Baofeng BF-888s Review

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safetyspice
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by safetyspice »

Hi, may I first say hello as new to this forum. I have been aroud radios and CB for a long while. Relation bought me two BF888S for Christmas with programming lead. Managed to get chirp up and running and talking with the radios. Problem is that I have programmd all of the PMR446 frequencies but try as I might cannot get them to talk to each other, I have set both radios to the same setting. Can any of you see any obvious errors on my programming part I cant attach a screen grab, so listed the settings

Loc -1
Freq - set to PMR frequencies
Tone Mode - None
Tone - 88.5
Tone SQL - 88.5
DTCS code - 023
DTCS RX - 023
DTCS Pol - NN
Cross mode - Tone - Tone
Duplex - -
Step - 6.250000
Mode - FM
Power - High

Any help would be grately appreciated

Regards
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radiosification
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by radiosification »

I'm not exactly sure what the -- signifies for duplex, but duplex should be set to off, not + or -.
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by thelad »

Take the tones off and try them.
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Freddie »

Radiosification is right - one of CHIRP's "quirks" is it has a negative offset turned on by default. Change that to none, and you'll be reet. I have a feeling setting it to Off actually makes the channel receive-only, but I could be misremembering.

Setting tone mode to OFF means you aren't using any CTCSS or DCS, which leaves you wide open to interference from other channel users - set it to TSQL to use CTCSS, or something else (possibly DSQL from memory) to use DCS.
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by safetyspice »

Guys, all sorted, you were right on, turned duplex off, perfect even got the uv5r listening to them. Brilliant.

So if I set TSQL do I have to change any other settings?

Many thanks
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by radiosification »

You can use CTCSS or DCS (TSQL) to filter out other users. Just make sure it is set the same on all radios you want to use to talk to each other.
If you're using these radios with some other, proper pmr446 radios you may need to look up a chart to see which tone corresponds with which "sub channel" or whatever the manufacturer of that set decides to call it.
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Auldgeek »

Just after picking up two of these brand new for £20 delivered. Programmed them up really quickly with Chirp. 8 X PMR446 + 8 X 70cms.
Quite well built. Can't quite believe the price. Bit of a steal.
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Spy »

A bit of a noob question, if I program the 888 to the 8 PMR446 frequencies, can it then scan the CTSS/DCS codes so it can pick up other rados (eg Cobra. Binatone etc) or do these also need to be pre-programmed ?
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Admiral »

It will not scan codes. They have to be programmed manually and are fixed to the channel.
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Spy »

How do these compare to the UV-5R ? Anyone have both and can comment ?
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Spy »

A few questions on the 888S:

1) Is an aftermarket aerial a good upgrade to increase sensitivity ? Any recommendations ?
2) Any reliable UK suppliers you would recommend at a good price ?

Thanks
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Spy »

Spy wrote:A few questions on the 888S:

1) Is an aftermarket aerial a good upgrade to increase sensitivity ? Any recommendations ?
2) Any reliable UK suppliers you would recommend at a good price ?

Thanks
Anyone bought from http://www.baofengradio.co.uk/ It looks like an official Baofeng site but I don't think it is
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by StormShadow »

Spy wrote:
Spy wrote:A few questions on the 888S:

1) Is an aftermarket aerial a good upgrade to increase sensitivity ? Any recommendations ?
2) Any reliable UK suppliers you would recommend at a good price ?

Thanks
Anyone bought from http://www.baofengradio.co.uk/ It looks like an official Baofeng site but I don't think it is
Baofengradio an official site lmao they are about as official as the Baofeng as it gets :lol:
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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by Metradio »

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Re: Baofeng BF-888s Review

Post by FakeJake »

Ive used this site before. Good service. http://www.handyradio.co.uk/handheld-radios/baofeng/
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