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I am thinking you need to swap radios on the duplexer ports. Like, I think they are labeled backwards. It would make sense that the case of the HT is letting enough RF leak in to trigger a receive light, but there is not enough of a signal to create usable audio output to trigger the vox operation. If its not labeled wrong and it is wired correctly, you could just be washing out the systems due to being to close to each other and too close with the test handheld. I have seen some HTs so sensitive to RFI from other HTs, that we had to separate them by 75 to 100 yards before the RFI and desense was small enough for the radios to work correctly.

I haven’t tried it. Won’t be able to test it til Friday but definitely worth the attempt. Thanks for the tip.

So this is a full spectrum tuned duplexer. Says 550-725 on the label. So have you tried this on other frequencies? How about separating the RX and TX HTs. Put on of them in a metal box to try to isolate it. Maybe the common antenna is desensing the HTs

@marcspaz Yes, using cable exactly as you describe with Vox. Yes, it seems to work without going to the duplexer using whip antennas. There’s some background noise but I figure that’s due to the proximity of the antennas. This is what happens. As a separate troubleshooting effort, I moved the common antenna away when the HTs were connected at one point. Still nothing. It seems to be on the receiving radios output or the transmitting radios input. But the connection cable works fine without the duplexer so I’m leaning more to duplexer issue. I’m open to suggestions.

I need to ask some questions... You are using a cable to go from the receiver audio out to the mic audio in, and set to vox? Correct? If you simply remove the antenna cables from the duplexer, everything works (as well as to be expected without a duplexer, anyway)? When you hook up the duplexer, the receiver receives a signal, gets a green light, but the transmit radio doesn't go into transmit mode, even though vox works fine without the duplexer? Or does the transmit light/display indicate that the transmitter is actually transmitting, but there is just no output from the duplexer?

Thanks! I found it.

Tried it again with another set of radios. Works ok enough without the duplexer (less desense). But, it still doesn’t transmit from the speaker of the receive to the mic of the transmit.

I think both radios need to be the same brand or use the same compander tech AND compander has to be enabled on all radios wishing to benefit from the tech. Otherwise, it sounds worse instead of better. It's been awhile since I read about it and I don't know anyone personally who uses it due to the compatibility issues.

I would implement a controller, Surecomm will have something that works with HT's

Thanks. I'm still learning. I think I'll avoid compander unless issues arise. And in that case it may or may not do any good.

I thought about that too, but thankfully a reset fixed it. I don't think a reset will help with kill or stun.

WRYE567

My first thought is if the radio received a remote stun or kill. Page 108, 109 in the manual. Though random glitch is probably more likely.

The new fangled radios are all computers now. And just as any computer might need the occasional reboot so do radios. Having to do the reset is just a step farther. I had to do it on one of my Wouxun radios that was acting weird. Fixed it up and I just hooked it up to the computer and reflashed my channels back into it. 5 minutes and done. But this would be a serious problem if it was an emergency. Good old fashion radio guts with no computer can have an advantage sometimes. Same goes with automobiles.

The duplexer is passive. It can’t command a transmission. Presumably you powered off the radio before connecting to the duplexer because the noise generated while connecting it to the antenna port could cause VOX to activate. Second, although the duplexer might filter it all out, I recommend turning off your B channel. You almost have the national calling frequency (146.520 MHz) tuned for both radios. I’ve not built a repeater using two handhelds so I can’t answer your other questions, sorry. But you make me want to try just to learn.

I’ve reported your issue to the admin. He’s the only person who can help. What’s your call sign?

short for "compressing and expanding," is a technique used in ham and commercial radio to mitigate the effects of a communication channel with limited dynamic range. It compresses the dynamic range of an audio signal at the transmitter and then expands it back to its original range at the receiver. It is suppose to help improve the signal-to-noise ratio, making the audio clearer when in environments with background noise or over long distances. However, the process can introduce distortion, mostly in analog radios, where the output may not perfectly match the original input as Steve Shannon suggested.

This is not how we radio in a polite society.

