Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 17, 2021 Report Share Posted September 17, 2021 I am having issues using certain CTCSS tones. I have not yet identified all tones that do not appear to be working correctly but there are several. When I try to use 136.5hz or 110.9hz my transmissions are unusable. If I use 100.0hz or 156.7hz everything is good. I have not dug through all programming options for the radio and am wondering if there could be a known issue with certain tones or some programmable option that may be conflicting with certain tones. Thank you for any suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OffRoaderX Posted September 17, 2021 Report Share Posted September 17, 2021 Can you give a little more detail on exactly what you mean by "unusable" ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axorlov Posted September 17, 2021 Report Share Posted September 17, 2021 There are tones that are susceptible to external interference. The 136.5 is one to avoid. The radio that sends DCS does it at 134.4 baud, and if you have nearby repeater or radio using DSC (no matter which one), your radio may mistakenly think it's 136.5 it's hearing. 110.9 is little too far from the second harmonic of 60Hz, but who knows, tone decoder on your radio may not be tuned properly. There is a thread here, comment from n1das explains it well: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 17, 2021 Report Share Posted September 17, 2021 Thank you for the responses. The issue, as explained to me (by those I try to communicate with), is that there is some sort of cyclic interference that makes it so they only hear/understand about every fourth word I say. I have no trouble hearing/understanding their transmissions so my decoder appears to be okay. I have had the same complaint from at least 2 different people so that would lead me to suspect it is on my end with my tx function. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted September 17, 2021 Report Share Posted September 17, 2021 Thank you for the responses. The issue, as explained to me (by those I try to communicate with), is that there is some sort of cyclic interference that makes it so they only hear/understand about every fourth word I say. I have no trouble hearing/understanding their transmissions so my decoder appears to be okay. I have had the same complaint from at least 2 different people so that would lead me to suspect it is on my end with my tx function. FredYou have access to another radio you can use to communicate with your 1000G? If so, perhaps you can have a family member operate the 1000G while you operate a different model. That would give you first hand experience in hearing whatever the anomaly might be. Yes, it is certainly possible that there is something wrong with the radio, but it may not have anything to do with the tones. It could be something else all together. It is going to take some troubleshooting track down the issue. Once you are on the other end using a different radio, experiment with communications with and without tones. Experiment at different power levels, different mic positions and different voice levels. What you are looking for is a clear set of conditions where the issue always exists and where it always does not exist.I have heard of tones and decoders not being accurate and not doing their job well, but I cannot say I have heard of tones causing the symptoms as described.MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 17, 2021 Report Share Posted September 17, 2021 Thanks Michael. I have a pair of Wouxun KG-905Gs that I can do some additional testing with. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted September 19, 2021 Report Share Posted September 19, 2021 Thanks Michael. I have a pair of Wouxun KG-905Gs that I can do some additional testing with. Fred Please be sure to report back.MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 20, 2021 Report Share Posted September 20, 2021 Did a quick test with my 905G and 1000G. No issues with 136.5hz tone on ch16 or ch17. Will try again with one of the operator that I had the issue with previously. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 20, 2021 Report Share Posted September 20, 2021 Apparently this issue may be related to how the tones are encoded/decoded. When I use my 1000G or 905G with certain tones the transmissions are not intelligible (seems worse with the 1000G) when received on a Midland 400 (not sure if that is the correct model he is using). However, if I use a Motorola radio he has no problem using the Midland. If he uses a Baofeng (not sure which model) he has no trouble when I use either Wouxun or Motorola. Looks like whatever is going on may well be related to the different encode/decocde processes used by different manufacturers. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted September 20, 2021 Report Share Posted September 20, 2021 Your comments make me wonder whether we you have a wide-band narrow-band incompatibility thing going on. All Midland GMRS radios are narrow-band out of the box. If a repeater is in the mix, perhaps it too is set for narrow-band (yes it is possible). Try changing the channels you are testing with on your 1000G and 905G to narrowband and try again. Note that the wide-band, narrow-band settings of the Wouxun radios are channel specific.Also, make sure that you do not have the compander turned on the 1000G. That is a useless feature in GMRS except when you communicating between like-model radios (which is seldom the case) and may actually prove to be an aggravator under the current circumstances.MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 20, 2021 Report Share Posted September 20, 2021 Thanks Michael. The wide/narrow band may explain it. We did talk about that during our testing last night but didn't have time to dive into it. No repeaters in the mix and compander is NOT enabled. We'll have time to test more in a day or two. Thanks for your help! Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 26, 2021 Report Share Posted September 26, 2021 After some additional testing this issue does not appear to be due to the wide/narrow band setting. We were able to identify several CTCSS tones that do work so we will stick to tones that do not have the issue. No idea what is causing it but I think we're done trying to figure it out. Thanks for all the help! Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted September 27, 2021 Report Share Posted September 27, 2021 Fair enough. It is entirely possible the some tones are off-frequency just a little, the receiver decoders are off a little, or there is some noise present that is making it difficult for the decoder to do its job well on certain frequencies. There are lots of codes available and all you need is one that works well for you.Enjoy.BTW Fred, get registered and join the forum with an official user name if you can. You are still listed as “guest” on my end.Best Regards,MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred WRNT890 Posted September 28, 2021 Report Share Posted September 28, 2021 Thanks Michael, I registered after my initial post. My username is FMyers. I probably didn't do something correctly because when I posted in this thread after logging in it did not seem to recognize that I was a registered user. I just chalked it up to being a 'guest' forum and continued as I began the thread. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fmyers Posted September 29, 2021 Report Share Posted September 29, 2021 Thought I'd try a post using my username to see if it show me as a registered user. I'm slow in the uptake sometimes... Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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