Marine FM and NOAA Weather Radio for less than $30

[Bilgemaster]

Well, Darbydale Avenue's an ice sheet. There'll be no happy tinkering in the boatyard today, so it must be time for another installment of Bilgemaster's Tips for Useful Cheapo Chinese Crap. Today I'd like to introduce you to a little handheld programmable Chinese FM radio transceiver called the Baofeng UV5R. They may sometimes be called "UV5RA" or "UV5RA+" or "UV5R V+ Bongodongo" or whatever, but they are all basically pretty much the same radio. As you can see here, you can buy them online for 20-something bucks all day long, more often than not with free shipping...under $20 if you snipe the right auction. If you can, try to get a "UV5RA+" model. Not that they are better or worse than any other, but the chance of its firmware or programming being completely compatible to the channels file I am offering will be just that much greater. They come in a variety of colors: black, blue, yellow, red, gold and even camouflage. Yellow's nice and visible in the dark or buried in a storage bin. With just a little patience and finesse, you can turn one of these into a nice little handheld Marine Radio with all the NOAA Weather Channels, and also pick up regular broadcast FM stations to boot, and there will be no soldering irons, multi-meters, super-hadron particle accelerators or other tool use required, so just calm down there Fred and Barney.
But first a quick disclaimer: As this is an international forum, the adaptation or use of these radios as I am about to describe may be legal, semi-legal, highly illegal, or get you sent to a labor camp, depending on where you are. I will not be held responsible if you wake up to find yourself naked in some bamboo tiger cage blowing up Happy Fun Balls® under the brutal direction of Evil Major Kwan (Don't miss my forthcoming feature story, "Escape from the Ball Pit of Hєll" in the next issue of Real Man Adventure magazine). Also, the marine and NOAA Weather Service frequencies described are those in use here in the Land of the Plastic Spork, so if you're cruising some moonlit lake near Ulaan Bator, your mileage may vary. With all that understood, let us proceed...

Ham and amateur radio guys really dig on these little transceivers for their low price and programmability, and even have a fairly active Yahoogroups forum concerning them. Be forewarned though, after our informative, genteel and ultra-supportive forums, that Baofeng UV-5R Yahoogroup might strike you like you've wandered into some Tourette's Syndrome Support Group. Ironically, it seems that ham radio folks--devoted to the technology and practice of reaching out and communicating with others--turn out to be some of the nastiest and most outright abusive gits on the Internet...particularly to noobs in their midst. Go figure. I mean, I sort of get it: they are encountered near daily by what must seem to them as stupefyingly elementary questions from sub-moronic dumbasses, but those guys go right to Defcon 1. Just make sure to don those flame-retardant underoos if you choose to walk in their midst, is all I'm saying. With that said, unlike most ham operators, who'll routinely program and reprogram these little radios many many times to meet changing circumstances, we're just going to pretty much set and forget a roster of fixed frequencies and channels. In fact, if all goes well, I will have already done the hard part for you, namely assigning the right frequencies to the right channels and putting them all into a nice easy single downloadable file that you can upload right into your radio. So, let us proceed...

Obviously, you will need a Baofeng UV5R radio. Again, try to find a "UV5RA+" model, if you can. Amazon always has several vendors offering them, but eBay's probably your least expensive source. While you're there, you will also need a special little USB-to-dual prong programming cable to connect it to your computer. Oddly enough, though the radios ship with a nice charger stand, AC adapter, battery and earphones, they do not come with a programming cable. You see, in theory you can program the thing right from its faceplate buttons, but in practice, a little freebie program for your computer called CHIRP is just WAY better for what we're doing. Don't worry about the little software mini-CD that comes with some cables. You won't be using it. Instead, download and install a free open source copy of CHIRP from http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home to suit whichever type of computer you'll be using (they offer Windows, Apple and Linux flavors). Tossing them a buck or two via PayPal through their website's "Donate" button at the top of the Downloads page would be good form.

