• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

Baofeng UV5 squelch problem, any solutions?

Status
Not open for further replies.
VE1GAT

VE1GAT

Secular Humanist, goodness without godness
Joined
Aug 30, 2013
Messages
70
Location
Halifax or Englishtown, Nova Scotia, Canada
I have several UV5s types with firmware 297
and none of the units have a working squelch.
I have not joined the CHIRP mail list but use daily builds.
Have not found any bugs reported or fixed about this issue

any solutions
 
R

robertmac

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,298
Please explain what you mean by not having a working squelch. Not familiar with the Baofeng, but most of these cheap Chinese radios have the squelch set from a menu. Someone may understand you problem but I don't unless you explain it a little more.
 
VE1GAT

VE1GAT

Secular Humanist, goodness without godness
Joined
Aug 30, 2013
Messages
70
Location
Halifax or Englishtown, Nova Scotia, Canada
UV5 has a squelch menu with settings 0-9, 0=off and 1-9 low - high
all settings 1-9 produce the same result (a low set squelch),
this results in unwanted low level noisy transmissions triggering reception.
 
R

robertmac

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,298
I'll make a couple other assumptions. You have tried this on different frequencies, VHF and UHF. And in different locations in the area you live, that is away from home. As an example, I have cable RFI leaks that I have not been able to fully squelch out. And this occurs on different frequencies, mostly VHF.
 
R

robertmac

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,298
But different locations, like 20 or more kms apart? And what happens without antennas screwed on?
 
R

robertmac

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,298
One more assumption. After changing the squelch settings, you hit FUN [or what ever key Baofeng requires] to input the change and not just hit EXIT [or what ever key on the Baofeng]? If this has been done, next suggestion would be to garbage them or return them and get a "real" ham radio.
 
K4APR

K4APR

Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2003
Messages
1,028
Location
Chesapeake, VA.
The only issue I have noticed with my UV-5R's is the squelch is slow to snap open. For me, this is not that big of a deal for voice. Sometimes if I key a repeater, the squelch doesn't open fast enough to catch the courtesy tone, but that's it.

For packet, it's a bit more important. Running closed squelch pretty much ensures the first part of the packet will be missed and will result in not being decoded. Maybe not even being detected. For this, I run open squelch and it does just fine. Since the speaker is cut off when the mic/speaker cable is plugged in for the TNC interface, you don't have to listen to constant dead air static.
 
mancow

mancow

Member
Database Admin
Joined
Feb 19, 2003
Messages
6,908
Location
N.E. Kansas
It's a known bug in the radios. They all seem to be built on the same base firmware and only the cases differ.
 
O

OH6NXB

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2014
Messages
1
Location
Äänekoski, Finland
Baofeng UV-5R squelch is not holding....

I have the same problem and it seams to bee almost whole 160 MHz area. SQ-level no meaning
400 Mh area is clean.
Noise burst is like carrier wave with "digital data" and it stays on 0,5 - 3 s or more, every now and then during the daytime.
I am quite sure that front stage is self oskillating what means that it is unstaple.
No effect, is it Helix- or 1/4 wip-antenna. Big or small accu.
But, roof antenna ok.
 
S

ScottPerry

Newbie
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
Messages
2
CHIRP cause of Baofeng Problems REAL

I just went through TWO of these Baofeng BF-F8+ radios ruined by CHIRP.

Out of the box, all functions worked. I spent an hour testing the radio, talking to another on 70cm with success, listening to channels on scan . . . everything worked.

One plug into CHIRP and a quick upload of channel settings . . . the radio squelch no longer lets transmissions through.

No matter if the squelch on the menu was set anywhere from 0 (hearing static) to 9, absolutely NO AUDIO can be heard unless the monitor button on the side is held in. Before using CHIRP, even a squelch of 7 would allow another radio within the same room to be heard.

There is something wrong with CHIRP on this radio.
Like I said, I had a working radio, connected CHIRP, uploaded settings, then lost use . . . TWICE! I sent the radio back, got a replacement, and the same thing happened when I used CHIRP.

I really wish all of you would quit bashing the cheap Chinese radio. This Baofeng (all 3) unit was pretty nice until I took someone's advice to use this software to configure it. Please pay attention and fix this.
 
jonwienke

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,409
Location
VA
There is a bug in some versions of Baofeng firmware, where if you turn off key beep (not roger beep) the receiver will never open squelch. It doesn't matter whether you change the setting in CHIRP or from the keypad.

The simple fix is to turn key beep back on. You can do it from CHIRP or from the keypad, and the radio will work again.

It's not CHIRP's fault.
 
