Radio for Preparedness 101: How to set up your radio

This is a long one, but it needed to be. This is a follow up to my first radio for disaster preparedness video. After Helene, we saw how important radio was to the people in the southeastern US. Today we're going to take a look at actually setting up a radio from scratch.....and I mean from scratch. We'll go over all of the different band allocations, talk about the band plans, look at all of the different frequencies you might want to program, as well as where to find them. We'll also be programming the radio both via CHIRP software, as well as by hand. Hopefully this is helpful for those of you just starting out. I know it seems overwhelming, but once you get the hang of all of this it's really not that bad. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them. Thanks for watching and 73!
Baofeng UV-5R: shorturl.at/sG6AK
Programming Cable: t.ly/lG00W
Baofeng 1800mAH USB-C battery: shorturl.at/d6VFA
Baofeng 3800mAH USB-C battery: shorturl.at/sWAFl
Signal Stuff Signal Stick: signalstuff.co...
Diamond antenna: t.ly/4C4Qd
Nagoya 771: t.ly/_fIgO
Retevis antenna: t.ly/n11T0
N9TAX J Pole: n9taxlabs.com/...
Ham Band Chart: www.arrl.org/fi...
ARRL Band Plan: www.arrl.org/ba...
Calling frequencies: fmarc.net/call...
Repeaterbook: www.repeaterbo...
GMRS Frequencies: www.buytwowayr...
MURS Frequencies: bettersaferadi...
MyGMRS repeaters: mygmrs.com/
CHIRP: chirpmyradio.c...
NOAA Weather Frequencies: www.weather.go...
Evan
K2EJT
buymeacoffee.com/K2EJT
[e-mail]

[@brianr0159]

Again, excellent work. I will send everyone that comes to me asking about entry level emergency communication preparedness to this video.

[@EvanK2EJT]

Thank you!

[@VividClearGlass]

Evan, this was excellent!! This and the last video are a game changer for noobs (me included). I’ve already shared it with my close friends and family. Straight forward and kept it as simple as possible. Thank you for taking the time to make these!

[@EvanK2EJT]

My pleasure! Thanks for watching!

[@charlesx7201]

I been trying to learn about radios since April. I’ve watched many vids and all the popular hams on YT. This vid was on point with everything. Learned some things I hadn’t seen before. One things that I haven’t seen anywhere is someone explaining the frequencies. Which ones are gmrs, frs etc. and how to set up a base station step by step. I feel like the other creators weren’t Specific enough when trying to explain how to set one up. Explain it to us as if we were 5 yrs old 😂 thank you brother

[@EvanK2EJT]

You're welcome lol. Yeah, it can be overwhelming, and there's a lot to learn. I wanted to try to make this as simple as possible without being too basic. My intent was that after someone watched this a few times they could have a radio set up and ready to go that they KNOW works. Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it!

[@wesleechew7340]

Thank you so so much for this video! I’m a few minutes in and I’m already laughing and learning. I’m psyched to follow these instructions. Thank you!!!!

[@EvanK2EJT]

Awesome! I'm glad it's helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@georgep9473]

Evan, Once again great video and perfect timing. I just had 2 GT-5R Pros delivered yesterday. Thank you for taking the time to put this together

[@EvanK2EJT]

You're welcome! Glad to help. Thank you for watching!

[@randysaylor8577]

Click the first line hit shift and go to the last line select then delete or you could just paste your new stuff over the top as well.. learned a ton from your video thanks much never realized how tones worked until your video. You did an amazing job thanks again.

[@EvanK2EJT]

Thank you!..........and oh man, do I feel dumb now LOL. I don't know how I didn't think of that!

[@randysaylor8577]

No very knowledgeable wish I knew as much about radio as you do. Studying for my ham. I can't wait should be a fun new hobby ​@@EvanK2EJT

[@jmbagby0404]

Right on!!! I’m excited to learn, I fit right in this category. I’ll be doing this as a follow along first thing tomorrow. GREATLY APPRECIATED!

[@EvanK2EJT]

Awesome! Hopefully this helped. If you need any help setting anything up, or have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

[@jmbagby0404]

@@EvanK2EJT thank you for your time will do!

[@amazingrazin]

Exactly the information I needed! Thank you.

[@EvanK2EJT]

No problem! Thanks for watching!

[@1kcender4691]

This was informative and interesting. I bought this radio years ago and quickly lost interest in it as I did not understand it at all. Your “beginner” info has been great. Thank you.

[@EvanK2EJT]

Thank you! I appreciate your feedback, and thanks for watching!

[@jonpitchford]

Somebody probably already mentioned this but you can select multiple rows in chirp by clicking on one row and shift-clicking on the lowest row you want to delete and then you can right-click on the bulk selected rows and delete them. You can also use that process to cut and paste them to a new location.

[@EvanK2EJT]

Yeah, I figured there was an easier way to do it LOL. Thanks!

