Your Baofeng radio can cover as many frequencies as it can pick; of course, it should especially with the power output it gives. Because of its ability to select many frequencies, it is necessary to choose a frequency you’d want to work with among the frequencies your radio can stream, hence the need for tuning.
Tuning a BaoFeng radio
If you desire to tune your BaoFeng radio, it means you want to allow your radio receiver receives only one out of the many signals your antenna collects. A radio tuner is like a filter that will enable all radio signals to pass through it but retains only the desired channel frequency.
The tuner resonates at a frequency and increases the signal that is sent to the speakers, which allow you to hear what your friends or partners are communicating. Once your BaoFeng radio has been set to a programmed to receive frequencies, the next thing to do is to tune your radio or how else do you think you can hear or communicate.
Once you get your new Baofeng radio, the first thing you do is to get it programmed, see how to program a baofeng radio. Once done, you now need to tune your radio to your preferred frequency. Tuning a baofeng radio is quite simple, though you may not entirely agree with me.
But just imagine having to tune your FM radio to your favorite channel, which of course will require you knowing the channel frequency (the channel frequencies can be found on the GMRS/FRS cheat sheet) and tuning in the frequency number, So you type in the frequency and voila! You are all set. For simplicity, let me take you through a step by step process of tuning your Baofeng radio
Understand that the Baofeng radio has two main operation modes;
- Channel mode
- Frequency mode.
On the channel mode, you can easily switch between previously programmed frequencies while you can input the frequency you want at any time on the frequency mode.
How To tune your BaoFeng Radio
Step 1: Select the mode of operation by pressing the orange VMO button. (For this tuning process, you will operate on the frequency mode.)
Step 2: once on the frequency mode, set your frequency step to the lowest unit to get the finest tuning possible. To do this, click on the menu button, use the arrow key to select the step option, click the menu button again to adjust the settings to the lowest unit (STP =2.5k), click the menu button to save or confirm the setting and then press exit.
Menu > arrow key to step option > menu> up arrow to adjust setting > set STP= 2.5k >menu > exit.
Step 3: Set SQUELCH. To set SQUELCH, click on the menu button to edit setting. Arrow key to squelch and the arrow key to choose the option number 2 or 3 (for best range communication result). Click the menu to confirm and then exit.
MENU > arrow key to SQL (or SQUELCH) > arrow key to 2/3 > MENU (to confirm setting) > EXIT
Since the Baofeng UV5r is a 2 in one radio meaning, it can operate on two frequencies at once, and the screen displays these two frequencies, one at the top and one at the bottom. To tune or select the frequency you want to transmit or receive on, choose between these two frequencies by clicking the blue A/B button.
There’s a small arrow on display to show what frequency you are playing on. Please note that the top and bottom frequencies are different and independent of each other.
To tune to a GMRS/FRS frequency,
Step 4: select a preferred GMRS/FRS channel and look for its corresponding frequency on the GMRS/FRS cheat sheet. (For instance, the GMRS/FRS channel 3 has its equivalent frequency as 462.612MHz.)
Step 5: while you ensure that your A/B switch is positioned to the top frequency, key in your preferred frequency on the keypad. (you won’t be able to type in the exact frequency number but some digits close to it, for instance, you may be able to type in 462.610MHz and not the accurate .612.
Step 6: now, using the up/down arrow, fine-tune the frequency that you want. Once you are done doing that, press the Push-to-talk button. Pressing the PTT button will let you transmit and receive on the GMRS channel 3.
Now you can continue this process until you can input the frequencies you want on your radio. Once done, you can now switch between radio frequencies to transmit and receive information from any frequency you wish to listen from. You can also do the same for the bottom frequency, but you must ensure that the arrow button is positioned by the bottom frequency and not the top.
Please note that sometimes it can be confusing to communicate on the right channel, especially when you forget to switch the arrow between the top or bottom frequency.
Your last message may be received on the top frequency, and you may want to transmit on the bottom frequency, be sure to switch to the bottom frequency to ensure that you are communicating on the right frequency.
