Is computer programing required on those small radios?

[sandhya]

I see on allot of the small cheap 2 band radios that there is a computer program i.e. Chirp required for programing. Are these radios programable from the front of the radio as well or must you use the chirp program, or is the chirp program mainly to customize the scanning/searching for specific frequencies?

 

[redbeard]

Chirp programs many different brands and models of radios. You're going to have to be more specific.

 

[sandhya]

Chirp programs many different brands and models of radios. You're going to have to be more specific.

for instance, on these small Chinese radios such as ; Leixen VV-898 Dual Band 136-174/400-470MHz Mini Car Mobile Radio Transceiver US / I am unable to see the exacts on it, can it be plugged and played, and go through the freqs. manually with the buttons, or do these sorts of radios require a computer program, if only to customize how the freqs look or make them easier to dial into?

 

[redbeard]

I googled it for you and right on the Amazon item page it says:

* Input frequency by using Keypad

Additionally, you could also Google the model number and read product reviews like this one that says:

As with any new transceiver, manually programming takes a little to get used to, but is pretty straight forward once you program in a few channels.

That same website offers a manual programming guide as well. Leixen VV-898 Programming - Miklor vv808 vv808S

 

[poltergeisty]

I have a Baofeng UV82 and it's kinda a PITA to program from the frontend. Though, I haven't played with the frontend that much. I just programmed the frequencies in via the program and called it a day. To manually program a frequency into a channel, adding a tone and/or a frequency split for a repeater seems like a multi step process. I did see some YouTube videos on users showing you how to do it. And the manual could be somewhat useful as well.

 

[sandhya]

Thanks All!

 

[KD8DVR]

Many of these cheap chinese radios require computer programming. Chirp does not program all of them.
BEFORE you buy a radio, it is an absolute MUST to find the manufacturer programming software FIRST. I've heard of lots of people who buy radios, only to find there is no programming software available.

 

[poltergeisty]

Exactly. Before I bought my CCRs I looked to see if there was software available then I downloaded it and checked it out to see how it ran, it's features, etc. I do have Chirp installed, but I also found the software for my UV-82 and I just used that manufacture's software instead. I may give Chirp a shot, but it seems like there is an update all the time and now I have to update the software which is only about two weeks old since I downloaded it. I guess that's good in terms of radio support should Chirp add that programming capability to its software for another radio as well as fix any bugs. It's the bugs I worry about and I really, really don't want to brick my radio.

That's why it's probably a good idea to read the radio first and save that configuration file in case you need to write that back in case of issues. That way you have a clean slate to start from should FUBAR happen.

 

[KD8DVR]

Yeah, it is always best practice to read the radio first thing and then save that away. That is the *only* true factory reset.

 

[stingray327]

Until I can get the CHIRP program to communicate with the radio I have been doing everything manually to program if you want to call it that.