OK, assuming you've got everything you need, or it's on its way, you might do well to get yourself a decent manual for the Baofeng UV5R just to familiarize yourself with it. You'll find several choices over at http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Manuals.html. The original one, a copy of which also comes with the radio from China, ain't the worst I've ever seen of the Sino-Gibberish tech manual translation genre, but then you probably won't love it long time, either. "The (Chinese) Radio Documentation Project" manual available here is far better. The same folks who host these manuals have lots of other info on this breed of radio and related "hammy" topics at http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/. But for our "Making a Cheapo Marine Radio" purposes, we just need to do the following:

• Assemble and fully charge radio as per its instructions

• Start up the CHIRP program

• Connect programming cable to computer's USB port and its dual-pin plugs into dual headphone jacks of radio, making sure to press them in FIRMLY

• Save a backup of the radio's factory-preset settings/channels (just in case). To do this in CHIRP, from its upper menu choose "Radio" then "Download from radio". A little window should then pop up asking for Port, Vendor and Model. First, for Vendor choose "Baofeng", then for Model choose "UV-5R". The Port is the only slightly tricky part, since it depends on what USB port you plugged the programming cable into. Port choices like COM1 through COM6 may appear in its little window, though usually only those ports in use by any device will be shown. You'll just have to repeat this and the couple of mini-steps that follow until you identify the right COM port to your radio. When it finally works you'll know. Click that <OK> button. A scary-looking advisory about some "experimental driver" may appear, asking if you wish to proceed. Fear not and click <Yes>. Next a window of instructions will appear. Make sure all instructions are met and click <OK>. If a message stating "An error has occurred" appears, it just means you chose the wrong COM port, so repeat with a different choice (and remember it...You'll need it later for the upload)

• Like I said above, once you choose the right COM port you'll know. You can now download and save the radio's channel and other settings as a single file to your hard drive. A new folder named "BaofengRadioSetups" might be a good place to squirrel this backup file away, so go ahead and do that. For example, you could call it <OriginalSettings.img>. It's just insurance in case things don't work out as easily as we'd hope.

• Now go online to http://www.amphicar.net/Baofeng/ and download the file listed there named <BaofengMarineRadioSettings.img>, perhaps saving it into that "BaofengRadioSetups" folder you created.

• Now it's time to upload that <BaofengMarineRadioSettings.img> into the radio using the CHIRP program. So, in its top menu choose "File" then "Open" and navigate to wherever you put the file (possibly that "BaofengRadioSetups" folder?) and double-click it. CHIRP's screen should fill up with lots of rows and columns of numbers and other stuff. These are the channel and frequency settings. You're welcome.

• Now in the CHIRP upper menu choose "Radio" and "Upload to radio". Remember that COM Port number? Good. Proceed similarly to the earlier download of the radio's original settings. If all is well, a little progress bar should tell the tale as it "clones" the new settings to the radio. When it's done you should have a fully-functional if perhaps semi-legal handheld marine radio with all the transceiver channels (send and receive), the NOAA Weather Radio channels (receive only), and if you just want the ball scores, just press the little "Call" button once on the upper lefthand side and it'll receive regular FM broadcast stations.

If it doesn't work--if there is some problem uploading that <BaofengMarineRadioSettings.img> settings file directly to the radio or some other error, obviously you might want to give the above routine a second and even third try right from the top. After all, the likeliest problem is that you've just chosen the wrong COM setting, or the cable's not pressed firmly enough home. Though, if you have some other model than the "UV5RA+" it just might just be that your radio has a different enough firmware installed to have caused an issue. Not to despair though. It's an easy fix: You'll just need to open CHIRP and copy and paste the settings in the lines and columns of my <BaofengMarineRadioSettings.img> file's tables over those of your original backup, then renaming and saving the resultant file of course, and then just try uploading that file to the radio.

