Introduction: Using Baofeng UV17 Pro GPS Walkie Talkies' GPS Function

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I purchased a couple of Baofeng UV17 Pro GPS walkie talkies as they have a GPS function which can be used by 'suitably qualified persons' to give the coordinates of the walkie talkie's location. You can also request the coordinates of another UV17 Pro GPS walkie talkie in your 'Group'. They look like they will be useful while bushwalking or to use while playing 'hide and seek' in a large park. This project shows how to use the GPS function.

Supplies

2 Baofeng UV 17 Pro GPS Walkie Talkies

Step 1: Getting Your Location

  • Turn on the Walkie Talkie.
  • Press the blue button for 2 seconds (Long Press) to go into 'GPS mode'.
  • Wait for the walkie talkie to get a fix on satellites - this may take a couple of minutes.
  • The latitude and longitude coordinates displayed will show your location.
  • You can see your position on a map by entering the coordinates into Google maps, to do this on a computer the format is: 39°3'46.85''N, 120°1'59.78''W - (To enter the degree " ° " symbol, hold down the Alt key and type 0176).

Step 2: Setting Up 2 Walkie Talkies to Play Hide and Seek

  • Program the two walkie talkies to be on the same channel / frequency.
  • Edit the ANIC on each walkie talkie to be different: E.g. 101 and 102 (Press green menu button, Select: Radio Setting, Edit ANIC, type in say 101), (Change the other walkie talkie's ANIC number to say 102).

Step 3: Getting the Other Walkie Talkies GPS Location

  • Make sure both walkie talkies are on the same frequency.
  • Press down the blue button to go into 'GPS location' mode on both walkie talkies.
  • Use the arrows to select the other walkie talkie's ANIC number.
  • Press the transmit key. The indicator on top will turn red while transmitting a request to the other walkie talk for its' location. When it replies to the request, the indicator will turn green.
  • Press the green button to visually see the other walkie talkies' relative location and distance from your walkie talkie.
  • You can walk towards this location and the distance away will update without having to repress the transmit button.

Step 4: Distance From Start Location

You can use the 2 walkie talkies to see your distance form your starting point and relative location:

  • Get the location of the 1st walkie talkie, while at the starting point using the 2nd walkie talkie. (The 2nd walkie talkie remembers it even if the 1st walkie talkie is now turned off).
  • Walk away from the location - the distance and location of the starting point will be shown. Even if the location is attempted to be updated with the 1st walkie talkie turned off, the location displayed will not disappear until the 2nd walkie talkie is tuned off.
  • The screen can be hard to see in bright daylight - just hold it closer to your face.
  • The relative position on the screen is a little difficult to work out when you are less than 50 meters away.
  • As the walkie talkie doesn't have a built-in compass the orientation can to be judged by shadows cast during the day (sun raise in the east and sets in the west) or by monitoring location and distance change while moving.
  • Recharge the walkie talkies each time before using them outside as they don't work with a flat battery and the GPS function is a bit power hungry. With the GPS function turned on and with no transmitting or receiving, the walkie talkie's battery lasted 20hrs in 'standby mode'. It took 4 hours to recharge on the power cradle. The walkie talkie can also be recharged using a USB C which will be beneficial when travelling.

Step 5: Playing Hide and Seek

  • Check both walkie talkies are on the same channels.
  • Change to 'GPS location mode' on both walkie talkies and check they have both have GPS 'fixes'. They both need to remain in GPS mode for position requests to work.
  • Someone takes one of the walkie talkies and hides in a park (E.g. Person hiding carries walkie talkie with ANIS 01).
  • Person seeking has walkie talkie with ANIC set to 02 and selects 01 with arrows to request this walkies talkies position. They press transmit key to receive the other walkie talkies position and walk towards it.
  • When they get closer, they again request position and home into where the other person is hiding.

Step 6: Using the GPS Function While Hiking and Camping

The two UV 17 Pro GPS walkie talkies were taken on a camping and hiking weekend. Here are my thoughts after using them over a couple of walks:

  • The leader had one of the walkie talkies set on the GPS function, while I had the other one at the back of the walking group. It was useful to see how far in front the leader was when he was out of site, normally this wasn't more than about 100 meters.
  • When pinging the other walkie talkie for its location, the noise from the request and transfer was a bit annoying to the other users on the same channel. It would be useful to experiment with the ability to have the GPS function set to a different channel and monitor both channels using dual watch.
  • With the GPS function being used, (long press on the blue key) the receiver still hears communications and can be sent by pressing the transmit key. On transmission, a request is also sent out. This noise is a little distracting, but workable. A better way is to briefly switch to Channel mode, transmit and then switch back to GPS monitor mode to monitor.
  • The walkie talkies were used for a total of about 6 hours over two days. This may provide some guidance on how long the battery will last when being used.
  • A small compass was carried to show which direction the other walkie talkie was, but when the sun was out, its shadow was a useful guide. Also, just by walking in a direction and watching how the distance away to the other walkie talkie changes can help to indicate direction.
  • When, with in a few hundreds of meters of the other walkie talk is difficult to see its relative location on the screen, it would be nice to have a zoom option, but this wasn't a game changer.
  • In bright sun the screen is difficult to read.
  • It was useful, upon returning to camp to be able to monitor how far the rest of the group were away and hence gauge arrival time.
  • If there is a large hill between walkie talkies, this will block reception between walkie talkies.
  • Having the GPS function in the walkie talkies adds to the fun of using them.

Step 7: Air Band

The UV17 Pro GPS also has the ability to listen to air band. I manually set up a channel with an air band for the local airport and tried it out. Worked OK, though seemed to be an info channel and not two-way dialogue between pilots and tower. Will try need to do some more investigation into it.