Repeater PL tones

[Muzic2Me]

No question… is the stupid question.. with that said. Newbie… I installed a temp antenna for my HT at the homestead. I’ve programmed a repeater in to see if I was able to Rx. I haven’t heard anything on it( non-actively listening). Today I was scanning and it hit the repeater channel. Question: I removed the Rx tone from this repeater channel and heard Morse code when it stopped the scan on this channel. Is it possible I heard the repeater, or possibly the simplex channel? 
 

 

any info would be great! Thanks in advance

[MichaelLAX]

I rarely use receive tones. They are generally only needed if you have interference from another repeater on the same frequency

If you program in the wrong receive frequency it’s possible that you will hear nothing

Most likely a Morse code ID is from a Repeater

If you can record the Motse code ID, post it here and we can reverse engineer it for you to determine who owns the repeater and see if it’s in the myGMRS database

[Muzic2Me]

1 hour ago, MichaelLAX said:

I rarely use receive tones. They are generally only needed if you have interference from another repeater on the same frequency

If you program in the wrong receive frequency it’s possible that you will hear nothing

Most likely a Morse code ID is from a Repeater

If you can record the Motse code ID, post it here and we can reverse engineer it for you to determine who owns the repeater and see if it’s in the myGMRS database

Sounds good. Thanks! I'm still learning. I have always been the " I want to know how it works" and not "just click here, turn up the volume and your good to go" type at anything. It makes me understand better, but sometimes a frustration too. lol.  Still understanding the receive Freq/Channels 15-22 for simplex and the repeater channels  23-30 are the same Rx, but with the offset of 5 for transmit to repeaters input. on Ch 23-30. So, I am assuming that if I have no Receive tone for the Repeater channel. I could be hearing the Simplex channel. Or regardless if I have a receive tone on the repeater channeI, I am still hearing it on the simplex channel, b/c they are the same Rx freq?  I guess what I am saying that in a pre-programmed HT, the only diff. is that Repeater channels have the TX already config for transmit at offset.   "Thats clear as mud".

[wayoverthere]

13 minutes ago, Muzic2Me said:

Or regardless if I have a receive tone on the repeater channeI, I am still hearing it on the simplex channel, b/c they are the same Rx freq?  I guess what I am saying that in a pre-programmed HT, the only diff. is that Repeater channels have the TX already config for transmit at offset.   "Thats clear as mud".

Think of PL/DPL (aka CTCSS/DCS) tones as a filter, where you only hear signals with the matching tone. You're on the right track, including the statement about preprogrammed HTs; the receive frequency is the same for the repeater and simplex channel.  It's absolutely possible that you could have a RX tone set for the repeater, yet still hear simplex activity on the channel if someone is using the same tone as the repeater's output tone.

For my use, the channels I have set up for a repeater, I'll set both TX & RX tones on the repeater slot. The intent is that the repeater slot will only break squelch for signals from the repeater, while the equivalent simplex slot runs with no receive tone set, so I'll hear everything else on the channel. 

[PACNWComms]

21 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

For my use, the channels I have set up for a repeater, I'll set both TX & RX tones on the repeater slot. The intent is that the repeater slot will only break squelch for signals from the repeater, while the equivalent simplex slot runs with no receive tone set, so I'll hear everything else on the channel.

I do the same thing for my GMRS and some amateur repeaters. My only wish is that my older Garmin Rino FRS/GMRS radios allowed for additional channels to be added, some with tones and some without. Since its programming is hard coded, there is no way to add additional channels. One of the few reasons I bought a Radioddity DB20-G. It was a good middle ground between some of my most often used handhelds Garmin Rino 530's and Motorola Part 90 handhelds and my Motorola mobiles. Great advice given here.

[Muzic2Me]

21 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

Think of PL/DPL (aka CTCSS/DCS) tones as a filter, where you only hear signals with the matching tone. You're on the right track, including the statement about preprogrammed HTs; the receive frequency is the same for the repeater and simplex channel.  It's absolutely possible that you could have a RX tone set for the repeater, yet still hear simplex activity on the channel if someone is using the same tone as the repeater's output tone.

For my use, the channels I have set up for a repeater, I'll set both TX & RX tones on the repeater slot. The intent is that the repeater slot will only break squelch for signals from the repeater, while the equivalent simplex slot runs with no receive tone set, so I'll hear everything else on the channel. 

That makes sense. Thanks for the feedback. The longer I mess with this it will all click the Switch on one day.