Need help contacting a repeater with a Midland 115 mobile radio

[WRUQ683]

I am using a local repeater on 462.600. Works fine with my Baofeng HTs. Input and output tones are DCTS 246. I programmed the Baofengs with CHIRP. The Midland cannot be programmed. You have to use the menus on the unit. I turned on the repeater settings using the Midland menu. I can hear traffic from my HT through the repeater. I can talk from my Baofeng to the Midland just fine. But I cannot  transmit to the Baofeng from the Midland. I set the DCS Privacy number to 90 which corresponds to DCS code 246 according to the chart in the Midland manual.

I am pretty new to GMRS. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks,

David

[OffRoaderX]

5 minutes ago, WRUQ683 said:

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

How close is the Baofeng to the Midland when you are testing?

[SteveShannon]

22 minutes ago, WRUQ683 said:

I am using a local repeater on 462.600. Works fine with my Baofeng HTs. Input and output tones are DCTS 246. I programmed the Baofengs with CHIRP. The Midland cannot be programmed. You have to use the menus on the unit. I turned on the repeater settings using the Midland menu. I can hear traffic from my HT through the repeater. I can talk from my Baofeng to the Midland just fine. But I cannot  transmit to the Baofeng from the Midland. I set the DCS Privacy number to 90 which corresponds to DCS code 246 according to the chart in the Midland manual.

I am pretty new to GMRS. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks,

David

Are you using a repeater channel?

[WRUQ683]

39 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

How close is the Baofeng to the Midland when you are testing?

Very close. I also moved back about 20 feet and still nothing.

[WRUQ683]

24 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Are you using a repeater channel?

Yes, I am. The Midland does see it as a repeater channel because it has an 'rp' next the channel number.

[OffRoaderX]

2 minutes ago, WRUQ683 said:

Very close. I also moved back about 20 feet and still nothing.

Get back 100 feet and try again..

[SteveShannon]

3 minutes ago, WRUQ683 said:

Yes, I am. The Midland does see it as a repeater channel because it has an 'rp' next the channel number.

Make sure you do as @OffRoaderX suggests to prevent desense. 
Also, with DCS there’s both a normal and inverted codes. Make sure you use the right one. If it doesn’t have an I after the code it’s assumed N.

Finally, I recommend leaving the receive squelch tone or code unprogrammed at first. That way you hear everything. 

[WRUQ683]

1 hour ago, OffRoaderX said:

Get back 100 feet and try again..

I took a drive around the block. No luck. I can easily Tx from the HT to the mobile on the repeater channel but not the other way round.

[WRUQ683]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Make sure you do as @OffRoaderX suggests to prevent desense. 
Also, with DCS there’s both a normal and inverted codes. Make sure you use the right one. If it doesn’t have an I after the code it’s assumed N.

Finally, I recommend leaving the receive squelch tone or code unprogrammed at first. That way you hear everything. 

I took a drive around the block. No luck. I can easily Tx from the HT to the mobile on the repeater channel but not the other way round.  I haven't touched the squelch but I'll look at that next.

[WRUQ683]

8 minutes ago, WRUQ683 said:

I took a drive around the block. No luck. I can easily Tx from the HT to the mobile on the repeater channel but not the other way round.  I haven't touched the squelch but I'll look at that next.

I know about the normal and inverted codes. But there is no option for that on the Midland radio. I opened a help ticket with Midland but of course it will be nexr week before anyone will get back to me.

[H8SPVMT]

First do a, "Factory Function" (reset) on the Midland and then re-enter all the pertaining setup fields like:

Rep - select "ON," etc.

Set "TALK" - OFF 

Now go to CH.Rp 17 (467.600) and listen for someone to communicate on it. 

Personally, I would wait on putting the privacy tone in until I actually hear the repeater operating myself.  Then input the privacy tone 90, if that is what you need. 

Edited yesterday at 05:23 AM by H8SPVMT
Include the Talk function to OFF so as NOT to "talk around the repeater"

[dosw]

On 8/31/2025 at 12:48 PM, WRUQ683 said:

Very close. I also moved back about 20 feet and still nothing.

This is at least one of your problems.

 

Imagine sitting next to a window air conditioner while your wife is talking to you at normal speaking voice from another room. Without the AC you would probably hear her. But with the AC, even though her voice is no quieter, the AC is making it very hard to hear her, because it's dominating your hearing.

 

The radio that is transmitting TO the repeater is transmitting at maybe 5 to 15w. That's a very loud window air conditioner, to follow this example. The repeater is the quiet voice in another room. Your receiving radio is sitting next to the window air conditioner, in this example. It cannot "hear" the repeater because there's a very strong signal next to it.

 

This is called de-sensing. The listening radio is desensitized by the overwhelming output of the nearby transmitting radio, preventing it from hearing the very distant radio (the repeater).

[WRUQ683]

17 hours ago, dosw said:

This is at least one of your problems.

 

Imagine sitting next to a window air conditioner while your wife is talking to you at normal speaking voice from another room. Without the AC you would probably hear her. But with the AC, even though her voice is no quieter, the AC is making it very hard to hear her, because it's dominating your hearing.

 

The radio that is transmitting TO the repeater is transmitting at maybe 5 to 15w. That's a very loud window air conditioner, to follow this example. The repeater is the quiet voice in another room. Your receiving radio is sitting next to the window air conditioner, in this example. It cannot "hear" the repeater because there's a very strong signal next to it.

 

This is called de-sensing. The listening radio is desensitized by the overwhelming output of the nearby transmitting radio, preventing it from hearing the very distant radio (the repeater).

I drove around the block and it still would not work at that distance. The HT can talk to the Midland mobile however. So it receives just fine. But the HT is not hearing the Tx from the mobile even at distance. Midland is researching the problem with their engineers now.