Quansheng UV K5 firmware update, or how to screw up your radio!

[@KX2U]

Ham's are experimenters at heart.... a "toy" like this is what we all look for to see how far we can push it before it breaks. We really don't care if it breaks, we just care about pushing the tech...

[@AdamosDad]

I bought one of these to experiment with, it is so cheap that I don't care if it gets bricked. I am a retired electronics technician. So, for me it's a small challenge to get the dog to do tricks, it's about the fun and the "art of radio."

[@roogalater]

It's simply not made for transmission on 6 metres. Certainly not on CB. It's known and (hopefully) understood that the TX strip in these radios won't properly pass RF outside of the design frequencies. The tuned circuits and low pass filtering were made for 2 metres and 70 cms. Anyone trying to transmit on 50 mhz or 28 mhz, for example, will get microwatts where they want it and watts where they don't, on the harmonics.
I've seen no loss of RF power with the modded firmware. But I haven't transmitted outside of design frequencies. It's likely that transmitting out of band damages the transmit strip, it probably cooks a capacitor or something and detunes it. That RF energy that can't pass through to the output has to go somewhere and most of it will turn to heat.
The firmware mods are for receive expansion and improved features. And it's fun to do that. Transmission out of band is purely for experimental purposes, not for communication. Nobody ever claimed it works properly and it was never intended to.

[@nathanwaller7242]

The firmware mods that are available are excellent, as long as you have the understanding that bypassing of filters that are hard wired is a road to ruin, but being able to use the other features like mic gain spectrum analyzer battery calibration and the many other fine tuning abilities like the AM reception puts these radios on another level for their price, that is under £15.

[@KX2U]

I actually received my second one today... That brings my count on Chinese HT's to 11...

[@user-tw7sc9tj6x]

@@KX2Uhaha I can’t stop collecting them either 😂

[@KX2U]

UA-cam should allow small pics in these replies... I can show my army of HT's@@user-tw7sc9tj6x

[@astrayamatu]

@@KX2U ahh yes the cheap little chinese pokemons i am kinda stuck in that phase too

[@briggsy3155]

Where can I get one for £15

[@lesbrearley2668]

Missing the point of this radio with this video

[@DarrenMaunu]

I got the radio to play with and to use as a receiver that's capable of TX on 2m and 70cm if I want. It's an extremely capable radio, especially for the money. But people have to be realistic of the hardware limitations as software can't overcome those. What's cool about these custom firmwares though, is it could lead to experimentation on the hardware side. Giving us more things to play with. Of course these custom firmwares are other peoples experiments and may alter function of original features/operation. For anyone wanting a radio that works well at everything it's designed to do out of the box, this isn't the radio for that. This is an inexpensive radio for people that like to play and experiment. I've been having a lot of fun with it.

[@matambale]

I'd call that a victory, restoring the rig to its original configuration, given the bodacious spurs the modification delivered!
Perhaps a new release specifically for the UV K5 will come out AND on a warm day in the workshop. Popular radios tend to get more attention.

[@AsciiWolf]

Just use a firmware that does not allow TX outside of stock bands, but still has all the advantages of custom firmwares. For example the Egzumer one. The original, stock firmware is crap.

[@ptronix]

I have just put the enhanced S meter back on it. Think the original firmware is fine for me. But I will check on that one you suggest

[@la7dfa]

The TX outside 2m/70 is simply stupid. And the retards thinks it may be useful. You really need access before the endstage of the radio to perhaps do anything useful for transmit. And even then you need proper filtering and to verify the spectrar purity with proper instruments.
I am using mine to monitor the local aircrafts and tower on Airband AM, at for that it works fine.

[@ralee3422]

I use the Egzumer mod and so far really like it. But I only transmit on 2m 70cm like it's designed to do

[@spaceflight1019]

The only mod I was after was the air band receiver AGC improvement. The rest is just gingerbread.
The spectrum analyzer is useful for identifying noise sources. I encountered a signal on 444.100 that sounded like a signal generator with a 1khz tone. Turned out that it was coming from my Lacrosse weather station.

