Has any one else got one of these and is suffering from the volume either being too low then very loud when turning the volume up? Its ok when using on DMR mode but when using on Analogue it is just too loud. I even got a new control for it and that didnt cure it.
Thank you for any assistance with this.
Whilst this is an old topic, I’ll post this because it’ll help if such occurs again.
Where most ham and leisure gear has a progressive logarithmic volume control just like you used to see on old transistor radios and consumer grade transceivers like CB gear, commercial radio gear differs somewhat do to different requirements.
So the DM-1702, like most DMR radios, are commercial market radios and mirror commercial requirements. One major notable characteristic is that at Vol 0, it’s muted and all you’ll see is display and indicator changes and (setup dependent) Begin/End of Transmission tones indicating traffic on frequency etc.
Vol 1 isn’t a progressive logarithmic doubling of level you’d expect, but a much higher audible loud whisper type level, the kind you can monitor whilst holding a convo off-air. Vol 2 is approximately 2-4 logarithmic jumps above that of Vol 1 so it cuts right through most common ambient noise, Vol 3 upwards is a straight logarithmic doubling of output level as per most radios.
Now if you weigh up conditions under which you monitor and respond, in commercial usage, they have need for punchy sharp piercing audio to offset ambient environment noise you find is less frequent where leisure users roam.
So that’s the potted version of why you get that audio level discrepancy.
Now I’m not certain if this is the case with Baofeng sets, but some DMR units allow you to alter the stepping points and pre-boost of audio, essentially adjust the volume steps. Likewise some radios allow you to alter the two stage (analogue mode) squelch like Baofeng units offer or alter the various noise squelch threshold steps on variable squelch adjusts.
But this is in the engineering menu, and to do proper adjustments isn’t really a by-ear thing (especially adjusting squelch thresholds).
So unless you’re into guesswork and Chinese indicative text, I’d stay clear of Engineering mode and just get used to the quirks of commercial radio gear.
Admittedly, Baofeng sets do have a fairly extreme Vol 2 boost point that’s less intrusive on others I’ve used, so I know it can be tiresome and awkward, but that’s what you get with serious radio gear, function designed around serious use.
Thankyou for replying, I have got used to it now and only use it for DMR.
Chris M7VJE.
Hi, well whilst I had a DM1702B/DM-X it annoyed me, never got to really use it on DMR because of it having major programming issues, but I agree about the Vol boost difference being a bit harsh after analogue characteristics on ham and consumer gear, but having found it was a common commercial characteristic I just got used to it on DMR gear. Likewise on other commercial gear.
It’s definitely less harsh on the AT-878, but the characteristic is there regardless and yes, less noticeable on Digital/DV.
But that’s because of dual digital scaling. On analogue gear with digital audio amps, the audio in is just scaled and rescaled to proportional output level dialled in. On digital audio, the audio stream is prescaled around a different range (max level being at the 0db mark) to have a few dB of headroom pre to scaling by the digital amp (so really it’s a numerical shift/values rewrite) and so because the input level is already in the right constrained range, there’s less of a jump noticeable.
Think about how silence to loud kicks in as a transition between say cassette or vinyl vs MD/CD/MP3 and you’ll get an idea how it would affect being amplified by analogue amps (which we are generally more used to) and digital scaling controlled amps.
The lack of inherent noise also has a factor between both effects perceptibly.