G4NSJ - More on the Baofeng UV-5R hand held radio

Just for interest, here's a short video on the Baofeng UV-5R hand held radio. I carried out a few tests on power levels and antenna resonant frequencies. There's nothing technical here, it's just out of interest.
www.radio-workshop.co.uk/g4ns...

[@charliesoffer]

Great video, Ray. Many thanks! If I may say, the overwhelming appeal of your super videos is the gentle and relaxed level that you pitch them. Always lighthearted, thoroughly interesting and above all, thought provoking. Most radio folks I know who've wrangled with advanced maths and sciences professionally will rapidly admit to being bored stupid by other people throwing their technical weightlessness around. For my own sensibilities, you get it spot on - and if I feel like digging a little deeper once fired up by your enthusiasm, then I do so quietly and of my own volition. Very much looking forward to your next installment.

[@g4nsj]

Thanks, it's nice to hear from you. Cheers, Ray.

[@TRIPPLEJAY00]

Afternoon Ray, great video I was always wanting to know the resonance of the antenna. You can get slight better swr by using a length of copper wire on one of the belt clip screws as they are ground and make a kind of dipole. Another bit of useless info lol. Have a fantastic day always great to see your video's.

[@tdumnxy]

Not arguing, I am genuinely interested. Have you actually taken your radio apart? Are the belt-clip screws actually connected to the circuit inside? I tried connecting a wire to the "ground" side of the antenna connector on my GT3 and could determine no difference. But I haven't got any device suitable to measure with.

[@g4nsj]

I've heard of that but never tried it. Thanks.

[@phillipsmiley5930]

@@g4nsj a 1/4wave ground wire connected to the case is known as a tigers tail, they help on the smaller radios

[@Rayxl1]

I'm Ray from Crowborough and I use the UV-5R on local repeaters but it just about touches our 2m simplex net in Burgess Hill which isn't bad for a little walkie talkie. For mobile I use the built in aerial and when at home a plant pot aerial that I made. Anyway best wishes from the mid Sussex ham radio club! M7MOE

[@amateurspotter2656]

Nice video Ray. Thanks for the info. G4TZV.

[@HALEdigitalARTS]

Beautiful and very informative video. Thank you sir!

[@g4nsj]

Thanks!

[@ben2e0omr]

Great to see you back once again Ray. I am looking forward to the VNA video, I have one but am yet to use it with meaningful results.

[@fordmustanggtish]

Thank you sir! I Have one I occasionally use and I use it with a handheld yagi but the fact it doesn't put out 5 watts doesn't surprise me. They work good for the money they cost. Have a good one!

[@brmelectric]

Great video Ray. Look fwd to your nxt review.

[@700weedkiller4]

Cheers. Mr Ray..good little video..I have several of the gems..be awesome..73s.👍👍

[@davidaix5771]

Are you going to do more storys about the old days messing around and Pirate Radio im 29 and just geting into ham again but this time im going to get my license and i love hearing the storys also I have a BTech uv-5x3 and its a triband radio and i got rit of the 2 stock antenna foreign Nagoya tri-band antenna and its sooo much better

[@phillipsmiley5930]

The 19 set was the UV5R of the 1960's and 70's

[@Isszarya]

I have tried the pigtail for the other half of antenna it works ok

[@paulcollins9839]

I have one of these Ray , trying to program is a nightmare for me anyway, fixing TV's easy programming these not a chance, I may asked the 14 year old next door to program it for me.

[@tinkmarshino]

very interesting.. VNA though it above my grade.. But I do enjoy your videos..

[@tonybutler3502]

Great stuff Ray, like you I'm interested and like to find out about radio and electronics but don't understand maths etc. Ex marine R/O passed my ticket by working hard unlike the maths whizzes who could just breeze through. Looking forward to your VNA video as they look great but can't follow the supertech videos HI 73 Tony G3ZRJ

[@jessikaentwistle3145]

cheers Ray

[@Mike-H_UK]

Hi Ray, I have a Baofeng UV-5R, and this morning swapped the antenna for a Nagoya NA-771 from Ebay. As far as I can tell it is a genuine antenna for £9.95. The improvement is massive, and I can open the GB3NH repeater on 430MHz from over 20 miles away that wasn't possible with the stock antenna. The only downside is that the NA-771 is a bit long at 38cm. I'm thinking of making a co-axial collinear antenna to see how that compares, or maybe one of the Flowerpot jobbies that you described, although it may be hard to optimise the SWR.