[@peterwaine923]

Lets be honnest here ...by the sound of it, you know, the I dont want this or that mod, why did you even bother in the first place?

[@jamestierney5568]

Let's not get our knickers in a twist here it's a £15 radio 😂 mod all you want but don't transmit on bands it wasn't designed for

[@ptronix]

£10 actually!

[@jamestierney5568]

Price has went up slightly but I got mine for £16 with programming cable

[@stephenjones9153]

​@ptronix I actually got mine for £9.12 a while back 😊I've not flashed it. But it's working fine on 2MTRS 70Cms and Airband AM RX only.
So an absolute bargain 😊. I wish they had these back in the 1970s when I 1st got my Licence.
👍👍👍

[@WATTYUK]

Not had any problem with any of mine and been flashing for near on a year so have the guys on my net

[@ugsisr]

Once you change to Egzumer it seems impossible to return it back to Quansheng firmware..

[@phantomscaler]

noticed that! every time i reloaded the stock firmware i now get a password to read it on cps program even had to have quansheng remotely unlock my k6 so i could read the settings in cps chirp worked no problem so i just put ijv on it and left it

[@Alchemist39]

Great video! And I really appreciate all your thorough testing of it with quality metering equipment to show how monkeying around with some of these firmware gimmicks can be very damaging to a radio when you think that you're gaining something 🙄 simple point and common sense that it has an amplifier for VHF and UHF to transmit on and not all these other fancy out of band frequencies. Just a great video all around 👍

[@ptronix]

Thanks for such a positive comment. I've had so many negative ones on this video and I don't understand why. All I'm trying to do is inform and educate people. But it won't put me off doing more videos.
Best regards Nick

[@Alchemist39]

@@ptronix Welcome! Glad I found your channel and thanks for taking the time to reply. Some people are just plain mean on UA-cam because they have nothing better to do 🙄 I just ignore them and delete their stupid comments. Anyway, I can tell you have a lot of experience and knowledge with electronics in general. I just subscribed and plan to watch and share more of your videos! Keep it up 👍 -David

[@jeffk1485]

Most people buy this radio expressly for experimenting with different firmware. ( I did ). I mainly wanted to open up the receive and use the spectrum display.
The whole radio costs less than a battery does for my iCOM HT, so if it breaks, I'm not really concerned. Besides, barring something unusual, you could always just flash it back to the original firmware if you're the type that thinks ketchup is "spicy."

[@gheorgheberlogea9735]

Este foarte util ce ai prezentat, concluzia ar fi ca dacă ai vrea sa îl folosești pe alte benzi trebuie sa îl desfaci sa îi pui filtrele de banda corespunzâtoare cu un comutator de benzi și sa îi schimbi carcasa ca sa încapă tot montajul

[@MI7DJT]

"What freq you on mate?" "144.525Mhz but you can listen to me anywhere on the band"

[@pauljohnson4590]

Just ba thought - but when you selected 433, did you check the third harmonic isn't a huge spike at 3X which would be off the scale, but maybe that's where the other power went? Clearly, the PLL locks almost anywhere but the PA only works in it's design bandwidth?

[@ptronix]

Thanks for the comment, checked the 2nd and 3rd harmonics on vhf and uhf, its actually got decent low pass filtering. They're down around -50 db. Anyway it's back on original firmware and working as it should

[@pauljohnson4590]

Firmware upgrades really just get tested by us, it seems. Glad you sorted it.

[@ianevans67]

Hi I'm not interested in transmitting on any bands I bought this cheap radio to have a spectrum analyser to check transmission in my area. My radio doesn't have this feature its a version 6 ? Can I just upgrade firmware only to have the spectrum analyser function?

[@ptronix]

Yes you can just update it to have a spectrum analyzer. Use the website I did and just tick the option for spectrum analyzer and leave all the others unticked. Then load it and flash it

[@paulhewson4600]

Hate to hear this bloke when he is in a positive mood,,,holy Fux , brutal

[@johnnorth9355]

Holy Grails turned into Poisoned Chalices lol.

