Baofeng UV5army

[Ronin]

I actually have that, although mine is older and blue. When it runs out of gas it s a great doorstop.
I am thinking about something more off-grid than that.

Just about any portable solar charger will do the trick given enough time.

Or you could go with something like a BioLite stove. Cook your food and charge your radio, phone, etc.

[Remington788]

Just about any portable solar charger will do the trick given enough time.

I just started a new thread for this topic as I think it is not strictly related to BaoFeng

http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=359446

[WoollyPullover]

Is anybody replacing the stock antenna? If so what did you go with? Is there noticeable improvement in function?

[fallenleader]

Is anybody replacing the stock antenna? If so what did you go with? Is there noticeable improvement in function?

telescoping and yes, more fragile but it has helped bring some control center freq from static to readable in bad weather.
longer antennas make radio unweildly and increase risk of breaking connector. shorter antennas have less reception. telecsoping was the best of both for me.
it is a scenario of compromise.
can always use a short cable and tape the antenna to the side or something.

[Hoppy]

I don't have one as I've been happy with the stock antenna on my Yaesu handheld and I have a permanent ground plane antenna in the attic, but I would get this one if upgrading.
https://signalstuff.com/product/supe...-signal-stick/

ETA: they also support hamstudy.org which got me through studying and testing for my license..

[theshadow]

Is anybody replacing the stock antenna? If so what did you go with? Is there noticeable improvement in function?

All handheld "rubber Duck" stock antennas should be replaced with a high gain type. Most popular are comet and MFJ I gave a list of three I like for other radios, they also work for Baofengs, just need to make sure to select the proper SMA connection. I'll append that list to this reply.

Found my reply in the Communications thread and it was also for Baoefeng radios:

I like these when I stuff it in a coat pocket, or belt clipped:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Comet-SMA-2...UAAOSwSKBd-o-r

I love these around the house, but I'm a little hard on them and have broken several over the years:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Comet-SMA-5...EAAOSwaPRamev~

I like these for the field work and durability:
https://www.amazon.com/ABBREE-Foldab...pf_rd_i=172533

[gamer_jim]

Anybody have chirp and willing to help a brother out for a case of beer in SEPA? Asking for a friend who waited til the last minute to buy one

Here's a good tutorial that helped me:
https://geekprepper.com/program-a-ba...io-with-chirp/

If you need more help feel free to PM me.

The gotcha for me was the programming cable they sent with my Baofeng was for Windows 7 and wouldn't work with 10. I contacted the Amazon seller and they promptly sent me a W10 compatible cable. I don't have any issues with it now.

Another gotcha was picking the right COM port in CHIRP. Windows may display COM ports you don't really have. If you guess and get an error then just try the next one. There is a way to determine exactly which one it is but I only had 4 so it was easy to re-try.

I have the base CHIRP file that the guy in the link I provided above offers towards the end of his article. It contains the FRS, GMRS and NOAA frequencies. Then, I use repeaterbook.com to search for all the repeaters near where I am going to be. I download them and import into CHIRP. It's not too bad and only about 5 manual steps to get a file I can upload to the radio. Then I store that for each location I plan on going. So I have one for at the in-laws, another for home, another for work, etc. Once you get the file made it's pretty easy to upload another one to your radio with CHIRP.

CHIRP's interface is a little buggy. I've had to close and re-open several times, even with the latest version. It still works and is free. I just wish there was an online repeater directory better than repeaterbook--I'd even pay for that.

Good luck!

[gamer_jim]

Is anybody replacing the stock antenna? If so what did you go with? Is there noticeable improvement in function?

I highly recommend the Diamond SRJ77CA:
https://www.gigaparts.com/diamond-antenna-srj77ca.html

It's long, 15", so not very portable but great performance. It's also very flexible and sturdy. It's great for hiking in case it gets caught on a branch it bends nicely without putting strain on the radio.

Please note this has the reverse SMA connection for Baofeng. Almost all other HT manufacturers use a standard SMA connector so this is not compatible with most other radios without an adapter.

[PA86]

Is there a way to disable transmit on specific frequencies by manually programming the transceiver?

Tried downloading Chirp on my mac, but it crashes immediately upon opening. Downloaded the python thing too, no avail. Not much of a techie here.

It seems I can't name channels either, sans chirp, via the handheld, which would be nice.

[fallenleader]

i've never had an issue with cables or chip on win10.
try downloading an older version, maybe there is a regression in the newest?