Unlocking the Baofeng GM15 Pro

[Lscott]

18 hours ago, tcp2525 said:

Looks like you have an HT fetish, which is good. I lean more towards mobiles myself.

HT’s are fun since you just pick them up, turn them on and you’re ready to go. They fit in a pocket or briefcase easily too. With mobile radios you need to install them somewhere and require external power and antenna to use.

I stumbled on the files for a 3D printed desktop stand for a Kenwood TH-D74A. My sister has a 3D printer and made one for me using the project files. She said according to Slicer it only cost $1.24 to make. Now I have to drive across town to pick it up soon.

This is the link for the project files in case someone wants them.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/discover/unread/?&stream_date_type=relative&stream_read=all&stream_date_relative_days[val]=365&stream_date_relative_days[unit]=d&view=condensed

[WRYS709]

HTs are the "gateway drug" of the Compulsive Radio Owners fetish (a known BTSM subcategory)! 

[Lscott]

12 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

HTs are the "gateway drug" of the Compulsive Radio Owners fetish (a known BTSM subcategory)! 

Can't take the money with me so might as well spend it on something fun.

I might splurge and get the new TH-D75A and take the D74A to work and use it on the desktop as a scanner.  It has the MARS/CAP mod. I have to see how much the price drops and look for a deal at the Hamvention this May in Ohio. HRO sells them and will do the mod for about $60 and will still warranty the radio.

I'm not a big fan of D-Star but I do like the fact it's a full power, 5 watts, tri-band radio, like the older D74A is.

https://www.kenwood.com/usa/com/support/pdf/TH-D75A_US_Catalog.pdf

If Kenwood offered this radio in a DMR version I'll bet they couldn't keep the thing in stock. The Kenwood sales rep I spoke to there, when the radio was announced, said he had a lot of Hams say, including me, they would rather have a DMR version of the radio.

 

[tcp2525]

1 hour ago, Lscott said:

Can't take the money with me so might as well spend it on something fun.

I might splurge and get the new TH-D75A and take the D74A to work and use it on the desktop as a scanner.  It has the MARS/CAP mod. I have to see how much the price drops and look for a deal at the Hamvention this May in Ohio. HRO sells them and will do the mod for about $60 and will still warranty the radio.

I'm not a big fan of D-Star but I do like the fact it's a full power, 5 watts, tri-band radio, like the older D74A is.

https://www.kenwood.com/usa/com/support/pdf/TH-D75A_US_Catalog.pdf

If Kenwood offered this radio in a DMR version I'll bet they couldn't keep the thing in stock. The Kenwood sales rep I spoke to there, when the radio was announced, said he had a lot of Hams say, including me, they would rather have a DMR version of the radio.

 

How do you feel the battery life on the 74 is, especially if you transmit? The 75's battery life is said to be slightly better.

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, tcp2525 said:

How do you feel the battery life on the 74 is, especially if you transmit? The 75's battery life is said to be slightly better.

The little I've used the D74A I'm not real impressed with the battery life, and that's just mostly doing scan monitoring. Most Hams that have the radio hold a similar opinion. A favorite topic among D74A owners is looking for a larger capacity battery pack.

You'll notice in the photos, from the project site, the radio is using an external 12VDC power adapter. That's about the only way to power the radio for more than maybe 5 to 6 hours at light duty without having to swap battery packs. The guy who designed the desktop stand included a section on the back specifically as a spare battery pack storage area.

One flaw with the D74A is if you have the wall wart charger plugged into the radio and key it up it tends to blow out a chip in the charging circuit. That sucks. People report using the high power 12VDC power cord that doesn't happen. I don't know if this was fixed on the D75A version.

I have to get it out and charge the battery pack up on mine and start playing with it. It's been on a shelf for a long while. It's a complex radio to learn to use in the beginning, lots of menu layers to work through. If you're going to use it frequently likely not so bad. For somebody like me who might touch it every few months it's easy to forget where to go for various settings. Its not a radio for occasional use.

I have a document library I have loaded on my cell phone with all of the brochures, FCC grants, service manuals and user guides, in PDF format, for my radio collection. That way if I need to consult the manual(s) they are readily available.

[tcp2525]

20 minutes ago, Lscott said:

The little I've used the D74A I'm not real impressed with the battery life, and that's just mostly doing scan monitoring. Most Hams that have the radio hold a similar opinion. A favorite topic among D74A owners is looking for a larger capacity battery pack.

You'll notice in the photos, from the project site, the radio is using an external 12VDC power adapter. That's about the only way to power the radio for more than maybe 5 to 6 hours at light duty without having to swap battery packs. The guy who designed the desktop stand included a section on the back specifically as a spare battery pack storage area.

