How to Program a UV-82 — Step by Step

The one with two transmit bars. Almost the same numbered menu as a UV-5R, with one extra item near the end that moves the factory reset.

This page covers: Baofeng UV-82, Baofeng UV-82HP. The plain UV-82 and the BTECH UV-82HP do not have quite the same transmit power settings, they do not agree on how to reach frequency mode, and their menu tables do not agree at the end. Baofeng's UV-82 manual gives menu 2 TXP two levels, HIGH and LOW; BTECH's UV-82HP manual gives the same item three, HIGH, MID and LOW. Baofeng says to hold the PTT while powering on to reach frequency mode; BTECH says to hold MENU. On the menu numbers, Baofeng's book runs cleanly to 41 with 39 ROGER, 40 A/B–BP and 41 RESET. BTECH's book skips 40 entirely and then prints the number 41 twice, once for RESET and once for R-TONE. This page follows Baofeng's numbering, because it is the one that is complete and internally consistent.

If you followed UV-5R instructions to get here, check the reset number

A UV-82 and a UV-5R share almost the whole menu, which is why cheat sheets get passed between them. Items 0 to 39 really are the same. But the UV-82 has one extra item that the UV-5R does not — 40 A/B–BP — and that pushes RESET from 40 up to 41. On a UV-5R, menu 40 is the factory reset. On a UV-82, menu 40 is a beep at the end of reception and the reset is 41. If you are reading a UV-5R sheet with a UV-82 in your hand, that is the line to change.

Two PTT bars, no VFO/MR key, and a keypad that doubles as a menu shortcut list

Three things about this radio surprise people who came to it from a UV-5R cheat sheet. First, the two transmit bars: the upper one works the A display and the lower one works the B display, and pressing the upper bar is also how Baofeng's own manual tells you to move the arrow onto the A display before programming. Second, there is no VFO/MR key on this keypad. The only keys are MENU, the two arrows, EXIT, the numbers, ✱ and #. Getting INTO frequency mode means powering the radio off and back on with a key held down, and the two manuals disagree about which key; getting back out again has its own tangle, set out below. Third, the number keys carry the first ten menu items as printed legends: 1 STEP, 2 TXP, 3 SAVE, 4 VOX, 5 WN, 6 ABR, 7 TDR, 8 BEEP, 9 TOT and 0 SQL. Those are shortcuts, not decoration — MENU then 0 really is the squelch.

This radio has no digital mode

The UV-82 is analog FM and nothing else. Its DCS codes and DTMF signaling are analog features, not digital voice. The C4FM pages on this site — callsign registration, digital mode selection, DG-ID — describe Yaesu's System Fusion radios, so those tasks are not listed here as gaps waiting to be filled.

What you can do on this radio

Rather do this on your phone, standing at the radio?

The app walks you through the same steps one at a time, on a screen sized for a phone.

Open Radio Rosetta

Save a repeater to a memory channel on a UV-82

A duplex channel on this radio takes two saves to the same channel number. That is not a mistake in the instructions — the first save writes the frequency into both sides of the channel, and the second one, made with the radio in reverse, replaces just the transmit side. Skip the second save and you get a channel that hears the repeater perfectly and cannot key it.

