HAM Radio Notes

Baofeng Menu Reference

This is documentation for how to use a Baofeng Radio. I am using a UV-5R8W. Many far more technical and qualified people have done extensive tutorials, so you should check them out. But if you don’t have much of a radio background to begin with or just need a quick brush up, this should be the guide for you.

You will need

• One Baofeng Radio

• Connecting Cables

• CHIRP

CHIRP

CHIRP is an open source python software for programming Baofengs and other radios with channels and other settings. The fields are as follows:

Frequency

This is the primary receive frequency that your radio is set to listen to.

In a repeater setup, this would be the frequency the repeater transmits on (which is why you hear others talking on this frequency).

Name

Completely self set, this could be anything you want but generally it should just be the name of the station

Tone Mode

How the radio handles squelch tones, such as CTCSS or DCS

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/tone-settings-in-chirp.331278/

• “For general information though, the “Tone Mode” chosen determines which of the columns are going to be written to the radio.”

Notice you can pick [Blank], Tone, TSQL, DTCS, and Cross

Blank

No tone is being used, radio will transmit without sending a CTCSS or DCS tone. Your radio will receive all transmissions on that frequency even if they have a tone or squelch setting. If a repeater requires a tone to activate, your transmission will not trigger it unless you set the correct tone mode.

When to Leave Tone Mode Blank?

• If you’re using a simplex frequency (direct radio-to-radio communication).
• If you’re listening to a frequency that doesn’t use a tone-based squelch.
• If you’re scanning a frequency and want to hear everything, including signals without tones.

When NOT to Leave It Blank?

• If you’re using a repeater that requires a CTCSS/DCS tone.
• If you’re getting no response from a repeater (it may require a tone).
• If you want to filter out unwanted transmissions.

Tone

Tone: radio sends a CTCSS tone when transmitting, but does not require a tone to receive

TSQL

DTCS

Tone

Tone Squelch

DTCS

RX DTCS

DTCS Polarity

Cross Mode

Duplex

Offset/TX Freq

Mode

Skip

Power