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Link to purchase this radio is located at the bottom of the post.
What can I say? I don't think any review guide would be complete without the (almost legendary 😆) UV-5R. When it first came out, it was the butt of many operator's jokes. Yet everybody still bought one just to see if they actually worked. Then everybody bought another one to leave in their glove compartment. And one to leave in the garage. And another just in case. They're cheap, they work, and you won't cry if you drop it in a lake. Safe bet these are probably the highest-selling HT's out there. As a matter of fact, when I pulled this one out of the box and asked for a radio check on my local repeater, the replying ham was using a... UV-5R!
Although my first radio (along with many other hams) was the UV-5R, it's not one I'd actually recommend as a first radio considering other higher-power radios with more functionality in the same price range. That being said -- I can't really not recommend it, either. I lost mine after a few years of use and abuse. Upgraded to the 10-watt 5RM and bought several other (better) models.
Yet here I am today, reviewing a 2-pack of UV-5R's I just bought so I can leave an extra radio in the glove compartment. And another in the garage...
These are small radios. They'll fit in your pocket. Yeah, some hams out there will scream about spurious emissions and hate these radios like they're the spawn of Satan (and, subsequently, complain about the new hams these radios brought into the hobby). I think it's a bit of jealousy, prior to these radios you'd likely have spent hundreds trying to get on the airwaves. As a result, these little guys have remained the entry radio of choice for many new hams (myself included).
Boafeng 5RM and UV-5R
These radios are significantly smaller than virtually any other HT out there. I thought for sure the UV-5R would be discontinued once the 5RM models came out a couple years ago, but they're still selling like hotcakes. Still the most sought after radio on Amazon, Alibaba, and Temu. And for around $15, why wouldn't they be?
There's no NOAA preset stations, but you can scan between 162.400 and 162.550 and still get weather reports 24/7. There's no AM aircraft receive capabilities, but you can listen in on MURS frequencies. No USB-C charging. But surprisingly, you can make contact off the ISS... Barely!
It's basically a no-frills, no-thrills, throw-away radio. Not that you actually would throw it away, but you certainly wouldn't have a heart attack if you lost it or dropped it in a lake.
QUICK SETUP:
When you power on the radio, you'll notice a top and bottom frequency. The active frequency will have an arrow symbol just to the left of the frequency. In this image, the top frequency is active. You can use the top or bottom frequency, it really doesn't matter. To toggle between the two frequencies, just use the blue "A/B" button circled in red. For now, just make the top frequency active.
Now it's time to program in a repeater frequency. The orange "VFO/MR" button will switch the radio from Variable Frequency Operation mode to Memory Recall mode and back again. In Channel Mode, you'll see little channel numbers to the right of both frequencies. In Frequency Mode, you won't. Plus you'll have a very nice YL announce "Channel" and "Frequency" modes. For now, park it in Frequency Mode and type in your repeater frequency using the keypad. I've put in 145.310 MHz (my local repeater frequency).
Pressing the "Menu" button (just above the "1" key) will take you into the menu options. First off is Menu 00 -- SQL (squelch). Go ahead and push Menu again to edit, and use the arrow keys to navigate to a squelch level of 1 (Baofengs tend to work best on this setting). Push menu again to confirm the selection, and then use the arrow keys to navigate to menu item 13, T-CTCS. Alternatively, you can just enter "13" and the menu will take you straight there.
From here, you'll need to push Menu again, and use the arrow keys (above 2 and 3) to navigate to your repeater's P/L Tone. Mine is 88.5 Hz. Push Menu again to confirm your selection, and then navigate to Menu 25, SFT-D (Shift Direction). This is where you'll enter the offset direction (positive or negative) your repeater is set to.
Pretty straightforward, just press the Menu button to edit and select your repeater's offset frequency direction. My repeater has a standard offset of -0.600 MHz, so in this setting I set the SFT-D to "-". As soon as you're done with that, it's time to enter your offset frequency amount (Menu 26, OFFSET).
Hit the menu button again to edit, and enter your repeater's offset. I entered "000600" and hit the menu button again to confirm, which gave me a standard VHF offset of 0.600 MHz. After that, hit the EXIT button and try to make contact on your repeater!
There are 3 rules to 5-watt handheld transceivers -- location, location and location! For some people, they might be able to kerchunk a repeater inside their house (although this is the exception, not the rule). A few might even be able to transmit clearly and QSO, but for the rest of us -- we have to go outside. And if you're like me, with a fairly decent distance separating you from the repeater, you might have to find a certain "spot" in the backyard where your transmission can be heard clearly by another ham.
5-watt radios can be tricky. Getting a 15" whip antenna like a Nagoya definitely helps, but more often than not you're going to have to move around a little to find a position where the repeater can pick you up easily. It's all part of HT operations. Once when I was in the greater Houston area, I was trying to hit a repeater in Sugarland from an empty mall parking lot some 45 miles away. It took a good 20 minutes of trying to kerchunk the repeater to find that one spot in the lot where I could hold the repeater open. But I still managed!
So now that you have a repeater programmed into the HT, it's time to save all that information to a channel so you never have to enter it all in again!
Enter the menu and navigate to menu #28, DEL-CH
Press Menu again to edit, and select "001". Hit Menu again to confirm deletion (note: NEVER delete channel 000!)
Navigate to menu #27, MEM-CH
Press Menu again to edit, select "001", and hit menu again to receive into memory.
Exit the menu and put the radio in Channel Mode. You'll see your repeater frequency right there on Channel 1!
Now a lot of ham operators like to use CHIRP (as do I) because it's the only way to add alphnumerics and name the display fequency (ie: SOUTH REPEATER). There's literally a ton of information out there so I won't cover that here. But if CHIRP doesn't work for you, or you're out in the field without a laptop, programming straight through the faceplate is easy enough.
LINKS:
I am enrolled as an Amazon Associate so I will make a small commission on qualified purchases via these links (at no extra charge to the purchaser). That being said, you are not obligated to purchase from my links to use the information I've given in this blog. 73 de KI5ONA and enjoy the hobby!
Baofeng 8-watt UV-5R with tactical antennas and all the goodies (2-pack):
Baofeng 5-watt UV-5R (2-pack):
Baofeng 5-watt UV-5R (single):
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