A good while back I wrote a post on how I was sometimes getting choppy reception from certain signals received on a modified Quansheng UVK5-8. It was due to the lowest squelch level, which is 1, not being set low enough. I suggested that maybe the creators of the radios firmware, Egzumer, could possibly come up with a solution and release a firmware update. I thought maybe adding a squelch level lower than one could be a good fix. I know there is level zero, but this disables the squelch completely, and I did not want that. The constant white noise is annoying.
The spectrum analyzer on the Quansheng listening to CB
So I thought a lowest squelch level of 0.5 would be perfect, fixing all the choppy signals. Turns out its not as easy as that. After a bit of research I found some information online that said the squelch value settings were in the EEPROM of the radio and risky to try and change. Basically, if you get it wrong it can brick the radio. So I decided against it. The choppy signals aren't that often, so not too much of a big deal to risk breaking the radio. I can just disable the squelch completely for a while if I really need to.
The choppy signals was one of my only complaints about the modified Quansheng. Other than that it is still the best radio you will find for the price. It really is excellent.
The Fix You Can Try Right Now [No technical / electrical knowledge required]
Turns out the fix was already on the radio, staring me in the face all along. I've been messing around a bit more with the Quansheng lately and have started using the Spectrum analyzer more. While using it, one of the people who talks on the CB bands, who is always choppy when I receive his signal came on and was talking. I quickly noticed that while listening to him in Spectrum analyzer mode, he was not choppy at all.
So I switched back to normal mode [memory mode] where I have CB frequencies saved, and this guys signal / speech was choppy again, as usual. So I switched back to the Spectrum analyzer and the choppiness was gone. Totally gone. I've tried it a few times now with various signals that are usually broken in both frequency mode and memory mode, and none of them are choppy when listening to them in the Spectrum analyzer. I have no idea why this is the case, but for some reason it does work. With me, it has worked 100% of the time. Amazing.
So, if you're experiencing choppy signals, even when the squelch level is set to 1, give it a try. I think you will be surprised. I certainly was. To enter the Spectrum analyzer press the function button, which is the button with "F" on the keypad, then press number 5. Once in the Spectrum analyzer you can use the keypad buttons to change all the functions, like squelch level, steps, bandwidth, up and down arrows to move across the frequency range etc. Works really well. I'll be using it a lot more from now on.
No comments:
Post a Comment