Programming Your Baofeng UV-5R Radio Created By: Jon Sherman Email: [email protected] Website: www.iwillprepare.com 9. Now go to file menu and click on “Save As” save the radio image as “aofeng_UV-5R_New.img” or name of your choosing. You can proceed to make your changes to this file. This may include manual edits or importing.
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Programming the Baofeng UV-B5 from the keypad and radio menusystem is relatively easy and can be accomplished without using PC software[edit]like unlike[/edit] some of the other Chinese radios.
To understand why we are programming the radio with thesettings we need to understand how a repeater operates.
A repeater is a radio system that retransmits signals thatit hears.There are two distinctivelydifferent repeater types, simplex and duplex.
We’re not going to discuss simplex repeaters in this postother than to say they listen and transmit on the same frequency and thereforehave to record the received signal and then retransmit the signal when thereceived signal stops. The simplex system takes twice as long to send a messagethan a duplex system.
The duplex repeater is more complex to setup and requiresspecial equipment which increases the cost.However, it is the more popular system because it retransmits thereceived signal as it’s being received.
In order for a duplex repeater to work it needs to operateusing two frequencies, one to listen to the received signal (repeater inputfrequency) and one to re-transmit the received signal (repeater output frequency).
In the US the difference ( repeater offset) between the repeaters input andoutput frequencies of the most common repeater bands are as follows:
- 6 meter (50MHz): 500kHz(negative offset)
- 2 meter (144MHz): 600kHz (positive or negative offsetdepending on repeater output)
- 70cm (440MHz): 5MHz (positive or negative offset dependingon local conditions)
The repeater offset can either be shifted higher (positiveoffset) or lower (negative offset) from the repeater output frequency.For the 6 meter (50MHz) band the offset isusually negative.For the 2 meter(144MHz) band the offset shift is based on what the output frequency is.For the 70cm (440MHz) band the offset shiftis determined by local conditions.
Because local interference or even a distant signal underthe right conditions can interfere with the repeater causing it to transmitwhen it shouldn’t, most repeaters are set up to not transmit unless they alsoreceive a special signal.The mostcommon special signal used for this purpose is called Continuous Tone-CodedSquelch System (CTCSS).
CTCSS is asub-audible (can’t be heard) tone that is transmitted along with the voicesignal and when the repeater hears the correct tone it will retransmit thevoice.
So now that we know the basics of how a duplex repeaterworks and some of the settings (output frequency, repeater offset, offsetshift, CTCSS tone) that enable us to use a repeater system, let’s move on anddiscuss how to program these settings into the Baofeng UV-B5.