September Meeting: Learn to use Chirp

With the onslaught of cheap HTs and bargain-priced mobile radios, everyone’s getting a new rig.  The big problem comes when it’s time to program in a memory or adjust the PL tone; most radios require multiple levels of menus to adjust the appropriate settings and can be frustrating.  Many of the big manufacturers have software available that makes programming the radios easy if you use your computer, but one open-source application has become the go-to standard that works with radios from most any manufacturer: Chirp.  Despite Chirp’s ubiquity, many people have found it difficult to understand and use, and this month we aim to help with that.

In this month’s presentation we’ll show you what Chirp is, some of its common settings, and how to use it to program your radio.  We’ll give demonstrations to explain how to save the memories from your radio, manipulate them to change the stored settings, and then upload them back to your radio for you to use.  We’ll also talk about the various types of cables you may need to do this.  Hopefully you’ll be encouraged to go home and try Chirp for yourself and see what it can do to help make your ham life easier.  We hope to see you there!