Baofeng UV-5R Transciever

Well, the first of two radios has arrived and it looks pretty cool. It seems a sturdy little bit of kit, appears to have a considerable number of options including FM radio and LED torch on the top - disappointed by the lack of a built in toaster though...  Anyhoo, I got a programming cable and a mini-cd of software for this one and quickly fired it into the PC. After operating in stupid mode for some minutes I quickly figured out that my 64-bit notebook would probably work better with the 64-bit USB driver than the 32-bit one. I manually typed in all the channels I wanted - FRS/GMRS and PMR446 - and proceeded to plug in the radio. It wouldn't connect; kept giving me an 8020 error. After much head scratching and searching of the web I found the latest version of Baofeng's software, downloaded that and run it. Same problem. I then spent an interesting(ish) hour perusing ham radio forums tracking down a solution. I downloaded a little program called CHIRP and proceeded to use this. It's actually a fantastic little piece of code and the radio was up and working in next to no time. Some folks might not bother with the hassle of programming the radio, and by hand it's a daunting task, but certain things can only be done via the PC (like putting names to the channels) so getting the USB cable and downloading the CHIRP software is a no brainer. I've set all the FRS and PMR channels to low power as standard with the GMRS left on high power and used all the default names from CHIRP.

The CHIRP software is updated daily (!) so here's a link to the files http://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_daily/   just find the latest file and use the download enclosed.

Oh, the fishing reel bags arrived and look ideal for the headsets but I'll need to remove the aerials from the radios for them to fit. I've got some closed cell foam kicking about and I'm going to use that to modularise the interiors.

What we have is a failure to communicate - not anymore...

I decided it was time to consolidate all the radio based crap I have accumulated into a big box, stash it at the back of the cupboard and start afresh. Basically I wanted two radios - one for me and one for my imaginary friend. After a long search and reading various reviews I decided on the Chinese made Baofeng UV-5R. They appear to have some distinct advantages, the main one of which appears to be much cheapness for a lot of tech. They cover 400-480Mhz which I have reliably informed will cover the PMR466 band and the US GMRS/FRS bands - although, to be fair, the 'reliably informed' is via an airsoft forum so could as easily be 'a wild guess'. Time will tell, since they've still actually to get here. The radios look, at least IMHO, pretty tactical without resembling the half bricks that are actual service radios. Of course, real military radios would be really cool and gucci but since they operate on different frequencies, comms with anybody other than my imaginary friend would be somewhat curtailed. Apparently, these little Chinese toys can listen to two channels at the same time and can be programmed from your PC via a USB cable. They have a standard two pin Kenwood connector to attach a PTT or basic headset.  I ordered them separately from different companies on ebay mainly from the point of view of reducing the odds of being huckled for customs and handling charges. One of the orders includes the required USB programming cable. At £75(ish) for both they seem like a pretty good buy.

Of course, radios need headsets - yes they do - and the new Ztactical Evo III headset in Olive Drab looked ideal. You can swap the mike around to either side and they have a standard military plug to connect to a PTT. I've not really been a fan of throat mikes although I have three or four kicking about and I have an combined in-ear headset/mike which is quite clever but it doesn't fit particularly well in my ear. I also have the the older fixed mike Cavalvy version of the one pictured and like it but at that point it came with combined PTT. The new one plugs into a separate PTT allowing you to leave the radio attached to your gear when taking it off without almost strangling yourself trying to disengage yourself from your headset. The picture is a butchered version of the one on the Ebairsoft.com site where I bought two of them as well as a couple of separate PTT units. Having bought this lot I figured I could do with somewhere to store them so again a trawl though ebay brought up the idea of using a couple of smallish green zipped padded bags intended for storing fishing reels. They look like they'll hold the radio, headset and PTT and for a mere £3.20  each I figure they're worth a punt. 

A Hi-Capa or four

Here's a selection of the handguns I have - four Tokyo Marui Hi-Capas. The top three are fitted with Tanyo-Koba grips - which allow the 5.1s to fit a Blackhawk 1911 CQB SERPA holster. Unfortunately, the 4.1 doesn't fit due to the extended dust cover frame. The two black guns have PDI 6.01 Raven inner barrels and the silver guns have PDI 6.01 stainless inner barrels. All the guns have Nine Ball hop rubber and valve routers. The black 5.1 has a black kryloned barrel, black trigger, hammer and recoil rod fitted. It was going to have a Night Warrior slide but alas it needs the Night Warrior sights - supplies of these appear to have vanished off the face of the planet. The silver 5.1 has a TM 5.1 Match slide and an alloy trigger. The black 4.3 has a dual safety fitted and the silver 4.3 has an alloy outer barrel. The original plan was to uber-pimp all of these with alloy slides and barrels but given the so-so results I've had with these guns and being unimpressed with my efforts with my Desert Eagle and a Zeke kit I've decided that the grief ratio, not to mention the cash spent, isn't worth it. I've stripped out the alloy slides and, except for the silver 4.3, the alloy/steel barrels and resorted to the high speed moving bits the designer intended. I'll stick to minor tweeks and and performance upgrades from now on, Probably... 

The backdrop is a piece of Auscam fabric I picked up from ebay. The plan is to take a Halfords five drawer plus lid section metal tool box  put some thin foam in the bottom, use some neoprene tape to make rough shapes for the guns then line the drawers with the fabric in a similar fashion (hopefully) to some of the recent Tokyo Marui handgun boxes. Should allow storage of 20 handguns with space in the top for a  silenced KSC Mac11 and a KWA MP9 - I think I need to make a wheeled base for it!