Baofeng Squelch

[markfleser]

Having trouble with the squelch on my Pofung (Baofeng) UV-82. It's currently set at 2, but it doesn't seem to matter what setting I use, even all the way down to 0 I get the same results. On a VHF repeater, we don't have any in my immediate area so I'm not sure if it's a signal strength issue or what. I can key up a repeater and the radio will act like it's receiving, but I can't hear anything. The green receive light will come on, the display will light up and the active frequency arrow will blink, but I can't hear anything. If I press the "M" button to open up the squelch, I can hear what's going on. I have the frequency of my county's fire dispatch programmed into the radio, which is VHF (154 MHZ), I believe that it's all simplex too and I can hear every unit in the county that transmits, so the problem does not exist there. If I'm on VHF simplex with another radio and when I'm on a UHF repeater it does not have this problem. The radio obviously knows that its receiving so I don't understand why the squelch isn't opening especially when it's fine radio to radio on simplex and on UHF repeaters.

 

[joeuser]

Baofeng squelch has always been an issue. Others report no difference when setting the squelch to different levels. Its known. You may also check this thread which may or may not apply:

http://forums.radioreference.com/showthread.php?t=279430

 

[westernme963]

Sure you don't have a pl programmed in on the receive side by accident. If you open the squelch you'll be getting the whole freq versus if its not opening because it doesny see the pl.

 

[KC9HI]

Having trouble with the squelch on my Pofung (Baofeng) UV-82. It's currently set at 2, but it doesn't seem to matter what setting I use, even all the way down to 0 I get the same results. On a VHF repeater, we don't have any in my immediate area so I'm not sure if it's a signal strength issue or what. I can key up a repeater and the radio will act like it's receiving, but I can't hear anything. The green receive light will come on, the display will light up and the active frequency arrow will blink, but I can't hear anything. If I press the "M" button to open up the squelch, I can hear what's going on. I have the frequency of my county's fire dispatch programmed into the radio, which is VHF (154 MHZ), I believe that it's all simplex too and I can hear every unit in the county that transmits, so the problem does not exist there. If I'm on VHF simplex with another radio and when I'm on a UHF repeater it does not have this problem. The radio obviously knows that its receiving so I don't understand why the squelch isn't opening especially when it's fine radio to radio on simplex and on UHF repeaters.

On the channel that you cannot receive, do you see "DCS" or "CT" in left status display? If you do, it must match the DCS code or CTCSS tone that is being transmitted by the station that you are listening to. If it doesn't match, or the station doesn't transmit a code or tone at all, you will never hear anything.

Until you understand how DCS codes and CTCSS tones work, you should always program your channels with menu 10 (R-DCS) and menu 11 (R-CTCS) set to OFF. OFF always works. Get it wrong, and your radio will not hear anything on that channel.

What is a CTCSS
Scanning for CTCSS and DCS Tones/Codes

Jim KC9HI

 

[jk77]

On some Baofeng models there is a firmware bug that if you don't set the keypad beep to "on" then the radio will not open squelch ever. The solution is to turn the keypad beep on. I don't know if this is a problem with the the UV-82 or not because I haven't tried turning off the beep on my 82.

Also, you have to make sure that you don't have a receive CTCSS or DCS set. In most cases for ham use, the receive tones should be turned off. When setting a PL tone for a repeater, you set the TRANSMIT CTCSS only.

 

[joeuser]

On some Baofeng models there is a firmware bug that if you don't set the keypad beep to "on" then the radio will not open squelch ever. The solution is to turn the keypad beep on. I don't know if this is a problem with the the UV-82 or not because I haven't tried turning off the beep on my 82.

Also, you have to make sure that you don't have a receive CTCSS or DCS set. In most cases for ham use, the receive tones should be turned off. When setting a PL tone for a repeater, you set the TRANSMIT CTCSS only.

Which is covered here:
http://forums.radioreference.com/showthread.php?t=279430
& mentioned above

 

[KC9HI]

On some Baofeng models there is a firmware bug that if you don't set the keypad beep to "on" then the radio will not open squelch ever. The solution is to turn the keypad beep on. I don't know if this is a problem with the the UV-82 or not because I haven't tried turning off the beep on my 82.

Also, you have to make sure that you don't have a receive CTCSS or DCS set. In most cases for ham use, the receive tones should be turned off. When setting a PL tone for a repeater, you set the TRANSMIT CTCSS only.

The UV-82 has a different system for firmware version numbers and as far as I know, does not ship with the N5R-20 firmware (which has the BEEP bug and the revised memory layout). That doesn't mean that there won't be a UV-82 firmware released that has these same changes.

Jim KC9HI