[@paleopteryx]

"...what's the point of a spectrum analyzer..". I guess I'll stop watching here, lol

[@subsubl]

Ignorant HAM

[@johnroberts6695]

How do you go from NO1 back to the frequency mode. I've tried every button and combination of buttons and I can't get back to my frequency. Also, every call on the radio sounds like encryption, but it's turned off. The battery is only 1600mAh, which is 200mAh _less_ than the Baofeng UV-5R. The noisy signal is troubling and the damn thing looks like it was designed by a room full of engineers. As for spurious emissions, I'm not concerned. You can scan all day long and no one's using the frequencies anyway.
Good video.

[@PhillRobinson]

All the right gear, no idea?

[@Superfandangoo]

Thought the same, though can't see the obvious empty ltre bottle of vodka

[@sparky71a]

Way more cross at the thought of a spectrum analyser than a pong game 😂 The most miserable interaction I've seen with the Quansheng and hilarious for it! 😂👍

[@raulcristian6626]

Hey @ptronix, thx for this educating video, could you please tell us how did you manage to install an official firmware and where did you find it, since i am unable to install the one from quansheng website because i get the (firmware not matched)

[@ptronix]

whosmatt.github.io/uvmod/index.html
this is the site I used to load original firmware.
Click on patch firmware and it loads a default.
which appears to be V26

[@falcon02012]

It would be helpful to know if the air band update fix will affect the 440 power output.

[@leesops710]

No it does not just burns radio up

[@AsciiWolf]

​@@leesops710 No, it does not. You just had a faulty one.

[@mowtown75]

I get the squelch break on VHF as well here in Aust. I have always suspected it to be Wi-Fi intereference. Always on VHF even though Wi-Fi is 2.4Ghz. It goes away as I leave the house.

[@ptronix]

Well you could turn the squelch level up, when you're at home

[@johnenrani]

Great! I did set the youtube speed to 1.5 and I don't fall asleep while looking at it.

[@robertburdoff1789]

I''ve watched so many Quensheng videos recently it's hard to keep track of who said what....
re transmitting on bands outside of designed range - known to put out crap amount of watts where you want them & leak the rest in harmonics & spurious emissions.
re programming 27mHZ via Chirp - also known not to record any frequency below 50 (but will still record other details)... so you could put all your channels in, name them - yup, they'll all be 50mHZ, but then you can manually edit them to the correct frequency. The Chirp bit will take you 5 minutes, but prolly about 1/2 hour to manually re-edit the frequencies to what they should be. So, unless you really want the Quensheng for listening to CB (which is sadly where I find myself), prolly not worth worrying about.

[@yungsmile7546]

It's well known that though mods expand the bands, it's only useful for RX out of the filtered bands; 2 meters and 70CM. It shines on 2M which is the most useful ham band.

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

Thanks God bless

[@ragheadand420roll]

Do you know brick top ?

[@brentonmeadowsvk3cm]

I think the problem is that anyone expecting a 2m 70cm radio to tx any where past 30 to 40 mhz of its initial design is on hallucinogenic drugs. But, it's receiver capabilities is actually quite impressive in the expanded areas, and hams by nature do love to play. I agree after testing on our Anritsu spectrum analyser that of course the use on tx for 10m or 11m is going to be spikes focused all over 2m and a silly idea, and we didn't expect anything better than this. The message should be, this is an experimental radio for nearly zero $$$ and it's got so many versatile features outside of its standard 2m 70cm tx/rx and great an all band receiver. I listened to a chap 3000 kms away on 28.490 usb in this $20 aud unit last night, very surprising as I expected sensitivity to be shocking but with a simple 10m vertical , vk3 to vk6 was audible and loved the experience and the ssb resolution eas as good as my Icom icr10 ssb handheld.
You can't spend $20 any better if your a ham wanting to experiment around with one of these units. Cheers Brenton vk3cm Tangambalanga North East Victoria Australia

[@jackvsadam2679]

This is why I want to mod it- I want to try the signal meter for direction finding and open up the air band filter because I enjoy listening to the planes overhead. Also, I want to buy a second for my mother who is not a ham but loves to listen, I’d like to unlock the extra frequencies so she has more to listen to.

