Six questions about scanning and frequencies on the Btech GMRS Pro

[WRVE426]

I own Btech GMRS Pro and I have six questions about it:

 

1) When I simply press the "scan" button how can I monitor what frequencies are actually being scanned?  Right now all I see is a "Z"

2) does the unit only scan the GRMS and repeater channels or does it scan all the frequencies between 136MHz-174MHz, 462MHz-468MHz and 400MHz-520MHz?

3) Is there a way for me to make the unit scan ONLY the GRMS+repeater channels?  If yes, how?

4) Is there a way for me to make the unit scan only the VHF frequencies?  If yes, how?

 

I also noticed that when I press the scan button the unit stops are the first channel/frequency which it detects and just stays there forever.  My question then is

 

5) Is there a way to make the unit "resume scan" after a determined time (say 10 seconds unless I press a button)?

 

Finally,

 

6) Can I manually assign a specific frequency, say Marine Channel 16 (156.8 MHz) to the unit and monitor it?  If so, how?

 

I thank you in advance for your replies.

[Sab02r]

First and foremost, please let me say that I do not own a BTech GMRS Pro.  I am getting this information from an online manual linked below.  I am sorry I couldn't do more to help aside from quoting the manual.

My understanding is that there is an App available to allow you to configure the radio using your smartphone or tablet, which may be easier to manage than trying to build a channel list using only the buttons on the face of the radio. See online manual linked below for more information:

Page 20:  "Using The App While the App is connected to the radio, it will have full control. To use the controls on the radio, disconnect the app. Pairing Your Cellphone/Tablet to the Radio 1) Open the app, Turn-on the radio, then press the orange key twice OR scroll to [Pairing] in the menu, then select the OK button to enter the pairing state, a 'BEEP' will be heard and a red-green light flashing means the radio is now in pairing status (APP requires Bluetooth permission, please make sure the Bluetooth status is on), The APP will search for active Bluetooth devices, and it will display as shown in Figure 1."

 

Questions 1-4) Based on the following statement from page 24, I suspect you may have to add channels to the unit's memory and/or assign channels to a scan list in order for the unit to know which channels to scan.

"[Scan]: Radio will begin scanning channels programmed in the scan list. Click Single CH or Dual Ch to turn off scanning."

You may have to set this function shown on page 26 for each channel you want to scan:

"[Allow Scan]: Allows the channel to be added to scan lists"

Scan-start and scan-end frequencies may also need to be defined:

Page 32:  "Click the Start frequency to set the lower frequency limit, and End to set the higher frequency limit. This will set the scan range of frequencies Click the >| to start the scan. Hit the ← next to SCAN to go back and stop scanning."

 

Question 5)  I don't see a menu selection for defining the scan mode described in the manual, though I am familiar with some other radios that allow the user to tailor the scan mode.

 

Question 6)  The manual describes the following process to add channels for specific frequencies:

Pg_49:  Adding A New Frequency Tip: The GMRS-PRO only allows the creation of new channels between channel groups 2-6

① Add a regular frequency Create a new frequency list in a new group, then press the [Enter] button to add to the channel list. Press the [UP] or [DOWN] keys to select the channel number. Press the [Edit] button to edit the frequency. Then press [Edit channel], and edit the frequency and memory settings to set your frequency.

②Add a GMRS frequency Create a new frequency list in a new Group, then press [Enter] button to the channel list, press up or down keys to select channel number. press [Edit] button to edit the frequency, Press [GMRS Channel] to select the Channel, then press [Edit channel], to set your frequency. If you add a GMRS frequency, all the restrictions stipulated by the FCC will take effect, and you can only modify the parts that are allowed to be modified, if you want to clear the GMRS channel information, you can select [Clear Channel].

https://baofengtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/gmrs-pro_cmk1_may-25.pdf

It looks like a radio with some interesting capabilities!.  I hope this helps at least a little.

[KAF6045]

2 hours ago, Sab02r said:

Scan-start and scan-end frequencies may also need to be defined:

Page 32:  "Click the Start frequency to set the lower frequency limit, and End to set the higher frequency limit. This will set the scan range of frequencies Click the >| to start the scan. Hit the ← next to SCAN to go back and stop scanning."

I'd suspect those are for a VFO scan, rather than channel scan.

 

2 hours ago, Sab02r said:

Question 5)  I don't see a menu selection for defining the scan mode described in the manual, though I am familiar with some other radios that allow the user to tailor the scan mode.

Didn't see any option either -- it seems the scan function is just optimized to identify active channels/frequencies (in the case of a VFO/frequency scan, it appears you can save the frequency when it pauses).

No carrier operated, time-out operated, or one-shot (stop of first active channel) settings

 

[WRVE426]

thank you both for your help in making sense of the manual!

I am a noobie (as you can tell from my questions) and the manual (and app) are confusing to me.

Many thanks!!

[Sab02r]

Glad to offer what little help I can.  As fast as new products come out...we are all noobies to some degree.

One thing that helped me was to purchase a couple of cheap(ish) radios from different manufacturers (UV-5R, KG935G) and do some programming for each through the keypad and through software (CHIRP).  The software allows you to see the broader scope of functionality, and store a backup configuration (always), while programming with the keypad helps you get a feel for what buttons to push to get you where you want to go.

I am looking forward to a product review of the GMRS Pro, once you feel proficient.  Welcome to GMRS.