Daystar Transmission Issues

[ThunderBird74]

Morning GMR Team,

My name is Theo Beutler, I just go my call sign WROE574 the other week.  I am generally familiar with some radio basics, but I am not well versed in GMR basics. A while back I had a Daystar mobile GMR radio installed into my Rubicon; just recently I go around to getting my call sign.  I have been talking with rep from Daystar and a rep from Rugged Radios (Daystar radios are really Rugged radios) to get up speed on some of the GMR basics.   With that said, I have not been able to successfully transmit from the mobile.  I am leaning towards a setting issue on my radio but I am not ruling out the antenna.  While in Benson, I am trying to use RPTR 15 with a tone of 146.2 and while in Tucson, I am trying to use RPTR 17 with a tone of 141.3.   No success with transmitting on either RPTR.   Additionally, I have tried to conduct a COMMS / Radio Check after I come across chatter and misc. channel; no success.   I am receiving well; I hear chatter from states such as CO and NM often, sometimes UT, TX and FL.  Please advise on what my mobile Radio settings error my be. 

Last week i also received two hand held Daystar GMR's for hikes and adventures of that sort.   I have had one of the hand held with me a couple times already in the Jeep and when I transmit on one radio I do not hear anything on the other other radio.  Thus another indicator that I have a configuration issue and probably not an antenna issue on the Jeep Mobile.   

[pcradio]

How did you program your units, manually or with a computer? Also, when you transmit, take note at what shows up on the screen. Do you seen the TX frequency, different from the RX frequency?

[WyoJoe]

This does sound a lot like a configuration issue. As for the use of the tones, you want to be sure they are set on Transmit, and if your radio allows it, they should not be set on receive. That way, your radio will transmit the tone necessary to open the squelch on the repeater (so the repeater will hear you), and will not need to receive a tone to open the squelch on your radio (so you can hear all transmissions on that frequency in your area).

As for your hand held radios, there is no need to use tones for radio to radio (simplex) communication, unless you're trying to filter out other users on the same frequency. Your radios may be suffering from desense, where the transmitting radio overloads the receiving radio.

To test them, be sure both radios are on the same (non-repeater) channel, and are sufficiently distant from each other to prevent the transmitting radio from overloading the receiver on the receiving radio. Having the radios in different rooms, or one indoors and one outdoors should be enough distance to effectively test them. You should use another person to help with this so they can respond when you are testing.

 

[ThunderBird74]

To PCradio, 

I did not program the radio, they were programed my Daystar Off-Road and UTV accessories. The mobile radio modal number is KU73011BK.  When I transmit on this radio I do not see the frequencies toggle to the screen.   I see the transit icon light up on the LED screen along with a visible light but now signal displayed. 

[ThunderBird74]

To WyoJoe, 

The mobile device just offers on option to enter the tone; does not indicated if it's for Transmit or receiving purposes. I will validate with Daystar and Rugged radios of the "Tone" option for the mobile device is just for transmitting or is it both. Perhaps this is the programming error from Daystar?  on the hand held, which I have in front of me there are the following options:

TX-Tone

RX-Tone

Tone

Thanks for best practices for using the 2 hand held radios.   I'll test them out again with one of my boys. 

Theo  

[WyoJoe]

22 hours ago, ThunderBird74 said:

To PCradio, 

I did not program the radio, they were programed my Daystar Off-Road and UTV accessories. The mobile radio modal number is KU73011BK.  When I transmit on this radio I do not see the frequencies toggle to the screen.   I see the transit icon light up on the LED screen along with a visible light but now signal displayed. 

I found that Daystar radio on Amazon. It looks like a rebranded (and more expensive) version of the TYT TH-8600:

Daystar-KU73011BK

TYT TH-8600

[WyoJoe]

22 hours ago, ThunderBird74 said:

To WyoJoe, 

The mobile device just offers on option to enter the tone; does not indicated if it's for Transmit or receiving purposes. I will validate with Daystar and Rugged radios of the "Tone" option for the mobile device is just for transmitting or is it both. Perhaps this is the programming error from Daystar?  on the hand held, which I have in front of me there are the following options:

TX-Tone

RX-Tone

Tone

Thanks for best practices for using the 2 hand held radios.   I'll test them out again with one of my boys. 

Theo  

Try looking for selections like T-CTC, R-CTC, T-DCS, and R-DCS (It may differ from these, but should look similar). The first two of these are Transmit and Receive CTCSS tones. The second two are Transmit and Receive DCS codes. Assuming you want to transmit a CTCSS tone, you would enter that in the menu for the T-CTC selection. All the other selections should be set to off.

The "tone" selection may refer to DTMF, 2-Tone, or 5-Tone options that would not be necessary in this case. This should also be set to off.

[ThunderBird74]

Well it is possible that when I purchased the radio a while back from Daystar it might not have been the best price.  So not even Rugged radios are the ones that makes the radios then?  On the mobile radio the edit options under H N T SQ + are T and SQ.  In conjunction with applying to the SWCRS Repeater access and getting it approved I was able figure out my configuration errors right before the 4PM NETCAL.   I'll validate in the mobile tomorrow since my handheld battery is starting get low and the charger is not at my location.

One of the next steps assuming that I have figured out the basic RPT transmission errors due to the help I have received here in this forum other mygmrs emails  is order the corresponding programing cables and software so that I can customize my mobile and handhelds.

Thanks for the help thus far!!

Theo