I just started this hobby. I got a baofeng talkie and started taking practice tests. 89% or more every time. Looking to test asap. I can’t hear anything on it even with Chirp programming and living less than two miles from a repeater. I’m looking to get a jpole antenna but I’m a noob
If you have tone squelch enabled it has to have the correct tone frequency programmed to receive (usually a number from 88.5 Hz to a little over 200 Hz), or just make sure tone squelch is off.
Tone squelch is an additional type of squelch besides carrier squelch, the adjustment you set to stop the hiss from the speaker when there is no signal. Tone squelch keeps the speaker quiet until it hears the right sub audible tone.
Sub audible means it’s a low pitched hum that is too low to hear in the speaker, but the circuit detects it to turn on the speaker.
It’s used so you only hear the repeater you want to and not any other ones that may be on the same radio frequency. Not really essential on a hand held, but more useful on a base station with better antenna that may be able to hear multiple repeaters, or if band opens up.
I’m 10-12 miles from a repeater with a Wouxan handheld equivalent to your Baofeng and get strong reception on 2M. If there’s actually traffic on the repeater (such as automated announcements or regular transmissions), something else must be wrong.
As with the previous comment, you still hear nothing in monitor mode (no squelch)? Also, if you have a scanner you might be able to listen on the frequency to cross check if it is in range on the scanner.
Incidentally, I fiddled around with different 2M - 70cm antennas indoors and noticed only minimal differences. I can actually collapse the telescoping antenna on the handheld and still get most everything.
WA5VJB has put together a whole list of free references on how to build your own antenna ...
http://www.wa5vjb.com/references.html
Is your repeater 2 meter?