Programming Baofeng UV-5RC

I've recently been trying to manually progam the superb Baofeng UV-5RC in channel mode, which is not intuitive!  This came about because I have a new handheld satellite antenna that only has one feed, so channel programming is a necessity to cope with Doppler shifts and, sometimes, the need to use a different CTCSS tone to activate the satellite, as opposed to simply sending the correct access tone with each transmission.

The UV5-series handhelds sell for just £22, but provide great fun, with very good performance.

 
Coping with all these factors manually with two antennas and two transceivers is easy, especially if you have rotary knob tuning rather than 'up/down' buttons.  But it's absolutely impossible with just one transceiver doing all the work in the direct entry,  frequency mode.  So my new set-up forced a new way of doing things - programming.


There are some videos like this one out there, but I still found myself really scratching my head until I wrote everything down and went through it in a step-by-step manner.

Whilst a programming cable is very cheap, and can easily be made up from phono and USB cables, the following doesn't need any cable or the usual free software folks use - CHIRP - at all.

Here's how I programmed it for satellite operations:

Enter frequency mode (vfo/ORANGE BUTTON)
(Voice confirms mode)

Enter RX frequency e.g. 436.850

Press MENU

Enter 27 for channel storing

press MENU


Enter channel number


press MENU

voice confirms RECEIVING FRQ/CH

PRESS EXIT
--------------------------------------------

Enter TX frequency, e.g. 145.850

NEED ANY CTCSS TONE?  - if so, PRESS MENU > 13 > select required CTCSS tone

Press MENU

Enter 27 for channel storing (will already be on the earlier setting for RX)


press MENU
(voice confirms RECEIVING FRQ/CH)

Press EXIT.

DONE!

If you find the rig always returns a "transmitting frq/ch" voice no matter what you do, there's something already in that memory and you  need to delete its contents before you can fully reprogram it.  Enter MENU > 28 > MENU > delete the appropriate channel number, cofnirm by hitting MENU again.  You should now be able to enter the RX, followed by the TX frq as per the instructions above.