Just purchased a Baofeng UV-5 tri band. Studying for first licence so getting used to this without transmitting. Live in Scottish Borders UK and trying to scan for signals. Set at 2.5 steps and on both VHF and UHF scans the handheld stops scanning on detecting signals? but can only hear hash or squelch noises . No voices heard but obviously scanning has stopped on detection. Scanning then resumes and stops again at next signal but again this produces same results. This goes on through the whole band. Using a tactical antenna outside at a height clear of buildings or other obstructions. Local repeater some 10 - 12 miles away and can see the mast through binoculars on top of a hill so within line of sight. Is it too far away and is it possible no one is transmitting within reception range even though scanning stops on some sort of signal. Is it worth going ahead with licence studies if I cannot receive anything useful or do I need to do anything else? Aged 79 with limited resources so cannot afford much if I have to upgrade antenna. Have upgraded original rubber duck for a tactical antenna which is much longer and suitable for both VHF and UHF bands.
Help please
Its front end is a piece of ■■■■ and it scans too slow to be used effectively as a scanner.
Amateur Radio and Police Radio can use analog or digital transmissions.
Unfortunately your walkie talkie only does analog.
Maybe you could check online to see what types of transmissions you have where you live… Maybe you could purchase a good digital scanner.
Unfortunately this post crops up about 3 times a week, where someone buys something, the wrong something and then they ask why it doesn’t work! When buying a radio, any radio, you should first ask someone knowledgeable about which radio works effectively for that situation.
What you did was dyslexic - first you bought the radio, then you plan on getting the license at a later date…
You are using too small of a step size for analog , a ham channel occupies 15k of space. Unfortunately the uv5 will not go in 15 k steps . 5kc will work but you’ll have to manually step up to get centered on the channel.
A better way to do it : program the channels into memory ,use code squelch if available. And don’t try to scan more than 4channels. ( scan speed is very slow) better yet : set the TDR menu item to “on” and you be able to receive (one and a time )the upper and lower channels on the display(dual watch)
Another thing to check is the wide/ narrow setting. Ham is usually wide setting and public safety is usually narrow. This setting is very important, incorrect setting will result in very low volume or severe distortion.
Go to ham radio club meeting and you will get help with your licensing and your radio. And do not state any intent to use it for anything but amateur radio! This includes frs/ gmrs / pmr !
If using it to monitor public safety be sure to set the duplex shift to a value like 50mhz to put the transmit out of range of the radio so that it cannot transmit!
Better yet use chirp software to set duplex to off
When you go to a club meeting, someone will likely have chirp and can clone a program into it for you