K

KC9HI

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2013
Messages
269
ScottPerry said:
I just went through TWO of these Baofeng BF-F8+ radios ruined by CHIRP.

Out of the box, all functions worked. I spent an hour testing the radio, talking to another on 70cm with success, listening to channels on scan . . . everything worked.

One plug into CHIRP and a quick upload of channel settings . . . the radio squelch no longer lets transmissions through.

No matter if the squelch on the menu was set anywhere from 0 (hearing static) to 9, absolutely NO AUDIO can be heard unless the monitor button on the side is held in. Before using CHIRP, even a squelch of 7 would allow another radio within the same room to be heard.

There is something wrong with CHIRP on this radio.
Like I said, I had a working radio, connected CHIRP, uploaded settings, then lost use . . . TWICE! I sent the radio back, got a replacement, and the same thing happened when I used CHIRP.

I really wish all of you would quit bashing the cheap Chinese radio. This Baofeng (all 3) unit was pretty nice until I took someone's advice to use this software to configure it. Please pay attention and fix this.
Click to expand...

Scott,

New radios have N5R-20 firmware. Baofeng changed the memory layout in the radios with these firmware versions. So you must not load cross load a .img file from a previous firmware version into a radio with N5R-20 firmware or upload a .img file from a radio with N-5R firmware into a radio with previous firmware. If you do (and is sounds like you did), your radio will no longer receive unless you press and hold the [MONI] button.

CHIRP was updated quite a few weeks ago to prevent the cross loading of .img files across these firmware versions. You apparently weren't using the latest CHIRP daily build.

The fix is to load the original backup .img that was saved from each radio when you first received them. This will return the memory structure back to the way the radio was originally received from the factory. Once this is done, receive will function as is did before the non-compatible .img file was uploaded to the radio.

The problem is that most do not realize to save an untouched backup .img from their radio before starting to change settings and loading .img files that were saved from other radios. For those, there is a "recovery" page on the Miklor website that explains the recovery procedure and provides a link to "factory" .img files that can be used to "reset" their radio(s).

UV-5R with N5R-20 Firmware Recovery

Once you "recovered" all of your radios, upgrade to the latest CHIRP daily build so you won't be able to accidentally cross load .img files in the future. Then use the CHIRP "Import" feature to safely load the channels from your .img file.

Jim KC9HI
 
joeuser

joeuser

The Wretched
Joined
Feb 9, 2014
Messages
1,613
Location
North Central Kansas
Yikes, I haven't touched the firmware on my radios & after reading this, I'm glad. What does new firmware bring to the table anyway, that compelled you guys to update & deal with this mess?
 
K

KC9HI

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2013
Messages
269
joeuser said:
Yikes, I haven't touched the firmware on my radios & after reading this, I'm glad. What does new firmware bring to the table anyway, that compelled you guys to update & deal with this mess?
Click to expand...

I said nothing about updating firmware. The firmware of these radios is on a one-time-programmable chip and is not updatable. The only way to get a different firmware version is to buy another radio that has a different firmware version.

What I said was that because of a memory layout change brought about by the latest firmware version, namely N5R-20, CHIRP .img files saved from radios with previous frimware version must not be uploaded to a radio with this new firmware version. The same is true the other way around. You must not upload CHIRP .img files saved from a radio with N5R-20 firmware into any radios with an older firmware version.

CHIRP daily builds after 20140714 have been updated to prevent the cross loading of these incompatible .img files. So to safely transfer the channels from an older .img file into one of these new radios you should use the CHIRP File -> Import function and change the file mask to "CHIRP Radio Images (*.img)".

Jim KC9HI
 
N

nd5y

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
11,877
Location
Wichita Falls, TX
Baofeng has poor software engineering QC if they even test it at all.
They change the firmware to fix bugs or change features like adding a third power level for the high power radio or fix the DTMF bug but each new version has different bugs. You can't upgrade the firmware. You have to buy a new radio to get the latest version.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

N9JIG
Scanner Tales: NCS-3230 Mini Review
Replies
3
Views
823
N9JIG
N9JIG
N9JIG
Scanner Tales: Wills Fox Hunting Adventures
Replies
0
Views
419
N9JIG
N9JIG
N9JIG
Scanner Tales: What a quandary I am in now! (Model 27 vs NCS-3230)
Replies
8
Views
1K
wa8pyr
wa8pyr
N9JIG
Scanner Tales: We can be the Good Guys sometimes
Replies
5
Views
2K
T680
T
K
  • Locked
RE post
Replies
8
Views
708
KevinC
KevinC
Top