[chirp_users] UV-5RA not working

[Jim Unroe]

Hi Mike,

On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 4:02 PM, Michael E. Jaggers <mej at mindspring.com> wrote:
> And I suspect the problem with the OP is that the radio that he is copying from and the radio that he is copying to have two different versions of firmware.
>
> You can't do that.  You have to download an image from the radio that you are going to program, populate the image, then write it back to the radio.

Yes you can. You can upload any .img file saved from a radio with
BFB231 through BFS313 firmware into any radio with BFB231 through
BFS313 firmware. You can do the same with a .img file saved from a
radio with N5R-2xx firmware to any other radio with N5R-2xx firmware.
You must not try to upload a .img file from a BFB-xxx or BFS-XXX into
a N5R-2xx radio or the other way around. The latest CHIRP daily builds
will prevent your from doing what you shouldn't do.

That being said, it is a good idea to save the "factory" .img from
every radio and keep it as an unedited backup, just in case. And
maintaining separate files for each firmware version (or even each
radio) isn't that hard to do since you can easily import the channels
from your "master" .img file. And this even works across different
models and even different brands (I upload my UV-5R .img file into my
UV-82, BF-F8HP and Wouxun KG-UV6D radios).
>
> If each radio has the same version of firmware, you can copy from one radio, then upload it to each radio in turn.
>
> CHIRP will tell you what firmware version you have after you download the image, but it won't check it when you upload it.  (You can find the firmware version in the "Settings" tab.)

CHIRP sure does check when you upload. It checks real hard to make
sure you don't try to upload the current tab into a radio (different
brand, different model, different firmware version, different memory
layout) that it shouldn't.

The problem recently was that Baofeng made a memory layout change with
the introduction of the N5R-xxx firmware. This was in an area of
memory that was, prior to this change, save to upload to all radios.
Once this was discovered, CHIRP was updated accordingly.
>
> Mike

Jim KC9HI