I did a lot of reading on the forum from different posters and watched all the YouTube vids that I could find. And despite most people saying it wasn't worth the effort, I was still hoping that this would be a good project to work on with my kids-get them off the screens and find more interest in something tangible-ish. I know that the choice in budget HT's is not ideal, but this would be used only for family communications at a rural property very intermittently. We don't quite get full coverage so the idea would be to take this suitcase repeater out to a hill, hook up an antenna and use it while we're out and about. However, it didn't take long before I hit a roadblock. I wanted to test out the new 50W duplexer tuned for the 462.725/467.725 pair with a couple of HTs that I originally planned to use in the build. The first issue I had was the mic jack on one of the radios is damaged and wouldn't transmit to the receiving radio on the mic to speaker cord. So that radio will be moved to the handheld function and not connected to the duplexer. The input / output tones and frequencies were all checked, and everything worked well without using the duplexer (see pic "Function w-o Duplexer"). Yes, there was a significant amount of desense as expected. I turned the power to low on the receiving radio. I tried the vox at 1 and a 9 without noticing much difference. I did have to put the volume down very low on the receiving radio to minimize feedback. Next, I hooked both radios to the duplexer and immediately, the transmit radio (on right) began transmitting as shown with the red light (pic "Connection Transmit"). Initially, I thought it was caused by something in the duplexer recognizing that there was something to transmit. The indicator light was on for several seconds, then flashes a couple of times and then the radio goes into normal standby. With same two radios used on the non-duplexer test, one set to 467.725 and the other to 462.725, I tried to transmit. I get the green receiving light on the left side receive radio (467.725) but nothing coming out of the transmit radio on the right side (see pic "No go w Duplexer"). The radios are the GMR-5RH which seem to be a re-badged UV-5G. The menu is almost identical to the AR-5RM (that's the one with the broken mic jack). I've gone through the menu's multiple times on the transmit radio and while there are a couple of different settings that seem to relate to the repeater function, they seem to be related to squelch tail. I did try changing some of the settings but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Is the issue radio setting related - receive or transmit? Duplexer related? Radio function in general related? Thanks in advance.

I was out and about the other morning and while waiting on someone I turned on my KG-Q10H. The last time I had used it I had it set to TDR monitoring the local Sheriff’s frequency and a local 2m repeater. When I turned the radio on all was as I had left it except the speaker icon on both areas had a line through it. I was not receiving any signal in either area. No signal strength bar and no green light indicating the radio was receiving. I normally have my KG-935G in the car with me so I turned it on and was receiving traffic on both of those same frequencies. I went through the menu settings and nothing was muted. I was able to go through both menus and could select any saved channel and still no receive. When I tried to transmit to the 2m repeater nothing happened, no red LED no signal bar. I moved to a simplex frequency and tried to transmit with the same result. While sitting there I went ahead and did a factory reset through the menu option 48 and when the radio restarted the line though the speaker icon was gone. I was able to punch in the SO frequency and the 2m repeater frequency and received traffic on both. I was able to transmit to the repeater and on simplex. When I got home I reprogrammed the Q10H via the Wouxun software and all is good. I have checked it daily since that happened and the glitch has not occurred again. Just thought I would share the experience in case this happens to anyone else. The KGQ10H replaced an 18 year old Yaesu VX-6R that up and died on me a while back. The Q10H is a great radio and this is the first issue I have had with it. In the 18 years I had and used the Yaesu I had turned it on several times and found that the memory was wiped, so weird things happen.

I realize that and as stated above I have tried to register here on the forum multiple times.

Forum and main site are different. You need to register here as well.

The configuration you pasted definitely has tones set: 67.0 Hz for both encode (TX) and decode (RX). Did you have the same tone set on the UV5R for transmit? If you were transmitting from the UV5R with no tones that would explain why you didn’t hear it

Using compander adds some audio elements that are not always pleasant. There’s almost always some background hiss in audio. That hiss is compressed along with the desired audio at the transmitter and expanded at the receiver. Some refer to the sound as resembling loud breathing or pumping. I started with compander turned on but didn’t like the sound. I have turned it off now.

I have been on mygmrs.com before, registered my callsign and have requested some repeater access in the past. When trying to login here on the forum I am greeted with a red box saying that I have not signed in before and need to create and account. I have tried several times over the past few months to register an account here on the forum and after I put in my callsign to verify, it comes up and says my callsign is already registered and shows me a green squared window with all my information in it. Underneath the block where you verify the callsign it states in red that my callsign is already registered to my callsign. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Screen shots can be provided if needed.