Baofeng UV5R Cable - it works!

Baofeng Programming Cable for BAOFENG UV-5R/5RA/5R Plus/5RE, UV3R Plus, BF-888S (Newest Version, Support WIN7,64 Bit)

on Amazon - It works!

           

The Baofeng UV5R is a wonderful little handheld, I have had it now for a couple of years, but have not really got the hang of programming it!
I have bought two different programming cables and neither of them worked, the computer didn't even recognise them. I spent many an hour trying different drivers and trying to get the beast going using CHIRP, but to no avail. I gave up!

When the cable and other items arrived - very quickly and delivered on a Sunday afternoon.
I cautiously connected the cable to the computer with Windows 7 expecting the usual 'Cannot recognise' message...but it didn't...it simply loaded the existing driver and said that it was ready for use. Next, I connected the Baofeng and started CHIRP to clone the radio...IT WORKED!
Amazing...at last I could program the radio with my computer. I then set about programming some channels into the memory. This is fine, but there is a problem with repeaters.
It seems that when you program the channels for repeaters the frequency shift for transmit / receive will not program on the Baofeng. You have to do it manually...what a pain!

Still, I now have a Baofeng UV5R that will program, I put in the repeaters manually after watching a tutorial on YouTube. Now I have a complete set of local repeaters programmed into the UV5R at last.

Box of Valves

Last night I was looking for something on ebay when I came across something quite strange...a box of valves!

When I was working at Telefusion many years ago we had a central store and a valve store. They supplied all the sevice departments with components and valves (and semiconductors) In the early 80's they decided to get rid of some of the valves that were no longer required, so I got 4 or 5 boxes of valves. I put them in my loft and used some for projects, but others never got used. I remember that I sold a couple of boxes of them to someone locally. I also sold a couple more to a guy in Blackburn that ran a junk shop.

When I came across this last night I recognised that box of valves...i'm sure that they were once mine many years ago. Also, the seller is in BOLTON!  They MUST have been my old valves...strange!