Have these to hand before you start

  • The repeater's output frequency — the one it transmits on, and the one you listen to.
  • Its offset: which direction it listens, and how far away.
  • Its tone, if it uses one. Most do.
  1. Get the radio into frequency mode. There is no VFO/MR key: turn the radio off, then turn it on again holding a key down — Baofeng's manual says hold the PTT, BTECH's says hold MENU.power off, then power on holding a keyThe screen should show: A bare frequency, with no channel number beside it.Watch out. The two manuals genuinely disagree about which key. Try the one for your radio first and the other if nothing happens. You cannot change a tone, an offset or the band from channel mode, so this step is not optional.
  2. Turn dual watch off first: open menu 7 and set TDR to OFF.MENU›7›MENU›shows 7 TDR›▲▼ OFF›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: TDR with OFF or ON.Watch out. This ships ON, and with it on the manual says the reverse function and the saving of duplex channels are both disabled. Skip this and the two saves below will not work, with no error message to tell you why.
  3. Get the arrow onto the top line, the A display. Baofeng says to press the upper PTT bar until it moves; BTECH calls the EXIT key the EXIT/AB key and uses that instead.PTT AThe screen should show: The arrow moves to the upper display.Watch out. Baofeng is explicit that programming has to be done on the A display. There is no key marked A/B on this radio. Try the upper PTT bar first on a Baofeng UV-82 — that is what its own book says — and EXIT first on a BTECH UV-82HP. Do not use EXIT on a Baofeng: in that book EXIT is what drops you back into channel mode, which is the one state nothing will stick in.
  4. If you need the other band, open menu 33 and choose VHF or UHF. There is no BAND key either.MENU›33›MENU›shows 33 BAND›▲▼ VHF or UHF›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: BAND with VHF or UHF, and the frequency jumps to that band.
  5. Type the repeater's output frequency straight in on the keypad.type 146.940The screen should show: Your frequency.Watch out. Only three decimal places can be typed. The manual's own example rounds 145.6875 up to 145.6880 to get it in.
  6. Open menu 25, choose + or − to match the repeater, press MENU, then EXIT.MENU›25›MENU›shows 25 SFT-D›▲▼ + or −›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: SFT-D with OFF, + or −.
  7. Open menu 26 and set the offset amount with the arrows. The manual gives the two usual figures: 00.600 on VHF and 05.000 on UHF.MENU›26›MENU›shows 26 OFFSET›▲▼ 00.600›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: OFFSET, which runs from 00.000 to 69.990 in 10 kHz steps.This pair is what the reverse key in the last step works from. Baofeng notes that the offset is not strictly required for storing a repeater into a channel — but it is required if you get the transmit side there by using reverse, which is the route documented here.Watch out. Neither manual shows how this value is keyed in — only the range and the two typical figures — and there is no decimal point key on this radio, so expect to arrow to it rather than type it.
  8. Open menu 13 and scroll to the repeater's tone, then MENU and EXIT.MENU›13›MENU›shows 13 T-CTS›▲▼ your repeater's tone›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: T-CTS and a tone in hertz.13 is the tone you SEND. 11 is the tone you listen for, and you almost never want that one on a repeater channel.
  9. Open menu 27, type an empty channel number, press MENU, then EXIT. That first save writes the frequency into both sides of the channel and takes nine settings with it — power, bandwidth, both DCS codes, both CTCSS tones, the signal code, the PTT-ID and the busy channel lockout.MENU›27›MENU›shows 27 MEM-CH›type 015›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: MEM-CH and a channel number, 000 to 127.Watch out. Busy channel lockout rides along on that list. If menu 23 BCL happens to be on when you store, the channel will refuse to transmit whenever somebody else is on the frequency, and the only sign is a beep.
  10. Press the ✱ key to flip the radio into reverse — the display now shows the repeater's input — then open menu 27 again, type the SAME channel number, MENU, EXIT, and press ✱ again to flip back.✱›MENU›27›MENU›shows 27 MEM-CH›type 015›MENU›EXIT›✱The screen should show: The frequency shown changes to the repeater's input. Once the channel has two different frequencies in it, the display shows a +− indicator.Watch out. The same channel number both times. Saving into a channel that already has something in it changes only the transmit frequency and the transmit tone — which is exactly the half you are missing. This is the step people skip.

Press EXIT to drop back into channel mode and test it — that is how Baofeng ends its simplex-channel procedure. BTECH's book instead says to power-cycle holding MENU in both directions, while its own worked examples name a [V/M] key the radio does not have. Either way, on the new channel press ✱: the frequency shown should change to the repeater's input. If it does not change, the second save did not take and the channel is receive-only.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL) on a UV-82

The tone your radio sends underneath your voice to tell the repeater you belong there. Menu 13, and it is the single most common reason a UV-82 can hear a repeater and cannot open it.

