Baofeng UV-5R is a low-cost micro-miniature VHF/UHF amateur radio transceiver with 4W output power and 128 user-programmable memory channels. However, programming each memory is a painful task using its keypad. Also, these memory channels can be set in a "name display" mode, where names are displayed instead of frequency or channel number. This channel naming is only possible with a programming cable.
Baofeng UV-5R uses RS232 to communicate or programming with the PC software. Since the radio interface is 3.3V, a level translator is required. The USB programming cables may available from different vendors, which consist of a USB to serial convertor chip, and the driver software to emulate a serial port in your PC. But if your PC has a serial port (COM port), you can make your own programming cable with a few components. The programming software can be downloaded from different sites [1][2].
Figure 2 shows a simple schematic of RS232 level converter using two transistors and few other components. The 3.5mm speaker Jack and 2.5mm mic jack are used for connecting PC to the radio. After connecting the transceiver to the PC, switch on the radio and run the programming software. Since we are using COM port for programming, it is not necessary to install any driver software, just select COM port name in the software. You can program all channel with RX/TX frequencies, TX power, channel name etc.
