The Ham Radio two point zero audio podcast rip. Thank you for downloading and
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from. Thank you in seventy three. I hope you enjoy it. So
Baofang is entering the cyberpunk twenty seventy seven universe. It had to be a
Baofang, didn't it It just it had to be a Fang. I wanted
to take a look at this because, quite frankly, I kind of want
one of these. Hackaday has some really cool articles about just kind of all
kinds of technology stuff, and this one really especially caught my eye because it
has to do with a Boo fang and I really kind of have to take
issue with a little little bit of this article, but I mean he's mostly
right. Bring a Balfang into the Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven universe. I don't
know what Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven is. I assume it's some sort of game,
but I don't really know because I don't keep I'm not I don't keep
up with that industry. I guess I don't know. You gotta love the
aesthetics of a dystopian cyberpunk video games. See I was writing a video game.
I actually read this part of Y where all the technology looks like it's
cabbled together from cast off bits of the old world's remains. Kudos to those
who attempt to create these virtual props and bring him into the world WLD.
But I high us praise goes to those who not only make a game realistic
version of a prop, but actually can make it work. Here we go,
okay, they can do this to a bow. I want one.
Take the Nakoda manufacturing radio from Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven. Taylor took one,
Taylor, I guess the guy who who did this, I guess took one
look at that and knew it would be a perfect vessel for a Baufang Uvy
five R. The dual band transceiver that amateur radio operators love to hate.
Now there's some true to that. There is some true to the fact that
ham radio operators do love to hate the Baufang. Let me tell you why
I don't hate the Baofang. Okay, I'm gonna get to this right now,
but stay tuned. I'm gonna tell you want my actual thoughts on the
Baofang UVY five R. Specifically, the idea is to strip the PCB out
of a Boufang. No worries. It costs twenty five bucks this model and
install it with a game accurate three D printed case. This is by far
from just case mod. The goal is to replace the radio's original controls with
something closer to what's endgame. To that end, they're spinning up an interface
to the stock radio's keypad using some seventy four hundred series bilateral analog switches.
I don't know what that is. Somebody can explain that to me in the
comments. Hook to the keypad contacts controlled by a Mini Mega Mini Mega twenty
five sixty micro controller. The interface is able to send macros and imitate the
keypress is necessary to change frequencies and control the radio settings, plus display the
results on the yellow OLED screen that seems to be a dead ringer for the
endgame display. Probably is a guy who wrote the game, probably has a
bowfang like everybody else does. The video below shows some early stages testing the
device interface, while very much still working projects. We've been following Taylor's project
for a week or so and he's really gaining some ground. We've encouraged him
to enter this on Cyberbunk Challenge. We got it going on so far.
It may not have much debt going for it, but sure Dole's give a
lot of cipher Okay, all right, whatever that means. This is so
they're just basically hacking the heck out of a bowfang here. This is pretty
cool. Is this is pretty slick? You know, if you ever wanted
to make your own platform and stuff to do something like this, you might
consider checking out pcbway dot com. Pcbway brings project ideas to life a lot
of times. They do preprinted PCB circuit boards, they do injection molding,
professional three D printing, and a multitude of other things. They are a
sponsor of this video, so check out the links in the description. Blow
for any ideas you want to bring to life. Thank you pcbay dot com
for supporting this chimnel. He's actually in the hamband right there two twenty one
dot FO three No two two two to two two five. He's right below
the ham band. Two two two to two two five is the one point
two five meter band, so he's right below the hand band and then the
bottom bands on the five hundred megahurts band, which is some commercial band.
I think they used to have like guitar receivers and wireless guitar controllers and transmitters
and receivers around the five hundred to five hundred and thirty megahurts range. I'm
not sure if they still do that or not, but this is cool.
I'll put a link to this video in the description. Blow but I thought
this was a really cool thing. I would love to have one of these.
So I'm gonna try to email this guy and see if maybe I can
bring him on the show or get him to build me one, or get
him to tell me how to build one. We'll see what happens from there.
So the Balfang UV five R and I've said this this is not new.
I've said this in many videos in the past. Okay, the Balfang
UV five hor is an excellent springboard into amateur radio. When I got my
first license in the mid nineties, the cheapest radio I was in college.
I didn't have any money. The cheapest radio I could find was a radio
shack ht X two O two. It was about one hundred and ninety bucks
one hundred and eighty nine ninety five. It was huge. It was this
tall. I still have it. Actually, I'm gonna do some actually,
you know what, it's right here. This is not the one that I
bought new for myself in nineteen ninety four. I still have that one around
here somewhere. This is when I picked up at Orlando ham Caation last year
because it was in perfect working order. There you go, right there.
So that's how big it is. It's freaking huge. It's heavy. It
does single band two meter only from one forty four to one forty eight,
no receive outside of that at all. It does five watts. It's got
a huge battery double a battery pack for it option, and it's got this
This antenna itself is taller than the UV five hour by itself. But that's
one hundred and ninety bucks for single band two meter only, and now you
can get a Balfang duel band with one hundred and twenty eight channels for twenty
five to thirty bucks on Amazon. The only problem I have, and it's
not really a problem, the only the only thing I'll say about the UV
five R. I've just completed a brand new technician class on this channel that
I'll link right up here somewhere. Just completed a brand new technician class.
So if you want to get into ham radio and get your first license,
a Balfang UV five R is a great place to start. My suggestion would
be to get one, use it for a while, and then upgrade to
something else. I've said on many of my best of videos, you should
buy the most expensive radio that you could afford right now, and if that
means a twenty five or thirty dollars Balfang UV five R, then more power
to you, buddy. There's nothing wrong with that, okay. I just
don't think you should be using it two or three or four years from now.
Still, I think you need to upgrade your game as time goes on.
Assuming that you actually continue with amateur radio, you get interested in it,
you find out more things about it, maybe get your general grade,
go out and do some parks on the air. If you want to do
this kind of thing. A balfang UV five R is a great springboard into
that, but it's something you're gonna want to have to upgrade later. Put
a comment blow if you think I'm wrong.