Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – December 2024 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

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Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at:

Archive index: https://arrl-ohio.org/ohio-section-newsletter/

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

I went back and looked. It has been quite a while since I’ve ragged on Baofeng radios in the OSJ. If you’re a new ham or new reader, Baofeng radios sucked in terms of spectral efficiency. Like most things, the market is being flooded by cheap Chinese alternatives. The thought of a $30 radio (back then, the big A now has for $17 as of this writing) is very appealing to many hams. Whether due to price consciousness or that the radio can be trashed if it gets damaged. No one is going to lose sleep if it goes missing or gets destroyed.

The radio works pretty well. The battery lasts a long time on a charge. Audio reports were good. Sure, programming was a pain because the menu made little sense and two radios likely didn’t operate the same. Everybody and their brother was (and still is) saying how great Baofengs are.

When the output of the transmitter was analyzed, they were not so great. Baofengs had this nasty habit of transmitting everywhere at once. They had spurious emissions up and down the RF spectrum which interferes with other licensed services. Part 97 specifies spurious emissions for radios must be 40 dB below the fundamental emission. Some videos show spurious emissions only -19 dBm from the fundamental. Clean spectrum and self-regulation be dammed but zOMG, $17!!!

I have not bought any more or transmitted using the ones I have since they gained their poor reputation for harmonics and emissions. Some YouTube videos I’ve seen recently say UV-5R RF performance is ‘better.’ I don’t believe it, but color me intrigued. Maybe they’ve finally cleaned up their act.

Baofeng UV-5R spectral analysis on 2m (w2aew)

Alan – W2AEW, Technical Coordinator for the Northern New Jersey section, has his own YouTube channel and it is fantastic. Very detailed videos on many technical topics including antenna building and tuning, using NanoVNAs, demos, tips, and electronic components. His latest video (as of this writing) analyzes the RF characteristics of a recent Baofeng UV-5R purchased about a year and a half ago.

His video shows RF performance is actually compliant. On 2m, he shows the second harmonic is -60 dBm down. The third and remaining harmonics are all in the noise floor (-77 dBm or greater). On 440 shows the second and third harmonics in the noise floor. Much better than I expected. Alan goes on to do additional analysis. RF output vs time is clean. His radio stabilizes on the final output frequency cleanly within +/- 30ms. PL tone is stable and clean too.

Baofeng UV-5R interesting spurs (w2aew)

Alan did find spurious sidebands 75 kHz away from the carrier, which is outside the passband of narrowband FM. He speculates there is a switching supply or regulator internal to the radio causing the wideband FM modulation.

Before everyone goes stockpiling UV-5Rs because of this news, this is a sample size of one radio. Maybe the radio Alan tested is one of the ‘good ones’ and the rest still stink. Don’t know. Other recent videos, where they put the radio on an analyzer, seem to indicate newer UV-5Rs are cleaner than previous generations. This result also does not mean ALL Baofeng models have clean RF output. A video by K8MRD shows the UV-5RM is as bad as the old UV-5Rs, in more ways than just RF performance.

Baofeng UV-5R spectral analysis on 440 (w2aew)

What radio should someone buy that definitely meets Part 97 RF requirements and doesn’t break the bank? DX Engineering has three dual-band HT options for under $100 at the moment: a Yaesu FT-4XR for $85, an Alinco DJ-VX50T for $90, and a Yaesu FT-65R for $99. I’m sure others can be found as part of Black Friday deals as well.

For something a little cheaper, a company called “Baofeng Tech,” or BTech, is a US based company offering the UV-5X3 for $65! They have comparable offerings to other Baofeng models too. Baofeng Tech not only sells improved Baofeng radios but they also directly support their products.

Baofeng Tech UV-5X3 radio and accessories (baofengtech.com)

The radio looks and acts like a UV-5R. Baofeng Tech updates the firmware, modifies the radio by installing better filtering on the transmitter, and includes an easy-to-read, nicely printed, 85-page manual. The UV-5X3 comes with the same accessories including belt clip, antennas, charger, and ear piece. All original Baofeng accessories work too. To my surprise, they even squeezed in the 220 MHz (1.25m) band into the radio making it a tri-band radio!

Baofeng Tech assured me their radios meet spectral requirements for Part 97. The one I picked up tested good on VHF and spot-on for UHF. I feel very comfortable transmitting with this radio knowing it is compliant. The CHIRP free programming software will program the UV-5X3. If you’re into the RT Systems programmers, the BTS-5X3 programmer is needed. The RT UV-5R programmer (BAO-5R) will not work with the UV-5X3. However, the same cable (USB-K4Y) is needed and will work on both radios.

The West Chester Amateur Radio Association – WC8VOA, was not able to hold their club meeting at the VOA faculty for November as construction projects are in full swing, including redoing the blacktop. Their original presenter for November didn’t want to present over Zoom so they were looking for a last-minute fill-in. I filled in giving my presentation on Ham radio VoIP (Voice over IP) modes and my system used for their weekly net. This presentation covers the history and current state of Internet linking systems in Ham Radio, both analog and digital. The second half covers my DVMIS system and how I link 13 Ham Radio VoIP systems together. Join WCARA’s weekly net Monday evenings at 8pm.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK