Baofeng G11S: how to scan VHF/UHF

[yogurttragedy]

I noticed someone in another forum asking this question and it piqued my curiosity as I own a pair of these. I searched the manual and the menu and haven't found anything to enable scanning of non-FRS/GMRS channels. Anyone know if this comes with a firmware update or something?

From Radioddity:

Quote

Scanning Receiver Frequency band: 136.0-174.0 & 400.0-512.0MHz

The only scanning I can figure out is FRS/GMRS channels...

Thanks for any insight!

[yogurttragedy]

As discussed in this post over at RadioReference.com, it appears the 136.0-174.0 range is included in the specs to allow it to pick up NOAA channels in the 162.xx range. We're strictly GMRS/NOAA for this HT.

[WRXB215]

Try adding the frequencies you want to scan into channels using the programming software. It appears that this radio doesn't have a VFO mode.

[yogurttragedy]

Good thought, but CHIRP doesn't allow it:

[yogurttragedy]

There's even a reviewer on Amazon that states:

Quote

Note, these radios are NOT locked to just the GMRS band. If using CHIRP, the user can program anything in the 2 meter, commercial radio "high band", 70 centimeter, GMRS and commercial UHF frequencies that can both receive and transmit. I was able to add in not only GMRS repeaters, but add in local amature radio frequencies (2m and 70cm), as well as local public safety frequencies

I just realized it's a paid-for VINE review, so there goes that credibility...

[WRYS709]

On 12/20/2023 at 9:42 AM, yogurttragedy said:

a paid-for VINE review

What does that mean?

[OffRoaderX]

1 hour ago, WRYS709 said:

What does that mean?

It means he was paid to say that... You gotta watch those video guys.. They're all just shills hawking that cheap chinese junk and they will say anything the company instructs them to say.  I know this because "some people" proclaim this, so it must always be true in every instance..

But seriously, any time someone is paid to review a product, you do have to take it with a bag of salt unless that person has shown their trustworthiness by doing things like calling-out junk when they see it, even if it makes the manufacturer sad.

[WRQC527]

On 12/20/2023 at 9:42 AM, yogurttragedy said:

a paid-for VINE review, so there goes that credibility...

The only reviews I read anywhere are the bad reviews. The good reviews are too often either paid for or written by folks praising the product after owning it for an hour for doing what it's supposed to do. The bad reviews are honest. 

[WRYS709]

What's VINE?

[SteveShannon]

25 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

What's VINE?

A program that provides prolific reviewers on Amazon with merchandise in exchange for (hopefully honest) reviews.  

[WRYV757]

If you use the programing software you can add channels with frequencies you want and put "ADD" or "Delete" in the "Scan Add" column and those channels that have "Add" will be in the scan list during scan mode.

[yogurttragedy]

Yes, good point WRYV757. That's a useful way to set the scanned channels. This thread is referring to the idea of scanning non-GMRS frequencies with this radio. Unfortunately it's been learned that this is not possible.

[JoelS]

On 12/20/2023 at 11:42 AM, yogurttragedy said:

There's even a reviewer on Amazon that states:

I just realized it's a paid-for VINE review, so there goes that credibility...

 

On 12/21/2023 at 3:45 PM, OffRoaderX said:

It means he was paid to say that... You gotta watch those video guys.. They're all just shills hawking that cheap chinese junk and they will say anything the company instructs them to say.  I know this because "some people" proclaim this, so it must always be true in every instance..

But seriously, any time someone is paid to review a product, you do have to take it with a bag of salt unless that person has shown their trustworthiness by doing things like calling-out junk when they see it, even if it makes the manufacturer sad.

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I found this post while researching these radios and I had some useful insight.

I happen to be a Vine reviewer myself. You can't just sign up for it, they offer people the option to join when they leave enough reviews on amazon. I had just left a rather scathing review of an audio recorder when I got the offer notification, so I assume that they specifically look for people who leave both positive and negative reviews of products. Vine reviewers do not have any special contact with sellers (at least I'm not aware of it) but they get a big list of items they can choose to order from for the program. Most of these items are not really things you would want to order and review, but you occasionally get lucky. I have NOT gotten to order any radios to review unfortunately. As far as credibility of the reviews, they hope people will be honest but they can't enforce or guarantee it. Personally I do look for non-vine reviews when I'm looking for something to buy on amazon, but if there's a handful of vine reviews they can be a helpful part of the decision process.

Now that that's out of the way, I just got a set of these radios. It was NOT a Vine item, I bought it with my own money to use on an upcoming event I'm going to with a family member who is covered under my GMRS license. I only had one legal GMRS HT, but we needed at least two because I wanted to do the right thing and use legal radios, plus I wanted to try out these radios because they're different and cheap, and the lack of ability to mess up the programming with a full keypad was appealing as well. Naturally I had to plug one in to Chirp and see what I could and couldn't do.

Chirp let me program both an LMRS VHF frequency (a specific frequency I am allowed to use, though this radio is not a Part 90 radio so it's still not legal) as well as an amateur VHF and amateur UHF repeater complete with their offset frequencies. No unlocking required, no warning messages from Chirp, it just let me program these non-GMRS frequencies as easy as it is on any old Baofeng radio. If you want to know whether or not they can Tx on those frequencies, I would recommend you load one of these radios into Minecraft and test it there... Oficially this radio can now no longer be used as a GMRS radio, though I'm not sure if it would be allowed if I restored its factory programming. Good thing I got two and didn't reprogram the other one 

So yeah.. I'm not saying to blindly trust a Vine reviewer without confirming, but as someone who bought this radio with my own money, I can confirm that they can be programmed in Chirp with both VHF and UHF frequencies outside of GMRS, and can also program non-GMRS repeaters. I would assume that something has changed with either the radio's firmware or with Chirp in the time since the previous comments were posted.

On 1/4/2024 at 10:13 AM, yogurttragedy said:

Yes, good point WRYV757. That's a useful way to set the scanned channels. This thread is referring to the idea of scanning non-GMRS frequencies with this radio. Unfortunately it's been learned that this is not possible.

Mine can scan non-GMRS frequencies, but I assume it has different firmware than they had a couple of years ago. I use a scanner for scanning not a regular HT though because of the scanning speed, so I don't plan on ever actually using this radio to scan, aside from testing it just now.

If anyone is interested in a long term review of these radios I can come back to this in a few months or make a new post about it if there is any serious interest.