[Has anyone bought the NEW Baofeng GRMS UV-5R?]

20 hours ago, DarrylLicht said:

I'm curious why when Programming the UV-5R GMRS radios with Chirp that the NOAA stations do not appear anywhere in Chirp?  Apparently they are hard coded into these HTs?  Can anyone confirm?

The configuration in mine as delivered list 11 NOAA frequencies in channels 117 to 127. I can receive 2 of them, and I easily deleted the other 9 in CHIRP.

[Has anyone bought the NEW Baofeng GRMS UV-5R?]

23 hours ago, WRYC330 said:

I'd be very interested in HOW you programmed your GMRS UV-5R unit to TX on an "emergency" frequency using CHIRP.

I entered all the channels I wanted by copying and pasting the ham channels from a stock UV-5R configuration. I manually added the calling frequency I wanted to use for emergency contact. Upon entering these channels they were all TX enabled, as tested into a dummy load. I disabled TX via the "DUPLEX" option in CHIRP. The ham channels imported with that field cleared, which appears to enable TX. Setting the field to "off" disabled TX.

Oddly enough, this worked on the NOAA channels as well, and the radio as delivered was TX enabled on NOAA (yeah, I turned that off!)

My radios identify to CHIRP as Radioddity UV-5G, and I bought them in February 2023. I wouldn't be surprised if newer radios have TX tied up a little tighter in firmware. 

[CME Tuesday, 19 September 2023]

As stated in the link below, this Coronal Mass Ejection may cause some havoc on HF, but can it cause any damage to UHF equipment?

https://www.space.com/sun-eruption-coronal-mass-ejection-toward-earth-auroras-likely-september-2023

[Retevis RT22 2016]

Thanks for weighing in. Your thoughts pretty much mirror what I came up with, but it seems weird that an unlicensed service on configurable non-FCC marked equipment can't be made legal now.

I would  use these radios to keep in touch with my grandson and his friends while at the park, playground, beach, etc. And the RT22 is so incredibly goof-proof for kids to use. A shame.

Thanks again.

[Retevis RT22 2016]

I have a set of Retevis RT22 HT's from 2016. It appears to me that the 2016 version was a 2W/5W output with 16 channels, none of which are in the current GMRS/FRS band. The recent incarnation of the RT22 looks to be a lower power FRS/business variant. Retevis stresses these are fixed antenna, license-free radios, and the radios I have indeed bear no FCC markings whatsoever.

Is it legal to operate these radios in their 2016 configuration? Are they legal to operate if configured to the current GMRS/FRS frequencies?

I could find no information from either FCC rules and regulations or Retevis that connects pre-2017 equipment and rules to the current versions. I would appreciate input on this from anyone more experienced than I.

[Has anyone bought the NEW Baofeng GRMS UV-5R?]

1st post here. I received my pair of UV-5R GMRS about six months ago. In my opinion, UV-5R GMRS + CHIRP = the ultimate value radio.

I think for those with issues, I believe the solutions lie within CHIRP. When I first received the radios, it wouldn't do this and wouldn't do that. But after experimenting with configurations I baked up in CHIRP, there is really nothing I don't think I can, or need, to do with this radio. My current programming has the standard GMRS, FM radio, and NOAA functions, and I also programmed in the standard ham frequencies for monitoring, as well as an emergency contact frequency, on which I enabled TX.

Radio-wise, I'm done. I moved on to antenna fun now.