Baofeng Baofeng picket fencing when ... stationary or moving?

[needairtime]

I'm not sure if this is an issue with my Baofeng HT but here's the rub:

I'm about equidistant to two 2m repeaters that are linked, but I suspect the linking has no relevance other than I could use either repeater to listen to the same content. Well maybe I lied, one is slightly farther. Both are about on the fringe of reception to the Baofeng's rubber ducky antenna, signal from both repeaters are fairly weak.

But anyway, the *closer* one seems to "picket fence" or it receives and loses reception every 2-3 seconds, even when I'm sitting still. Or when I'm moving around in my car. It would cut out every 2-3 seconds no matter how fast I'm moving or if I'm moving at all. When the signal cuts out, it's a carrier loss - and when in dual watch mode, the other frequency locks on.

The slightly farther 2m repeater the signal is just fine along with pretty much any other repeater or the WX stations.

Also as an aside both of these repeaters I've yet to be able to actually transmit to for whatever reason -- perhaps just too far away or I need to get higher or I need to get a better antenna. But just wondering about the reception first.

Any ideas what would be causing such?

 

[buddrousa]

It is a cheap radio and the problem frequency is seeing interference could be as simple as your cell phone as the cause.

 

[nd5y]

It might be related to this:

Baofeng - Crackle in motion - solved!

Well, actually not solved per-se, but once you know what it is, you might be able to live with it. The radio is not malfunctioning. The sdr part of it controlling the rf-gain is rapidly changing, which is much more active as your strong signal changes as you move / wave. The weaker signals...

forums.radioreference.com

Digital artifacts in TYT and Radioddity analog receive audio

Has anybody else noticed digital artifacts in analog receive audio in the TYT MD-2017 and Radioddity GD-77 handhelds? I've never noticed this in Baofeng radios such as a UV-5R. When listening in analog mode it manifests itself as loud tick sounds as the received signal strength changes. It's...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[needairtime]

hmm... I don't recall it making a difference with how close my cell phone was, but that was a possibility... but I don't think that's it. I'll try it outside my rf noise generator^W^W^W house with my phone in airplane mode to see if it changes but hopefully I can catch a time when someone's transmitting...hah...

It's not exactly the crackle issue either. The signal completely fades out for a second and you hear silence for that particular frequency (no popping like a Geiger counter) but I know the transmitter is still transmitting because I can switch over to the other repeater for the same content. I also don't need to move, the radio can be still and it does it.

I was thinking could it be a possibility that transmitter (repeater) is slightly off frequency or the Baofeng off frequency for that one specific frequency since the other repeaters work fine? Not sure...

 

[nd5y]

It's not exactly the crackle issue either. The signal completely fades out for a second and you hear silence for that particular frequency (no popping like a Geiger counter) but I know the transmitter is still transmitting because I can switch over to the other repeater for the same content. I also don't need to move, the radio can be still and it does it.

Does it only happen if the channel has CTCSS or DCS decode? Does the busy LED stay on when the signal appears to drop out?

 

[IAmSixNine]

Also can you swtich to a NOAA weather channel and listen to see if it picks that up clearly?

 

[needairtime]

Actually kind of weird, the repeater that has this issue I do not have receive CTCSS enabled. The repeater that's linked to the weird behavior repeater works fine, I have CTCSS receive enabled with this one (!)

The Busy LED turns off when the signal drops if I recall correctly.

The NOAA (WX) channels work fine and don't crackle or drop out.

I'm still leaning towards interference but I just can't put my finger on why going away from my house doesn't help and it doesn't matter that I'm moving or not.

 

[nd5y]

Do you get a squelch tail noise when that happens or does the audio just stop?

I have noticed occasional flakey tone decoding behavior and false deocding of STE that mutes receiver.
If you get a squelch crash and the busy light goes off then it's probably desense or interference.

 

[Bob1955]

I'm not sure if this is an issue with my Baofeng HT but here's the rub:

I'm about equidistant to two 2m repeaters that are linked, but I suspect the linking has no relevance other than I could use either repeater to listen to the same content. Well maybe I lied, one is slightly farther. Both are about on the fringe of reception to the Baofeng's rubber ducky antenna, signal from both repeaters are fairly weak.

But anyway, the *closer* one seems to "picket fence" or it receives and loses reception every 2-3 seconds, even when I'm sitting still. Or when I'm moving around in my car. It would cut out every 2-3 seconds no matter how fast I'm moving or if I'm moving at all. When the signal cuts out, it's a carrier loss - and when in dual watch mode, the other frequency locks on.

The slightly farther 2m repeater the signal is just fine along with pretty much any other repeater or the WX stations.

Also as an aside both of these repeaters I've yet to be able to actually transmit to for whatever reason -- perhaps just too far away or I need to get higher or I need to get a better antenna. But just wondering about the reception first.

Any ideas what would be causing such?

Baofeng transceivers are generally $25-$60.00 radios and they have poor drop in chargers and are subject to intermod-RF but when set up in ctcss/dcs, they are just fair. I have noticed that they do drop out when driving around in my SUV. A Uniden Bearcat BC-125 AT is much better except the battery life is MUCH better in the Baofeng. I have a UV-5RA and for the price, it is great but I mainly use the Bearcat BCD-996P2 for the apartment and handheld in my SUV. A Keenwood/Icom is MUCH better but more money too so you get what you pay for.
Hope this helps you out.

 

[riccom]

Sounds like front end overload.

 

[needairtime]

Audio and carrier drops out fairly consistently. Perhaps the behavior isn't perfectly described - it's like
1.5 second sounds fine - drops out for 0.5 second - comes back for 1.5 sec - drops out for 0.5 sec -- and so on and so forth. LED blinks, I think I hear a very short bit of carrier drop crash. I don't even need to move the Baofeng to get it to exhibit this behavior - setting it on the table does it for just that one repeater. Moving the Baofeng around a bit or driving it in a car doesn't change the behavior.

It could be perfectly explained if the transmitter had some strange problems but maybe I and perhaps a lot of people here are ruling that out because we're talking about a CCR versus a repeater on a mountain (or it could be a CheapChineseRepeater too but nah, impossible...or is it?)

Front end overload...but what's overloading? No other radio sources nearby other than the possibility of a cellular phone which I have yet to test this hypothesis. Indeed I keep my cell phone with me, so I need to rule that out. But I need to wait until someone transmits something on that repeater again before I can try

 

[nd5y]

Front end overload...but what's overloading? No other radio sources nearby

It doesn't necessarily need to be nearby. It could be something strong that is miles away.
1 second intervals could be GPS RTK.
Or maybe the radio is defective and some internal firmware problem is causing it.