[@tommyboz8652]

hi mike what seller is it

[@g4nsj]

Great stuff, I might try the NA-771

[@Mike-H_UK]

@@tommyboz8652 I bought from knights-electrocom and it cost £9.95. As far as I can tell, it is a genuine product. Cheers, Mike.

[@phillipsmiley5930]

NA-771 seems to be a loaded 1/4wave, so might as well use a full length one

[@Mike-H_UK]

@@phillipsmiley5930 There's a small length advantage to having.a loaded 1/4 wave antenna at 2m. I chose this antenna based on seeing several videos where a number of small antennas were range tested with the UV-5R in real-life situations. For example kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4aqkH-dhqt5bNk

[@NigelDixon1952]

Hi Ray, thanks for another really interesting video, just like a good old chit chat on 2 metres! I noticed that your bench is now void of those beloved old Bush radios, so does that mean you've really, really retired now? I retired a few years ago and I'm still only about a third of my way through my Wife's list of jobs I can do now I have 'all the time in the world'! Having all this spare time is killing me! Anyway, back to you, Ray, G4NSJ, from G4RZX.

[@marvinwatson3245]

Baofeng radio's, very good for the money, but i have encountered some weird faults with them. Thankfully they are easy to take apart and repair. Not done any antenna experiments with them.

[@paulbillingham4594]

Hi Ray. I've been considering one if the Nano VNA Analyzers. A video would he helpful as your old school Amateur Radio and I will be able to understand you without being blinded with technical rubbish. I agree on the Baofeng Radios. They are terrific radios for the money. Have you considered adding a resonant counterpoise in the dorm of a piece of wire on one of the chassis screws. I have found I can extend the range by a long way. All the best

[@g4nsj]

I'm about to put the NanoVNA video on KZbin.

[@phillipsmiley5930]

Hi Ray Looks like your UV5R with the short aerial is an early one with the series 1 chipset, the series 2 chipset came out about 2015 in the BF F8+ which is a UV5R without the extra band button and LED tourch. After that the UV5R also got the series 2 chips, and about a year later the Tri power versions came out with i think a RQA0011 PA? giving upto 8 watts. Whereas the the 5 watt has i think a RQA0009. Why not try a late UV5R Aerial on your aerial analyser ?

[@davidsmith6080]

Hey hold down 6 (or) 3 an turn baofeng ON to see "firmware version" (or) "serial number".. an from ON hold zero for volts in decimals...alarm can transmit or not while being heard or not...PTT button an key numbers FOR transmitting tones ...you know you can take out the micro controller and change the menu..I want to put another receiver in mine too ...for HF.

[@g4nsj]

Thanks!

[@phillipsmiley5930]

@@g4nsj If button 3 and 6 doesnt show anything held down on switch on, its a fake baofeng. also UV5Rs after 2014 show battery volts on button zero

[@jonco2969]

Hi Ray.. How are you?.. May I ask for a little bit of advise? Sorry to be a pain. I have a a 1938 GEC valve radio which I have had for years. I've recently got it going again as it had a fault after the last time it was moved.. To cut a long story short it is working, even in mid Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.. After a fight..i suspect it might benefit from capacitors being replaced?.. It's a berrtta bulb super 6.. After all the years would just like to keep it going.. Great vids.. Cheers.. Kind regards Jon C

[@tdumnxy]

All good stuff! I bet if you changed the title of this video to include the magic word - NanoVNA - then your views and/or subscriber numbers would shoot-up. 73

[@tdumnxy]

Also, where did you get your NanoVNA from? I'm finding there are so many "fakes" and variants out there it is hard to know where to buy one from.

[@g4nsj]

The next video will be about the VNA so I should get a few views on that one.

[@g4nsj]

It was from Amazon. It appears to be genuine but you never can tell.

[@tdumnxy]

@@g4nsj There are dozens of suppliers even through Amazon and so many models, original , H4, F, V2, there are 101, 201 and even 400 samples, some have batteries, some don't, some have plastic cases, or metal, or none at all and the supplied accessories vary. I find it all very confusing.

[@g4nsj]

@@tdumnxy This is the one I bought... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NF1K76M?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details