UV-5R Mini unlock?

[TNFrank]

Has anyone figured out how to unlock this radio so it'll not only RX on 1.25M but also TX. ?

2M, MURS, 70cm and GMRS/FRS all work fine but it'd be cool if I could get 1.25M TX as well. 

[WRYZ926]

Even if you can get it to work on the 1.25m band, you won't get much power output. I unlocked the 1.25m band on my Baofeng GT-5R but the radio will only put out 0.5 watts on 1.25m while putting out 5 watts on 2m and 70cm. It's also have to choose the Radioddity UV-5X3 in CHIRP to program the GT-5R to make any program changes.

It's not worth the time or effort to try and turn a dual band radio into a tri-band radio. Yes it works but 0.5 watts isn't going to get out very well or very far. Just be happy with the UV-5R Mini as it is. 

[TNFrank]

4 of my radios actually do pretty good on 1.25M. 

I tested them on 1.25M Calling channel/223.500MHz and got:

K61=5.45w

AR-5RM=5.9w

RT-900=7.10w

BF-F8HP Pro=6.40w

So there are radios out there that are more than useable. Sadly my beloved RT-4D didn't put out enough power to read.

[WRYZ926]

All I can say is that you can try to modify the transmit range within CHIRP and see if it works and how much power output is.

[TNFrank]

I had to use the Factory CPS to program the radio. I didn't see any place to modify the frequency range. 

It's not a huge deal, I just thought if there was an easy way to get 1.25M TX it be nice.

[WRYS709]

The original UV-5Rx3 was tri-band and then the BTech UV-5x3 joined with more features. 

[Northcutt114]

For the UV-5R, it was hold the PTT, MON, and VFO button while turning it on. But the mini having two PTT triggers, maybe hold both of them and try? I googled around and couldn't find an answer.

[WRYZ926]

The UV-5R Mini is listed as CHIRP compatible on the CHIRP website. It's fairly easy to change the frequency range if the radio is capable of transmitting on the band you want.

The UV-5R Mini might put out 4-5 watts on 1.25m or it might only put out 1/4 to 1/2 a watt. I know the UV-5R and GT-5R radios I opened up for the 1.25m band only puts out a maximum of 1/2 watt

I know when I opened up my GT-5R and UV-R radios I could no longer choose those models in CHIRP to make any changes. I had to select the Radioddity UV-5x3 instead. So I don't know how that would work with the UV-5R Mini.

[WRUU653]

On 11/2/2025 at 11:13 AM, TNFrank said:

Has anyone figured out how to unlock this radio so it'll not only RX on 1.25M but also TX. ?

2M, MURS, 70cm and GMRS/FRS all work fine but it'd be cool if I could get 1.25M TX as well. 

it's already unlocked and no it does not do 1.25m.

 

[WRTC928]

On 11/2/2025 at 5:18 PM, TNFrank said:

4 of my radios actually do pretty good on 1.25M. 

I tested them on 1.25M Calling channel/223.500MHz and got:

K61=5.45w

AR-5RM=5.9w

RT-900=7.10w

BF-F8HP Pro=6.40w

So there are radios out there that are more than useable. Sadly my beloved RT-4D didn't put out enough power to read.

The K61, 5RM, RT-900, and F8HP Pro come from the factory as 1.25m-capable radios, so I'd expect them to perform pretty well on 1.25 meters. I have the K61 and the 5RM and they perform similarly to yours. However, although I haven't tried it myself, I've read that most radios that have to be "unlocked" for the 220 MHz band have very poor performance there because their hardware isn't designed for it. I agree it would be nice to have a tri-band in such a small package, but I doubt you can get decent 1.25m performance on a 5R Mini, even if you do manage to unlock it. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if we see a tri-band version soon. The K61 is still pretty compact, so I'll just stick with it until something better comes along. If you figure out a way and decide to do it, I'll be interested to know what kind of performance you get.

[TNFrank]

For the money the RT-900 is hard to beat for the number of bands it'll cover.