One flaw with the D74A is if you have the wall wart charger plugged into the radio and key it up it tends to blow out a chip in the charging circuit. That sucks. People report using the high power 12VDC power cord that doesn't happen. I don't know if this was fixed on the D75A version.

I have to get it out and charge the battery pack up on mine and start playing with it. It's been on a shelf for a long while. It's a complex radio to learn to use in the beginning, lots of menu layers to work through. If you're going to use it frequently likely not so bad. For somebody like me who might touch it every few months it's easy to forget where to go for various settings. Its not a radio for occasional use.

I have a document library I have loaded on my cell phone with all of the brochures, FCC grants, service manuals and user guides, in PDF format, for my radio collection. That way if I need to consult the manual(s) they are readily available.

All that sounds like what I heard as well. The 75 supposedly is slightly better on batteries, but... Sadly I gave up on Kenwood just for that reason. I went with two Anytone AT-D878UVII HTs and haven't looked back. My last HT from the big three was the Yaesu FT2, which was a disappointment due to substandard recieve audio. That's why I always said Yaesu should reverse engineer a UV82, they would learn a lot. I can't say enough good about the 878.

[Lscott]

 A coworker in my department is seriously considering getting his Ham license this spring or summer. He's Canadian so that's where he needs to get licensed. He lives in Windsor, across the river from Detroit, and crosses back and forth everyday.

He asked for my opinion on what a good radio to get for hiking and camping. I recommended the D168UV. His budget limit was $200. This should work fine for him, and he can use it for Ham when he gets licensed later. For his wife and kids I suggested the cheapo Baofengs. If one gets trashed or lost he won't cry over the cost. Plus if they aren't used frequently he won't have a lot of money tied up in them sitting on a closet shelf.

I have a couple of the original D878UV's myself. One I got at a swap in like new condition with battery pack, charger base and antenna for $35. The radios are OK. The $300 plus for the new D878 models I don't think are worth it. I suspect the new D168's will replace the older D878's at some point.

The best feature on the radio is the digital monitor mode. Lets one zero in on the exact DMR settings without needing a computer and an SDR dongle.

[tcp2525]

50 minutes ago, Lscott said:

 A coworker in my department is seriously considering getting his Ham license this spring or summer. He's Canadian so that's where he needs to get licensed. He lives in Windsor, across the river from Detroit, and crosses back and forth everyday.

He asked for my opinion on what a good radio to get for hiking and camping. I recommended the D168UV. His budget limit was $200. This should work fine for him, and he can use it for Ham when he gets licensed later. For his wife and kids I suggested the cheapo Baofengs. If one gets trashed or lost he won't cry over the cost. Plus if they aren't used frequently he won't have a lot of money tied up in them sitting on a closet shelf.

I have a couple of the original D878UV's myself. One I got at a swap in like new condition with battery pack, charger base and antenna for $35. The radios are OK. The $300 plus for the new D878 models I don't think are worth it. I suspect the new D168's will replace the older D878's at some point.

The best feature on the radio is the digital monitor mode. Lets one zero in on the exact DMR settings without needing a computer and an SDR dongle.

Are the 878s really $300? I paid $200 each for mine a while back. Sounds like these guys are hanging around with the big three Japanese manufacturers. I must say that the build quality, audio, battery life, and features are a great deal for what I paid. I think if I need to replace one in the future, I might be hard pressed to shell out $300 for one. I've always considered all these Chinese radios as disposable. That 168 looks like a nice economical starter radio.

[Davichko5650]

34 minutes ago, tcp2525 said:

Are the 878s really $300? 

$334.99 at Amazon and Bridgecom...

[IronWire]

@Flacracker the cables you buy off of Amazon don't always work with every radio.  So far, the cable I got with my original BaoFeng UV-5RTP from Radioddity has worked, as well as some TYT and Radioddity cables.  The Radioddity cables seem to have wide compatibility, so that would be my recommendation.

If you're still having issues, you may have a missing driver on your PC.

 

[SteveShannon]

On 1/13/2025 at 2:20 PM, tcp2525 said:

Are the 878s really $300? I paid $200 each for mine a while back. Sounds like these guys are hanging around with the big three Japanese manufacturers. I must say that the build quality, audio, battery life, and features are a great deal for what I paid. I think if I need to replace one in the future, I might be hard pressed to shell out $300 for one. I've always considered all these Chinese radios as disposable. That 168 looks like a nice economical starter radio.

The Alinco MD5 is an  878 on the inside.  That’s what I bought when I first got into DMR.  It’s very slightly smaller and only has room for 500,000 contacts and 4000 channels, but if you can live with that it’s only $290 from the major ham radio companies.  
https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-018082

 

[WRYS709]

On 1/13/2025 at 1:20 PM, tcp2525 said:

I've always considered all these Chinese radios as disposable. That 168 looks like a nice economical starter radio.

