WSFF871 Posted October 23 Report Share Posted October 23 Hi all... am new to GRMS etc.... I have the new BTECH UV-PRO IP67 Dual Band VHF/UHF Two-Way Radio I have an issue with what I consider the quality of the audio coming out of the speaker.... (due to my location) I must have very Few GMRS people around me as I have yet to hear anyone talking on the GRMS freq's....BUT, this radio will pick up the Air Bands (108 thru 137) and so I can and do frequently pick up air traffic around me....my issue is the "sound" is scratchy, fuzzy and just not plain-ole as clear as I wish it should be......I also have a new Tidradio H-3 which can pick up the air band too...the exact same issue with that radio too.... Note: I DO also change frequencies (w/in 108 - 137 mh as appropriate) to the various airport's near me as well as Approach Control, Tower, Departure control...all have the problem. Any ideas why/what is the issue here??.....It's almost "unintelligible" to some degree.... I've been giving it 4-5 days now so that I am relatively sure that the aircraft are near me when they are transmitting..... I sure hope there is something I can fix here.... Perhaps this is just as good as it gets with these Chinese radios... Looking forward to any help there is out there....Many Thanks. Robt WSFF871 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweiss3 Posted October 23 Report Share Posted October 23 Airband is AM modulation, as opposed to FM modulation. AM can sound quite or appear to have an echo, but the reason it is used because you can hear two signals at the same time, as opposed to FM where one "wins" the battle for the air, and weak signal work is easier in AM. AM won't ever sound as clear as FM, with open and closing squelch. Also, you may or may not hear the pilots, since it's all simplex, not like monitoring a repeaters. Your sound issues might be related to antenna, or just bad sensitivity on the radio. The best AM reception radio I had was a FTM400, and it picked up the airport from quite a ways out. It could also just be the cheap speaker on the radio that doesn't respond well with AM. AdmiralCochrane, SteveShannon and WRHS218 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socalgmrs Posted October 23 Report Share Posted October 23 Logically if you’re having the same issue on more than 1 radio it’s not the radio. And you can’t to anytning “wrong” since there is no adjustment. It’s just the way it is. The incoming transmissions are not very good. Like already said am is not as clear as fm. Might be distance. As you gain lore experience with radio you will come to find out that it’s not a phone and at times may be noisy, scratchy, pop corny ext. it has nothing at all to do with the “Chinese” radios. It’s litterally just the way it is. Imagine being an air traffic controller and having this same issue. as for not hearing anyone in gmrs…. Gmrs is a bring your own friends and family service for use while doing an activity. Yes some people live to talk with that stranger late at night but it is primarily an activity based radio service. If no one is local and that’s what you’re looking for you may want to look into ham. SteveShannon and WRHS218 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveShannon Posted October 23 Report Share Posted October 23 A little more about AM versus FM. The ability to hear multiple transmission sources simultaneously on AM carries over to natural noise, such as static and lightning. There's always something to hear on AM, even if it's nothing you want. WRHS218 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSFF871 Posted October 23 Author Report Share Posted October 23 Thanks to all ya'll! I get ALOT out of your posts above...and hope that there will be more data coming....many many thanks for your input!!! Below is a User Review from Amazon on the BaoFang 5RM that I just stumbled on....perhaps this adds to the discussion?? (Before I leave, could there be an issue that I am using the "wrong" (fact supplied) basic antenna??) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "1. "Reports of distorted AM aircraft band audio" - Most of these newer radios (several brands) experience some overload distortion when receiving very strong AM aircraft signals. I think another issue contributing to reports of distorted aircraft band receive stems from the fact that the wrong frequency steps are being selected. I'm using the proper 25 KHz frequency steps and it sounds good to me. When scanning with the improper frequency steps, the radio is not stopping on the correct frequency (but something close enough) which is causing the "off frequency" distortion. 2. "Reports of no AM aircraft band receive" - I have all (3) variants of this radio and they all receive aircraft band just fine. That being said, I wouldn't recommend just putting the radio into scanning mode and "hoping" it happens to land on a conversation. I recommend programming the local airports approach and departure frequencies into memory channels, then scanning those. I've have great luck using that method." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveShannon Posted October 23 Report Share Posted October 23 10 minutes ago, WSFF871 said: Thanks to all ya'll! I get ALOT out of your posts above...and hope that there will be more data coming....many many thanks for your input!!! Below is a User Review from Amazon on the BaoFang 5RM that I just stumbled on....perhaps this adds to the discussion?? (Before I leave, could there be an issue that I am using the "wrong" (fact supplied) basic antenna??) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "1. "Reports of distorted AM aircraft band audio" - Most of these newer radios (several brands) experience some overload distortion when receiving very strong AM aircraft signals. I think another issue contributing to reports of distorted aircraft band receive stems from the fact that the wrong frequency steps are being selected. I'm using the proper 25 KHz frequency steps and it sounds good to me. When scanning with the improper frequency steps, the radio is not stopping on the correct frequency (but something close enough) which is causing the "off frequency" distortion. 2. "Reports of no AM aircraft band receive" - I have all (3) variants of this radio and they all receive aircraft band just fine. That being said, I wouldn't recommend just putting the radio into scanning mode and "hoping" it happens to land on a conversation. I recommend programming the local airports approach and departure frequencies into memory channels, then scanning those. I've have great luck using that method." The effect of using the "wrong" antenna can be a big unknown. It's physically impossible to make an antenna that is perfectly tuned for all bands. A GMRS radio will typically have an antenna that's optimized for GMRS frequencies, but works acceptably for other bands. The step size issue will take a radio off frequency though. Often I have had to reduce them less than 25 khz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweiss3 Posted October 23 Report Share Posted October 23 The wrong steps will do that....... For what it's worth, my Kendwood D74 did receive air and ok, but it was significantly quieter than FM signals. SteveShannon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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