UV-82HP Band setting in menu (VHF/UHF)

[fmaxwell]

I'm confused about the "BAND" menu option. According to the excellent "Reference for UV-82HP Menus"
by Jim Unroe (KC9HI) this menu option does the following:

"In VFO/Frequency mode, sets [A] or to the VHF or UHF band."

Seems easy enough, but I see no way to set the two independently. I keyed in the U.S. 2m and 70cm calling frequencies, with 446.000 in the upper display and 146.520 in the lower.

When I tried to set the band for for each, it appeared to affect both.

I highlighted the upper display using the [EXT/AB] key, hit [Menu] [3] [3] and select "UHF", pressed [MENU] to save, and exited the menus.

I highlighted the lower display using the [EXT/AB] key, hit [Menu] [3] [3] and select "VHF", pressed [MENU] to save, and exited the menus.

Sounds great, right? So I went back to the upper display and the BAND menu showed "VHF". So I changed it back to "UHF". I then went to the lower display and it also showed "UHF". No matter what I did, they both appeared to be whatever I had last selected.

Does anyone know what's going on with this? Does it still have an effect or is this version of firmware smart enough to figure out what band based on the frequency keyed in?

 

[fmaxwell]

I got my answer while this question was still in moderation limbo; I wrote directly to Jim Unroe (KC9HI), one of the CHIRP developers and the author of the "Reference for UV-82HP Menus".

Jim generously gave this thorough and detailed explanation in a pair of emails he sent in reply:

From the first message:

Pretend that menu 33 (BAND) isn't there. it is automatically set to
the correct value and isn't/wasn't used in the way you are trying to
use it anyway.

Rewind to the past...

Back in the early days of the UV-5R (the radio that the UV-82 series
evolved from), the selected VFO had to be set to the correct BAND
prior to entering a frequency into the VFO. If menu 33 was left set to
"wrong" BAND, as soon as the 6th digit of the frequency being entered
was pressed, the radio would respond with "cancel" and the selected
VFO would return to the previously displayed frequency.

Example 1: To enter 146.520 MHz into the selected VFO, you would first
set BAND to VHF using menu 33 (or by tapping the [BAND] button) and
then key in 146520.

Example 2: To enter 446.000 MHz into the selected VFO, you would first
set BAND to UHF using menu 33 (or by tapping the [BAND] button) and
then key in 446000.


Fast forward to today...

These radios are a little smarter now. They automatically switch menu
33 to the correct BAND based on the frequency that is entered into the
selected VFO. Key 146520 into the selected VFO. Now access menu 33 and
you will see it has been automatically set to VHF. Key 446000 into the
selected VFO. Access menu 33 again and you will see it has been
automatically been set to UHF.​

And from his second email to me:

Anyway, there is still a use for menu 33 (BAND).

When you want to scan the frequencies of a VFO you can use menu 33 to
choose the BAND. If you have the VFO set to VHF but you want to scan
UHF frequencies, you would use menu 33 (BAND) to switch the VFO to the
UHF BAND. After the switch you would see the frequency of the UHF
lower band limit in the display. Press and hold the [*SCAN] key until
scanning begins and the VFO will be scan to the upper BAND limit
jumping through the frequencies based on the currently selected STEP
value.

As I mentioned before, you could have automatically switched BAND to
UHF by entering a STEP compatible UHF frequency, but using menu 33 you
don't have to think about a frequency to key in.​

Many thanks to Jim Unroe (KC9HI), not only for this, but also for all of his efforts for the ham radio community.