BAOFENG UV-B5 FM Hand Held Transceiver (HT)
NOTED
ISSUES
1. (MAJOR) RF Burns on high power TX from battery contacts. It is worse when holding in left hand when thumb is used to PPT. Holding it in right hand and keying with fingers the battery contacts do not come in contact with my hand. Depending on hand size RF burns may be an issue using the right hand as well. Cover the battery contacts with some electrical tape, remembering to remove the tape before putting the radio in the charging cradle.
2. (MINOR) The UV-B5 is NOT a true dual band transceiver. It only has one VFO that is capable of RX/TX on two bands (136MHz-174MHz and 400MHz-470MHz). It has a feature called dual watch that switches between the two frequencies displayed on the screen, however it can not receive both frequencies simultaneously like a true dual band radio.
3. (MINOR) Is not legally part 90 certified (in the USA - no label) so it can not legally (in the USA) be used for commercial purposes.
4. (MINOR) It is not part 95 certified so it can not legally (in the USA) be used for FRS/GMRS/MURS.
5. (ANNOYANCE) When changing from one channel that has a ‘+’ repeater offset to a channel that has a ‘–‘ repeater offset the repeater offset symbol on the screen does not change to show a ‘–‘ symbol.
MENU
OPTIONS
1. STEP (Frequency Step): Used to set the step interval of the frequency increment when changing the VFO by either the VFO knob (channel knob) or the up/down buttons. 5kHz is the lowest step available but since most amateur repeaters end in 5 or 10 this is not an issue. Even if a station you are talking to is using a 2.5kHz step frequency you will still be able to talk to them. (5.00k, 6.25k, 10k, 12.50k 20.00k, 25.00k)
2. SQUELCH: Squelch is used to silence the receiver when no signal is present. Use a higher setting if the squelch keeps opening and only static is heard. If you are listening to a very weak signal you may want to turn squelch off. (0 (open/off) through 9)
3. SAVE (Save Mode): This is a battery saving mode. When on the receiver goes into standby mode and only checks to see if a signal is present every few seconds. When in Save Mode, because of how the feature works, you may not hear the first part of the transmission, usually the call sign (AJ7UU monitoring). (ON, OFF)
4. TXPR (Power): Transmit power can be adjusted from low (1 watt) to high (5 watts). Use the low setting unless you are not being heard by your party. (LOW, HIGH)
5. ROGE (Roger Beep): A roger beep is a tone that sounds on the radio and over the air every time you unkey the microphone. While it has its purposes (like using the HT as a repeater) it is annoying to most ham radio operators, so keep it off. (ON, OFF)
6. TOT (Transmit Over Time): This setting is used to set how long you can transmit for without unkeying the microphone. This can be useful when working a repeater and you lose track of how long you have been transmitting for and do not want to transmit longer than the repeater timeout. Use it as needed. (OFF, 1M through 7M)
7. VOX (Voice Operated Transmit): VOX can be used to transmit without pushing the PTT (push to talk) button. In VOX mode the radio will transmit when it senses a signal on the microphone input that is strong enough to trip the VOX circuit. The sensitivity of the VOX circuit is adjusted so that background noise does not trip the VOX circuit but your voice does. 9 seems to be the most sensitive and 1 the least. VOX can also be used when you want to use your radio (you will need two radios) as a repeater. (OFF, 1 through 9)
8. BEEP (Beep Prompt): When this setting is on the radio will beep every time a button is pushed. Useful for visually impaired operation. (ON, OFF)
9. VOICE (Voice Prompt): Used to select whether you want an English, Chinese, or no voice prompt when certain features of the radio are used. Not all features use the voice prompt. Very useful to confirm the memory channel you are selecting or when punching in the VFO frequency but can be turned off when silent operation is required. Also very useful for visually impaired operation. While the voice prompt is being played on the radio no received audio can be heard until the voice prompt is complete. (OFF, ENGLISH, CHINESE)
10. TDR (Dual Standby): This is the Dual Watch feature. While this radio is not a true dual-bander (does not have two separate VFOs), it has the capability to display two channels/frequencies on the screen and when dual watch is turned on it quickly switches between the two and stops on one when it is busy. When the channel has been clear for a few seconds it resumes switching between the channels. Dual watch is temporarily suspended when the radio in in scan mode and will resume dual watch when scan mode is stopped. Dual mode is useful when monitoring a repeater frequency and the FM call frequency (146.520). (ON, OFF)
