Baofeng UV-5R can receive messages but when I transmit back no one can hear anything?

Business Radios
1

My company has several different Baofeng models some analog and some digital.

When they transmit I can hear them loud and clear, I push the PTT button the light comes on ( on their end) but no sound could be heard from the message I sent them?

Now I read that certain frequencies are blocked in the U.S but that is Bs as a co work bought the same model I have and has NO issues communicating to the same people I’m trying to communicate with?!?!

Bought my baofeng UV-5R off Temu for $28. What would make my radio ( brand new out the box) not work with existing baofeng walkie talkies in the same building as me?

I used the exact same setting my co worker with the same Uv-5r has and still…nothing??

So now at work I can only listen when someone calls me but can’t respond…that’s ignorant to even have a radio this way!!!

2

If you have programmed the radio to the same frequency co-workers are using and they are detecting a signal on the frequency but can’t hear you, it may be due to one of the following issues.

  1. Their radios are programmed with a CTCSS tone or DCS code and your radio is not.
  2. You are using a different CTCSS tone or DCS code from the one they are using.
  3. One party is using a digital radio or an analog/digital radio in digital mode and the other is using an analog radio.
  4. The two radios are within a couple of feet of each other and are cancelling out.

Although a hardware malfunction is possible, in most cases it is going to be because the radio was not programmed correctly.

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3

So I take it I will have to get the USB programming cord and program it to work with my companies existing walkie talkies?

I will say this I know for a fact that NO ONE here has or has ANY knowledge of programming these radios so as for my radio not being programmed to there tones Ctcs or any others is NOT the case, these guys have a hard time turning them on and finding the channel we are on and I’m talking analog talkies here, literally turning the dial to the number “1”

I did notice that the employee who has the exact model I do uv-5r, his channels have names, which I take it means it was once programmed by someone at a point in time?

I don’t get how they can sell these and they DONT work as is? What good is a walkie if you have NO knowledge of this ahead of time? It just becomes a listening device.

I just feel like a idiot when I’m being asked a question over the “talkies” at work and when I press PTT to answer they get nothing but silence and I look like I don’t know what I’m doing at all!

My co worker with the identical model showed me his settings and I set my identical to his, still Nothing. I’m just wondering what I will have to do to get mine to work with theirs?

I know they use Arc shell AR-5 walkie talkies, so as best as possible what would I have to do to get my talkie to send and receive messages to a ARCShell AR-5 out it’s box brand new, no special private group or ctsc ( or whatever u said) settings, just a Archell AR-5 out the box with no special settings as if I just bought a baofeng UV-5R and ARCShell AR-5 together and wanted to send messages back and forth from each?

Trying to make my personal invest in my walkie not be a $28 paper weight!?!?!

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All I’m trying to do is make my Baofeng UV-5R work with a Baofeng BF-888s or ARCShell AR-5 these are the 2 models my employer uses at our shop, and the 1 co-worker who has a uv-5r like mine ( a previous employee who quit knew how to program it and sold it to a employee who stayed here.)

I can hear them, but they can’t hear me.

What exactly do I have to do to make mine work ( uv-5r) work with those 2 models?

Theirs work together out the box, my luck… Mine doesn’t!

5

This is one of the more frustrating aspects about these Baofeng models, such as the UV-5R and BF-888S, and one of the reasons we stopped selling them. They are sold like candy on places like Amazon in a way that gives those who are not familiar with radios the misconception that they are just consumer grade, bubble pack walkie talkies that can just be turned to channel 1 out of the box and whatever frequency it is pre-programmed to at the factory can be used by anyone in any manner at all.

This is not how these radios work.

What you have there is a radio that was pre-programmed by Baofeng with a sampling of frequencies. This is a problem for two reasons.

First, depending on the batch and where you purchased them, these channels will be pre-programmed with different frequencies and, sometimes, CTCSS tones or DCS codes.

Second, the frequencies they choose are often not authorized for general consumer or business use, at least not without a license from the FCC. I have seen some of them pre-programmed to frequencies that are not intended for general use by anyone in the US.

The Baofeng UV-5R, BF-888S and others like the ARCShell AR-5 are marketed as general purpose radios, and it causes a lot of problems for those who are not familiar with them. This is one of the primary reasons why the FCC required them to be locked down to the ham bands back in 2017 in order to be sold legally here in the US.

They need to be (re) programmed to the frequencies and service you intend to use it on before use. This means that if they are being used for business operations, they need to be programmed to the specific frequeny(ies) your company is licensed for (assuming your company has a license for them, which technically it should).

If you’re an amateur radio operator (ham), which is really the only service on which some of them are approved for use, they need to be programmed for the frequencies on the ham bands they will be used.

