Baofeng UV-5X GMRS

[haneysa]

Radioddity is selling pairs of UV-5X, Part 95E Type Certified HTs for $59.95/pair. It looks like when they created the Part 95 firmware for the UV-5r, the also created a WX alert function. The manual is not attached to the advertising page, so I am not sure if you can program multiple channels using the same frequencies. I know that UV-5r radios are of extremely poor quality, especially the front end, but giving people a cheap  "rule compliant" option is a good thing in my opinion. There are also oodles of accessories available. What say you?

[Lscott]

You get what you pay for, and if you're not careful not even that.

[wrku937]

Radioddity is selling pairs of UV-5X, Part 95E Type Certified HTs for $59.95/pair. It looks like when they created the Part 95 firmware for the UV-5r, the also created a WX alert function. The manual is not attached to the advertising page, so I am not sure if you can program multiple channels using the same frequencies. I know that UV-5r radios are of extremely poor quality, especially the front end, but giving people a cheap  "rule compliant" option is a good thing in my opinion. There are also oodles of accessories available. What say you? Radioddity GMRS HT.jpg

That is interesting, Amazon is sold out of the UV-5r as of now. Wonder if the new restock with be the same 95E compliant units? 

[piglet]

That is interesting, Amazon is sold out of the UV-5r as of now. Wonder if the new restock with be the same 95E compliant units? 

Let's hope so. As for Baofengs being "extremely poor quality", I think there are thousands of Boafeng owners that would argue that point. They are not the same quality as the flagship brands, but for the price differential, you would not expect that. However, you do get what you pay for, and sometimes, you are surprised and you get a little more than that. I think Baofengs fall into that category, at least in my experience.

[jwilkers]

In this case, they are extremely poor quality. ...due to design flaws.

 

Narrow band operation only...gmrs is wide band.

 

Some channels have a hard coded pl tone, which cannot be changed.

 

There are likely more....just forget them at the time.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

[piglet]

In this case, they are extremely poor quality. ...due to design flaws.

 

Narrow band operation only...gmrs is wide band.

 

Some channels have a hard coded pl tone, which cannot be changed.

 

There are likely more....just forget them at the time.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

 

Eh, I think not. The UV-5X are CHIRP programmable, so you can manipulate the pl tones as you see fit and set the FM mode to narrow or wide. Doesn't sound like a design flaw to me, but rather a quite flexible design.

[jwilkers]

Eh, I think not. The UV-5X are CHIRP programmable, so you can manipulate the pl tones as you see fit and set the FM mode to narrow or wide. Doesn't sound like a design flaw to me, but rather a quite flexible design.

From what I understand, under chirp, the option to switch to wide is greyed out and so is the pl tone selection. Perhaps an owner of said radio could chime in.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

[WRKY322]

From what I understand, under chirp, the option to switch to wide is greyed out and so is the pl tone selection. Perhaps an owner of said radio could chime in.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

 

There's a firmware update that allows pl tones to be changed.

[piglet]

From what I understand, under chirp, the option to switch to wide is greyed out and so is the pl tone selection. Perhaps an owner of said radio could chime in.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk

Possible that there is a difference in firmware, but mine allows me to change that column.

[MikeOut]

The 5x Is a Bust.  You cannot change from Narrowband to wide and Can't change DSC or CCTS codes.  Theres an update for it but good lck finding it and getting it updated.  I sent my 4 Back.  Useless.  

[Miklor]

. Just a note regarding CHIRP.
The UV5X and UV5X_GMRS are two totally different radios.
While the UV5X is  CHIRP compatible, the UV5X_GMRS is not.

Having upgradable firmware may delay CHIRP support as every time they come out with a firmware update, they would need to backward engineer it.

Here are pictures of the 2 different models.

https://www.miklor.com/COM/Review_UV5X.php

[Paesano]

The 5x Is a Bust.  You cannot change from Narrowband to wide and Can't change DSC or CCTS codes.  Theres an update for it but good lck finding it and getting it updated.  I sent my 4 Back.  Useless.  

 

  The firmware download is on the Baofeng store page:  https://www.baofengradio.com/products/uv-5x

[Groundhog]

It is not FCC listed as compliant. The search for the FCC ID comes up with nothing. It may be part 95e compliant but the FCC hasn’t confirmed that yet.

edit: here is the link

https://fccid.io/?fbclid=IwAR0ZuIzH5AWVAmnDG1FE31R7byVAKrs6s_f06NAjMBe_9AjUufvXLzNdM7A

Edited May 11, 2021 by Groundhog
New information

[igvandeventer]

I just purchased these radios since they are back in stock as my first GMRS HTs. I guess the firmware update has fixed all of the listed questions above, but can anyone confirm the narrow/wide band issue is fixed?