  1. Get the radio into frequency mode. There is no VFO/MR key: turn the radio off, then turn it on again holding a key down — Baofeng's manual says hold the PTT, BTECH's says hold MENU.power off, then power on holding a keyThe screen should show: A bare frequency, with no channel number beside it.Watch out. In channel mode the tone items do nothing at all. You can open menu 13, scroll to a tone, press MENU, and the channel will be exactly as it was. The two manuals disagree about which key to hold while powering on, so try one and then the other.
  2. Open menu 13, scroll to your repeater's tone, MENU to save, EXIT to leave.MENU›13›MENU›shows 13 T-CTS›▲▼ 67.0 to 254.1 Hz›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: T-CTS and the tone. The CT indicator only appears while the radio is transmitting or in reverse, so a quiet channel showing nothing does not mean the setting failed.The first entry in the list is OFF, so scrolling back to the top is how you take the tone off again.

If your repeater asks for a digital code rather than a tone — something written as D023 or D754 with an N or an I after it — that is DCS, and it lives on menu 12 instead. Set one or the other, never both.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the receive tone on a UV-82

The receive tone keeps your speaker shut unless the incoming signal carries that same tone. Useful on a crowded simplex frequency, and a reliable way to make a repeater channel go completely silent if you set it by accident.

  1. Get the radio into frequency mode. There is no VFO/MR key: turn the radio off, then turn it on again holding a key down — Baofeng's manual says hold the PTT, BTECH's says hold MENU.power off, then power on holding a keyThe screen should show: A bare frequency, with no channel number beside it.Watch out. The two manuals genuinely disagree about which key. Try the one for your radio first and the other if nothing happens. You cannot change a tone, an offset or the band from channel mode, so this step is not optional.
  2. Open menu 11, scroll to the tone you want to listen for, MENU to save, EXIT to leave.MENU›11›MENU›shows 11 R-CTS›▲▼ 67.0 to 254.1 Hz›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: R-CTS and the tone.

For ordinary repeater work leave this one off and set only menu 13, so you hear everything the repeater puts out. A silent channel on a radio that used to work is very often menu 11 set to a tone that does not match — putting it back to OFF is the fix.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the offset direction and amount on a UV-82

Which way the repeater listens, and how far away. Two menu items next door to each other, and both have to be right before the radio will key anything.

  1. Get the radio into frequency mode. There is no VFO/MR key: turn the radio off, then turn it on again holding a key down — Baofeng's manual says hold the PTT, BTECH's says hold MENU.power off, then power on holding a keyThe screen should show: A bare frequency, with no channel number beside it.Watch out. Both of these items are on the list the manual says channel mode ignores.
  2. Open menu 25 and choose + for a positive shift, − for a negative one, or OFF for simplex.MENU›25›MENU›shows 25 SFT-D›▲▼ OFF, + or −›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: A small + or − appears above the frequency.In the US the common pattern is minus on 2 meters below 147 MHz and plus above it, with 70 centimeters going either way. The repeater directory is the real answer.
  3. Open menu 26 and set the amount. The manual gives 00.600 as the typical VHF offset and 05.000 as the typical UHF one.MENU›26›MENU›shows 26 OFFSET›▲▼ 00.600›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: OFFSET, which runs from 00.000 to 69.990 in 10 kHz steps.Watch out. Neither manual shows how this value is keyed in, and there is no decimal point key on this radio, so expect to arrow to the figure rather than type it. The field steps in 10 kHz and accepts anything in range without complaint.

Check it without transmitting: press the ✱ key and the display flips to the frequency the radio would transmit on. If that is the repeater's input, the pair is right. Press ✱ again to flip back. One catch — reverse does not work while dual watch is on, so if the ✱ key appears to do nothing, turn menu 7 TDR off first.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the squelch on a UV-82

How strong a signal has to be before the speaker opens. Ten steps, and item zero is the first thing in the menu.

  1. Open menu 0, pick a level from 0 to 9, MENU to save, EXIT to leave.MENU›0›MENU›shows 0 SQL›▲▼ 0 to 9›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: SQL and the number.0 holds the squelch open so the radio hisses continuously. 9 opens only for strong signals, and quietly loses the weak ones.

Set it by ear rather than by number: down until the hiss returns, then up one step until it stops. Anything above that is range you are throwing away. Unlike the tones and the offset, this item works in channel mode too.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Change the transmit power on a UV-82

Two ways to change power on this radio: the menu, and a shortcut key that only works in channel mode and only lasts until you move.

