Baofeng UV-5R and BF-F8HP

Hi Everybody,

HELP!

NEWB here. Been wanting to get into HAM for a long time. Just picked up a Baofeng UV-5R and BF-F8HP. Just got my GMRS license and will be working my way up in licenses and understanding all of this but in the short term I need a "cheat sheet" answer. I have followed this thread in order to set up a local repeater. It appears I have done it correctly as I get a message when I key in on that frequency. I am going to be the support vehicle on my brothers long distance bicycle ride in two weeks and we want to use these radios for trip communications so I need to figure this question out ASAP. Right now my radios (on a GMRS channel only get about 3/4 of a mile distance. I need much more than this for the trip...

1- How does my radio "know" to use a repeater to extend my range?
If I program a repeater on say memory channel 20, how does it know to use the repeater if I want
to "Talk" on a GMRS radio channel I have programmed into memory channel 7?

Feel free to be blunt if I am not getting this. Won't hurt my feelings.

Thanks,

Chris

Chris your Baeofang is Not legal in the U.S. to use on Gmrs. For amateur radio, or commercial part 90 use, Yes. . 73, n9zas

Well illegal to transmit but you could use it as a monitoring option. Lol. However some these days don't care about rules and regulations I have noticed.

LosRio said:

Well illegal to transmit but you could use it as a monitoring option. Lol. However some these days don't care about rules and regulations I have noticed.

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Those of US who are licensed DO care. 73, n9zas

gewecke said:

Chris your Baeofang is Not legal in the U.S. to use on Gmrs. For amateur radio, or commercial part 90 use, Yes. . 73, n9zas

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Thank you both for the information. WOW! I did not even see that coming. so much for that. How are we even supposed to know these things? I completely understand "buyer beware" and that it is my responsibility to know the rules but seriously?

It's left up to the consumer to Google that.

Read parts 90, 95, 97, etc.

KC4RAF said:

Read parts 90, 95, 97, etc.

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Thanks KC4RAF. Understood

macguyver1118 said:

Thank you both for the information. WOW! I did not even see that coming. so much for that. How are we even supposed to know these things? I completely understand "buyer beware" and that it is my responsibility to know the rules but seriously?

Click to expand...

If you'll jump over to the FRS/GMRS sub-forum, you'll find a bunch of discussions about the use of these radios in those services. There's lots of details what is and is not permitted under FCC rules. And you'll find some good chat about repeaters and such in GMRS.

You'll want to gain a basic understanding of many of the radios services. Each is a bit different in some ways, and very similar in others. For example, in Part 97, Amateur Radio, the person is licensed. Each category of license grants privileges in different parts of the allocated frequency spectrum.

But Part 95, Personal Radio is either License by Rule such as the old 27 MHZ CB frequencies and the UHF low power Family Radio Service, or services like GMRS where a person obtains a license that covers his/her family and allows base, mobile, and repeater operations on a small group of UHF channels.

Part 90 is where all the public safety and local governments operate. There the agencies obtain licenses for specific frequencies in specific locations. It's further broken out by power, emission type, and lots more. Part 90 almost always requires frequency coordination as part of the licensing process and many systems require serious engineering services. In Part 90, the agency authorizes users who operate the radios under the provisions of the license and the control of the agency.

There are lots more services, but you begin to get the picture. Generally, each Part has its own set of allocated frequencies.

The unfortunate part is that radios like the Baofengs cover a wide chunk of the spectrum and can be programmed for frequencies in quite a few different services. These radios are not FCC type accepted for many (if any) of these services. And the buyers probably don't have the appropriate licenses for most of the frequencies either. Yeah, it says "FCC license required" in the fine print at the back of the manual, but most buyers won't even read that, let alone take the time to learn even the beginnings of what's what in this regard. These forums are filled with tales of unlicensed operation on public safety frequencies, amateur frequencies, and more. It's getting worse by the day. The extremely low cost and aggressive marketing of these units just aggravates things even more.

Don't let the radio police get under your skin. Some of them can be quite pushy. But there's a lot of folks that are willing to share information and knowledge without being judgemental.

Licensing and radio choice aside, you're probably not going to get much over the 3/4 mile range you're getting now using a handheld in a vehicle on simplex. You'll probably want an external antenna for whatever radio you end going with. It'll make a huge difference.

Thank you SteveC0265. Very informative. I knew there would be lots of things to learn. I was just hoping that my new "hobby" would offer a fast solution to the range issue we will have on my brothers cycle trip. Guess that jus means I need to dive deeper!

Thank you cmjonesinc. Looks like I have lots of stuff to look into...

OK. Thinking I will need to bite the bullet and study for the Technician license sooner than I had intended as this is the direction I wanted to go anyway. With that said my original question would still stand:

1- How does my radio "know" to use a repeater to extend my range?
If I program a repeater on say memory channel 20, how does it know to use the repeater if I want
to "Talk" on a radio frequency channel I have programmed into memory channel 7?

If I have a repeater programmed in and I am within range of it does the radio "automatically" know to use the repeater even if I am wanting to communicate on a different frequency than the repeater?

I am hoping I am asking this right.

Thanks again!

Without over complicating things I'll try to explain it the best I can. Read this first and I'll go into a little more detail How do repeaters work? | Tait Radio Academy . So lets say you are using gmrs programmed to a fairly standard setup as follows.

462.5500 GMRS 1
462.5750 GMRS 2
462.6000 GMRS 3
462.6250 GMRS 4
462.6500 GMRS 5
462.6750 GMRS 6
462.7000 GMRS 7
462.7250 GMRS 8

467.5500 GMRS 1 in Repeater input (9)
467.5750 GMRS 2 in Repeater input (10)
467.6000 GMRS 3 in Repeater input (11)
467.6250 GMRS 4 in Repeater input (12)
467.6500 GMRS 5 in Repeater input (13)
467.6750 GMRS 6 in Repeater input (14)
467.7000 GMRS 7 in Repeater input (15)
467.7250 GMRS 8 in Repeater input (16)

Okay so lets say you have your radio on any of the top channels (1-8) and someone close by does as well. Pending you are just plain csq then both of you can talk as long as you on are the same channel. A repeater "listens" on one frequency and "talks" on another. So where it says "GMRS 1 in" that would be the frequency you would need to talk to for the repeater to actually hear you. Then the repeater would take what its hearing on 467.550 (gmrs input 1) and transmit it on 462.550 (gmrs 1). When you program a channel for repeater operation you will program two frequencies. The "receive" would the be frequency that you are listening to what the repeater is broadcasting and the "transmit" which is how you would talk to the repeater. If programmed correctly the radio automatically switches between these two when you press and release the talk button. So where you see channels 8-12 they are actually using two different frequencies to work in conjunction with a repeater. Now how well this will work is going to vary depending on radios used and the ability of the repeater. Some gmrs repeaters have great coverage and some do not. If you'll do some searching on basic repeater operation you'll find tons of articles explaining it way better than I just did.

macguyver1118 said:

OK. Thinking I will need to bite the bullet and study for the Technician license sooner than I had intended as this is the direction I wanted to go anyway.

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Please understand that getting your Tech license will enable you to use amateur frequencies that are authorized...

...but does nothing at all for your brother. He would also have to obtain his own license in order to transmit on the radio.