What are pl/dpl?

[WRQM273]

I got permission to use the repeaters that are near my house and my work, they sent me pl and dpl numbers. But i dont have pl or dpl in the menu options on my Wouxun kg-935g. I have tx-ctcss and rx-ctcss. Im starting to beat my head against the wall not understanding this. Everyone keeps talking about needing the ctcss tones to use them. But i got pl/dpl tones. One of them fits on the ctcss, for RX, but the TX number is above the max value that is aloud for the tx ctcss in my radio. Please point out the simple thing im missing.

[Radioguy7268]

PL stands for "Private Line"  - which was Motorola's term for ctcss (continuous tone coded signalling squelch). It's a sub-audible tone that's generally between 80 and 300 Hertz.  It seems you have already figured out how to plug that in.

DPL is Digital Private line - which most manufactures call DCS - Digital Coded Squelch.

I'm not familiar with the Wouxun product line, but other people here are, and I'm sure someone will tell you how to plug that DPL code into your radio in order to access the repeater.

If the repeater you are planning to use has PL on the one frequency, and DPL for the other (probably higher) frequency - that's termed a "split tone". Not all radios are capable of using split tones - but you might be in luck with the KG-935g.

[WRQM273]

16 minutes ago, Radioguy7268 said:

PL stands for "Private Line"  - which was Motorola's term for ctcss (continuous tone coded signalling squelch). It's a sub-audible tone that's generally between 80 and 300 Hertz.  It seems you have already figured out how to plug that in.

DPL is Digital Private line - which most manufactures call DCS - Digital Coded Squelch.

I'm not familiar with the Wouxun product line, but other people here are, and I'm sure someone will tell you how to plug that DPL code into your radio in order to access the repeater.

If the repeater you are planning to use has PL on the one frequency, and DPL for the other (probably higher) frequency - that's termed a "split tone". Not all radios are capable of using split tones - but you might be in luck with the KG-935g.

Thank you! I got the numbers put in and will test when im out of my work building, hard to even get a cell signal inside. 

[MichaelLAX]

5 hours ago, WRQM273 said:

I got permission to use the repeaters that are near my house and my work, they sent me pl and dpl numbers...

It never hurts, when asking for help, to give all the useful information, including the PL and DPL numbers they sent you.

You could even bore us with the name of the repeater, its location and frequency, too! 

[WRQM273]

4 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

It never hurts, when asking for help, to give all the useful information, including the PL and DPL numbers they sent you.

You could even bore us with the name of the repeater, its location and frequency, too! 

 Except both of the repeaters that I was granted access for sent a note saying to not share their information with anyone.  I gained access to both through myGMRS website.

[MichaelLAX]

2 hours ago, WRQM273 said:

 Except both of the repeaters that I was granted access for sent a note saying to not share their information with anyone.  I gained access to both through myGMRS website.

That means to not share their Tones.

Do any of these look familiar?

[WRQM273]

2 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

That means to not share their Tones.

Do any of these look familiar?

Yes, but i spend more than half my day at work up in Waukesha, so the one ive been trying to program manually while waiting for the proper programming cable is Armor 1. I believe i have it programed correctly. I just did not know what the PL/DPL he gave me were since everyone talks about tones and ctcss. I attempted to make contact on the drive home with anyone, i maybe got a response but could not hear them so im not sure. 

[MichaelLAX]

From the Manual, it looks like Menu Function 10 (CTCSS) and 12 (DCS or DPL) are the functions to use to manually set the Tones.  Have you tried these?

[WRQM273]

45 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

From the Manual, it looks like Menu Function 10 (CTCSS) and 12 (DCS or DPL) are the functions to use to manually set the Tones.  Have you tried these?

Yes, i have put them in. There was some confusion because PL is CTCSS and DCS is DPL.

[WRYF300]

wrqm273 did you ever figure it out. im new too and in the same situation you were in when you put this question out 

[nokones]

PL means Private Line which is a Motorola term for CTCSS which stands for Continuous Tone Code Squelch System. It is a function tone to squelch your receiver or open up a receiver and is analog in Hertz, i.e. 141.3 Hz which is the GMRS travel tone. DPL is also a Motorola term for Digital Private Line also known as DCS Digital code system which is a digital coded squelch system that sends a digital coded bit stream to do the same thing as the analog tone system. The first DPL code on the list is 023 and the last is somewhere in the mid to high 700s. By the way, Private does not mean your radio communication is Private. It just a nuisance eliminator function so you don't hear other radio traffic if you don't want to.

The cheap consumer radios don't use the actual tone frequencies or digital codes for the specific tones/codes. They use a programming number i.e. the programming number for the 67.0 Hz CTCSS is "1" and the programming number for the first DPL is also "1" for most of the cheap radios. Some cheap radios continue with the numbering scheme after the last analog tone.