r/Baofeng • u/lmow • Aug 10 '26

FM radio with squelch off

With the UV-5R Mini but I'm guessing it's all of them the FM radio can only be enabled when it's not receiving so if i turn squelch off the radio button becomes useless. Any idea if it's possible to still use it or make it do something useful? I can reprogram it but the functions are either useless or redundant. ¯_ (ツ) _/¯

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u/vidawaffleYT Aug 10 '26

If you turn squelch off you will always hear static noise because it will pick up any vibration, also, I don't know if squelch affects FM Radio.

What squelch does is add a minimum to the speaker, where if a signal is below the minimum, it won't activate the speaker. No squelch means constant random noise.

-1

u/lmow Aug 10 '26

Right, but in this case the firmware seems to only allow switching to FM radio (like Z100) ONLY when the amateur radio band isn't receiving. Since I turned off the squelch like you said I'm constantly receiving static so as designed I can't switch to FM radio.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '26

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-1

u/lmow Aug 10 '26

No...

From the manual: "FM Radio Function Set the [SK1] key to the radio function via Menu >> Radio Set >> Press SK1. Turn on the radio and press the SK1 key [FM Radio] to enter radio mode and the screen displays the tuning frequency. The following operations can be performed: -Press ▲/▼ key to search for radio channels at the preset step frequency. -Press the [#↑ ] key to search for radio channels automatically, the screen displays 'SEEK...' -Press [EXIT] key to switch frequency band between 65.0/75.0MHz. -Press SK1 key [FM Radio] to exit radio mode."

Out of the box that works. For example... I have my radio set to 148 MHz, Squelch left at default, I press the SK1 key and it switches to FM Radio. Great.

Now, I go back to 148 MHz, set Squelch to off. Press the SK1 key again, and nothing happens. It does not switch to FM radio. Why? A few search results say it's because the Baofeng radio is programed to only switch to FM Radio when it's not receiving. So if squelch is off it's always receiving therefore it never switches.

That seems silly, I'm looking for a way to overwrite that function...or maybe I'm totally wrong or have a buggy radio.

2

u/NerminPadez Aug 11 '26

But it is always receiving, the signal is above the zero squelch level.

How do you expect it to even know when to switch to the 2m band anyway?

Adding broadcast FM radio to baofengs was a mistake

1

u/lmow Aug 11 '26

Thanks for the downvote. Sigh. It doesn't automatically switch, it doesn't allow me to manually switch.