[@astrayamatu]

yea working outside the intended range introduces A LOT of harmonics on this one

[@PhillRobinson]

It only has filtering for Uhf

[@SIGINT007]

Or said another way, the filtering is only usable in the UHF band and does not include VHF band...probably because they cheaped out on the $0.03 it would have cost for another coil next to the UHF one.

[@hackbyteDanielMitzlaff]

Thank you a lot for this video .. i wasn't aware that modding can even screw up the power settings.. ;)

[@nathanwaller7242]

See you on the signal page 😂💚

[@oldblokeh]

Well done for restoring it, Nick. Cheers, Steve.

[@ptronix]

Thanks Steve, I've actually put the better S meter back on it, that's about the only useful thing I think. How did you get on with your firmware update?

[@garycowger9579]

I don't care what everybody says the radio is made to only transmit properly in the 2 meter and 70 centimeter band but it's also the fun of upgrading the firmware to receive and do modifications that's how we learn yes it may transmit out of band and give harmonics in places we don't want it to but it's all in the fun of experimenting so who cares if the radio gets screwed up a little bit you can always program a back to what it was intended for that's the beauty of it so get over it and just have fun this is a cool little radio that was put out on the market to have fun with and to experiment I myself use mine for pedestrian mobile and I have a lot of fun doing it so 73 everybody from KB8UGP Gary and Enterprise WV

[@gixerags750]

The whole point of buying this radio is for CB ers to piss off grumpy old hams.😊😮

[@stephenjones9153]

Where not all Grumpy some of us have a good laugh 😂😂😂😂

[@gixerags750]

@@stephenjones9153 lol. That's the spirit..!

[@heinerrambold8889]

Yes , uvmod. Better leave your fingers from programming the radio via browser. I ended up, after much flashing of the led and success messages with a radio that did not even turn on anymore.

[@quentinbush]

I bought the Quansheng UV-K5 because it was the price of 3 coffees and something to keep the old brain amused. I managed to lock it up to the point it wouldn't change bands, scan frequencies or even RESET, useless. Never mind but UVMOD easily sorted it out.
The first 'stock v 26 firmware' download cleared everything, started at 20% and emptied the radio. Other downloadable versions are very good. Don't be silly, enjoy the radio, my motto is don't PTT unless you are on PMR frequencies or are a licensed HAM user. If you want 27Mhz, buy a CB radio.

[@ptronix]

Great cheap radio to play with, but not outside its rated frequencies on transmitt

[@angerwurst1860]

Interesting to see, that transmitting on these frequencies puts out mainly harmonics, thank you for testing and showing it on a reliable sa :), transmitting below 50 is not possible with the web upgrade firmware, but you could with an other firmware, but with 99% harmonics and a wrong antenna, it would be pointless.
I really like this modded radio because it only costs 17€ and offers you a lot of freedom (but also a lot of problems based on this freedom).
It is great for a ham radio beginner like me, im currently only receiving and building antennas and filters, it is a good learing platform :)

[@ohenekojo2561]

Never mind the wallies in the comments section mate. Keep experimenting!

[@vetham100]

it would seem that my uv-k6 is dead I only had it for 1/2 a day!

[@ptronix]

That's bad luck, mines still going fine despite what I've done to it. Hopefully you can get a replacement or refund

[@vetham100]

@@ptronix I just fixed it, the com port was the problem. Thanks.

[@alanslade2319]

Fred in the shed did it and it works well

[@HamTechRadioScannerDrones]

All that fun for 15 quid

[@SIGINT007]

I love your counterpoints to the "modify it for everything" crew that are out there. I love that you can change the firmware in this radio, but most of these add-ons are uncalibrated anyway so it's really just a toy radio still at the end of the day.

[@daytona1212]

Don't know what you have been doing, but my UV-K5 transmits on 27.000 when I set it on 27.000. The display does not change to 50.000 while transmitting. It's just a gimmick and you can listen on 27mhz on AM, FM and USB. The chip is not made to transmit there and the antenna doesn't cover 27MHZ

[@liverpudd306]

My Quanshen UV K5(8) worked OK before and after the firmware update. Tx on 2m and 70cm both at +37dBm stable output and the 2nd/3rd harmonics greater than -50dB down on the fundamental TX frequency. Excellent bit of kit, especially for £15 delivered from China.

