How To Unlock Baofeng Uv-5R

Last Updated on July 17th, 2023

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One person always has a CB or Ham radio when thinking about situations that include apocalyptic events, power outages, communications failure, and other survival situations.

The significant benefit of having one of these setups, radios, or walkie-talkies is that the communication signals are not dependent on the national network and are instead created independently.

This brings us to the BaoFeng UV-5R handheld radio, which has been discontinued BaoFeng Tech, a go-to choice in two-way radios for today’s prepper.

To unlock, with the device powered off, press the ‘push to talk,’ ‘VFO,’ and ‘Monitor’ buttons simultaneously when turning the top knob switch on.

A Baofeng device lying on a wooden surface - How To Unlock Uv-5R?

Can You Unlock it from the Keypad?

This is going to be simple; yes, there are going to be very easy ways to unlock your BaoFeng UV-5R two-way radio using the keypad.

As mentioned in the previous section, there is going to be a set of very simple steps before powering up the unit to unlock all the frequencies available to CB and ham radios.

This form of unlocking is coded into the design of the walkie-talkie radios, making it easier to execute than any physical alterations that can be thought of. Not downloads from the internet or drivers from a catalog to open all the frequencies.

 

Should You Do a Factory Reset?

This is a first step that cannot hinder the process, only to help make the execution smoother, having a fresh BaoFeng UV-5R radio unit to work with. After a factory reset, go ahead and hold the three buttons, ‘push to talk,’ ‘VFO,’ and ‘Monitor,’ when powering the unit back up.

Thereafter the radio should be able to utilize a broader range of frequencies, but be sure after opening to these new features to be certain the next time you factory reset. This will undo the radio unlock procedure and require the re-execution of the unlocking process.

 

What is the Easiest Way to Do it?

The process has been mentioned a couple of times within this article and should start with a factory reset, though only sometimes in all cases. In order to make it simpler to see for you, a list of steps has been provided below:

  • First, be sure that the until is charged and fully turned off when beginning the unlocking process
  • Next, be sure to hold these three buttons down simultaneously, the “Push to Talk,” “VFO,” and “Monitor” buttons.
  • Then, with all three of those buttons pushed, turn on the radio, and the unlocking process should be complete.

 

How Long Does it Take to Do it?

This process can be done within a half-hour time frame or more, depending on how many radios you need to unlock. There will be a few times that a mistake will be made or a button not pushed down all the way that will prevent the unlocking process from happening.

The main thing is to take your time; even moving slowly will not take longer than a half hours’ time to execute the simple instructions that will unlock the non-standard BaoFeng tech frequencies allowing for a broader scope of frequencies.

 

Common Mistakes you Need to Avoid

The simplest mistake, which may seem silly to mention, is holding only some of the correct buttons down at the same time when powering on the device.

If you find this to be a complicated process, ask for help, another set of hands will make this easier for less nimble hands.

Another common mistake, thinking with a troubleshooter’s mind, is not to have the batteries charged correctly. Sometimes, a unit with a low battery will resist programming changes for the risk of complete unit memory loss and instead shut down.

 

Final Thoughts on How to Unlock BaoFeng UV-5R

There are going to be certain practices that will help a prepper maintain their radio stations, including the BaoFeng UV-5R two-way radio, but also expand the number of frequencies that can be accessed for communication.

These radios, CB and Ham, for example, are going to be go-to forms of communication in case the world’s other primary network forms should go down or dark.

As a survival element in any good apocalyptic setting, for a story, the CB or Ham radio will be one of those game changers that open lines of communication with other nearby survivor characters.

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