Baofeng uv5r Not Receiving?

[Eddy_bullpoo]

Hey guys,

So I picked up a UV5R, and I was playing around with it. It seems that when I set it to scan its not picking up anything. I have the squelch set to 1 and it very rarely stops on any channels. There are a few times where it stopped on a channel but only like once and a while. I know that there is activity on some of the channels it is scanning because I can hear it on my other radio. When I got to a channel that I know is active and hold the the MON I can hear the activity on the channel. It comes in loud and clear. It still won't pick up the activity if i set the SQL to 0.

Also I typed in the frequency for the weather service 162.400 and I get the same thing. If I hold down the MON button I can hear the weather. But when I let go there is nothing even with the SQL at 0?

Am I missing something?

 

[KK4QDQ]

Sounds like the radio may have an antenna or other issue. Does the weather come in clearly when you press Monitor?

I also heard that the squelch only really has 2-3 settings so 0-3, 4-7 and 8-10 select the three. Try changing the setting to the other extreme. Mine is set on 7 and works fine.

Also, check the Yahoo Group for the UV5R. Everyone there uses these and may have tips for you.
baofeng_uv5r : Baofeng UV-5R

 

[Eddy_bullpoo]

yeah when I hold the MON it comes in clearly.

 

[chief21]

It appears that you have activated the RX tone on all of your channels. The UV5R has some quirks involving the RX tones (either CTCSS or DCS), If you disable the RX tones you will hear all of the traffic on each channel.

John - AC4JK

 

[funman1]

Yep it sounds exactly like John said.
Use the software and double check all your freq easily.
also may want to check out baofenghelp.com • Index page

 

[Mikado]

It appears that you have activated the RX tone on all of your channels. The UV5R has some quirks involving the RX tones (either CTCSS or DCS), If you disable the RX tones you will hear all of the traffic on each channel.

John - AC4JK

I am having the same problem. As mentioned above, I entered the frequency for the National Weather Service. But I don't hear anything unless I hold the monitor key. I looked through the menu in the radio, and using CHIRP. It looks like all of the RX tones are already turned off. Maybe I'm missing something. Can anyone tell me either what menu # to look for in the radio,or where to find the option either using CHIRP or Baofeng software?

thanks

 

[N4CA]

I am having the same problem. As mentioned above, I entered the frequency for the National Weather Service. But I don't hear anything unless I hold the monitor key. I looked through the menu in the radio, and using CHIRP. It looks like all of the RX tones are already turned off. Maybe I'm missing something. Can anyone tell me either what menu # to look for in the radio,or where to find the option either using CHIRP or Baofeng software?

thanks

Did you try turning the squelch down?

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Mikado]

Did you try turning the squelch down?

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 4

Yes, that was the first thing I tried.

 

[jand1958]

Make sure menu setting SC-REV (18) is set for CO

 

[Mikado]

Make sure menu setting SC-REV (18) is set for CO

Yep, already have that setting too. I have programmed in the NOAA weather channels, and GMRS. No matter what, I can only hear a transmission when I hold the monitor button.

Let's try this. Here are screenshots of all of my settings in CHIRP. Does anything here look out of place?

thanks

 

[funman1]

Yeah that looks ok.
The only major difference I see with my file is you have skip turned on.
I understand it should not matter in theory, have you tired turning it off?
Most all your other settings are similar to mine.... so......???

 

[Mikado]

Yeah that looks ok.
The only major difference I see with my file is you have skip turned on.
I understand it should not matter in theory, have you tired turning it off?
Most all your other settings are similar to mine.... so......???

I didn't think that would matter either. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was the option to remove a channel from the scan list. So it will skip over those entries when scanning.

I did try turning it off for all channels, but still no luck. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Mikado]

Well this is odd...

I decided to just do a factory re-set. Then I keyed in (without computer software) the frequency for the National Weather Service in my area: 162.550. I keyed this before changing any other options. Even while the voice prompts were still in Chinese. And I still have the same problem. After the re-set, the default squelch level is 5. I tried changing it to 1, then zero. No matter what, I still have to hold the monitor key to hear the transmission.

 

[funman1]

Yikes, man the radio is just broken.
Return and get another...

 

[Mikado]

Yikes, man the radio is just broken.
Return and get another...

That's what I was starting to suspect

 

[alazz912]

I have the same problem and i know what is creating it, the CHIRP software. I order two radios brand new about 2 weeks ago and decided about a week later i needed the programming cable with them, both receiving and transmitting fine. Once i attempted to program the first radio with the CHIRP software exactly the problem being explain occurred. Thinking i did something wrong i searched and searched how to reverse it, but even with a factory reset the issue will not subside. Thinking the radio just randomly broke, i plugged in my second one and EXACTLY the same thing happened again!!! I was and am still am pretty upset considering i fryed two radios withing 3 hrs. I hope this is brought to the attention of the software programmers because their software is frying perfectly good radios!!!! I hope this post is setup correctly being that i have never posted on a "thread" before but i felt i needed to make this info public.

 

[Darth_vader]

Nope, it's not Chirp. Software CAN NOT, repeat, CAN NOT "fry" anything, since it exists on the logical (not physical) level. The word "fry", used in an electronics context, refers to damage caused by a physical electrical fault of some sort present in the device or in components connected to it. Most likely, your cable is defective (possibly a power line shorted to a data line either in the USB-serial converter or one of the connectors, or possibly a faulty voltage regulator) and that's what's causing damage to your radios.

So your best bet would be to send back the cable AND the radio equipment and get new ones. If you plug still another radio into it and that one also craps out, it's a really good bet that the cable is to blame. Disconnect that cable from your computer, send it back and get a refund, do not continue using that cable!

 

[N4CA]

I have the same problem and i know what is creating it, the CHIRP software. I order two radios brand new about 2 weeks ago and decided about a week later i needed the programming cable with them, both receiving and transmitting fine. Once i attempted to program the first radio with the CHIRP software exactly the problem being explain occurred. Thinking i did something wrong i searched and searched how to reverse it, but even with a factory reset the issue will not subside. Thinking the radio just randomly broke, i plugged in my second one and EXACTLY the same thing happened again!!! I was and am still am pretty upset considering i fryed two radios withing 3 hrs. I hope this is brought to the attention of the software programmers because their software is frying perfectly good radios!!!! I hope this post is setup correctly being that i have never posted on a "thread" before but i felt i needed to make this info public.

Have you tried contacting the developer to see if they can help. I'm sure they'd be interested to know if their software is making changes that cause problems and they may be able to undo what was done.

 

[N4CA]

Nope, it's not Chirp. Software CAN NOT, repeat, CAN NOT "fry" anything, since it exists on the logical (not physical) level. The word "fry", used in an electronics context, refers to damage caused by a physical electrical fault of some sort present in the device or in components connected to it. Most likely, your cable is defective (possibly a power line shorted to a data line either in the USB-serial converter or one of the connectors, or possibly a faulty voltage regulator) and that's what's causing damage to your radios.

So your best bet would be to send back the cable AND the radio equipment and get new ones. If you plug still another radio into it and that one also craps out, it's a really good bet that the cable is to blame. Disconnect that cable from your computer, send it back and get a refund, do not continue using that cable!

It is possible to have software cause a hardware problem (i.e. allow an overtemp which will fry a circuit), but that's pretty unlikely. However, it is possible for CHIRP to make changes to the software that negatively affects the radio and is not changed by a factory reset. So, it is possible that it is CHIRP.

 

[rescuecomm]

Try setting your all the tones from the numerics to off and load the file. See if that will open the receive.