Baofeng UV-5R programming with Windows 10

How to program the Baofeng UV-5R from a Windows 10 PC

Driver Installation

I needed to make some changes to my Baofeng UV-5R memory settings. Doing that manually is very unpleasant, and I have a programming cable, of course.

It is this one, that is not even labelled, but works great. (Important to note: it does not have the FTDI chip)

The most important thing is to have the right driver installed. The adapter acts a serial interface adapter and needs a driver for that.

USB ID of the adapter

I googled the ID of the adapter. The nearest match was the CH340 from wch.com. The driver can be downloaded from here.

The programming adapter apparently has to be plugged in when running the setup (with Admin rights), otherwise the driver installation failed on my machine.

Successful driver installation

To confirm the successful installation, check your device-manager. There should now be a new serial port.  Com3, in my case.

New Com-Port (3)

Once the programming cable is recognized as a serial port, we can proceed with the programming software

Chirp installation

Chirp is a fantastic piece of software that allows to program a wide variety of radios. Chirp can be downloaded from here. The daily build usually is the best version to use.

Chose the UV-5R

The serial adapter connects to the Mic/Speaker socket

I usually download the current setup from the radio, modify it and upload it to the radio.

Programming hints

It is absolutely not essential, but I like to see my name and call sign when I turn on the radio:

Power-on message

For normal ham-radio operation, these advanced settings work great for me:

Simplex programming

For normal simplex work, I use the old fashioned, wide deviation FM settings. That might vary from region to region.

Simplex Channel example

There are some unused settings here for the tone squelch. The important bit is to have the Duplex field empty.

Repeater programming

For the local repeaters, tone mode settings depend on your local requirements. Here is a very simple example for a 2m repeater:

Repeater example

The 2m repeaters in my IARU region have negative 600kHz offset for their input. This repeater doesn't need any tones.

Prevent transmission

Sometimes you might want to just listen in and be 100% sure you don't interfere with a service you have no license for. In that case, set Duplex to "off".

Duplex off = no TX

If you press the PTT key, the radio won't transmit. An interesting feature for those not-yet holding a ham-radio license.