QUANSHENG UV-K5 RADIO TRANSCEIVER

The Quansheng uv-k5 is a remarkable well built radio for the money, the key pad feels as good as a radio 5 times the price, I paid 31 euros for mine. It's extremely

 easy to use / program

Transmission is in the range of 136~173.995 Mhz & 400-469.995 Mhz and receives in the 50-600 MHz range, the radio is supposed to just transmit on the 70 cm and 2

metre amateur radio bands

What modes? on transmit it's FM / NFM and on receive it's AM / FM / NFM / WFM. The output on transmit is 5 watts on 'High'. You can easily program repeater shifts.

You can 'flash' the firmware to cure a few known bugs I.E battery indicator always showing 4 bars. It will also allow reception on 18 - 1300 Mhz and transmission as

 well. So you can now receive CB at 26/27 Mhz but output power would be low and only FM. It will also add USB (I think that maybe it's really DSB )

It will not operate in the 630-754.3MHz range no matter what modification you try to implement

The firm ware which can be flashed from a browser can be found at

https://github.com/egzumer/uv-k5-firmware-custom/releases

You will need a cable to interface from the radio to your computer to buy in France/Germany look at

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07MZQ5D3W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Please note the filters are only designed for the ham radio 70 cm and 2 meter bands. Transmission should only take place on these bands by people with a ham radio

 license. It's possible  (with the Egzumer flash) to allow the tcvr to transmit on all frequencies but to to transmit out side of the ham radio bands will risk you transmitting spurious signals (the

 power  output is vastly reduced also)  and it would only be using FM but more to the point you will be  breaking the law.

I used a dummy load to check output power and to see which frequencies are disabled on transmit.

The radio has NOT been approved for PMR in the 446 Mhz band.

The marine radio band at around 156 Mhz should never be used for transmission, its illegal and interference could endanger lives, this band can only be used by

 people who hold a Maritime VHF Operator’s Certificate (MVOC) .

'Flashing' will improve A.M reception on the aircraft bands ( 108 – 137 Mhz ) but to be honest it did not sound to bad with the original firmware. Transmit function

 is disabled on this band.

However the main aeronautical distress frequency of 243 Mhz does seem to go into transmit mode using FM, when in AM mode it does say 'disabled'  Do not under any

  circumstance try to transmit on any of these frequencies.

You could buy a better antenna to improve general reception or reception specifically on some of the new channels that you know have available.

Using the external microphone will improve transmit quality.

Battery power is good. It's a Li-Ion 7.2 V, 1600 ma battery with a drop in charger supplied. On transmit it takes 1.5 amps, so you would have 1 hour of continuous

 talk time. It has got a USB 'C' charging socket, but this is not intended as the main method of charging, use the charger unit for normal charging

The back light goes off a bit to quick but it’s addressed in the new firmware.

To sum up please only use this radio for transmission on the bands intended I.E 70cm / 2 meter amateur radio bands with a ham radio license.

The thing that is worrisome with this transceiver is the fact it is so cheap and readily available it could be used by people who have no understanding of the

 frequencies it can be made to transmit on, and they will cause interference to emergency services and the like

Reception of any of the other frequencies provided should be no problems in most countries