[WyoJoe]

10 hours ago, igvandeventer said:

I just purchased these radios since they are back in stock as my first GMRS HTs. I guess the firmware update has fixed all of the listed questions above, but can anyone confirm the narrow/wide band issue is fixed?

I installed the updated firmware on my radios, and yes, the narrow/wide band issue is fixed on my radios. I can now change from wide to narrow and vice-versa from the keypad (or the programming software).

 

[maddogrecurve]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:12 AM, haneysa said:

Radioddity is selling pairs of UV-5X, Part 95E Type Certified HTs for $59.95/pair. It looks like when they created the Part 95 firmware for the UV-5r, the also created a WX alert function. The manual is not attached to the advertising page, so I am not sure if you can program multiple channels using the same frequencies. I know that UV-5r radios are of extremely poor quality, especially the front end, but giving people a cheap  "rule compliant" option is a good thing in my opinion. There are also oodles of accessories available. What say you?

If it is like the UV-5R the receive will suck on it!!  I love the B-Tech GMRS V1 though, the receive is twice as good as the UV-5R.

[OrbitalCannon]

Just picked up a pair of these UV-5X (UV-5G) units from Radioddity and am running into a new issue with the revised firmware. Writing new freqs doesn't work correctly.

Example:
With CHIRP I can write all the repeater channels I want into the config file, great. Flash it, re-read. Every single channel above 30 has duplex set to OFF. So all I can do is transmit on 30 channels, the rest are just listen. So much for programming more repeaters.

Example2:
FREQ for channel 23-30 is static, you can't change it either on the device or in CHIRP. So I can only have 1 repeater per channel assigned at any one point in time.

Does anybody know how to resolve either of these issues?

[mbrun]

Just picked up a pair of these UV-5X (UV-5G) units from Radioddity and am running into a new issue with the revised firmware. Writing new freqs doesn't work correctly.
Example:
With CHIRP I can write all the repeater channels I want into the config file, great. Flash it, re-read. Every single channel above 30 has duplex set to OFF. So all I can do is transmit on 30 channels, the rest are just listen. So much for programming more repeaters.
Example2:
FREQ for channel 23-30 is static, you can't change it either on the device or in CHIRP. So I can only have 1 repeater per channel assigned at any one point in time.
Does anybody know how to resolve either of these issues?

I believe you have encountered a common condition that exists with all BaoFeng and Midland repeater capable part 95 GMRS radios. The first 30 channels are either fixed Tx-Rx pairs, or otherwise the only ones you can transmit on. All the rest are Rx only. I don’t recall seeing any post that has indicated to the contrary.

All four Wouxun GMRS models are capable of independent frequency and tone combinations in each of their 128-256-999 memories as do all the part 90 radios folks use.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[WyoJoe]

7 hours ago, OrbitalCannon said:

Just picked up a pair of these UV-5X (UV-5G) units from Radioddity and am running into a new issue with the revised firmware. Writing new freqs doesn't work correctly.

Example:
With CHIRP I can write all the repeater channels I want into the config file, great. Flash it, re-read. Every single channel above 30 has duplex set to OFF. So all I can do is transmit on 30 channels, the rest are just listen. So much for programming more repeaters.

Example2:
FREQ for channel 23-30 is static, you can't change it either on the device or in CHIRP. So I can only have 1 repeater per channel assigned at any one point in time.

Does anybody know how to resolve either of these issues?

I have also experienced the same issue. It seems that the firmware is programmed in such a way as to only allow Tx on channels 1-30, rather than defining an allowable Tx frequency range. I could not add any channels to mine that I could use to transmit - the added channels are all Rx only.

I also have the GM-30 from Radioddity, and it was the same situation initially, however, a firmware update made it possible to add channels which could be used for both Tx and Rx. Perhaps we can hope for the same thing for the UV-5X GMRS.

For those wondering about using Chrip for these radios, support has recently been added in the form of the UV-5G model. Apparently, UV-5G is the new name for the UV-5X GMRS radio according to Baofeng's submissions to the FCC. The UV-5X designation brought confusion to the situation because there was an earlier UV-5X that was a ham radio, not a GMRS radio, then when the GMRS model came along, they used the same name as the ham model.

The bottom line is that to program the UV-5X GMRS radio using Chirp, you need to use the latest version of Chirp (as of July 2021) and the Radioddity UV-5G profile (not the Baofeng UV-5X profile).

[SEIGLER001]

I just programmed a .5 offset by mistake with chirp and it took it! Verified it is transmitting in the 463 MHz band. ...ulp. Could not fix with chirp but uploading from the Baofeng software fixed. Alerted Baofeng and Radioddity and Chirp. Hope next version of firmware makes GMRS TX beyond ch 30 possible! I need that...don't need 463 MHz!
 