You sure it doesn't come with a cigarette lighter plug already crimped on its tinned and stripped wires?!?  hahaha

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, WRYS709 said:

You sure it doesn't come with a cigarette lighter plug already crimped on its tinned and stripped wires?!?  hahaha

For some it could be a good radio. While $200 isn't cheap the radio has features that are useful, and it does DMR as well, which is a favorite digital voice mode at the moment. Some of the favorite GMRS specific locked down radios, which are of Chinese manufacture too,  are pushing the price point close to the D168. 

https://www.wimo.com/media/akeneo_connector/media_files/D/1/D168UV_brochure_240827_13fd.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoqv_ogmUf-Zccf4ya9l5vfGJnja8FYzUWz1MLKvLYIhxGyJ3hLr

[WRYS709]

2 hours ago, Lscott said:

For some it could be a good radio. While $200 isn't cheap the radio has features that are useful, and it does DMR as well, which is a favorite digital voice mode at the moment. Some of the favorite GMRS specific locked down radios, which are of Chinese manufacture too,  are pushing the price point close to the D168. 

https://www.wimo.com/media/akeneo_connector/media_files/D/1/D168UV_brochure_240827_13fd.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoqv_ogmUf-Zccf4ya9l5vfGJnja8FYzUWz1MLKvLYIhxGyJ3hLr

But I believe it does not support OpenGD77 DMR, which is a game changer

[Lscott]

17 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

But I believe it does not support OpenGD77 DMR, which is a game changer

I'm sure it doesn't since it just recently went on sale. No time to reverse engineer the hardware. I also haven't tracked down any schematics/service documentation even for the older D868/878 radios either.

[WRYS709]

15 minutes ago, Lscott said:

I'm sure it doesn't since it just recently went on sale. No time to reverse engineer the hardware. I also haven't tracked down any schematics/service documentation even for the older D868/878 radios either.

At this point I am turning my focus to DMR radios that are currently compatible with OpenGD77 since it appears they are not going to reverse engineer newly released radios. 

I just acquired a Baofeng DM-1701 for $50 from China and am about to install OpenGD77. I hope it will qualify as the new lowcost option that I can recommend to others interested in getting involved in DMR inexpensively. 

[Lscott]

17 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

I just acquired a Baofeng DM-1701 for $50 from China and am about to install OpenGD77. I hope it will qualify as the new lowcost option that I can recommend to others interested in getting involved in DMR inexpensively. 

It's definitely cheap enough. And if they don't like it the money invested wasn't much. Better than spending a few hundred to learn the same thing.

[SteveShannon]

18 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

At this point I am turning my focus to DMR radios that are currently compatible with OpenGD77 since it appears they are not going to reverse engineer newly released radios. 

I just acquired a Baofeng DM-1701 for $50 from China and am about to install OpenGD77. I hope it will qualify as the new lowcost option that I can recommend to others interested in getting involved in DMR inexpensively. 

I was very happy with the TYT UV380. It was closer to $80-$90 but it was easy to convert. When I have used it on analog a friend tells me it’s the best sounding transmissions out of all my radios. It’s also available in a waterproof version for $10 more as the UV390. 

[Davichko5650]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

I was very happy with the TYT UV380. It was closer to $80-$90 but it was easy to convert. When I have used it on analog a friend tells me it’s the best sounding transmissions out of all my radios. It’s also available in a waterproof version for $10 more as the UV390. 

When I got back into Amateur Radio after being out of it for about 10-12 years (always renewed my license even when off the air), one of my friends from back in the day steered me to try DMR. Recommended the TYT 380UV as it had a good price point, so if I didn't like it, I'd only be out $100 or so.  I do use it on occasion on DMR, but like you, I get good audio reports on the analog side, so use it more there than on digital.

[tcp2525]

47 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

When I got back into Amateur Radio after being out of it for about 10-12 years (always renewed my license even when off the air), one of my friends from back in the day steered me to try DMR. Recommended the TYT 380UV as it had a good price point, so if I didn't like it, I'd only be out $100 buck or so.  I do use it on occasion on DMR, but like you, I get good audio reports on the analog side, so use it more there than on digital.

I still have my two 380s in the drawer all charged and ready to go. Great little radios. They are my tower radios. If I drop one, I'll read a few scriptures from the good book, but other than that it's no big deal.

[WRYS709]

7 hours ago, tcp2525 said:

I still have my two 380s in the drawer all charged and ready to go. Great little radios. 

Is that before or after you snipped off the cigarette lighter plugs?

[tcp2525]

4 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

Is that before or after you snipped off the cigarette lighter plugs?

Are you crazy? I added two more so that I can be prepared when the main one burns up. Remember, GMRS is all about being prepared.