Fixing poor squelch levels on Baofeng radios

After reviewing the GT-3 Mark II, a radio in which many problems were solved, the poor, sometimes meaningless squelch levels on various Baofeng models were one of the few things left on my ‘The Perfect Baofeng’ wish list.

Squelch levels improved somewhat over time, but it just wasn’t enough. The slightest whisper of a modem, router or switch still opens up the squelch, whatever the setting. It seems that this annoyance will become something of the past. No, not thanks to Baofeng, but thanks to the efforts of the Chirp development team.

A new ‘daily build’, available within a few days, will let you decide when the squelch opens up – either when receiving a tiny noisy signal, or when a repeater around the corner starts transmitting. The image below (courtesy Miklor.com) shows how the the new ‘Service Settings’ option will look like in Chirp:

As you can see you can set a personal threshold for every individual squelch level (1-9), and enter different settings for VHF and UHF. The higher the number, the more signal you need to open up the squelch.

I’ll keep you posted regarding the compatibility with old and new models.