Total noob with a baofeng uv-5rv2 (help)?

[Bill1975]

Hi there, yep, im the FNG with a baofeng that I cant get to work. I sure hope someone can get me going here. So far I have had this thing for three days and have only twice heard about a two second transmission by police. Thats it. I drove around town for two hours today and got nothing. Scan gets nothing. I have watched a bunch of youtube videos and followed instructions but still nothing. I must be doing something wrong because there is no way this thing is this worthless and useless. I have a nagoya 15" whip installed. I can get NOAA and FM radio just fine. Also I got some random public announcement today about something i didn't even understand what they were talking about. Water levels or something. It lasted a few minutes and thats it. What the heck could I be doing wrong?????

 

[nd5y]

Take off the Nagoya antenna and see if the stock antenna that came with the radio works better. These radios have extremely poor receivers. Using a better aftermarket antenna may cause receiver overload and desense and make the radio receive worse, not receive at all, or only able to receive strong local signals like NOAA and FM broadcast.

Are you sure you programmed the correct frequencies?

Did you program CTCSS or DCS tones? If so then don't. You don't need them for receiving and If you make a mistake it can prevent you from hearing anything.

Scan/search speed is extremely slow. If you are scanning more than 5 or so channels you could be missing transmissions (assuming you don't have other problems).

Do you realize that public safety in a smaller city won't be transmitting all the time. Even if you did everything right it might be a long time between transmissions and you might not hear much.

Some states like IL have a statewide trunked radio system on 700 or 800 MHz that many cities and towns use. Baofeng radios can't receive 700/800 MHz or digital transmissions. Do the public safety users in your area have their own VHF/UHF channels or are they on the state system?

For more information on operation and programming see UV5R, UV6R, GT3 Info - Miklor

 

[Bill1975]

Thanks for the response. Today I have been trying the stock antenna. It seems to work as good as the whip. Last night I had it in the kitchen (with the whip on) and the scan kept stopping on a few fuzz spots. So it stopped on 159.150 and it was just fuzz until i picked it up and it got a bit better and then I held it to the window and I got some pretty clear police transmissions. As long as i touched the radio and held it to the window I could hear most of it. Then today i was driving around town and got nothing until I pulled into my garage and turned it on from being off (due to frustration), and immediately got very clear police talk. Just a few back and forths then quiet. Im just confused as to why I can hear something every once i a great while but then its gone.
I have tried to CTCSS tones but doesn't seem to help so I leave them off. Is that only for transmitting? As far as the "correct frequencies" I guess so. I have tried ones from this site and a couple others but nothing is all that spectacular. I have gotten some police on 159.150 and 155.850 but thats it. Very little. Im not too sure as to why scan doesn't pick up more. I understand the scan is slow on this thing so if im going through all the frequencies Ill probably miss stuff. But man for a town of about 14,000 I would expect more traffic. This is def a learning experience and I appreciate any and all help from you guys here. Thank you very much
When there is some fuzz is there something I should be doing to get it to come in better?

 

[W8RMH]

According to the RR database, "April 2016 - Streator Police and AMT Ambulance are dispatched by LIVCOM on Starcom21. Streator Fire is dispatched by LivCom on 159.090 which was formerly the Streator Police repeater".

Starcom21 is a digital system which the Baofeng can't receive or decode. This is where your police traffic is. The 155.850 channel is a mobile-only tactical frequency. It would be low power and only used for car to car or short range comms, and is probably rarely used if at all. You would need to be very close to hear anything. If you want to listen to your police you will need a digital P25 Phase II capability scanner plain and simple.

Click on the link below for agencies using 159.150:

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?freq=159.150&tone=&action=isf&stid[]=17&coid=1

The Baofeng is designed as a ham radio and is a poor choice for a police scanner.

 

[Bill1975]

Thanks for the information. That pretty much explains what ive been seeing. This must be a hobby because I see me spending a bunch of $ : )

 

[Golay]

Volume Control.

Bill:

Probably not the issue but I'll mention it.
Is it possible your volume knob is flaky?
I have had a UV-5R for awhile now. In the last couple months, the volume control is intermittent. Just a touch will make it go from no to full audio, or vice versa. Reading your second post compelled me to mention it.

 

[Bill1975]

@Golay ...... Nah, I dont think its the vol knob. That seems to be fine. Just seems more like weak reception. When I do get a fuzzy channel I sometimes can hear faint voices. The best I have gotten yet was in a rain storm on Satuday night. But only one channel. I did however connect to a toy walkie talkie today and it worked fine. BTW, can you use a HAM on FRS channels without a licence?
Im still very new to this so maybe im expecting more than I should. But I find this stuff pretty interesting so im sure there will be a learning curve. Thanks for the reply!

 

[KC4RAF]

Bill, also you may want to research what's called a "tiger tail" for your baofeng. On YouTube, search for "baofeng tiger tail" and you'll get several responses. Try any one of them and they'll explain the theory. It's a cheap and fast help for counterpoising.
Also, baofeng really ain't the greatest radio for scanning.