How to text over baofeng radio

[Prepped123]

i bought a Baofeng uv-5r about 5 months ago and like it quite well range is good even for around the house and property it works great and amazing price. The only thing i cant seem to figure out is how to send a quick text over it iv seen Motorola radios doing it does anyone know how to do that or have happen to seen a link on how to ?

Thanks for the help

 

[diluted]

Not going to happen on a Baofeng unless you hook it up to a PC

 

[Prepped123]

what brand is capable of that without a pc i wanted it to use it in field situations to send quick locations or orders

 

[eireguy]

They all have to be used w a pc for text as far as i know .

 

[diluted]

They all have to be used w a pc for text as far as i know .

what brand is capable of that without a pc i wanted it to use it in field situations to send quick locations or orders

You need to start looking into higher end radios to do text messaging on the handset. I.E. Motorola XTS 5000 (model III) or APX line, other manufacturers can do this too. Harris Unity, Bendix King P150,400 etc.

The XTS 5000's usually start around $175-250 per radio without antenna or battery on ebay and then you need to set up text messaging in the CPS software that you use to program them. Here is instructions on setting it up. http://www.akardam.net/moto/docs/xts5k_tms.php

Earlier this year I picked up another 5 XTS radios for my group here is a picture of the kind of radio you need to start looking into. The radios are in the gang charger the thing off to the left is an encryption key loader for secure comms.

Going into radios like the APX line you'll start off at about $2,000 per radio, the Bendix King is about $1500 per radio (I have one of the Bendix King's for sale if anyone is interested) and the Unity you get started at about $5,000 per radio

 

[Prepped123]

here is another question since there are multiple people on this forum that know alot. i have a property thats on a decent hill compared to the area around. on the north of my property i have a cliff that over looks a several mile area how can i build a cheap reliable repeater that will help boost us out to where we can get several miles off our handhelds most of them are just the cheap baofengs?

 

[diluted]

here is another question since there are multiple people on this forum that know alot. i have a property thats on a decent hill compared to the area around. on the north of my property i have a cliff that over looks a several mile area how can i build a cheap reliable repeater that will help boost us out to where we can get several miles off our handhelds most of them are just the cheap baofengs?

Are you a licensed ham? A couple of Motorola Maxtracs make good repeaters.

 

[Prepped123]

i am not licensed i have plans to be just haven't been off lately to take time to get mine where i'm at there is little to no ham usage and alot of open band i use a ham on a regular basics as a volunteer firefighter.

 

[diluted]

i am not licensed i have plans to be just haven't been off lately to take time to get mine where i'm at there is little to no ham usage and alot of open band i use a ham on a regular basics as a volunteer firefighter.

Not legally using a repeater without being licensed, not to mention you need to coordinate the frequency with other local hams etc.

 

[eireguy]

I didnt know anyone had txt handsets . you learn something new everyday . There are a few videos on YouTube about gmrs repeater set up .

 

[Prepped123]

so to stay within legal limits i could use gmrs with a extended license

 

[diluted]

so to stay within legal limits i could use gmrs with a extended license

You're still having to buy a license... It's much smarter to just go get your ham license since it will do two things #1 open up way more frequencies to pick from, #2 give you way more transmit power.