[@clmccomas]

Kevin, For a experenced Ham radio operator, I would program in all of the non-FED, INTEROPS that are in the NIFOG frequencies that you can into the radio as a Zone

[@EvanK2EJT]

Oh, for sure. I have a radio programmed with ALL of that stuff. Definitely above what a beginner is going to want to try to do though LOL. Thanks for watching!

[@SojournerNX]

Outstanding

[@EvanK2EJT]

Thank you!

[@JayN4GO]

Thanks for the video Evan. I sent this to a few people

[@EvanK2EJT]

Thanks man!

[@KC2BKM]

I thought the Baofengs were more diffcult then that to program by hand. I Learnt stuff today! I may have to get a couple of those things.

[@EvanK2EJT]

They're actually cake to program lol

[@appoutfeed]

30 seconds into this video, but yeah - as a noob who just wants comms, the array of choices out there can be overwhelming. The earlier video was great.

[@EvanK2EJT]

This one will lay it all out for you so you have a place to start. Thanks for watching!

[@ryany4326]

Unfortunately it's not that easy. This isn't a problem you can just throw money at. Like anything that can keep your family safe and help with survival- there is a large learning curve and you MUST practice and get on the air. This requires a license. Get it. Now. It's not hard. While your at it study for both and get the general license and be done with it. It's a 12-20 hour one time investment After that equip with Basic radios and operate them. Join a traffic net and operate there regularly . After doing it a few months-year and learning all the basics of hf and vhf you can slow down and put it on the back burner

[@myboymccoy9944]

Thanks again Evan! As you mentioned if you were stepping up from the 5r what would your choice be as a natural progression?

[@EvanK2EJT]

It all depends on how much you want to spend, and what you want to be able to do with the radio. Any radio from the big three (Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood) would be a great place to start. Another fantastic option is the VGC VR-N76 (or the Btech or Radioddity version). There are so many choices at different price points with different features it can become dizzying. If you just want a high quality analog IP-67 radio that will take a beating, charge from 12v, and will always work, take a look at the Yaesu VX-6R

[@vitogriffin8902]

I have a couple of these in my closet. I'll just dial 911 on the keypad when there's an emergency...

[@EvanK2EJT]

LOL

[@jamesa4958]

Thank you

[@EvanK2EJT]

No problem. Thanks for watching!

[@robertwood657]

Good job

[@EvanK2EJT]

Thank you, and thanks for watching!

[@GearheadSCLA]

1:04:29, you were able to reach a HAM repeater but would you be able to reach a GMRS repeater using that same antena? Or would you need a different antenna for that Baofeng radio?

[@EvanK2EJT]

Great question. The antenna I had on that radio will work for GMRS, but it's not a dedicated GMRS antenna. I can't reach any of the local GMRS repeaters from my house, but if I walk down the block a little ways I can. A GMRS antenna will perform better than a dual band ham antenna though for sure.

[@GearheadSCLA]

@@EvanK2EJT thanks for explaining. I have an old UV-5r that has been stored away but now because of your video I want to tinker with it. My job is 80 miles away from my home and I want to set something up so that I can reach my wife incase if an emergency. I already have the GMRS license I just need to find a repeater in between my job and home… Would a HAM antenna/radio be better suited for the range I am trying to achieve? I understand I need a HAM license to transmit

[@EvanK2EJT]

@@GearheadSCLA Yeah, 80 miles is REALLY stretching it for VHF/UHF. It might just barely be doable if you were both on a mountain top or something, but otherwise you're probably talking 10-20 miles of range regardless of what radio it is. HF ham radio would do what you want it to do, but you'd need to work something called NVIS, which only works on the lower frequency bands. You'd need a General class license or higher, and the antenna will be 66' long, or there abouts, strung up horizontally anywhere between 8-20 feet in the air.

[@kdph7848]

I’ve recommended this video to people. I live in Corning NY… could you point me towards a club in this area. I’m new and need to learn and would love to get a tech license

[@EvanK2EJT]

I'm not 100% sure what the club out there is called, but there definitely is one. I do know there's the ERC in Elmira. There's also the Amateur Radio Association of the Southern Tier. Those guys (ARAST) are pretty active.

[@maximiliantomasoski4032]

Watching this on an iPhone in the KZbin app everything from when you switch over to the computer has no audio for me

[@EvanK2EJT]

Yeah, I'm not sure why, but the audio only has a left channel. Screenpal does that for some reason.

[@kcstafford2784]

we are going to use a computer...just like every other ....im out no like

[@EvanK2EJT]

Did you watch the rest of the video? I show you how to do it all by hand as well...

[@kcstafford2784]

@@EvanK2EJT nope I said we are going to use the computer and I skidadled.. If a person is going to use the uv5 for SHTF you better learn to program it by hand and it is a good thing to have....know you're survival ept don't just store it...a lot of it is junk...

[@EvanK2EJT]

@@kcstafford2784 Well, if you'd actually have watched the video I showed how to do it both ways.....but since you didn't, you're criticizing something you shouldn't be