble w/ mine and had to download one. I wish I could remember where I got the driver but it's been so long ago that I can't. It was online and if need be I can try and find it for ya.

[milkman21218]

I used the factory software to program mine. But it does not like Win7. Works on XP. Try Chirp Software I'm told that it's much better by many friends that use it. It is FREE. But I have not used it.

CHIRP SOFTWARE
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I really prefer the CHIRP software. I have a Baofeng UV-82L and really like it....well once I got it programmed. Also, make sure your usb driver is correct. I had trouble w/ mine and had to download one. I wish I could remember where I got the driver but it's been so long ago that I can't. It was online and if need be I can try and find it for ya.

Thanks Kaos, I also have the Baofeng UV-82L. But I have not programmed it yet. I will try Chirp on it one day.

[Slyguy]

My daughter just got a UV-5R for Christmas and I used the chirp software to program it. Worked flawlessly with windows 7.

[Radar-DLDN]

There are youtube videos showing how to program it from the keypad, but all they did for me is convince me to buy the programming cable and download CHIRP. With that I got it set up quickly. Guess good manuals raise prices. It's a pretty decent handheld, programming aside.

[dirtyjob]

i own both the 5r and the uvb5 "which i like better" and use both the baofeng software and chirp to get the best of both programs. I also bought a diamond antenna and it really helps with tx/rx on either radio, consider buying one over the stock antenna.

[Punkin Head]

Yep I have this radio and programmed it with the chirp software. Not a problem with it at all on my end.

[MDYoungblood]

I've been looking at them , just haven't got the "Winner" notification yet , lol.

3's

Greg

[North Texas Mudduck]

its a nice radio for the price and what it is ,, if you in a big town you will have all kinds of crossbanding
radio be going off all kinds of crazy

[Deleted User 14541]

The best thing to do is go to the menu and do a factory reset (menu 40). If yours has the newer firmware the default language will be Chinese. Go to menu 14 and change it back to English. It is much easier to program if you start with a clean slate.

Then find the freq you want to rx on. Set the tones how you need them. Go back in the menu and go to save channel (I think its 26 or 27). Now that you've saved the freq to ch 1 this is only the rx freq. Enter your TX freq and save it to the same ch. The first time you save it will be as rx and the second time you save it will be TX. I'm not sure is the tones are saved but I'm still figuring it out. I have the programming cable but haven't uses it yet. Google and YouTube is your friend. I just took mine out of the box a couple of days ago.

[Deleted User 14541]

I messed with the software programming last night. It's the way to go with these. You can do it manually in a pinch but PC programming is very simple.

[fatcat3]

I have the 5r+. watched youtube till I got it rite. it is a bear to program manually but at least I can now do it without a computer if I need to.

[Space Ghost]

Got the 5R when they were $22 and change on Amazon. Ordered the programming cable and a Nagoya 771 antenna. I found in my case that the factory software was useless so I downloaded Chirp like others here have said. Worked perfectly and I have every repeater for a 200 mile radius programmed in. The stock battery life is tremendous and the receive is hot albeit, wide open. I have yet to try it on a base antenna and see what it will do but I may just go mobile with it if I find a really good mobile antenna.

It's a good little handheld for the price. You could even buy 6 of them for what you'd pay for a Kenyaecom.