Did the old firmware allow GMRS TX beyond ch 30?

[OrbitalCannon]

1 hour ago, SEIGLER001 said:

I just programmed a .5 offset by mistake with chirp and it took it! Verified it is transmitting in the 463 MHz band. ...ulp. Could not fix with chirp but uploading from the Baofeng software fixed. Alerted Baofeng and Radioddity and Chirp. Hope next version of firmware makes GMRS TX beyond ch 30 possible! I need that...don't need 463 MHz!
 

Did the old firmware allow GMRS TX beyond ch 30?

Did you pull to confirm the offset had programmed that way? Chirp for some reason occasionally glitches all my repeater offsets to + 0.5MHz. Other weird thing, the handset lists offset of 0MHz and no change can be made manually.

I was able to confirm that TX/RX tones function as desired for repeater transmissions, which again, can only be programmed into channel 23-30 for TX.

Really hoping if they release another firmware, they set limits on just the TX freq, and not lock channels to TX freq.

[SEIGLER001]

Quote

Did you pull to confirm the offset had programmed that way?

If pull means push, yes. Thats how I discovered, when I looked at display set to freq and to my horror saw 463.275 . Also confirmed with a dummy load and nearby reciever it was indeed transmitting. (if by "pull" you mean download from radio, I just did that and all 8 repeater pairs are now set to .5 mhz offset!!...and yes they transmit in the 463 band. Baofoddity got some 'splaining to do!)

Yeah. I never trust what the menus say on a Baofeng, esp in channel mode.

Ugh, I just realized that by fixing the offset with Baofeng software, it inserts the NOAA channels back in.  And Baofeng Software truncates chanel names to 6 characters. Bah

If these radio didn't have upgradable firmware they'd all be  getting returned. ( I got 6.) Maybe they will anyway...

[OrbitalCannon]

1 hour ago, SEIGLER001 said:

If pull means push, yes. Thats how I discovered, when I looked at display set to freq and to my horror saw 463.275 . Also confirmed with a dummy load and nearby reciever it was indeed transmitting. (if by "pull" you mean download from radio, I just did that and all 8 repeater pairs are now set to .5 mhz offset!!...and yes they transmit in the 463 band. Baofoddity got some 'splaining to do!)

Yeah. I never trust what the menus say on a Baofeng, esp in channel mode.

Ugh, I just realized that by fixing the offset with Baofeng software, it inserts the NOAA channels back in.  And Baofeng Software truncates chanel names to 6 characters. Bah

If these radio didn't have upgradable firmware they'd all be  getting returned. ( I got 6.) Maybe they will anyway...

I meant pull as you mention pulling from radio. Crazy that you managed to get the offset adjusted to 0.5. Does your display show "+-" on the repeater channels? Does on mine which seems like an error.

Also disappointed I can't transmit in VFO regardless of freq.

[SEIGLER001]

21 hours ago, OrbitalCannon said:

 Does your display show "+-" on the repeater channels? 

Chirp for some reason occasionally glitches all my repeater offsets to + 0.5MHz.
 

Yes I see the +- on repeater channels.

Can you (or anyone) regularly re-create the 0.5MHz. glitch? If so add to the bug report here:
Bug #9255: Illegal offset programming possible, and apparently not fixable in Chirp - CHIRP (danplanet.com)


 

[OrbitalCannon]

4 hours ago, SEIGLER001 said:

Yes I see the +- on repeater channels.

Can you (or anyone) regularly re-create the 0.5MHz. glitch? If so add to the bug report here:
Bug #9255: Illegal offset programming possible, and apparently not fixable in Chirp - CHIRP (danplanet.com)


 

I can sorta confirm. I don't have an RTL-SDR or other spectral analyzer handy, checked a repeater I had programmed in and confirmed I was able to trigger before. Doesn't key up if set to 0.5MHz so it seems like it's allowing a write to other values. I did just do a pull from my radios and both had 4-5 repeater channels where the offset had glitched to 0.5MHz. Noticed it the first few times when I moved channels around in CHIRP and the 5 would change to a 0.5. Missed it at some point and had to use the factory tool to fix it.

Another radio oddity (heh), the squelch does weird things on my unit. If I pick a local NOAA site with TDR on and SQL set to 5 it reads fine and reliably leaves it open and audible. With TDR set to off squelch is closed and I can't hear NOAA regardless of what channel or A/B setting I pick, until I drop squelch to 0-1. Then it opens. The firmware on these seems to be very buggy still. Is it too much to ask for 128 GMRS repeater configurations?