Pofung UV-5R
The Baofeng UV-5R is an inexpensive, handheld, dual-band FM transceiver designed and manufactured by Fujian Nan'an Baofeng Electronics Co., Ltd. of Fujian, China and distributed in the United States by Foscam Digital Technologies, LLC of Houston, Texas. It is designed to transmit on the 2 meter band between 138 and 174 MHz and on the 70cm band between 400 and 480 MHz. It can receive transmissions in the public service and aircraft bands as well as the expanded FM broadcast band between 65 and 108 MHz.
Features include CTCSS and duplex operation for use with local repeaters, dual watch and dual reception, an LED flashlight and voice prompts in either English or Chinese. There is an alarm function which both sounds a siren tone and which transmits the same sound via whichever channel is selected at the time. This is presumably used for search and rescue operations.
While it is possible to program the UV-5RA version to transmit on the General Mobile Radio Service and Family Radio Service bands, the radio is not FCC type accepted for use on these channels. Doing so may be illegal and should be done only in a dire emergency with no other radio communications options possible.
The UV-5R is perhaps best known for its low purchase price, averaging US$40 for a complete system including a rubber duck antenna with a female SMA connection, mic/headset, belt clip, wrist strap, 7.4V 1800mAh lithium ion battery and desktop battery charger with AC adapter. Options include a dual plug speaker mic similar to those used on Kenwood transceivers, a USB programming cable and a 12V adapter which takes the place of the battery; the UV-5R has no external 12V jack.
Output power is up to 4W on both VHF and UHF; the newer UV-5R V2+ operates at up to 5W. Up to 127 channels may be stored to memory, but the firmware is permanently programmed at the factory and cannot be upgraded. Users can easily check the firmware version by pressing and holding the "3" button while turning on the power.
Setup and operation
The UV-5R has a reputation for being difficult to program, due mostly to the poorly written documentation and difficult-to-use software. A rewritten manual under the Creative Commons license is available through the CHIRP project, an online organization which rewrites manuals and open source software for a number of inexpensive Chinese radios. The CHIRP software also works with a most popular Japanese transceivers as well. Once programmed, the UV-5R is easily switched between VFO and channel modes as well as output power. There is no separate squelch control, but the menu defaults to the squelch setting upon the pressing of the "MENU" key.
Programming via computer allows alphanumeric identification of individual memory settings and odd split programming used for private and emergency repeaters.