CHIRP

Will offer equipment, sorry forgot to check the box initially. Thx, Dan

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. I was able to get it working using the UV-5R setting, can close this ticket. Dan

Dan/Jim,

Before I saw this post I had tried using Option 2 above on the BF-F9V2N. It resulted in RX & TX fine for upper MHz ranges, but no RX or TX in lower MHz ranges. Radio also showed frequencies in channel mode rather than the pre-programmed location/channel names. So did I write over the firmware and basically brick the radio, or is there still hope?

Dan - Any chance you saved out an original .img file using the UV-5R setting before altering the radio in any other way? Jim, even if he did and uploaded it here, would that right the radio?

~Russ

Russ P. wrote:

Dan/Jim,

Before I saw this post I had tried using Option 2 above on the BF-F9V2N. It resulted in RX & TX fine for upper MHz ranges, but no RX or TX in lower MHz ranges.

What do you mean by upper MHz ranges and lower MHz ranges? Do you have one of the new radios that are firmware locked to only transmitting within the USA ham bands (144-148 MHz and 420-450 MHz)? Any programmed frequencies outside of those ranges are set to TX disabled by the firmware.

Also, are the VHF TX Enabled and UHF TX Enabled settings on the Setting -> Other Settings tab ticked? In the majority of radios that I have seen, these settings are not enabled and it doesn't matter if the tick boxes are ticked or not. But I have seen where there have been a very few of these radios that do honor these settings and won't TX in the corresponding band if the tick box it not ticked.

Radio also showed frequencies in channel mode rather than the pre-programmed location/channel names.

It is up to you do program the radio to use the Memory Display Format (menu MDF-A for the top display line and menu MDF-B for the bottom display line) that you want: CH, NAME or FREQ

If you don't set it to what you want using the radio's menus or CHIRP, then the radio will display it in whatever format is currently selected.

In the CHIRP UI you would use these settings as the equivalent as the radio's menu 21 (MDF-A) and menu 22 (MDF-B)...

Settings -> Basic Settings -> Display Mode (A): {Channel | Name | Frequency}
Settings -> Basic Settings -> Display Mode (B): {Channel | Name | Frequency}

So did I write over the firmware and basically brick the radio, or is there still hope?

No. The firmware is a one-time-programmable firmware. That one time was used at the factory. The firmware, as the radio left from the factory, is read only and cannot be overwritten/changed.

Sure there is hope. The recommend thing to do is to upload the unedited image that was saved from the radio when it was still in its "factory" state. That is the first thing I make for every radio that I have.

If you didn't do that, the second option would be to perform a RESET. Download from the radio after it has been reset and then Import the CHIRP Radio Images (*.img) file that you currently have so you don't have to re-create your channels lineup. Another quick-and-dirty way of doing this would be to load you "bad" image into a second tab will will allow you to copy-and-paste the channels between the tabs.

Dan - Any chance you saved out an original .img file using the UV-5R setting before altering the radio in any other way? Jim, even if he did and uploaded it here, would that right the radio?

I'm not convinced that there is anything wrong with your radio. I think a majority of the problem is that you are not yet up to speed with CHIRP and have a gap between how you think the radio works and how the radio actually works that needs to be narrowed.

I would suggest that you take a look at the following...

Miklor website's "CHIRP Programming Software":https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CHIRP.php page. Especially "Section 4.1":https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CHIRP.php#faqUV5R.

Miklor website's "Detailed Menu Definitions":https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_MenuDef.php page which links to the Reference for BF-F8HP Menus guide which your BF-F9V2N should be a variant of.

Feel free to contact me off-line for help with getting up-to-speed.

Jim KC9HI