Baofeng BF-F8HP Dead on Arrival?

[fairly]

Hi All,

Please excuse my salient newbishness here, but :

I just unboxed a BF-F8HP and I can't even get it to receive FM stations. All I get is static.

Given this is my first transceiver, ever, I am open to the possibility that I am doing something terribly wrong, though I cannot think of what that might be.

Forget VHF/UHF, I'm saying that I literally hit Call to get into FM mode, make sure I'm in 76-108M and plug in the frequency of the local NPR station I happen to be listening to on my plain jane AM/FM set in the kitchen.

Nothing but static.... On any freq.

It sounds exactly the same with the antenna connected or disconnected.

Is this thing DOA?

 

[jaspence]

DOA

That can happen with any consumer device, and the low end Chinese radios certainly aren't exempt. They are produced in large enough volume that there are bound to be problems if not complete failure. Even Icom, Yaesu and the other higher end manufacturers face problems with defective devices.

 

[davidzimmerman]

kind of like a throw away radio lol

 

[fairly]

Yep, as soon as I wrote the post I realized that my relationship with baofeng was to be a very short-lived.

Its back in the box and Steve, my UPS guy will begin its escort back to its warehouse tomorrow.

I've still got the itch though...

What's the "real" entry level recommendation for a complete beginner? Is this the right board to talk Yaesu or Icom?

 

[nd5y]

Push the call button to put it in FM mode, then enter 88100 to put it on 88.1, then push *SCAN and see if it finds any other FM stations.

 

[fairly]

I tried that, scan in FM didn't work like it did in UHF/VHF. Button was unresponsive, no matter how much I held it down.

I did methodically and quite frustratingly go through every radio station I knew to exist in the area, pure static.

 

[ko6jw_2]

Remember that any signal received on band a or band b will take priority over the FM mode. If the radio is receiving noise on a channel, then the fm will receive that frequency and not fm. Take a look at the frequency the radio is receiving and see if there is a signal that is interfering with the FM mode. Since you don't say that you programmed the radio, it will be set to a default frequency which may be receiving noise.

 

[jonwienke]

FM radio is a secondary feature on these radios. The antenna isn't tuned to that range, and any signal on the programmed channel or vfo will override the FM reception.

If you want to see if the radio works, put a NOAA weather freq in and see what you get.