Returning to the hobbby after a 20 plus year absence. Wow! Things have changed. I was given a brand new Radioddity GC-5 and am somewhat familiar with Chirp.(I have a GMRS license) I’ve been looking through other forums and everone says to load the Baofeng UV-17pro profile in order to add channel lists to the radio. Has anyone out there ever tried this? I’d hate to brick this radio on my first attempt, although I am told I could just factory reset it if it didn’t work. Any help appreciated.
Writing brand A to Brand B if it is not the correct radio should just fail when the handshake signals a non-match, but reading a radio is safe. It will just not work. No risk to the radio from a read as no data is sent and actioned. Whenever I have a new radio and software, a read is the firstr thing to try - if it reads, then a write should be possible. Bricking - to use the term is usually a result of changes to firmware, a much more risk based activity. Programming has never caused me any issues with hundreds of different makes.
Chirp is a bit different because it is written by people who are in the main, enthusiasts. I have had radios that have been compromised by a dodgy chirp write. There was a very popular DMR a Kydera 300 - they also made a handheld with 99% the same operating system, the 880. The genuine software knew that the handheld had a few knobs and buttons the mobile did not have and vice versa, so if you ran the software and read your 300, you could NOT stick that into the 880 - the software recognised it was not the same. The upshot being lots more typing. On chirp, the check for model correctness was missing from the code chirp used, so you COULD stick the portable codeplug into the mobile - BUT - the mobile has a nice big knob for frequency dialling. The hand held does not. I would get customers saying that the knob would select memory channels but would not change frequency. The radio had lost that ability, because a different radio did not have it! I knew from the first “the knob doesn’t work” comment. The cure was quite simple a factory reset, and the loading in of a correct model codeplug. The reset on it’s own did not change it. With so many radios sharing chip sets - it’s common for brand X to respond perfectly to brand Y’s codeplug - but be careful. Always keep a copy of the read so you can stick it back in!
Thanks for your response. I retired from the IT world so very familiar with how software and firmware updates work. (sorry, in hindsight “bricking” was a poor choice of words at the time). What I am actually looking for is someone who has has some hands on experience with attempting this “advice” that the forums keep pointing to. Yes, I could just use their software and manually type in the info I want. I like chirp and its ability to import all that without the typing. As for the backup advice, I couldn’t agree more. We had a saying my trade called the “11th commandment, Thou shalt always make a backup”. It’s saved my bacon more times than I can count. Once again, thanks for the response. After being out of the hobby for so long I feel like a fish out of water. I used to be impressed with my old icom that stored 15 channels… This one says it will store 999? Totally crazy to me…
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