[chirp_users] The tale of two Baofengs

[Jim Unroe]

On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 11:05 PM, Bob <vk2byf at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2 Baofeng UV-5R one yellow one black.
>
> Tried to clone them by turning on the source (yellow one) while holding
> down the "mon" key. The black one is connected and on. Lights come on
> but black one stays in factory default.
>
> I can read the yellow one no problems Firmware BFS297
> Black one, Firmware BFB297, same cable same chirp same USB port I get,
> "Radio refused to send block 0x0000"
>
> I have programmed dozens of these beasties with no problem. I have
> programmed Wouxuns, Yaesus, Icoms, no problem but this one's got be beat.
>
> I'm using Linux Mint 17.3 so no driver problems.
>
> Over to the Gurus, Thanks de VK2BYF Bob
>

Bob,

The 3 key + Power-on message hasn't provided the firmware version for
over 2 years. This is because all UV-5R radios and its many variants
since BFB297 (starting with BFB299) all report BFB297 in this message.
The one exception was radios with BFS313 firmware because they report
BFS297. Your yellow radio has BFS313 firmware.

In early 2015 Baofeng change the "handhake" of the cloning
initialization. This was probably to prevent radio to radio
programming. This change caused CHIRP to have a "Radio refused to send
block 0x1ec0" error. CHIRP was updated in March 2015 to get around the
changed haandshake issue but the initial patch caused some radios to
get the 0x000 error. So CHIRP was tweaked a little more in April 2015.

So I would say the black one if from early 2015, so it has N5R style
firmware. Radio-to-radio cloning was remove from radios with N5R
firmware be cause the memory layouts are different. However radios
with BFB firmware could still initiate a radio-to-radio cloning
session with N5R radios. Cloning from a radio with BFB (or BFS) type
firmware to a radio with N5R firmware will result in the loss of
receive for the target radio. The opposite is also true. I'm sure
Baofeng got a lot of radios back because of this. The handshake chnage
was enough to prevent radio-to-radio cloning but not affect
programming with the OEM software.

So my guess is that the version of CHIRP that you are using is older
than April 2015. Even worse, it is probably CHIRP v0.4.1.

You must install the "snapshot" repository and install the latest
CHIRP daily build per the instructions on the CHIRP download page and
the "Running CHIRP Under Linus" page.

Jim KC9HI