New BF-F8HP Questions

[OutlawHoss]

Okay, so yesterday I got this radio in the mail. Appropriately, I took my technician and general amateur exams this morning (and aced them actually; they couldn't tell me my score but the guy winked and said they were both 'perfect') and went home to continue the learning curve on how to program this new beast. I've noticed now, that it only has 144-150 VHF and 440-450 UHF available. I can't enter any other frequencies. So I look closer and realize, well these are the amateur bands, and the rest of the range I thought I was getting is commercial. THEN I look around the net and the box, the instructions (many times by this point) and EVERYTHING says this radio has 136-174 (Rx/Tx) and 400-520 (Rx/Tx). So what am I missing? I still have to order the programing cable, and already have CHIRP installed when I get it but . . . this my first HT VHF/UHF ever and I'm wondering what in the world am I missing? Is this radio defective, or ??? Is it a secret 'cause I'm not impressed?
I'd sure appreciate some guidance- I'm not looking to use the non-amateur bands illegally or anything, I'm just wondering why I can't access the freqz as advertised. It's probably something obvious to someone who knows these types of HT's but its all greek (or in this case chinese) to me.
Thanks-

 

[OutlawHoss]

Okay, so on further research, I see that there is a grey area around the frequency accessibility issues (and the long list of posts about this issue here which I'm obviously new to, but understand better now) and will proceed appropriately i.e. lawfully. Now I'm just waiting for the programming cable I ordered.

On another note, I'm getting the BL 5L Extended 3800mAh 7.4V Li ion battery as it seems to be a worthy upgrade and works pretty well.

I also got the Nagoya 771 (updated) antenna and in comparing reception to the stock antenna, it is quite a difference. Even though the updated antenna comes with a rubber washer to compensate for the longer screw, but it still wasn't a satisfactory fit so I got a o-ring of a little bit bigger diameter and it really makes a nice solid connect that completely seals the connection.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to taking the new radio out when I go camping and rabbit hunting this spring.

 

[KC9HI]

Okay, so yesterday I got this radio in the mail. Appropriately, I took my technician and general amateur exams this morning (and aced them actually; they couldn't tell me my score but the guy winked and said they were both 'perfect') and went home to continue the learning curve on how to program this new beast. I've noticed now, that it only has 144-150 VHF and 440-450 UHF available. I can't enter any other frequencies. So I look closer and realize, well these are the amateur bands, and the rest of the range I thought I was getting is commercial. THEN I look around the net and the box, the instructions (many times by this point) and EVERYTHING says this radio has 136-174 (Rx/Tx) and 400-520 (Rx/Tx). So what am I missing? I still have to order the programing cable, and already have CHIRP installed when I get it but . . . this my first HT VHF/UHF ever and I'm wondering what in the world am I missing? Is this radio defective, or ??? Is it a secret 'cause I'm not impressed?
I'd sure appreciate some guidance- I'm not looking to use the non-amateur bands illegally or anything, I'm just wondering why I can't access the freqz as advertised. It's probably something obvious to someone who knows these types of HT's but its all greek (or in this case chinese) to me.
Thanks-

It sounds to me like someone had access to this radio before you got it.and changed the band limits. These radios come from the factory with VHF set to 130.000 - 174.00 MHz and UHF 400.000 - 520.000 MHz. It is a simple matter to set them back to these values with the OEM or CHIRP software.

Jim KC9HI

 

[OutlawHoss]

Thanks, that's good to hear.
I figured it was some quirk like that as I couldn't find anything online about the bands available being less than advertised. I ordered the cable today so it sounds like I could upload the current settings and work with them.
I'm pretty proficient with manual programming on my BCD396T, and can do a lot without hooking it up to freescan, so it's frustrating there is such a difference in programming access with the BaoFeng. You get what you pay for so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but for what one gets with the BaoFeng for a newbie to amateur like me it seems pretty good.

In looking down the road and acquiring more equipment, do you have an opinion about decent, not too pricey dual band mobile units and antennas? I might as well start asking around-

Thanks for the feedback-

73

 

[jk77]

I'm surprised you are having a problem with the antenna fit. The 771 is the 14 inch antenna, correct? I have that same antenna and a BF-F8HP and have never had to use a washer or o-ring. The antenna fits perfectly.

 

[OutlawHoss]

The antenna is the NAGOYA 15.6" NA-771. It 'fits' alright, as far as seating into the male SMA, the actual antenna connection, but there is a gap between the bottom of the antenna base and the top of the mount when the antenna is screwed all in. The item was marked as 'updated' on Amazon, and that it included a rubber washer to address this, which it did include, but it didn't seal the gap. I found the o-ring to make a solid weather proof(ish) seal so there's no metal, even though it's the outer part of the connection, exposed. This is important to me because this radio will probably see a lot of use in the woods, and other obvious reasons.

I did get confirmation directly from BaoFeng as well that the CHIRP/OEM software and the programming cable will allow me to reset the band limits. They think the radio was set for European sales. Seems like a lot of regs confuses everyone, especially with other country's regs.