I bought a couple of Baofeng UV-9R radios with a computer communication cable, but I could not find instructions on how to program the radios from a computer. It took me some time to figure it out, and here is a summary. There are two ways to connect to the radio.
CHIRP
CHIRP is easy: once you’ve figured out the COM port where the radio is listening, select UV-82WP as the radio model, and it should work.
WP970I
This software can be downloaded from Baofeng: go to http://www.baofengradio.com/ and select Download -> Programming Software. I downloaded the file named “WP970I Setup”, mainly because it specified Chinese/English as language. There were also files named WP970I_CPS, WP970Setup; I am not sure in which ways they are different from the one I downloaded.
After installation, it launches with all-Chinese interface, which on my Windows installation resulted in question marks for all menu names and menu items. Do not worry – there is English interface available, to switch to it, click on the second-last menu and select English from the drop-down. Then select Program -> Read from radio and you should be able to extract data from your device.
My main interest was to program the GMRS channels into the radio to be used in channel mode, and in CHIRP this is easy to do by selecting Radio -> Import from stock config -> US FRS and GMRS Channels and then uploading to the radio.
could not open port COM3
Due to the fact that the manufacturer continues to release new versions of the firmware with obscure and hard-to-track changes, this driver may not work with your device. Thus far and to the best knowledge of the author, no UV-5R radios have been harmed by using CHIRP. However, proceed at your own risk!
This driver is a beta version.
Please save an unedited copy of your first successful
download to a CHIRP Radio Images(*.img) file.
All you have to do to get the program to see what com is used is to:-
Open device manager on your computer and with this open plug in the cable you want to use…….you will see com&LPT come up with the cable you just plugged in and it’s allotted port number…….If it shows a yellow warning at the beginning of the cable description the cords drivers will have to be updated, so click on the cord that came up and a box will come up that will allow you to update drivers…..hope this helps you……OL
Loaded three of my UV9R plus radios 2-8watt and 1-15 watt and it worked flawlessly ……thanks for the heads up……..
cheers !!!
Glad to help, thanks for leaving a note.
Quick question. I have a proper FTDI USB programming cable connected to my Baofeng UV-9R Plus. Using CHIRP, I called it a UV-82WP on COM3. My problem seems to be: how to put the radio in COPYING mode. I tried [MONI] (side button 2) + Power as the manual suggests, but it never works.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
In addition to the other posting I have given you on this I got the feeling you perhaps needed to understand Chip so:- Go to “Google” and when it comes up type “Using Chirp to program your hand held Ham radios AD#38” and after you have entered watch the movie that comes up and that should get you going…….Cheers…..OL
As it turns out, not all UV-9R Plus cables are created equal. My problem was an incompatible cable. After sharing my issue with Mark (bluemax49ers), he special ordered a radio from China and was able to confirm a working cable design:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/FTDI-USB-Programming-cable-Baofeng-UV-9R-UV-9R-PLUS-BF-9R/163540024703
As everyone suggested, and similar to my experience with other Baofeng radios, as soon as CHIRP was asked to download the config, the UV-9R Plus went into clone mode and worked perfectly.
Using Chirp you have to go to the top of the chirp page and select “Radio” then “down load from radio” This will give you what is in the radio, then make whatever changes you need and return to “Radio” and the select “upload to radio” and chirp will write the changes you have made to the radio and you should be good to go…..cheers…..OL
Thanks for the two replies. I’ve been using CHIRP quite successfully with my two other Baofeng radios (BF-F8HP and UV-5R) for years, using the Download and Upload menu entries as expected. When connecting the UV-9R Plus though, CHIRP complains that the radio did not send what it expected. Selecting Download from the CHIRP menu immediately puts the other radios in “copy” mode, after which they reset and are back in transceiver mode. This is not the case with the UV-9R Plus.
It’s likely the FTDI USB cable is not compatible with the non-U.S. UV-9R Plus and I may have to try another cable.