[@leesops710]

Let me tell you if you mod your firmware even if you don't TX out of band but TX on the band this radio will do it will burn your radio up and over load the radio too where in my case just on RX the radio turned off and would not come back on till I removed the BATT. . Then 10 mins later just on the normal band radio will TX on radio got real hot and shut off never came back on. I know 1st hand on this maybe had a bad one. But did get another one left it as radio came no problem at all P.S. air band quality did not improve. 73

[@ptronix]

It's quite likely that if you transmit out of band, you will risk blowing the output device. 73

[@MrKeys57]

My radio does an excellent job on the airband, (receive) with good modulation, did the latest fagci update,from Github, will not touch it more,Levi

[@johnharrison373]

Yes, it's cheap Chinese sh*t, but good fun. Cheap enough that it doesn't matter if it gets bricked. I bought two from aliexpress, only took a week to arrive with "free" postage. You have to take your hats off to the Chinese. How they make money out of them is a miracle.

[@geekfreak618]

Capitalism can be expensive.

[@whheg]

@@geekfreak618Capitalism would work great if it wasn’t for the Unions making everything too expensive

[@JUSTINFRONT007]

Did you just transmit illegally on 144.00? At roughly 08:00 you transmitted with any callsign

[@trevorofwhatever]

More like why would anybody ever TX on 27mhz with a 5w... smh
This guy's just all spun in circles about the logic behind this entire thing

[@peterwaine923]

All that kit you have in the workshop and yet you say you are not with it on how to do a simple firmware load...lol I woukd stay away from mucking about with anything if one struggles with the most easy thing to do with regards to firmware updates.

[@stephenjones9153]

He's probably a brilliant repair Technician with all his Professional test Equipment 👏 👍.
Absolutely no need to be able to flash firmware on these or even understand how it's done.
I know plenty of old school Technicians and Engineers that would leave 99.9% of us for dead when it comes to know how.😊😊

[@markaz2kk]

The FM demodulate is horrible!

[@clumpyify]

You sound like Julian clary with a sore throat

[@dmdmorg]

It's 15 bucks and gives hobbyist the chance to experiment. A gimmick!

[@phelanpawly2507]

This is the most depressing video I’ve seen. 😂

[@benhumphrys1656]

Maybe it shouldn't be called a firmware uograde but instead perhaps wobblyware?

[@ptronix]

What ever you want to call it, its people messing with a radio who don't know what they're doing and will cause interference with other services. Cheers Ben

[@stephenjones9153]

​@@ptronixMost of em don't own any Professional test gear and wouldn't even know how to use it properly if they did.
Hat's off to you.😉👍👍👍

[@ItsRael108]

Mental

[@paulbragdon573]

its a frigging test radio get over it

[@Drteomas]

Is this video a joke? It's not funny at all.

[@oar9fi]

That's cuz you're not high duh. You just dont get it ,man... its over your head like a rainbow

[@Swede4Trump]

Title:
How to screw up a UA-cam video

[@Superfandangoo]

Oh dear... £11 radio don't dare muck it up whilst experimenting (you know that amateur radio thing.. Experiment) But what your doing is pointless as the filters are not there for out of its 2m & 70cm tx bands. its Wideband rx is great.
Its not a £500 HT but has more rx than those.

[@placesandspaces1660]

He has no idea? and why would you point at the screen with a scew driver, the radio is good for 2m 70cm the upgrade firmware is for listening only covers 18mzh to 999.999mzh if you are stupid enough to transmit outside of the radios capabilities then you sould not even own the radio... and you need a licence to operate it anyway,so if you have a licence then you should aready know better.....Simple

[@Superfandangoo]

Crikey you must be juiced up. When your sober go back over this £11 ht, try and find a £500 Icom, yaesu with all that as a receiver forget the tx its not designed for