Baofeng BF-888 squelch problem

I just bought 2 Baofeng BF-888S radios to use on 70cms band. (I am a licensed ham)
They arrived programmed to some frequencies in the 460MHz area and they worked just fine. I reprogrammed them to 433MHz and they still work OK, but the squelch wont close. There is white noise all the time no matter how I adjust the squelch in the programming software. I have enabled DCS and they are working well talking to other radios with DCS. But without DCS or CTCSS they are white noise all the time.
Is there a way to get into the setup of these radios and change the squelch?
I know that chirp software allows this on some baofengs, but apparently not the BF-888.
I payed more for my lunch than these radios so my expectations are not high. But I’d like to fix them.
cheers
Jack

Hi Jack,

Did you download an image from the radios before you programmed them?

It may be that you've inadvertantly altered the Squelch settings on the radios whilst programming them.

Take a look at the following link to see if this is of benefit to you :-

https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Squelch.php


I know it states for the UV5r but should be a similar story with the 888's.

The Baofengs can also be affected by local noise with my own UV5r squelch opening if the radio is near my PC LCD monitor or anywhere near my broadband router. Doesn't sound great I know but pretty much any of my radios suffer the same effect or de-sensing of the receiver front end from close proximity to the noise spewed from such electronic devices. My UV5r charger used to cause similar issues spewing S9 of noise all over my HF set but soon sorted by simply replacing the mains adapter.

Anyway, hope that's of some help.


All the best,
Victor

Thanks for the input Victor. The squelch was originally set to 5. But I've tried resetting it anywhere from 1 to 9 and the squelch doesnt close. I first suspected computer noise. But its still the same standing in the middle of a field
I tried Miklors suggestion with the chirp software but it doesnt cover the 888.
I was hoping someone else had the same problem and figured it out. I plan to use these radios on a dedicated point to point link so i can use DCS i stead of a level squelch. But hoped to resolve this issue anyway.

No worries there Jack. 

I don't personally own a BF-888 but hoped it was a similar story to the other Baofeng models. Hopefully someone on the forum can offer some personal experience on this model.

All the best,
Victor

Have you tried the BF-480 software? That's what I used when I had my 888's, I couldn't get on with chirp (for any radio) so maybe worth a look:
http://www.tenwayradio.com/download-center/bf-480-software/

I've been using bf480 and chirp. I'm not a chirp fan either but it does have the ability to program each squelch increments threshold on some radios. Sadly not the 888 though.