At the risk of becoming everyone's technical support bitch, if it's all just too baffling you can PM me, and we can take it from there (or perhaps your true deepest fears may be realized as I merely point and laugh derisively at your distress, cruelly mocking your lack of manly technical prowess as unfitting for the pages of Real Man Adventure magazine). In a real pinch, I guess you could just mail me the radio. But happy thoughts: Everything probably will work out just fine. I've modded two of these Baofeng UV5RA+ radios from different vendors, and they both work just great. They're real handy for monitoring Channel 16 or getting a quick weather report in the cockpit, and I don't need to dive into the cabin, where my boat's main fixed Standard Horizon marine radio is installed. They might also be handy for dingy-to-boat or dock-to-boat communications. In any event, a backup marine radio's always a fine thing to have handy. Sure, my hunch is these Baofengs are not really all that waterproof, and I don't think they'll float, but for only $20 or so a pop, who cares? Live a little.

[Russ]

Always fun to read your missives BilgeMaster. Quite a few laughs there.

Amazon has 'em for $25
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UYKG4E/re ... 7ecbb60a_S

So how do these puppies perform? How much TX power do they have? Is it easy to use? eg: Type in 68 on keypad and see CH68 or does it display the actual VHF frequency that we don't know?
I agree, most of us use handhelds for close up and receiving stuffs. If we must blast out a MAYDAY, go down and use the full 25w of the fixed mounted VHF with the antenna on top of the mast.

--Russ

[npsrangerchuck]

Great little piece of VHF wisdom- thank you for that! I like the idea of a handheld to supplement the Standard Horizon.

.....so, is it just me, or did everybody read Bilgemaster's post in the voice of Peter Griffin?

[mdbrown]

I use one of these as one of my beat-up, drop-it, don't-worry-about-it ham radios. You could program the radio to have channel 68 be memory 68. No alphas in the memory locations though, but that shouldn't affect casual users. Max power is 5 watts.

The problem with these radios is the poor front-end on the receiver. They work fine in a remote or low RF locations. Take them to a busy harbor or even a metropolitan marina and your $30 radio will be overwhelmed by other signals. They certainly aren't as good as a Vertex, Icom, Standard, or Motorola.

Have fun!

[Russ]

I read it with the voice of Mike Rowe.

[Bilgemaster]

Always fun to read your missives BilgeMaster. Quite a few laughs there.

Amazon has 'em for $25
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UYKG4E/re ... 7ecbb60a_S

So how do these puppies perform? How much TX power do they have? Is it easy to use? eg: Type in 68 on keypad and see CH68 or does it display the actual VHF frequency that we don't know?
I agree, most of us use handhelds for close up and receiving stuffs. If we must blast out a MAYDAY, go down and use the full 25w of the fixed mounted VHF with the antenna on top of the mast.

--Russ

Thanks for the kudos! Gotta do something when Mother Nature decrees that neither tinkering with nor sailing of the boat is an option, and this seemed a helpful sort of thing to fill the empty hours. Every boat should have a marine radio and a handy backup, if at all possible. After all, what good will that radio in the cabin do you if your boat's batteries fail?...or the radio itself?...or that antenna lead gets all mangy?..or electron-craving rodents develop an irresistible jones for gnawing on your wiring? The Baofeng's almost certainly the cheapest marine radio option out there, if you don't mind putting a few minutes into uploading that single ready-made file into it and have the wherewithal to do so. With that said, for those folks who've, say, recently assumed their computer's CD drive was a handy cupholder, or who simply can't be bothered or are just too busy, other not much more expensive options for a ready-made handheld like this are out there. Sure, that one's about twice the price of a Baofeng, but that's still only about 50 bucks...just one twentieth of a "boat buck." Of course, there are LOTS of other über-fantastic electronic goodies out there--floating glowing handheld waterproof Marine Transceivers with built-in GPS, DSC, MOB functionalities and maybe even fertility meters to regale the bow bunnies--but you won't be getting those for just twenty bucks...or those bow bunnies either. If you're lucky, maybe Granny in the bait shack will show you her Ace bandage if you show her Andrew Jackson.

