Baofeng and Signalink

Signalink makes a cable to connect a Baofeng or Wouxun or Kenwood HT to their nifty little box.  The cable is called a SLCABHTW.     One of the nic things is the internal wiring is the same as if you are using the 6 pin DIN connector and you can use the SLMOD6PM jumper module with it.

If used with direwolf and RMS/Express it is plug and play.    If you are using the Baofeng/Signalink combination with FLDIGI you need to tell FLDIGI to make sure in
Configuration->Sound Card->Right Channel you have "Modem signal on right and left channels" selected.     With that, life is great.

Baofeng Pofung BF-F8HP

A christmas present arrived a little early, but I did not get a chance to play with it until the break.   I got a F8HP 8w VHF/UHF HT.  

 I have had the UV5R for a while and I have been very happy with it.   Some people hate them but for $30 dollars the UV-5R has been the best little HT for the money.  Seems to work as well as my Kenwood and I don't worry about loosing or breaking it.    Well I saw that a newer version in the for form of the F8HP was out and it was christmas so I figured I would give it a try.   I read the reviews and saw where there were some early software issues but then saw that they were mostly solved.   The reviews looked good, even better than the UV-5R so I ordered it from Amazon.

I have been running it for the last three weeks and it has been great.  The antenna that comes with it is much better than the older unit so you do not need to get a replacement antenna to begin with.   All of the old accessories work with it so I was off and running.

I got it and programmed with the Chirp software (daily build) .   Copied the normal repeaters out of the old Baofeng and dropped them into the new Baofeng and was on the air.  

What I have noticed so far:
     Receive -  Receive is better,  MUCH MUCH better.   I swapped antennas and in all cases the
             F8HP is more sensitive than the UV-5R
     Transmit -  Cant tell if there is any difference at least with the repeaters in Tallahassee.
             It works with full quieting, but that was the same on the UV5R.  5 vs 8 watts, can't
             tell the difference so I leave it on medium power.
      It actually came with a decent manual, but you could download a decent manual for the UV5R

So I guess the main question is it worth the difference in price.  I paid $30.00 for the UV5R + a little for the better antenna,  Lets call it $40.00.    I paid $63.00 for the F8HP.

So is it worth $20.00 extra.  If I was starting out, I would say yes.
Would I replace the UV5R if I was happy with it, No.   If you want the latest and greatest and want a new toy,  (like me) I would go for it.

Boafeng UV5R Digital Mode Cable

My friend Tom (AK4HN) has created a how to build a Baofeng UV5R Digital Mode Cable assembly guide.  A great How To on building a cable to interface your computer sound card to your Boafeng HT. I am attaching it to help those that want to set this up.  It works real well.

The link to the file is:
                     Baofeng UV5R digital mode cable.pdf

Connecting Baofeng HT to my Macintosh

Setup that works from the a Macintosh but should work on a PC as well.   Might not be the prettiest setup, but it works.

On the Macintosh I plugged in a USB to Audio in/out dongle to break out the audio Send and Receive  (Headphone and Microphone ports)

The Baofeng HT uses a Kenwood style spkr/mic 2 pin plug .

I connected them together as follows:
MIC  port                  -   Shielded Cable  - 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter   - radio
HEADPHONE  port -   Shielded Cable  - Ground Loop Isolater   -   radio

Without the Ground Loop isolator (which is just an isolation transformer) every time I would try and transmit I would get all sorts of noise and nothing would work.  Breaking the ground loop fixed it.

Parts:
Ground loop isolator was from amazon - PAC Ground loop isolator for 3.5mm applications  $12.29
3.5mm shielded cables from Junk Box
3.5mm female to 2.5mm male adapter (mono)   - Radio Shack

Now that they were together, the question was how to key the mic.  So I turned on the VOX in the radio.   It seems to have a 1/4 to 1/2 second delay, but not too bad.

Baofeng was set up set up where VOX=2

I set this up and it worked both transmit and receive.  No problems.

In the next version I would probably put a ground loop isolator on both wires.  In talking it over with a more knowledgable friend he suggested I could also have a loop if the devices were connected to the same power supply and that would just eliminate all possibilities.

The other concern I have is how well the HT will work with the amount of transmitting digital transmissions usually do.  After playing for 5-10 min I noticed when I finished, the base of the antenna was warm.  I was not transmitting all of the time, but it just surprised me it was warm.  Not going to scare me off since I will try it with an external antenna next time and see if that helps.  It might just be the poor antenna that comes with the HT.