Is the Baofeng UV-3R Mark II really modifiable to 220 Mhz?
5 June 2012 | by
Neil W2NDG |
Share | |
Leave a Comment (
2)
The answer is yes, and no. Using the
software utility available here you can stretch the coverage of your UV-3R Mark II. This
UV-3R Mark II
only works on the Mark II (dual watch display) and the new Plusmodel. There are two options for changing the coverage. Youcan stretch up from VHF or down from UHF. Only the UHF optionseems to work. Now, before you run off and do this, let me pass afew warnings. First of all, the UV-3R is
NOT designed todo this, so transmitting at full power on a band your radio was notdesigned to work on has the potential to fry something. Second ofall, most users have put the output power between 1 and 16
milliwatts (yes,milli), and my tests concur with this. It does receive OK on 220,but not as well as it does on 2M or 440. The procedure can be alittle complicated, but there is plenty of help at the
UV-3R Yahoo Group.
So, does it really work? During my morning commute, my train passes south of
my club’smain repeater site. Now this is on a rather high building, in oneof the highest points on western Long Island, and is pretty muchline-of-site for a 4-5 mile stretch of my train ride. I tested tosee if I could key up our 220 machine, and it seems that the effectiverange was about 4 miles this morning. Now that was just keying therepeater up. I’ll have to check to see if I can actually be
HEARDon it. For listening to the 2 or 3 220 repeaters near my officethough, it works fine. Also, keep in mind that this was all donewith the stock antenna, which is most likely far from optimal at220 Mhz.
Once again, I can’t stress enough that if you don’t want to riskbreaking your radio permanently, don’t try this. So far, my littleradio has suffered no ill-effects, but your mileage may vary.
-Neil W2NDG
Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at neil@neilgoldstein.com.