To try to answer your questions, the Baofeng UV5R's transmitting power is user-configurable between a low setting of 1 watt and a high setting of 4 watts (as per the manual, though many say it tops out closer to 5), basically comparable with other far pricier handheld marine radios. I'm hardly an expert. I'd have to struggle to tell you the difference between a wave length and a wave board. But from the little I've gathered from that Baofeng discussion group, the one thing most folks who actually know what they are doing do to increase its performance is replace the little screw-in stock antenna the Baofeng's ship with with a better antenna like the much longer Japanese-designed Nagoya NA-771 or similar. I haven't bothered to do this myself yet, liking the radio's compact form factor as-is just fine, but if you're maybe having trouble getting to sleep some night, there seems no shortage of YouTube videos on the topic with head-to-head antenna and other tests that'll get you sawing those logs in no time. Set YouTube to autoplay them all, and they might induce a coma. Executive Summary: one guy got 18 broadcast stations with the stock antenna vs. 40 with the Nagoya. So, I guess they really could be an improvement, and you can get 'em for about ten bucks. I might grab one someday. Be advised though, that there are reportedly lots of ultra-shabby Nagoya counterfeits out there that might be about as much improvement over the stock antenna as if you grabbed a weenie off the grill on the transom and screwed that in. Fortunately, there's lots of info out there to help one spot the fakes. As far as range goes, as with any marine radio, it depends primarily on the terrain and surroundings. All I can tell you is that monitoring channel 16 on the boat in the Potomac, I often hear from boats I cannot even see on a log stretch of river and also the occasional Coast Guard PAN-PAN advisories for locations many many miles upriver. The two "radio checks" I've ever broadcast aboard were both responded to each time by someone who was NOT nearby with a "receiving you loud and clear," but I didn't have the presence of mind to ask their locations. Again, there are lots of YouTube range tests of these Baofengs to doze through, with guys reaching ham radio repeaters at fantastic distances (51 miles? Could that be true?), but I imagine the effective range of an unmodded Baofeng must be at least a few miles on the water...maybe much more, depending on obstructions, weather and especially on the elevation of the other receiving antenna.

As far as your question, "Is it easy to use? eg: Type in 68 on keypad and see CH68 or does it display the actual VHF frequency that we don't know?," that's the whole point of that channels and frequencies file you can upload mentioned in the step-by-step directions: the radio defaults to "Channel Mode" on start up (a voice even tells you this), so, for example, if you key in "016" it tunes in to Channel 16 or "009" to Channel 9, etc. The channels and frequencies programmed in that file correspond to the regular U.S. marine radio channels, plus all the NOAA Weather channels, depending on region, found in the 30's.

[NiceAft]

We actually have two floating, handheld VHF radios.

When we're up at the lake, and I'm sailing around, the Admiral can stay behind to read, swim, whatever.we can be in touch even while she is in the water. I have the other with me because it's easier to use that than reach for the fix mount radio in the cabin.

We also use them when we go on a cruise. Those ships are so big, it's nice to be able to be in touch. It's also against the law, but we don't chat incessantly, just to be in touch. We also use off channels.

Ray

[Bilgemaster]

While we're on the topic of radios and antennae, it seems the boat lot where I keep my 26X and "Foundling" Com-Pac 16, up on a hill and surrounded by huge trees, poses sort of a challenge for some broadcast FM stations--sort of a "dead spot", if you will--especially for WAMU, the local NPR station I listen to most of the time. Depending on the weather or solar sunspot activity or the moods of overflying birds, my $49.99 factory refurbished Pyle marine stereo used to sometimes have a problem receiving a nice clear signal. Instead, Car Talk could sometimes sound like some bizarre moon landing. Reception seldom seemed to be an issue down on the water, really just up in the boat lot. So, just for a gag I got one of those radio antenna booster doodads just like this one for maybe two bucks with free delivery all the way from China (How can they even DO that?...I couldn't send it to Cleveland for that) off eBay:



Well, with its silvery plug into the Pyle unit's matching antenna port, its blue wire to the blue "Power Antenna" lead of the unit, and my old wire antenna plugged into the booster's black female end (with the far end looped around the sink drain as it had been before), the damned thing actually works. Click and Clack (The Tappet Brothers) cackle with crystal clear clarity.

My hunch is there have got to be better and more sophisticated radio signal boosters--certainly more expensive ones--but this little two buck job did the trick for me, and only took minutes to install.

By the way, here are a couple of Before and After shots of the cabin of that "Foundling" Com-Pac 16 I mentioned that I got for a whole buck, the first "as found" (or at least after I'd mostly pumped out her interior, which had been well flooded thanks to a long-missing companionway hatch cover), followed by a shot from last weekend (I've since stained up that little rectangular bit near the sole to match the darker bits and lacquered that mast support/hand post). Compared to the spacious 26X she's basically just a wee floating pup tent, but still, cute, right?:

BEFORE:



AFTER:

[Catigale]

We use cheap Cobra FRS radios for shore comm which have the added benefit of being legal and you can get them for about $25/pair.

Remember, VHF on marine bands from shore is a no-no unless you have the shore license.

Don't forget to unblock your computer after you download that program....

[Bilgemaster]

We use cheap Cobra FRS radios for shore comm which have the added benefit of being legal and you can get them for about $25/pair.

Remember, VHF on marine bands from shore is a no-no unless you have the shore license.

Don't forget to unblock your computer after you download that program....

Sure, if you just want to yak between boat and shore or while ashore with someone with a matching unit, or let the kids play around with them, those little walkie-talkie pairs are just the ticket. I've got a pair. I've also got a pair of cute little ones that look like little landline telephones. They won't serve you well as a backup marine radio though. You might just as well holler into a hot dog bun.

Not sure what you mean by "unblock your computer after you download that program". If you mean CHIRP, so long as you get it from the link I provided, it's clean, Sparky. I promise. Neither your computer, nor you, nor beloved household pets will suffer constipation or any other ill effects from its use.

[Y.B.Normal]

"Instead, Car Talk could sometimes sound like some bizarre moon landing."
Isn't that how they normally sound??

[Bilgemaster]

"Instead, Car Talk could sometimes sound like some bizarre moon landing."
Isn't that how they normally sound??

Hmmm...You might have a point there...



"And don't drive like my brother...In a Buick on the moon!"

[Russ]

even fertility meters

OMG, you have me in stitches.

I've got a few VHF handhelds, but if not, I'd give this a go. Even without the fertility meters. Nice little bookmark for future reference.

RE: FM amplifiers
For less than $3 bucks delivered, I'm going to give it a go. Yea, how do they send it across the world for that much?
I've bought stuff direct from China before. Takes a while to get here, but the price is worth it.

--Russ

[Bilgemaster]

even fertility meters

OMG, you have me in stitches.

I've got a few VHF handhelds, but if not, I'd give this a go. Even without the fertility meters. Nice little bookmark for future reference.

RE: FM amplifiers
For less than $3 bucks delivered, I'm going to give it a go. Yea, how do they send it across the world for that much?
I've bought stuff direct from China before. Takes a while to get here, but the price is worth it.

--Russ

Obviously I'm a big fan of cheap useful gimcracks from wherever, but frankly, I'm also growing a little concerned for our future. I mean, never mind manufacturing costs, other things being equal (which they're not), there's just no way an American retailer could compete with that "ePacket" free shipping that many, if not most, of those Chinese merchants on eBay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc. routinely offer. This Google search for "Why can Chinese ship for free?" tells the tale.

[Catigale]

You show your level of concern by voting with your pocketbook.

It's that simple.