11. R-CODE (Receive CTCSS Tone): Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System or CTCSS and Digital Coded Squelch (DCS) are features to help filter radio traffic in a shared spectrum environment. See Wikipedia for more information on how CTCSS works. When the R-CODE is turned on and set to a specific tone, the receiver will emit audio only if the transmitted signal is sending the same CTCSS tone as set in the receiver. If the tones are different or no tone is being transmitted the receiver will ignore the signal and keep the radio squelched. Useful if you are using the radio as a repeater or want to limit what signals are heard. The people with whom you want to communicate or allow using the repeater must know what tone you are using. Most amateur radio repeaters use CTCSS and not DCS. While CTCSS is an analog tone, DCS is a digitally encoded stream. There are two modes of DCS operation, Normal (DCS-N) and Inverted (DCS-I). To set the tone from menu 11, use the A/B button then the menu button to select between OFF, CTCSS, DCS-N and DCS-I then use the rotary knob to select the tone you want to use. Recommended setting is OFF unless you have a requirement to filter traffic on the receiver. CTCSS tones and other settings can be stored along with a frequency in a memory channel. (OFF, CTCSS, DCS-N, DCS-I)
12. T-CODE (Transmit CTCSS Tone): When the T-CODE is set the specified tone will be sent when the radio is transmitting. The T-CODE will need to be set if you are trying to use an amateur repeater that has a receive CTCSS code set otherwise the repeater will ignore your signal. CTCSS tones and other settings can be stored along with a frequency in a memory channel. (OFF, CTCSS, DCS-N, DCS-I)
13. ABR (Backlight Select): When this setting is turned on the backlight will light up when any of the controls or buttons are pressed. Turn this feature off along with BEEP and VOICE if you do not want your radio lighting up or making noise when you operate it. Turning these features off will also conserve battery power. (ON, OFF)
14. PTTID (ANI Code): Used to identify a radio that is transmitting. When this setting is turned on and used on conjunction with menu items 15 and 16, a DTMF tone will be sent out when transmitting. A unique code should be programmed into each radio that you want to use this feature on to identify what radio is transmitting. This feature is only useful if you have a system that can decode and record the ANI code (along with a time stamp) or a live system that monitors/decode/displays the ANI code. Not a useful feature for amateur radio in general, but may have some use for SAR or EMCOMMS if there is a need to identify radio transmissions. This setting can be stored along with other settings in a memory channel while the ANI Code and the PTTID Mode are not. (ON, OFF)
15. ANI (ANI Code): This setting is where you enter the actual code for the radio. You can enter up to a 6 digit code using the numbers 0-9 and letters A-F. I think the E and F codes are the * and # symbols and may have special functions so I wouldn’t use them without testing if it works or not with whatever system you are using the radios on. Menu item 14 must be ON for this to work. (0-9, A-F)
16. PPTIDM (PPT ID Mode): Used to set whether the ANI code is sent at the beginning, end, or both beginning and end of each transmission. If set to beginning of transmission (BOT) the tone will be sent along with the voice and will stop as soon as the PTT is released. So if the PTT is briefly pressed then the complete code may not be sent. If set to end of transmission (EOT) the ANI code will be sent after the PTT button is released. The radio will extend the transmission time after the PTT is released and transmit the ANI code at that time so it does not interfere with the voice. This setting must be set to either BOT, EOT or BOTH along with menu item 14 being set to ON for this feature to work. (OFF, BOT, EOT, BOTH)
17. DT-ST: Used to hear the DTMF tone being transmitted when the PTT is pressed. Seems to only work when menu item 16 is set to EOT for PTTID. If you want to hear DTMF tones turn this setting ON, if not turn it OFF. (ON, OFF)
18. MDF-1 (LCD Display Line 1 Mode): Will either display the frequency you are operating on, the name of the channel (see menu item 27) you are on, or the memory channel number you are on in the top line of the LCD display. (FREQ, NAME, CHAN)
19. MDF-2 (LCD Display Line 2 Mode): Will either display the frequency you are operating on, the name of the channel (see menu item 27) you are on, or the memory channel number you are on in the bottom line of the LCD display. (FREQ, NAME, CHAN)
20. BCL (Busy Channel Lockout): This setting when set to ON will not allow the radio to transmit when the receiver squelch is open. The display will show BCL LOCKOUT error. (ON, OFF)