  1. Open menu 2 and choose your level, MENU to save, EXIT to leave.MENU›2›MENU›shows 2 TXP›▲▼ HIGH or LOW›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: TXP with the level. An L appears on the display on low power.Watch out. How many levels you get depends on which radio you have. Baofeng's UV-82 manual gives this item two, HIGH and LOW. BTECH's UV-82HP manual gives it three, HIGH, MID and LOW.
  2. In channel mode, a quick press of # flips between high and low power for the channel you are sitting on.#The screen should show: The L on the display comes and goes.Watch out. This one does not stick. The manual is explicit: the power stored in the channel is not changed, so moving to another channel or switching modes puts it straight back. It also does not work at all while dual watch is on. Held down for two seconds, the same key locks the keypad instead.

Low is the right default into a repeater you hear cleanly, and it makes a real difference to how long the battery lasts. Menu 2 is one of the settings saved into a memory channel when you store it, so a channel programmed on low comes back on low. Use the menu for a setting you want to keep and the # key for a one-off.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Listen on the repeater's input on a UV-82

Reverse swaps your transmit and receive frequencies, so you listen where you would normally talk. One key, no menu.

  1. Press the ✱ key.✱The screen should show: R appears on the display and the frequency changes to the repeater's input.Watch out. A quick press does reverse. Holding the same key for two seconds starts the scanner instead. And if nothing happens at all, check menu 7 — the manual lists the reverse function among the things dual watch disables, and dual watch is on from the factory.
  2. Press ✱ again to go back to normal.✱The screen should show: The R disappears and the frequency returns.

Two good uses. If you can hear the other station while in reverse, the two of you are close enough to talk direct and leave the repeater for somebody else. And on a channel you have just programmed, reverse is how you check the transmit side is right without keying up — if the frequency that appears is not the repeater's input, the channel is wrong.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Name a memory channel on a UV-82

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

Short answer: you cannot. There is no way to type a channel name into a UV-82 from its own keypad — the manual says so in the middle of its own programming chapter. What the keypad controls is only whether the screen shows the frequency, the channel number, or a name that got there some other way.

  1. Menu 21 sets what the top line displays in channel mode.MENU›21›MENU›shows 21 MDF-A›▲▼ FREQ, CH or NAME›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: MDF-A, then your choice.
  2. Menu 22 does the same for the bottom line.MENU›22›MENU›shows 22 MDF-B›▲▼ FREQ, CH or NAME›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: MDF-B, then your choice.Watch out. Setting these to NAME on channels that have no names gives you a blank line where the frequency used to be. Put them back to FREQ or CH if that happens.

If you want names, the programming cable is the answer, and it is the one job on this radio genuinely worth the cable — CHIRP handles the UV-82 well and will write names, tones and offsets in one pass instead of your walking the menu once per channel.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Delete a memory channel on a UV-82

Empties a channel so it can be programmed again or left blank.

  1. Open menu 28, pick the channel number, MENU to delete it, EXIT to leave.MENU›28›MENU›shows 28 DEL-CH›type 015›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: DEL-CH and a channel number, 000 to 127.Watch out. Menu 27 next door is the one that STORES a channel. Same kind of screen, same range of numbers, one digit apart, and neither asks whether you are sure.

Storing over a channel does the same job in one step and is usually what you meant. Deleting is for space you want to stay empty — the scanner skips an empty channel, but happily stops on a channel full of something wrong.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off the roger beep on a UV-82

The chirp the radio sends when you release the PTT. On a repeater it lands on top of the repeater's own courtesy tone, which is why most people turn it off.

  1. Open menu 39, set it to OFF, MENU to save, EXIT to leave.MENU›39›MENU›shows 39 ROGER›▲▼ OFF›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: ROGER with ON or OFF.

Three different beeps live in this menu and they are easy to mix up. Menu 39 is the one other people hear when you finish. Menu 8 BEEP is the keypad click and only you hear it. Menu 40 A/B–BP is a tone at the end of RECEPTION — it fires when somebody else stops talking, and it is the item that pushes the factory reset up to 41 on this radio.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off the voice announcements on a UV-82

The voice that reads out every menu item as you walk through it. Useful for a day, then not.

  1. Open menu 14, set it to OFF, MENU to save, EXIT to leave.MENU›14›MENU›shows 14 VOICE›▲▼ OFF›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: VOICE with OFF or ON.The radio ships with this on, so it is usually the first change a new owner makes.

