OK, so CVAR has finally upgraded their radios from analog VHF to digital UHF, but what does that mean to our racers? Well, the upside is that the coverage and clarity at our host tracks should be better for our corner stations, Chiefs and grid workers, without a repeater. It should also mean that our racers can have more clarity listening to what is happening on track and also with grid calls. (Remember that we are also using text grid calls now as well.)
The downside is that our current analog UHF handheld radios are not compatible with the new systems. What to do?
First, buy a relatively inexpensive digital UHF radio. We’ve found a cost-effective solution sourced through Amazon. The Baofeng DM-1701 radio fits the bill at only $70 dollars at the time of this write up. This includes the battery pack, interface cables, charging cable and docking station. Sweet! This is currently the only radio where we have a How-To tutorial on programming. This is also the only budget radio we’ve found that works well with our corner station Motorola radios. Solutions must be compatible with MotoRbo. WARNING…..Buy a different radio and you may be on your own with regard to setup.
Bought your Baoefeng DM-1701? Now you have a decision to make:
- Bring your radio to the next event and when the track is cold, seek out David Lee ( Bugeye driver in the “Eagle” trailer) or Sam Sam Heumann (our CVAR radio Czar) to properly program your radio for the CVAR frequency and monitor only mode. There is no charge for this service, just make sure David or Sam have a few minutes or leave it with them and pick it back up when they are completed.
- Program the radio yourself if you are technically minded.
- If you are programming yourself, please send an email to dlee1967@att.net requesting the rdt file needed for programming. Save this to a Folder on your PC called Radios New Digital before you carry on with the process.
Steps to program yourself:
- Fully charge the radio with the provided charge cable and docking station.
- Download the required software from the Baofeng site.
- Select DM-1701 from the DM series choices.
- Download the DM-1701 Programming Software, DM-701 User Manual (EN), and DM-1701 Programming Guide.
The Programming software will download as a Zip file. The User Manual and the Programming guide may be saved as PDFs. This is what they should look like in your Downloads folder.
Now, right click your mouse on the Zip file and select Extract All.
Your PC will then request you enter where you would like to save the files. Please select a folder for them. If you don’t enter a few folder, they will just extract to your downloads folder. Remember the folder you set up earlier labeled Radios New Digital?.
Here is what it looks like when the program is extracted.
And what it looks like when you click on the folder.
Now it is time to load the software. Click on the DM-1701 CPS 1.05 folder, then then the Programming Software folder, and finally the CPS DM-1701 Setup (English) v1.05.exe file. This will load the program.
There are a number of screens that will pop up, accept each and you will see that the software is now on your desktop.
Now we need to load the driver on your PC. Go back to your main radio folder (Radios New Digital ) and find the subfolder named DM-1701 USB Driver and select it.
Select dpinst_x86.exe and run it. This will load the driver on your PC.
Now sign off your PC and reboot for the driver to take effect.
How do you know that it worked? Check your Device Manager on your Control Panel. Do you see a listing under Universal Serial Bus controllers that shows STM Device in DFU Mode? Yes, proceed. No, did you reboot before looking?
Now you are ready to connect your radio to your PC using the USB to double audio cable. Connect the double audio end to the right side of your radio under the flap and make sure it is fully pressed home. Connect the USB of the other end to your PC.
Now turn the radio on.
Click on the software program Icon on your desktop.
Once the program comes up, you need to click on File, then Save As. You should get the following prompt to confirm where you want your files from the radio to be stored. Make sure this address is the main folder that you setup for the radios (Radios New Digital). If not, change it.
Now go ahead and Save the default1.rdt file to you Radio folder.
The next step is to upload the cvar_scan_only.rdt file that you received when you sent an email to dlee1967@att.net before you got this process started. You should have saved this in your Radios New Digital folder prior to starting this process.
In the Radio program, select File and Open. You should get this popup.
Now click on the cvar_scan_only.rdt file and click Open.
Not finished yet……In the radio program, click the icon at the top with the radio and the red arrow.
This will then give you another popup box.
Click OK and watch the progress. It is quick.
Once the Write Data has ended successfully; you should see the screen below on your radio.
Your radio is now a scanner only and will only have one “saved” channel of 464.5mHz, which is our CVAR assigned frequency. Good job. You can now turn off the radio, unplug the cable and pack it in the race trailer for use at the next event.
Thank you. David Lee