Have you heard of the Quansheng UV-K5? we hadn’t either so it was time to order one and see what it was all about. Being one of the cheaper handhelds comparable to the Baofeng UV-5R it did not inspire a lot of confidence. After receiving and unboxing this radio, it came with a standard dock charger but can also be charged with USB-C. It felt surprisingly sturdy in my hand and was very easy to program using the menu and CHIRP. After switching out my antenna to a Nagoya 771 the Quansheng UV-K5 was giving me 5W on both VHF and UHF. Out of the box this is a pretty good radio and has all the features a baofeng has, but there is more to this little radio than meets the eye.
After some research we found out that the Quansheng UV-K5 uses an rf chip that was designed to function from 18Mhz through 1Ghz and was highly customizable. The Quansheng UV-K5 has a large community creating custom firmware unlocking this radios full potential. Not only is new firmware coming out everyday, this radio simply cannot be bricked or ruined from flashing, It will always go into programming mode and accept a new firmware making it a good radio to learn and experiment on. We have tried many different firmware and the radio kept our memory channels programmed between flashes, making it painless to switch between and test different firmware. The firmware we have settled on using is called Egzumer, due to the firmware features combined with an easier to use menu, and will be what is shown in all the images and features below.
Programming memory channels and Firmware on this radio couldn’t be easier. The Quansheng UV-K5 uses a standard Baofeng Cable for both Firmware programming and Chirp Settings. I was able to copy my frequencies from my baofeng right over to the quansheng using chirp with copy/paste and was kerchunking the repeaters in no time. If your not so tech savvy there are several listings on Ebay that will come with egzumer pre-installed and even with memory channels programmed for your area!
To install the firmware was even easier than using CHIRP. There is a website called UV-MOD that even allows you to flash external firmware from a browser or create a customized version of UV-MOD firmware. We chose to use a small desktop application called k5prog-win and Egzumer firmware (download links will be below).
To put the Quansheng UV-K5 into its programming mode to flash the firmware you will need to turn the radio on while holding the PTT button. If the flashlight turned on the radio is in programming mode. Some users have reported you need to plug the programming cable in before putting it into programming mode. But the recommended method and instructions we used suggested plugging the programming cable in after the radio was turned on and in programming mode.
Lets talk about some of the features you will be getting. One of the things I use the most is the scanning function. The Quansheng UV-K5 can scan either programmed memory channels or a frequency range and it does it faster than any radio in its price range.
The next feature worth discussing is the ability to scan for ctcss tones so you don’t have to get on the internet to figure out repeater tones, or see what privacy tone other cheap chinese handhelds or walkie talkies come programmed with.
If we have caught your attention and your still reading you might remember us mentioning 18Mhz-1Ghz. Yes its true! The Quansheng UV-K5 will receive 18Mhz-1Ghz in AM/FM/USB and even transmit with some limitations and unwanted side effects.
Lets talk about Transmitting, this is the issue that has the most misconceptions. Transmitting on frequencies the radio was designed for does not produce harmonics that will interfere with other radio services. Although the Quansheng UV-K5 will transmit out of band it is not recommended. Because the radio was designed for 2M and 70CM the transmit filters and amplifier are only designed for 136Mhz-180Mhz and 400Mhz-480Mhz. When transmitting outside of these frequency ranges you get low power outputs usually less than .1 milliwatt but can be upwards of 1 milliwatt depending on the frequency.
Not only does transmitting outside of the designed amplifier frequencies produce low power, it also produces harmonics across the entire band because it is bypassing the filters. The harmonics produced from out of band transmitting will also be amplified if they fall within the amplifiers designed frequency range. So even if your tempted to jump into a conversation you are listening to on 11m CB band about stepping on hammers. Remember you are only going to put out less than 1 milliwatt of power on your intended frequency but your harmonics will be putting out 6W on police frequencies, ham bands and other radio services that fall within the 2m/70cm range.
Yes you read that last sentence correct! with the firmware upgrade and the same Nagoya 771 antenna, The Quansheng UV-K5 on the high power setting is now transmitting with 6w of power! Some of you may be thinking about how battery life is impacted by unlocking this extra watt of power, let me assure you, we didn’t notice a difference in battery life and signal reports were still good. Battery life on this radio is multiple days depending on how much you use it and what power settings you use. Recharging the radio via USB-C in the field is easy using a Portable Solar Panel or Battery Bank.
If you thought the Quansheng UV-K5 couldn’t get any better you are wrong! The Egzumer firmware also comes with a spectrum display that lets you to monitor up to a 6Mhz bandwidth, Allowing you to visually see the radio traffic around you in real time. This is useful for traveling to new locations or emergency situations when you may not have access to repeater book online and unfamiliar with the area. When a signal is found on the spectrum analyzer you have the option to press PTT to open a more detailed screen on the selected frequency, showing you an S-Meter for fox hunts and allowing you to change some LNA and pre amp settings to tune the signal in better.
In Conclusion there are to many features and mods between all the firmware to write about in a single review, we just touched on the Egzumer firmware and features we like about it. UV-MOD has some cool apps to play with from text messaging to being the first handheld radio with Pong!
As promised here is the Direct Download Link of our collection of firmware mods we found.
