Baofeng UV5R / UV82 Squelch Issue Resolution

Much gratitude

Thanks to all involved for the fix

 

Personal Update: I tried this fix and it does indeed make a very noticeable difference. In the area where I live the radio constantly breaks squelch as I drive around. (I think much of the issue has to do with a barn-door sized front end but that is another story.) It can become very annoying. So I downloaded the latest daily build of Chirp and applied the suggested settings. I found what I would guess is an 80% improvement, meaning 80% fewer annoying click/pops while local repeaters and even the one simplex QSO I found going on came through fine. For those who live in radio-quiet areas may not notice or need the adjustment but those of us in radio-noisy areas can definitely benefit. So, my opinion is that this fix is well worth doing and since it costs nothing to try it I whole-heartedly recommend it!

 

A little follow-up about a different Baofeng. I just received a UV-B5 which is also supported by Chirp. After downloading the radio's factory settings I checked the Squelch settings. In this radio the squelch settings (not the user-selected 0 through 9 but the internal numbers assigned to each of those 10 levels) go from 0 to 255. In the radio I received apparently all the settings were at 255! I simply started at number 9 and set it to 255 then reduced the setting by 25 as I went down. It seems to work and there is noticeable difference in squelch settings through the range.

Another note- the front-end on the UV-B5 is much improved over the UV-5r. It isn't as easily overloaded and has much better selectivity. Fewer clicks and breakthroughs even at lower squelch settings. The price is basically the same as the UV-5r so given a choice I'd recommend purchasing the UV-B5.