The Quansheng’s UV-K5 radio may be modded with the press of a mouse. IEEE Spectrum appears on the handheld:
The UV-K5, launched final yr, is perhaps essentially the most hackable handheld ever, with a small military of devoted hams including a raft of software-based enhancements and new options. I needed to have one, and $30 later, I did.
Like Baofeng’s 5R, Quansheng’s K5 as a radio transceiver is high quality. (I’m utilizing K5 right here to discuss with each the unique K5 and the brand new K5(8) mannequin.) The important thing technical distinction between the 5R and K5 is a seemingly minor design alternative. With Baofeng’s 5R, the firmware resides in read-only reminiscence. However Quansheng shops the K5’s firmware in flash reminiscence and made it attainable to rewrite that reminiscence with the identical USB programming cable used to assign frequencies to preset channels.
The prospect of an updatable radio dangled an irresistible temptation for folk to start out reverse engineering the firmware and {hardware} so they may attempt writing their very own code. Modifications so far have typically taken the type of patches to the official firmware, quite than wholesale rewrites. With the official firmware taking over many of the radio’s 64 kilobytes of flash reminiscence, such mods have to suit into lower than 3 KB.
Learn extra in IEEE Spectrum right here.
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