I recently purchased some radios to use at the local community theatre. Sincewe’re a small, non-profit organization, we don’t have a lot of spare money lyingaround. The radios I previously purchase from Best Buy were terrible. The endof transmission beep was much louder than the transmission itself. So, I set outto see what how much the radios my work used cost as they’re vastly superior. Igot four Baofeng BF-888S for less than the two barely usable Cobras.
Download Programming Software. Programming software downloads and hints. Check here often for new software, hints, and tutorials. BaoFeng BF-888S. Baofeng BF-888S is cancelled. However, we do have a great alternative. Blackbox Bantam UHF (Kenwood Connector) is a great potential alternative to Baofeng BF-888S. AR-8 (variant of Baofeng BF-T8) Baiston. BST-2100 (use Baofeng BF-888) Baofeng/Pofung. 997-S (Foscam Digital Technologies) (use UV-5R) B-580T (use UV-5R) BF-88E (use BF-888S) BF-666S/777S/888S; BF-9100 (use BF/T1) BF-A58, BF-A58S; BF-C2/C5 (use BF-888S) BF-E500S (use UV-5R) BF-F8, F8+ (use UV-5R) BF-F8+III (use Radioddity UV-5RX3) BF-F8HP (3.
There is a drawback with the Baofeng BF-888S (Amazon Affiliate Link): They aren’t legal to use out ofthe box. They need a bit of programming. Fortunately, this is easier than it seems.
While I’ll include some instruction from a Gentoo standpoint, there is nothingparticular to the OS when it comes to actually programming the radios.
You’ll need a cable. I got the BTECH PC03 FTDI USB programming cable (Amazon Affiliate Link).
Once you have the items, you’ll need to make sure that you have a couple driversenabled in your kernel.
The configuration keywords are CONFIG_USB_SERIAL andCONFIG_USB_SERIAL_FTDI_SIO. After recompiling and install the kernel, reboot.
With the programming cable plugged into your computer, you should seesomething similar to the following:
You’ll need to add your user(s) to the appropriate group. As shown above onGentoo this is uucp.
Once, that’s done, installCHIRP.We’ll probably need to add a keyword unmask for the live ebuild.
Then, fire it up with chirpw.
Connect the radio to the programming cable, turn on the radio, and download theradio config (Radio > Download from radio). With my radios, the stockconfiguration look like so:
CHIRP includes some configurations, like “US FRS and GMRS Channels” found underFile > Open stock configs. You can copy and paste each of those entries intothe tab related to the BaoFeng.
One thing to note, is that the configuration offered by CHIRP is slightlyincorrect. According to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (47 CFR §95.563 - FRS channels), all ofthose channels should have a mode of NFM for the narrow FM. So, be sure tochange the mode once you’ve copied it over. Additionally, all of the channels inthe 462 MHz range are permitted to transmit at2W, but we don’t have that kindof granularity with the BaoFeng BF-888S radios. We only have a choice of eitherlow or high power. Obviously, I’ve gone with low power since the radio isallegedly capable of transmitting at up to 5W.
I’ve elected to use all of the channels in the 462 MHz portion. I’ve leftlocation 16 unassigned to use as a scanning channel. However, this only workedon one of my radios. The others just produce an annoying, constant tone.
So, you should have something that looks like so:
Finally, upload the settings to the radio (Radio > Upload To Radio), andunplug it from the computer. Your radio is now mostly legal to use anywhere inthe US. (Its detachable antenna keeps it from being 100% legal without a license.)
Free Baofeng 888s Programming Software
I haven’t yet used these at the theatre I volunteer at, but we do use these sameradios at work. They have fantastic range and excellent clarity. I expectsimilar results in much smaller facility.
Baofeng Bf888s Programming Software English
Here are the image/CSV produced by CHIRP: