BTECH GMRS-Pro channel group wonkiness or my radio is defective.

[292mike]

Hello everyone on the myGMRS forums. This is my first post here.  I just recently acquired my GMRS license last week, my call sign WSEX292 in case someone missed it.  My background is in electronics/computers and I currently work with automated fork vehicles in the test and debug department.  Anyway, enough about my mundane existence... Here is my issue and I'm just looking for input from the fine folks here on the forum.

Using the Btech GMRS app on my Samsung phone, I've been setting up custom channel groups and sending them to the radio.  The radio has 6 channel groups with group 1 being reserved (manual states this) for the preprogrammed 30 GMRS channels. I say this is great because I can always return to channel group 1 if I should desire to scan all channels.  However the problem is, at some point during the transfer of groups from the app, it replaced channel group 1 with one of my custom groups. The only way for me to get group 1 back (all channels) is to either program them in myself or factory reset the radio, which I've done a few times now.

Another issue with channel groups is that duplicates of groups will appear and there seems no way to delete them from the radio.  Besides the factory reset, I ended up making a backup of the all the GMRS channels (group 1) and saved them to the phone app, then I can at least upload them again if it get erased.

[BoxCar]

I recommend you program the radio using CHIRP and a computer. As they are then directly connected you don't have to worry about spurious signals messing up the radio.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, BoxCar said:

I recommend you program the radio using CHIRP and a computer. As they are then directly connected you don't have to worry about spurious signals messing up the radio.

This.  

[292mike]

1 hour ago, BoxCar said:

I recommend you program the radio using CHIRP and a computer. As they are then directly connected you don't have to worry about spurious signals messing up the radio.

Chirp doesn't support the GMRS-Pro.

[384Chris]

I recently got the GMRS-Pro but I've not seen your issue with the channel groups. I have an very similar setup and background, working in IT and software/electircal support with Samsung phone with the app installed but I've only created one other group and I've had no overwriting issues.
Have you looked more at the software application than the radio?
Uninstall/reinstall the application or tested on another device. I run the software on a Samsung tablet and my Samsung phone. I'm tempted to test it on my very outdated chrome book just for the fun of it.

[292mike]

I've searched other avenues (youtube, google, forums) for similar problems with channel groups on the GMRS-Pro but, not much out there.  Heck I haven't found yet, a straight forward process for using the app to program the radio.  I spent so time fooling around with the app this morning to recreate the issue of inadvertently overwriting channel groups and/or duplicate creation.  I think I found out what happened in my case.

When the radio is connected to the phone app, there is an icon (looks like a flag) to the left of the radio icon. When you press it, a menu opens allowing you quick access to switch your custom channel groups, import channels from device (radio), and the always mysterious 'switch device region'.  If you've created any custom groups, they will be shown here in 'switch device region' according to the channel group number, 2 through 6 you originally assigned them to.  According to the BTEC manual, group 1 is reserved for the default GMRS channels group. 

I'll cut to the chase, when I was in the mysterious switch device menu, I fat fingered an unused channel group which caused a mind wipe on the radio.  I quickly went back in and selected one of my custom groups, which made the radio happy but...., the reserved default GMRS channels, which come with this nifty little radio were gone.  As a bonus, if you keep playing with the ever mysterious 'switch device region' menu, you will end up with duplicates... well at least I did.

Sorry it's early in the morning, I hope you get my humor.   Lesson learned, the very first thing you should do after connecting your radio to the GMRS-Pro app, is make a backup of the default GMRS channels (group 1) just in case.  

Oh by the way, BTECH (Baofeng) is not very helpful.  They keep asking me for videos.

[MSnow]

I got a couple of these radios when amazon had them on sale last week. I had the same issues for the most part. I like the radios but they are very different from every other GMRS radio I have owned.

Yes you are correct, once you create your 30 custom channels in a group.

1. goto click the cog

2. select Channels & Groups

3. Select Import Device Channels

4. Add a title for the ch list and save it to your phone

 

That way when you change something you can always upload it back from your phone to the radio.

 

Its really quite useful when travelling, so you can load in channels for each city your passing through, and not have to worry about preprogramming the radio with a limited amount of channels.

 

Another issue that stumped me for a bit was the DTC tones. I had some repeaters that used TX/RX DCS-423N but if I put that in it won't TX or RX the repeater. I had to put it as 423I which shows as 315N/423I so I am guessing the firmware has them reversed as they are listed so if you need 423I you would select 432N/315I.

 

The Network channels are quite interesting as well, but not sure how they actually work. Seems like linked radio through the phones internet, but maybe its dead now never hear anyone talking on it.

 

[292mike]

18 hours ago, MSnow said:

Another issue that stumped me for a bit was the DTC tones. I had some repeaters that used TX/RX DCS-423N but if I put that in it won't TX or RX the repeater. I had to put it as 423I which shows as 315N/423I so I am guessing the firmware has them reversed as they are listed so if you need 423I you would select 432N/315I.

The Network channels are quite interesting as well, but not sure how they actually work. Seems like linked radio through the phones internet, but maybe its dead now never hear anyone talking on it.

 

This is good to know, Thanks!