I can’t emphasis enough the benefits of standardisation.
I’ve just bought some new UV5R radios. Slightly different models but they only have a few differences so what difference will that make? Mistake! They may only have a few differences but I can’t program them using the same SW as the old ones. Of course the only way to install the new one is to write over the old one and so I can’t reprogramme the old ones without reinstalling that. Shouldn’t be a problem but they use different libraries which causes other issues. Comms like Linux is a game for geeks. Deliberately kept so to deepen the mystery and keep their cliques closed. Tosspots.
I always try and keep any items I buy the same. Makes looking after them easier but what many forget is that even with the same item from the same supplier there are many changes which can cause issues. Not as big a problem when a saw has an extra few teeth added but when the changes mean that you need a new software package or programming cable to program it then you find that it becomes more difficult to keep track of what is for what and what to do to get it working.
They do it deliberately too. They change the connectors, and the tools so you have to buy more. It is purely to get you to spend some hard earned pennies to add to items you already have. They could standardise themselves but choose not to. It is a standard nowadays where no real innovation has occurred for 20 years. Everything is pretty much the same except smaller and to make you buy new ones when you don’t really need them they make spares difficult to get and that is where they make their money nowadays. Same crap really but in a nice shiny new case with super doper new software required.
For us though that creates problems. I don’t want to have six different versions of the same thing because I bough them over several months and I don’t want to find out after an event the programming cable I have won’t work because that specific variant of the unit uses a different software package.
It is because of this I tend to buy several items at once. This however is a bit difficult when we are talking about items with a reasonable value and you want a few of them. For example I have just decided that I want each BOB and each BOV to have a UV5R as part of the contents. Each configured in exactly the same way with SUK frequencies and each having the same accessories.
I bought a couple of new ones to add to my existing set and discovered that they had upgraded chipsets in which were incompatible with the older ones. I could work around it but it negates my plans of just having the same items and it being the same devices, same buttons to press and same performance. So I had a look around and contacted a few suppliers. Nobody had my any units with my ‘obsolete’ firmware. So I ended up having to buy a bulk pack of them to ensure they were all identical. Then I had to programme them. It was then I discovered that when I had installed the previous version I had overwritten the standard driver, which I no longer had, but being a computer geek myself I found it on the kids laptop. It was still the wrong one. I needed to install a brand new driver to get the latest version to work. WhooHoo. Then when the cable was recognised the system still couldn’t see the transmitter. It still won’t and now of course I can get it to recognise the old one either.
So latest plan is to reset an old laptop and then install the software. Configure everything it can see. Archive the lot and record what was seen. Repeat with each variant until I am done. Well done guys for making something so overcomplicated and backwards incompatible.
As I said before though it isn’t just them. It is everyone. Some as I mentioned are not a problem, I have lots of different types of knives, tools, clothes, etc. Some are though. The radios we just discussed, Antennas, water filters, computers, guns. All the high value things you would prefer to be the same.
Just bear this in mind when you are looking at things.
- How many do I need? Remember to consider the future. Include spares.
- What about spare parts, what do I need? Buy everything now or consider them obsolete?
- What about tools to maintain and upgrade?
- Instructions on repair and maintenance as well as usage.
Standardise as much as you can on everything you have excluding food (Just in case you have bad batches). It will keep your maintenance costs down as well as maintenance time. Keep to the same spec and try to buy from different batches and suppliers if you can. Test everything to confirm it works.
Ahhh Com’s my bette noire , still waiting patiently for that idiot proof robust and simple transceiver!… it would appear the UV5 of any of the variants is not it…..don’t mind paying £50+ per set but I need simple….CB is an option I’m thinking in the short term.
SD why not stick to the already installed 16 PMR channels like I have which work in all UV 5 models?
Midnite Mo, you can buy high quality PMR radios from companies like Intek that can be easily modified to boost power, increase channels and can be converted reasonably easily to accept bigger antenna.
SD are you using CHIRP to program your radios?
CB is simple enough, I have a few of those but I also have requirements which means more than CB. Unfortunately.
NR, I’m sticking to those channels. It is just I’m trying to load them via computer to make them all the same. Don’t want to spend hours typing in on the radios fiddly keyboard.
Tried CHIRP and VIP. I think I’ve screwed up the drivers.
Chirp is the easiest way of loading standardised channels SD Even I the technophobe managed to use it, I downloaded it free, copied the standard frequencies FROM the radio to the CHIRP program, removed the ham frequencies, moved the 16 PMR channels to the first 16 UV 5 channels, then uploaded it to all my UV5s. Later on I tweaked it to the 20 PMR and PMR digital channels all of which I can use at .5 watt or 4 watt ( after TSHTF of course)
I’ve just realised I have a mini CD with the drivers on it if you want to borrow it?
Agreed SD. and it applies to most of the critical stuff from water filters, plumbing, PV array connectors and charge controllers, even down to stuff like bicycles.
Its good that the Chinese are developing products like the UV5r radios, but they do so at the expense of standardisation. Be that for commercial, technical, or design reasons is immaterial. Once I find a product that does the job well enough and reliably and is somewhat future-proof, that’s what I tend to stick with.
Bicycles are a good example. Our main trekking bikes now are all configured the same way. Same wheel sizes, same tyres, same gear systems and gear changers, same brakes, same racks and same panniers etc. Even saddles are fairly similar. This has meant intentionally down-grading some components on some of the bikes to achieve conformity, but the benefit is that the number of spares that need to be carried is substantially reduced. Also, any component failures on one bike, point to inspection of that same component on the others.
Bottom line for us is that standardisation means greater resilience, and we accept that this means that we will rarely have the latest and supposedly best version of anything, but so what.
So we are in agreement we all need 18 year old blonde Swedish au pairs in our survival groups?
NR, You didn’t consider planning for the future. You need some 16 year olds. You can wait a few years for them to mature while in the meantime you cuddle up to their 24 year old mothers. OK. Maths isn’t the point here but you get the idea. It all falls apart when you discover one of two things. You just can’t be bothered or you find that there are no more upgrading to the younger model because there isn’t any and all you have is close family.
However, as we have always said. It is for transition so make do while you can.
They do do it deliberately, the bastards and should be strung up for it. It has socialist overtones, standardization but it prevents wastes of money.
I like old timeless classic stuff , the kind of things that were so good right from the off that they needed little improvement , stuff with long production runs , levi’s/wranglers , doc martins , driza bone , barbour , belstaff , Honda 50’s ,hunter wellies , morgan cars , feurhand 276 lanterns , Ka Bar marine knife , rolex watches , landrovers , Winchester rifles just stick to the tried and tested where you can , my Ruger 10/22 has been in production for over 50 years now with almost complete commonality of working parts and I now think I’ve found my new com’s a yaesu ft60e this transceiver hit the market in 2004 and has given sterling service since judging by all the testaments I’ve read about it….of to see handle one tommorrow …..evolution baby not revolution.