I had the brain fog bad too, for maybe 2-3 weeks. I don't know if it just wore off then or if the project I was working on helped burn it off. But once it was gone it hasn't returned. While it was there, it was definitely real.
If you're still struggling with the UV-5R (or similar Baofeng radio) programming, it does not have to be as hard as everyone makes it out to be. I'm going to put the process here, knowing full well it will do no good. But it also takes less than 10 seconds to program a frequency to a channel, so decide if you want to hassle with installing Chinese software on your machine (bad news if you use a Mac, like I do), finding a cable that works, attempting to plug in the USB three times before it goes in, etc.
One underrated side effect of going through this process is that you will quickly learn what the various buttons on the radio do. There are a lot of them, and perhaps the best way to learn is by doing.
Tune in a frequency
1. Radio ON, volume up so you can hear the fair maiden whisper sweet nothings in your ear
2. Hit the orange VFO/MR button to switch to frequency mode. If she says "Channel Mode" just press it again.
3. Hit the blue A/B button until the little caret on the display is on the upper frequency (memory channels attach to the "A" channel in your display, not the lower "B' frequency)
4. Enter the frequency you want to program... 4 6 2 5 6 2 the trailing 5 in the ten thousandths column isn't entered)
- 462.5625 corresponds to FRS/GMRS channel 1
- you can easily find a chart of frequencies/channels on the line
Store that frequency to a memory channel
5. Hit MENU
6. Either use the up/down arrows to scroll to MEM-CH
or type 2 7 to shortcut to the MEM-CH menu option
7. Hit MENU again to put you into edit mode. You'll notice the caret move from the name of the menu on the top line to the channel number on the lower line
8. Use the up/down arrows to across to the memory channel number you want to use.
- if a channel number is already attached to something, it will have "CH" in front of the number.
- you can also type in the channel as a 3 digit number
9. Once you're on the channel you want to save into, press MENU again.
10. Press EXIT, or just wait a few moments and it will take you back to the main operational screen.
Repeat steps 4-10 for all the frequencies you want to program. This will not take long and is not particularly tedious. Perhaps the best part of doing this by hand is that you learn a lot about how to use the radio and what many of the buttons do. The only true advantage you gain by using the software is that you can actually name your channels. That's probably handy for your various weather channels & MURS
Navigating to a stored memory channel
1. Press orange VFO/MR button until she says "Channel Mode"
- you can be on either A or B, but select A/B to pick which one you want to set (top or bottom)
2. Type the channel you want to go to as a three digit number. i.e. channel 1 would mean you'd type in 0 0 1
You should see your display change to the programmed frequency for the channel you entered, and also you'll see that channel number as a smaller number off to the right of the frequency.
Of course the UV-5R isn't approved/certified/whatever to transmit on GMRS, so don't hit the PTT button for fear of this thing actually working like what you probably bought it for.
Using privacy codes isn't all that hard either, and there is a trick to scan for them in case you're with people who have other brands of radios. But I've typed enough for one post. Full disclosure: as hard as he is to listen to with all the sidetracking about sad hams etc, I've learned all this from notarubicon's YT channel. I'm half tempted to record my own similar videos without all the sololoquies, I could probably compress the entire operation of the radio to under 5 minutes.