I own a couple of Baofeng radios myself, and I’ve produced a number of articles and videos on them during the past decade, so I am quite familiar with how they work. This is also why I no longer use them. There are much better options available, imho.

If your company is using these and other radios to communicate, someone programmed those radios to do it. If they are talking to each other, but you are unable to fully transmit to them, it is due to either one of the items I stated in my earlier post, or an actual physical hardware defect in the radio, which is not out of the question either, btw.

I don’t know where you purchased it, but I would suggest that if no one in your organization knows how to program it, and you suspect it may be a defective radio, you may want to contact the seller to assist in troubleshooting the issue, if it’s in warranty. The warranty that Baofeng offers is generally worthless, so your only hope there is to ask the seller to cover it. Just try not expect too much from a $29 radio.

You can opt to program the radio yourself. Here is an article and a video on how to do it.
Article
How to manually program the Baofeng UV-5R from the keypad

Video
Radio 101 - How To Program the Baofeng UV-5R From the Keypad

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2020/04/radio-101-how-to-program-the-baofeng-uv-5r-from-the-keypad.html

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So ive found the list of frequencys pre-programmed into the Baofeng BF-888s that my employer has for our factory. I bought my baofeng UV-5r from a chinese retail app called “Temu” i have factory reset it and have figured out how to factory unlock it by pressing “Ptt+moni+frq/ch mode button and powering ON”

Now i see the baofeng bf-888s have 16 channels. Can i do this manually without having to program using Chirp and a PC?

Im just trying to get my uv-5r function with a baofeng Bf-888s bought at a brick and motar store here in detroit michigan. No one at my work knows a thing about radios/ walkie talkies so all of them are just factory programmed ( which i have that list thanks to the internet) but im seeing a setting called Tone that hass a setting for TSQL and DTCS which i cannot find on the menu options on my UV-5r? I take it those settings can only be set in Chirp, with a cord and PC?

I grasp concepts really fast and if i had someone explain it to me in English… as evey video i seen connecring the 2 is an Asian speaking commentator! LoL my luck!!! And being the eager learner i am i thought the first radio had a damaged transceiver as i could only hear and not talk back… so i bought a 2nd UV-5R thinking the first was bad out the box!!! ■■■■

Im just trying to be able to respond to my boss when they call me in the warehouse, i thought id look professional buying my own personal radio to work with my companies as i am a HiLo driver at a HUGE RECYCLING CENTER. i load 15-20 semi trucks per day and im given certain numbers to load each semi that change at times and they call me to tell me how many when the trucks come in, weigh the trucks and sometimes im required to be called on the walkies to come add or take off a number of bales of recycled commodities. Thats all nothing wild or illegal here, just good honest hard work 12 hours per day 6 days a week.

Any help would be great Rick, you seem to know your stuff. My baofeng uv-5r did Not come with a programming cord but i found a bluetooth programmer for it that i can use my phone to run chirp and add the files to my walkie to match the 16 channels on the bf-888s just trying to figure it out before i attempt it

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7

What Rick was talking about are the CTCSS tones that are in the receiving radios, the 888 Baofengs, NOT, their receive and transmit frequencies. These prevent those radios hearing transmissions from strangers, hence why they indicate they are receiving but make no noise. If you have time, and can take one home with you, then set your Baofeng to the CTCSS section and set it to send a CTCSS tone of the lowest one, I think it is 67HZ, press the ptt, and see if your voice comes out of the baofeng. If not, set the CTCSS to the next frequency, and keep going. With the software, you could read the baofeng, then just enter the number. Or you can even buy a meter that reads it out from the transmitted signal, but one at a time is what we’ve done for years,

8

If you need to program a BF-888S, then yes, you will need a programming cable and software, because that model generally doesn’t have a keypad.

Again, and as Paul pointed out, if the BF-888S can pick up the signal from the UV-5R but can’t hear the audio, the channel it is mostly likely assigned a CTCSS tone or DCS code to filer out conversations from other parties, so you will need to do one of two things:
Either remove the tone or code from the channel on the BF-888S, or find out what tone or code it is using and program the same tone or code into the UV-5R.

What frequency(ies) are these radios using?

Here is an explanation and chart of CTCSS tones and DCS codes.
Chart of Standard CTCSS Tones

Chart of Standard DCS Codes

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I did this about CTCSS and how it works for beginners.

10

The only radios you can use “as is” are FRS or GMRS radios. They are designed for people. with little tech. knowledge.

The radios you have are designed for licensed amateur radio operators. They have radio knowledge and can easily reprogram them to the proper frequencies.

Almost all radios require programming to the frequencies you are legally licensed to use.

11

“Factory programmed” There is no such thing for these radios. Those are test frequencies. ALL of them fall inside a licensed service! You absolutely MUST reprogram them to a frequency you are legally licensed to use.

If your company has no license, I urge you to let someone know to get one.