HELP New amateur radio guy here

huntincrazyj's picture
Posted Thu, 07/21/2016 - 3:09pm by huntincrazyj

I have no clue as to how to correctly program my radio. I am a newbie and purchased 2 BaoFeng BF-F9 v2+ radios to put into my emergency packs.
I am wanting to start learning he hobby and get my technician license and most likely either a mobile or a base.
I live in Kennewick and could really use some help or guidance.
I have odd hours for work so i am limited on times i can get this done and proceed.

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And come to the next ham club

by admin - 07/21/2016 - 7:16pm

And come to the next ham club meeting if you can. Monday Aug 1 7pm at the Kennewick Red Cross. There is a link to the address on front page of this site. You will get lots of help.

Hi-- name is Steve and ham

by admin - 07/21/2016 - 7:13pm

Hi-- name is Steve and ham call is WA7DUH. The BaoFeng radios are intended to be programmed with a special cord/USB/RS232 and programming software. They are also front-keypad programmable, but that is so difficult and time consuming that I don't know anyone who has been successful.

The easiest programming software/programming cord company is RT Systems:
https://www.rtsystemsinc.com/

But the best also charge for their software.

CHIRP is the best FREE programming software.
http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home
Not as easy to use as RT Systems, but the price is right. You can get the programming cord by searching eBay.

Either tool, you will need to know what frequencies are active in this area. On this website we have a list of frequencies, and a CHIRP importable file of the frequencies. Again, CHIRP can be difficult, you get what you pay for. But it works. Frequencies are:
http://www.w7az.org/forum/31

73 Steve

Good input on the subject. I

by Never2Late - 07/30/2016 - 9:54am

Good input on the subject. I managed to program mine with the book. I have the BF-F8HP radios and keep them for mainly emergency use. I also had that issue when manually programming and learned that there is a final step to setting the tones or else when you enter a new tone for a repeater it erases the other ones. KG7QJB 146.520

WA7DUH Steve Sterling's picture

They are buggers to program

by WA7DUH Steve St... - 07/30/2016 - 5:51pm

They are buggers to program with the front keypad-- and getting all the tones and repeater transmit offsets correct before saving into a memory channel has to be right for it to work. I've done it maybe twice and only because I was traveling and different areas use different frequencies, tones and offsets.

There is another ham, Al Copeland I think is his name, here in the Tri-Cities that knows more than I do. He doesn't read this website much, but is on our Facebook Page "W7AZ Tri Cities Amateur radio club" frequently. He could probably help too.

Steve WA7DUH -- Site SuperModerator
Flex 6700, Flex PGXL, Kenwood 820S, Icom 7100, Icom 7000 in the mobile, SteppIR DB18E @ 75ft, G5RV, Yaseau 8800R dualband mobile, VX-170 Handheld, Anytone 878 DMR/FM Handheld