Baofeng UV-5R Scanning with Noisy Channel

Question

I just bought a Baofeng UV-5R. I programmed in some channels and have been scanning these channels for activity.

I have had a situation come up on a few occasions where there is some activity on a channel that I don't want to hear. Usually, this is noise which I assume is from some source whose signal is weak from my position. As my radio scans, it picks up this noise every time through the channels.

The only way I know of to continue scanning without having to listen to the noise is to delete that channel from my channel list. But if I do that, I'd have to add the channel back in later, if I still want it in my radio's memory.

Is there a better way to resolve this problem than deleting the channel from my channel list?

Answer 1

You can set the scan setting for that channel to "skip". That means that the channel will still be programmed into the radio, but when you scan channels, the radio will ignore that channel. That and the squelch setting are how I deal with the common problem of a perpetually-noisy channel interrupting channel scans.

That per-channel setting doesn't seem to be available from the front-panel buttons (the menu), but it is easily set from radio-programming software, either the Baofeng software (OK) or CHIRP (better because it works for almost all VHF/UHF radios). If you've never used such software before then there is a learning curve, but once you've mastered that then software makes programming radios so much easier.

By the way, CHIRP calls that feature "scan skip mode", set to "S" to skip that channel. The Baofeng software calls it "Scan_Add"; set to OFF to skip that channel.