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I use the radio for paragliding and the radio is mounted on a "cockpit" in front of me when flying.

When in flight my hands are busy. I can hear the radio fine (don't need an earpiece) and I can transmit fine too (others can hear me, don't need a better/closer mic).

However transmitting can be problematic because I have to take one of my hands off the controls to press and hold the PTT button on the side of the radio.

My idea was to use a kenwood type cable and connecting a button/switch to the correct terminals so that I can put effectively the PTT switch about 50cm away from the radio where I can push and transmit without taking my hands off the controls.

If this is possible, which two terminals would I be shorting?

As a bonus question, would the UV-5R support dual PTT (A and B) like the UV82 described in the link?

Many thanks for the help

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1 Answer 1

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You want your switch to short the shield of each of the connectors to each other, strange as that sounds. These plugs are commonly known as TRS, or tip-ring-shield, so the shield is the part closest to the body of the plug. The ones you want are both marked PTT in this image (don't let the other stuff confuse you, these pins do multiple things when connected with mic or speaker to other pins, but they transmit when connected to each other):

pinout

The Miklor page you linked to, in the fine print under the dual PTT picture, does have the answer to your other question, which is unfortunately no, the UV-82 style dual PTT only works with dual-PTT radios like the UV-82. Honestly, they're cheap and dual remote PTTs might be useful enough in your circumstance to get one just for that feature. My mom has a UV-82 and likes it very much, so I can personally recommend it.

In the case that you do have a dual PTT radio, shorting both shields as above will transmit on the lower display channel, and shorting the tip of the 3.5mm plug (marked +V above) to the shield of the 2.5mm plug gets you the upper channel.

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  • $\begingroup$ A possible caveat: these radios turn off the internal speaker when an external speaker is plugged in, so you may have to modify your PTT switch connector by cutting off the tip and ring portions of the 2.5mm connector, the bottom one in the picture above, so that it doesn't reach the switch inside of the jack that tells it to switch off the internal speaker. As I recall, the internal mic is active even when an external mic is plugged in, but you should test that on the ground as well. $\endgroup$
    – MoTLD
    Mar 28, 2017 at 7:06
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the comprehensive answer. I'll give it a go and do some experimenting. $\endgroup$
    – Andre
    Mar 28, 2017 at 12:38
  • $\begingroup$ This is great. I am interfacing an old MFJ-1270b to one and this is helpful. I think all I will need is to bridge the shields together. I have the DIN cable for the 1270 and several Speaker/mics for the UV-5R so will sacrifice one for the plug. Probably will need a single transistor to do the PTT. $\endgroup$
    – SDsolar
    Sep 25, 2017 at 0:39
  • $\begingroup$ @MoTLD ....I've looked EVERYWHERE for the answer to this question. THANK YOU for sharing this PPT answer for the UV-5R. It's a HUGE help. I'm kinda surprised that only two guys were searching for how to enable a remote PTT for the UV-5R. $\endgroup$
    – Rick Heitman
    Dec 20, 2018 at 20:04

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