I tested the output of the uv9r plus,which should be 15 w,the output was only 4 watts. Any comment on this.
Confirmed. The primary reason I purchased a third BaoFeng radio was due to the advertised 15 watts RF power. Sadly, a direct measurement with a calibrated meter shows this estimate to be off by about 75%. Under ideal conditions, and with various low-SWR whip antennas, the BaoFeng UV-9R Plus only transmitted just over 4 watts on the 400MHz UHF band (GMRS channel 22 tested).
I was very skeptical about the claimed power output. When I was buying mine, the claimed power was 8W, but the box said 5W, and the radio itself has 8W on the sticker. Various sellers advertised different power ratings. I have no equipment to measure the power output of my unit, but I was always suspecting that the 8W claim was bogus. Thanks for measuring the output and posting this.
Thanks for programming ideas!
Don’t worry regarding the output power!
With our keysight power meter
I measured 42dBm/39dBm/36dBm at 50 Ohm (H/M/L -Range) for UV-9R plus in all frequency ranges!!
Regards ha
Hello, I have just bought a Boaofeng UV-9R plus, and did some test of the output power, with the battery FULL charged, and I would like to tell you that the power is more than 4 W, for example in VHF region I measured over 10 W, and in the UHF frequency over 4 W. All measured power was done with the GY561 Power Meter.
And is vary very much the power transmitted with the frequency range. So to be more precise with your Radio try to measure the output power in different frequency and the battery to be fully charged .
Thanks for posting your results, very informative!
Yes, good to see actual tests.
The manual can be very confusing. The Features and Functions page states 5W/3W/1W selectable, yet page 24 has under TRANSMITTER heading RF Power: 15W.
I have the UV-9R Plus Model. The UV-9R only model has 5W RF Power under the TRANSMITTER heading. So one would expect the “Plus” model to have something extra. Both owners manuals are identical except for this one change.
I’m about to Chirp my UV-9R Plus with the Chirp program that came the the Linux Skywave operating system that I recently installed on an old Computer (Panasonic Toughbook CF-19mk5) to bring it back to life. Wish me luck. Anyone interested, Skywave Linus is available from osdisc.com for the cost of the USB stick it comes on plus some postage.
Regards,
Jacob
PROGRAMMING with FTDI chip.
Related to the programming method , you can use a simple china FTDI module and CHIRP software by selecting UV-82WP model, until they will update the database with this model.
About the pin configuration , ask me and I will try to give you the PIN allocated configuration ( GND , TX , RX ).
Thanks for your help !
Can i get this pin configuration as well?
When I try to “Read Data from Radio” I get a notification message “Fail Connect with Transceiver”. What does this mean and how can I go about getting passed this issue?
Thanks in advance
I buyed 4 baofeng UV-9Rplus …. the frequencies that is used are in the range 130-530 MHz….. it is possibile to change in the range 27MHz ? If yes how I make this?
Thanks in advance
Cheers
Thanks for the info. I use Linux Mint so I had to add another step.
In terminal I added: sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyUSB0 and then chose the USB0 port.
Thanks for leaving a comment. Most likely the “/dev/ttyUSB0” device was group writable, so a better solution would be to add your user to that group by using “vigr” command. Not familiar with Linux Mint, so don’t know what the group name would be. But “chmod 666” will also get the job done.
NONE of these comments helped me. If you are having the same issues trying to get a UV-9R (specifically in my case ERA ) to work like I did. Just look for these drivers (CH341 / CH340) and download them.
Go to (in windows) Device Manager > go to the USB controller with the yellow triangle, update the drivers and make it look for it in the folder you have your downloaded drivers. BINGO!
I want a UV-9R program cable that works like the Btech UV-5R FDTI cable that works with chirp no matter what windows version you have. Does anyone know where I can purchase this cable. I see a original BaoFeng P2803/P2308; can’t remember exactly ☝️ the correct info but y’all get my meaning; does anyone know if this cable will work with Chirp on a Windows 10? Please please help….