The Baofeng 1701 with the stock antenna and OpenGD77 installed scanning some recently saved digital channels. After owning the DM 1701 for a little while now, I would say that overall it works well. I’ve heard some interesting things so far. But they always seem to come through when I’m not recording. But the common things I’ve heard so far are mostly from security guards and work premises. Things like Security checking on premises, shop security going after shoplifters, car park security dealing with youths, and a few ambulances being called by security guards after an incident.

I also heard a report of a knife fight between two rival gangs who met up to fight in Nando’s. So yes, some of it is quite interesting, but most of it is just run-of-the-mill stuff. I’ve been testing the stock antenna and can say that it seems to work well with digital signals. However, I have also tested it on my Quansheng UV K5 8 [review], which is analogue, and it doesn’t work too well on that.

Battery life is good, but not as good as the Quansheng. Maybe its an unfair comparison, but you can’t help but compare when you own both. The 1701 is bigger though and seems to use more power. I’m not sure but I think that receiving digital signals may use more power than analogue, and that may be a cause of the battery life not lasting as long as I’d like. There’s also the aspect of the volume. What I mean is, when picking up someone talking, one side of the conversation is at a reasonable volume level, and the other side is extremely loud. I think this could also be one of the culprits for the battery life being a bit so-so. From a full charge The Quansheng stays at 100% charged for a long time before it starts to creep down slowly. Whereas the 1701 drops from 100% quite quickly, and then gradually goes down.

This isn’t a review post, I Just wanted to say a few words about my first impressions of this radio over the last month or so, and give a few quick pointers about some problems people where experiencing that I have read about on some forums online.

The main issue being. Green light coming on in DMR mode when on a frequency, but no sound. This can be down to several reasons. But one of those can mean either filters are applied [on in the settings], or the received signal is one of a few modes the 1701 won’t be able to decode while in DMR mode. Those can be analogue signals, NXDN, P25 and encrypted digital etc. The top light will still light up green, but nothing will be heard. Your radio is not broken.

If you think it might be the filter settings, because you haven’t changed them, here is what you need to do to scan for everything that the DM 1701 is capable of picking up with just the normal OpendGD77 software installed.

DMR Filter settings to scan for everything:

• Press the top side button above the PTT button to access the quick menu.
• Select the following settings:
• Filter: None
• DMR Filter: None
• CC Scan: On
• TS Filter: Off

That should get you up and running in order to run a scan, hear some digital speech and save some channels to the memory.

Another troubleshooting question I have seen asked.

What about colour codes. “I have read that you must know the correct colour code”. In OpenGD77 the colour codes seems to change automatically to what the person speaking is using. Even in a saved channel. If you have saved a channel that was saved as, for example, in colour code 1, and someone starts transmitting that is on say colour code 7, the radio will automatically match it so you can hear the conversation. Mine does. I could be wrong, but I think this is due to the “CC Scan” setting mentioned above being turned on.

In closing. If you haven’t already and are considering buying a Baofeng 1701, make sure you get the bundle with the cable included. As some settings and features need the cable in OpenGD77. Some of them are quite important and extremely convenient. And, to be honest, I’m quite surprised and a bit disappointed that they were left out of the software and can only be done via the correct cable connected to a computer and CPS software. I will go into them in more detail when I write a full review at some point.