21. SFTD (Repeater Offset Direction): Used to set the repeater offset direction to `+’, `-‘, or OFF. Repeater offsets set whether the repeater input frequency is above or below the repeater output frequency. Depending on how the repeater you want to use is set up you will need to adjust this. Used in conjunction with menu item 22. (0, +, -)
22. OFFSET (Repeater Offset Amount): This setting adjusts the frequency offset by this amount in the direction set by menu item 21 above. (0-9)
23. SCANM (Scan Mode): When in scan mode this setting determines when, if at all, the scan will resume after stopping on a busy frequency/channel. The available options are TO, CO, and SE. In TO mode the scan stops on a busy frequency/channel and resumes scanning after a few seconds. In CO mode the scanner will resume once the carrier goes away. In SE mode the scanner will stop and will require a manual start. (TO, CO, SE)
24. TXAB (Transmit Priority): When used with dual watch, this setting is used to set which channel to transmit on when the PTT is pressed. If set to F1 the radio will transmit on the channel/frequency displayed on line 1. If set to F2 it will transmit on the channel/frequency displayed on line 2. If set to OFF it will transmit on the frequency/channel that the radio was displaying at the time the PTT was pressed. This can be useful if you are monitoring two channels but only want to transmit on one. (OFF, F1, F2)
25. REV (Reverse Duplex Mode): When the reverse duplex mode is turned on it swaps the repeater input frequency and settings with the repeater output frequency and settings that are stored in the selected memory channel. With REV turned on the radio is monitoring the repeater input frequency and will transmit on the repeater output frequency. At this time I do not know of a good reason to use REV. (ON, OFF)
26. STE (Squelch Tail Elimination): Used to curb the static crash heard after a transmission ends. Used between radios that have the capability. Not useful for repeater use and may cause problems. Best to leave it off unless you know for sure it’s safe to turn it on. (ON, OFF)
27. NAME (Name of Channel): Used to add a name to a memory channel. Used in conjunction with menu items 18 and 19. Can be stored in a memory channel. (A-Z, 0-9, /, _, +, -)
28. W/N (Wideband/Narrow Band): Selects between narrow band FM (2.5kHz) or wide band FM (5kHz). Use wide band FM for amateur use as it has better signal to noise ratio for weak signal work. Narrow band is used for FRS /GMRS/MURS but legally you can’t use part 90 certified radios for FRS/GMRS/MURS which are part 95 services. In an emergency situation use the radio on whatever frequencies you need to.
29. COMP (Audio Companding): Supposed to help with audio quality and back ground noise. When turned on it affects both transmitted and received audio. I noticed it does clean up the background hiss but also reduces the overall audio level. On a good full quieting signal it is probably not needed. When I tuned into a distant repeater with a lot of background noise the audio was reduced as much as the background static so I’m not sure how well this feature works.
SPECIAL
BUTTON SEQUENCES
1. RESET (VFO/ALL): With the UV-B5 turned off, hold the Menu button and turn on the radio. Once the radio powers up you will see the reset options. Either rotate the VFO knob or use the up/down arrows to switch between VFO/ALL. VFO will just reset the VFO but ALL will erase all the memory channels.
2. SCAN: From either VFO/Memory/FM modes, press the menu button then the VM/Scan button. The scan will stop on a busy channel/frequency and resume scanning depending on what menu 23 is set to.
3. LOCK/UNLOCK: Press and hold the Menu button to lock and unlock the radio.
4. DTMF Tones: DTMF tones are used for many purposes in Ham Radio. Basically DTMF tones are used to send commands to a system in order to accomplish some function. Some common functions in a repeater system that may use DTMF tones are, enable/disable the repeater, enable the phone patch and dial a phone number, and enable the internet link and dial up a remote system. To send DTMF tones on the UV-B5 radio, press the PPT button and press the buttons on the radio. The following buttons are assigned the DTMF tones as follows:
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Menu: A
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^: B
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v: C
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AB: D
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0-9: 0-9
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VM/Scan: *
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FM: #
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