Race Radio setup and laws.

[kyle_pc_75]

Oh yeah, hills and such.

[kyle_pc_75]

If you're not a techno-geek, this is NOT the radio for you. I just spent two hours programming this thing to transmit, and apparently not to receive. The programming is NOT intuitive, installing the necessary drivers and software is even more cumbersome. Go for the Rugged Radios version if you want pain free.

How much is your time worth?

[JUSSUMGUY]

I had read on other sites that programming the Baofeng can be challenging.Not being a techno geek I bought mine from Rugged and it came pre-programmed. Last weekend the radios were $60.00 at Rugged......
I also read that this site is helpful for those who choose to program it themselves.

http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

[TimS]

That's good stuff to know. Thanks for sharing your experiences. We'll have to give a performance report for these handhelds after the weekend.

[kyle_pc_75]

I had read on other sites that programming the Baofeng can be challenging.Not being a techno geek I bought mine from Rugged and it came pre-programmed. Last weekend the radios were $60.00 at Rugged......
I also read that this site is helpful for those who choose to program it themselves.

http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

That's the place to go. I cloned Nate's Rugged Radios version this weekend. PM me if you'd like the *.img file to clone your own, I can't post it here. The operation of the unit is still pretty confusing, but they have great range and work very well overall. Thanks to Richard, Tim, and Nate for being our guinea pigs...sorry about the bucks spent . I/we owe you guys.

[JUSSUMGUY]

Overall I'm impressed with the radio. Tim was on the South loop of the race course, down in a canyon and at the furthest point on the course from the pits. He could still hear me when I radioed from the pits. I'm not sure what the distance was, probably somewhere in the 5 or 6 mile range. These would be great for car to car communication while on a outing with others.
On the downside, mine is stuck on 1 channel and no matter what I do it stays on that channel. I'll call Rugged tomorrow and see what they have to say.

[TimS]

Other than the programming issue, great radio on the recieving end. Yes I found the most inhospitable place for radio communication. There was a 2000foot mountain between us... I was in the trees... in a hole... quite a ways away. And only slight static from my 281a to the handheld and back again.

I like this VHF stuff in general!! High quality comms.

[fl_buggy]

My friend Jason (who was with me at the Mint) has one of these Baofeng's mounted in his car tied into a Rugged intercomm setup. He was able to get about 1.5 miles from car to car, but that's in a thick pine forest. He has since purchased a small external antenna which we'll try Memorial weekend.

All-in-all, it's a great little bargain of a radio. It even has an FM receiver in there for when you want to listen to some tunes (while your air-cooled buddies are working on their cars )

[TimS]

Okay, I marked the spot on the GPS with each contact. I just looked on the GPS... The in-the-hole over-the-mountain contact was 5.83 miles straight line. The furthest contact otherwise was 6.4 miles relatively Line-of-sight and there was no hint of static on that one at all. There was never a time when I tried to call that he wasn't able to communicate. He was in a wide open area, I was in the trees with a 44" antenna on the bug.

[JUSSUMGUY]

Got my issue with being "stuck" on one channel resolved. What I had done is inadvertently "locked" it on that channel. To unlock it press and hold the # key till you hear a beep. If you want to lock it on a channel you do the same thing.

The operators manual is not very thorough. It took a quick call to Rugged to solve the problem.

[BAJA-IT]

Good to hear you got the problem solved Richard.
I may have to get some of these for out of car communications.

[JUSSUMGUY]

They work great for car to car and would work great for the people in the pits to talk to the driver or co-driver while working on the car especially if they used the ear bud with throat mike, they would have their hands free. Can find that on Amazon for around $7.00

[TimS]

This link should help a lot with the uv5r's. It's a privateer's effort to make a usable instruction manual...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... 5972,d.cGE

another useful link - menu items and descriptions... http://kc9hi.dyndns.org/uv5r/programmin ... 0Menus.pdf

[kyle_pc_75]

I'll be offering free programming and instruction services at next weekend's BOR Wendover Rewound 2014 Race just south of Wendover, NV.

[TimS]

Just for shits and giggles. I turned on the radio a few hours ago, did some testing with my race radio, but I will leave it on until it dies. We'll see how long it lasts on standby.