If anyone here has experience with these radios, could someone tell me of a way to disable the PTT/TX since I want to use it as a scanner. I do not want to cut the button contacts, as to leave it permanently unable to TX. Setting each memory channel to have a transmit offset to something neutral isn’t a viable option either, extremely tedious. Are there any other ways? I don’t want to listen to a police channel and and accidently transmit on their frequency. Given you really have to constantly piss someone off for them to trace/foxhunt you, I just don’t want to interfere with the frequencies I listen to, accidental or not. The “disable TX” feature in CHIRP and the Baofeng software doesn’t seem to work.
If all else fails, would putting a piece of tape over the Mic hole block a voice sufficiently?
It’s FM, so even with the microphone covered it could still cause interference with other users by either kicking on their repeater or just by transmitting a carrier and blanking their receivers.
The BaoFeng radios don’t scan very fast so you might not be happy with its performance as a scanner.
There’s a BaoFeng Facebook group. You might check there. Miklor.com is full of BaoFeng and Chirp information.
I know it doesn’t scan very fast but I only use it for a small and finite list of frequencies (notably Chicago Police) for entertainment purposes. Its fun to listen in to the shenanigans going in in this city. Also use it to listen to the NOAA weather scans, seems more accurate than anything else. Thanks for the info! This site Miklor is awesome, a veritable plethora of information!
I’ll have to look into that scanner, that sounds magically convenient! Thanks again.
I figured out a solution
I don’t want to damage the receiver so I’m just going to leave it on (the TX button), since I don’t have kids around or anything I figured putting it on a MURS frequency for the offset (so thats where it transmits) (two way radios/walkie talkies) and lowering the transmission power under 2 watts (legal) and putting a key lock on it should suffice. Its just for when I’m carrying it listening (while working on my car or some other project), that I don’t want my pocket or pants to squeeze the button and transmit on accident. I forgot how fun these things are to listen to. its amazing some of the calls the police and fire get. I already heard one where a guy locked his keys in the car… hardly an emergency.
Anything that OP’s Baofeng can successfully monitor (conventional FM) can be just as easily heard on any of even the crappiest scanners made in the last 30 years.
That said, I use some commercial radios for monitoring public safety. I simply program the transmit frequency for one I’m authorized to use for the reasons mentioned.
Also, hit me up if you have any questions about CPD listening. It is truly world-class action with very limited on air protocol. Lottsa goofballs in squadcars over here.
some of the programming software available for download has a feature to disable PTT. I don’t know much about it but I do own the uv5r and I remember watching a video in which someone explained this.