Freebanding the UV3R

[Darth_vader]

Followup-To: http://forums.radioreference.com/gm...s-900-mhz-radios-performance.html#post2022610

Out of the box they go up to 470. They are capable of being "reprogrammed" to go wide simply by modifying some settings in the Baofeng programming software's \SETTINGS.INI file. The instructions for this procedure are widely circulated on the WWW as well as in a certain quarterly "computer security" magazine everybody knows and loves about a year ago, so I'm not going to post yet another rehash of it here. That said, even though they are capable of tuning up to 999 and I know for a fact that my friend's two year old 3R can at least hear stuff up in the 950ish range, it doesn't mean all are capable of actually receiving anything that high. I just found this afternoon that mine goes stone-deaf around 760 MHz. (There are a few data channels that I can hear on the 700 band, but that's it.) Some can and some can't, basically.

Then again, I've also seen (via Youtube) one that was alledegly freebanded to go from 10000 kHz up to 900-something MHz. Personally I don't really see the point of making an FM-only rig like the 3R go lower than <148 MHz, since almost everything analogue (to the best of my knowledge) on shortwave is either going to be AM or SSB; that, and you also have coverage of the wideband FM broadcast band and AM-only air band to contend with. I don't have the URL on hand (and don't have time to look for it) but you could probably get on the side and look for it. It's buried in there somewhere.

Obviously, individual results may (meaning: will) vary. It would have been nice if they had made the 5R that easy to freeband, but oh well. Still, at long last I've finally a handheld rig that I can also monitor military aircraft coming into and out of PDX with that I didn't have to win the lottery to buy.

That Alinco looks like it's build just as solidly as the Baofengs and can probably take a lot of abuse, but too bad that it's only available to the minority (read: lottery winners and others with lots of disposable income to blow.)

 

[WB4CS]

Then again, I've also seen (via Youtube) one that was alledegly freebanded to go from 10000 kHz up to 900-something MHz.

Sorry, I have to call "BS" on that one. I haven't see the video (link?) but to my knowledge it would be impossible to expand the bandwidth that much unless they rebuilt the entire radio. The display may read those frequencies, but there's no way it's actually tuning to them. If it could actually do that frequency spread I would imagine that Boo-Fang would enable that feature and advertise the hell out of it to compete with radios like the Kenwood TH-6FA.

Remember, just because it's on the internet doesn't mean it's true

That Alinco looks like it's build just as solidly as the Baofengs and can probably take a lot of abuse, but too bad that it's only available to the minority (read: lottery winners and others with lots of disposable income to blow.)

Who needs to win the lottery to buy that Alinco? It's $300. That's cheaper than most name brand dual band mobile radios, cheaper than a new HF radio, cheaper or the same price as most used commercial gear that hams would use to get on the 900 MHz band.

I understand when you're comparing that Alinco to a $35 Beeew-Fango it's quite a bit more money, but in the context of this conversation we're discussing getting on the 900 MHz band, which is something you can't do with a $35 bow-wow-wow-fang. That Alinco HT is about the cheapest way to get on 900Mhz with a new radio.

 

[Darth_vader]

First off, it's pronounced "Bo-FUNG". It's Chinese. Say it right.

"Sorry, I have to call 'BS' on that one. I haven't see the video (link?) but to my knowledge it would be impossible to expand the bandwidth that much unless they rebuilt the entire radio. The display may read those frequencies, but there's no way it's actually tuning to them. If it could actually do that frequency spread I would imagine Baofeng would enable that feature and advertise the hell out of it. Remember, just because it's on the World Wide Web doesn't mean it's true."

I never said it was true and yeah, I also got the BS impression when I saw it. (That's why I said "allegedly" in my above post.) Even if it could go that low, an FM-only rig would be next to useless in spectrum where transmissions are limited to noisy AM and SSB. I suppose it's a fun little "proof of concept" experiment, but I don't see how it could be worth anything more than that.

Anyways, here it is: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rZ0PTn6LZlw. I see now that it was a "Mark II" UV3R, which might even be capable of working it to some extent or other, for all I know. There's no example of receive audio when he drops to the 10 MHz section, unsurprisingly. (He could have at least hit the monitor key and let us hear an unintelligible copy off WWV...) I'd hate to imagine what a spectrum plot of this thing transmitting that far out of spec would look like. Yikes. I think we can probably both agree on that.

"That Alinco HT is about the cheapest way to get on 900Mhz with a new radio."

Actually, assuming one finds another 3R that's not deaf-mute above 760, that would arguably be the cheapest way to get onto 900 MHz--at $300, the Alinco is most certainly not. The Alinco is, however, probably the most reliable way to work 900 since it was (I assume) actually designed to operate there.

 

[mike_gain]

When I bought mine I was not wearing my glasses. I thought it said BADFENGer.

 

[T04KLH9PW7AN]

Sometimes it is nice to have friends with real service monitors. My UV3 MK I will not receive above 560 at the highest level the service monitor can generate. It will not meet standards for purity of the transmitted signal above about 530 and makes less than .5 watt there.