This is the only voice setting there is — there is no way to keep the useful announcements and lose the rest. If your radio is speaking Chinese rather than English, that is this same item: some firmware offers ENG and CHI as two of the choices alongside OFF.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off dual watch on a UV-82

Dual watch is the radio listening to both lines at once. It is on from the factory, and it quietly disables three other things while it runs — which is why turning it off is the first thing to do before programming, and why leaving it on has a setting of its own that goes with it.

  1. Open menu 7 and set TDR to OFF to watch only the line the arrow is against.MENU›7›MENU›shows 7 TDR›▲▼ OFF›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: TDR with OFF or ON.Watch out. With TDR ON, the manual says the reverse function, the saving of duplex channels, and the # power shortcut are all unavailable. If one of those has stopped working for no visible reason, this is the first place to look.
  2. If you would rather keep dual watch ON, set menu 34 as well. This is the one that locks transmit to a chosen display — Baofeng gives it a procedure of its own, called Locking the Dual Watch Transmit Channel.MENU›34›MENU›shows 34 TX-AB›▲▼ A or B›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: TX-AB with OFF, A or B.Without it, whichever side went active first is the one that transmits, which is how people end up keying up on a frequency they were only listening to. To override the lock for one transmission, Baofeng says to press PTT-A or PTT-B an instant before the PTT.Watch out. Menu 34 only does anything while menu 7 is ON; its definition says so outright. So these are two settings for two different situations: menu 7 OFF while you are programming, or menu 7 ON with menu 34 set to A or B while you are monitoring. Baofeng's own Menu Definitions section describes item 34 as display priority rather than transmit selection, and BTECH gives only that reading — but three passages in Baofeng's book call it a transmit lock, including the procedure, so that is how this page treats it.

With TDR off the radio listens only to the line the arrow marks, and the other one goes quiet. That is the setting for working one repeater without the radio wandering off to the other band mid-conversation, and it is the state you want while you are programming channels. With TDR on, menu 34 is what stops you keying up on a frequency you were only listening to.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Lock the keypad on a UV-82

One key does it by hand, one menu item does it for you.

  1. Hold the # key for about two seconds to lock the keypad, and hold it again to unlock.hold #The screen should show: A small padlock appears on the display.Watch out. A QUICK press of the same key is the transmit power shortcut in channel mode. Hold it properly or you will change your power and wonder why nothing locked.
  2. To have the radio lock itself when you leave it alone, open menu 24 and set AUTOLK to ON.MENU›24›MENU›shows 24 AUTOLK›▲▼ ON›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: AUTOLK with OFF or ON.Both manuals give two different delays for this in two different places — ten seconds in the keypad chapter and eight in the menu definition — so expect it sooner than you think rather than later.

Baofeng says plainly what the lock does not cover: the CALL, PTT and MONI buttons all stay live. This radio has two PTT bars, so a locked UV-82 in a backpack can still transmit if something leans on the front of it. The same gap is what lets the 1750 Hz tone burst work with the keypad locked, which the manual points out as a feature.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Factory reset on a UV-82

Menu 41 — and that number is the reason this page exists. On a UV-5R the factory reset is menu 40. On a UV-82 menu 40 is something else entirely, and the reset has moved up one.

  1. Open menu 41.MENU›41›MENU›shows 41 RESETThe screen should show: RESET, with VFO or ALL underneath.Watch out. If what comes up says A/B–BP instead of RESET, you have typed 40 — the UV-5R's number. Back out and try 41. Getting this wrong is harmless, which is the good news; getting it right the other way round, on a UV-5R, is not.
  2. Choose VFO if you want to keep your channels.▲▼ VFO›MENUThe screen should show: VFO on the value line.This clears up nearly everything that sends somebody looking for a reset — a radio gone quiet, a tone set by mistake, an offset nobody can find — and leaves your programmed channels alone.
  3. Choose ALL only if you genuinely want the radio empty.▲▼ ALL›MENU›EXITThe screen should show: ALL on the value line.Watch out. No confirmation screen and no undo. ALL takes your channels with it.

Try VFO first, always. And if you have the programming cable, read your channels out to the computer before either option — that is ten minutes that turns a reset from something you dread into something you do without thinking.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

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