CHIRP

Larry Rothman wrote in #note-2:

I think I figured out how to turn off transmit on a given channel - but...
I can only do it on the Quanshen Windows programming application as it has separate fields for TX & RX frequencies.
Essentially, if I set the TX freq to one that the UV-K5 firmware has disabled transmitting on (like 50MHz) the radio will no longer transmit and will show "Disabled" when the PTT is pressed.

Try this:

• read from radio
• enable support for modified firmware in chirp
• program a channel with large negative offset so that the TX frequency is below 50MHz, for example program 145.500MHz , and -10MHz offset
• write to radio

Try to see if it will transmit. If that works for you, then it can be supported within chirp easily.

VY 73

Jacek / SQ5BPF

Correction: I got the release doc for the modded 2.01.26 FW confused with the OEM release and I have the UN-MODDED OEM FW in my radio.

However - I can set the TX in the OEM CPS to TX 18MHz with no errors & then program the radio. But, when read back with the OEM CPS, it shows TX 50MHz.
So, I assume 50MHz is the lowest at this point for the current FW release and creating an explicit TX Disable pull-down option should probably just set the TX to 50MHz for now.

Thanks
Larry VE3LRI

Larry Rothman wrote in #note-4:

Correction: I got the release doc for the modded 2.01.26 FW confused with the OEM release and I have the UN-MODDED OEM FW in my radio.

But we're talking about chirp here:

• Use chirp with an unmoded radio, and enable support for hacked firmware.
• read from radio
• set a memory channel at 145.500MHz, with -100MHz offset (so tx is at 45MHz, which is not supported by the radio).
• upload to radio
• try to transmit on this channel

Try and report the results here.

VY 73

Jacek / SQ5BPF

I tried that right after I submitted my last entry (with the correction).
Chirp produces an error pop-up stating the offset is out of the range of the radio (ie: below 50MHz)
If I use a neg offset of -95MHz, it takes it with out of range error.

So - it appears the lowest freq is 50MHz (for now) for which Quanshen has disabled TX in their OEM firmware releases.

it's a crude hack but if the OEM can release a new FW with a no-TX flag for each channel, that would be good.

Cheers,
Larry

Jacek, is it possible that shift=0x03 means "use the offset as the tx frequency" ? That's a common pattern amongst radios that use an offset field. If so, perhaps shift=0x03 and offset=0 (i.e. TX on 0MHz) might be suitable for tx-inhibit?

Larry Rothman wrote in #note-6:

I tried that right after I submitted my last entry (with the correction).
Chirp produces an error pop-up stating the offset is out of the range of the radio (ie: below 50MHz)

So did you enable support for hacked firmware in chirp? This will remove the sanity check for out of band tx frequencies, and you should get no popup.

it's a crude hack but if the OEM can release a new FW with a no-TX flag for each channel, that would be good.

I think we might be able to do it in current firmware versions.

VY 73

Jacek / SQ5BPF

Dan Smith wrote in #note-7:

Jacek, is it possible that shift=0x03 means "use the offset as the tx frequency" ? That's a common pattern amongst radios that use an offset field. If so, perhaps shift=0x03 and offset=0 (i.e. TX on 0MHz) might be suitable for tx-inhibit?

I will try that too. Other possible ways are:

• set a negative offset the same as the frequency, effectively setting TX of 0MHz

• set an offset so that the TX frequency falls in the middle of the 640-850MHz range which is not supported by the chip.

VY 73

Jacek / SQ5BPF

I just tried the updated UV-K5 driver and it works as intended by creating a negative TX offset equal to the receive freq.
I tried this at 162.4, 220, 440 & 500 without any issues.
On the radio, these channels all show up in the settings as having a neg offset equal to the recv freq.
I currently have unmodified firmware 2.01.26 installed in my device.

As I mentioned earlier, there seems to be no bounds checking in the radio firmware and if you use a + offset that takes your TX freq above 600MHz, you will not see any error msg and the radio will TX at 600MHz, the upper freq limit for the fully open band-plan. A negative offset that is less than 0HZ just produces a 'DISABLE' msg on TX even if it wraps around to a value of -RCV freq.

Let me know if you need any more help with this.

Thanks for the great work, Jacek.

BTW, it's nice to know that firmware is not limited to upgrades only and that you can upgrade & downgrade to any version.
With that in mind, I played with some of the hacked FW and was able to TX/RX at 1GHz: RX sens=1uV but TX pwr was < -140dbm (of course).

73

Larry Rothman VE3LRI