Looking for recommendations for training materials to learn about all the settings on a radio, what they do and how they work together

[noopykat]

Hi everyone, greetings from up North!

I got my license almost 4 yrs ago but haven't spent much time learning about the plethora or settings on my pair of GMRS-V1. We will take a trip soon and will use the radios and while I was programming the repeaters, I realised I have no idea what the settings do...

I would like to learn what everything does, how it works and how changing one setting on a channel can break or fix things.

I have a fairly good understanding of electronics and networking but this has me stumped. 

Can anyone recommend a good book or guide where I could start?

Thanks in adavance for all the advice!

 

[wayoverthere]

Miklor.com has a couple of good guides that may help:

https://www.miklor.com/COM/Review_GMRS-V1.php

https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CTCSS.php

That said, the v1 is fairly foolproof. The hard coded channels are it for tx, so pick the REPT channel that matches up to the frequency of the repeater you want, go in the menu to 'T-ctcs' or 't-dcs' as appropriate, and pick the tone to match the repeater listing, and hit menu to commit the change.

You Can set a RX tone to filter what you hear, but it isn't necessary. The REPT channels also already have the appropriate offset for repeater use already baked in.

[noopykat]

39 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

Miklor.com has a couple of good guides that may help:

https://www.miklor.com/COM/Review_GMRS-V1.php

https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CTCSS.php

That said, the v1 is fairly foolproof. The hard coded channels are it for tx, so pick the REPT channel that matches up to the frequency of the repeater you want, go in the menu to 'T-ctcs' or 't-dcs' as appropriate, and pick the tone to match the repeater listing, and hit menu to commit the change.

You Can set a RX tone to filter what you hear, but it isn't necessary. The REPT channels also already have the appropriate offset for repeater use already baked in.

Thanks @wayoverthere, what I was hoping to find was some technical materials to learn about the settings; what they are, how they work, etc. 

Do you know of any books?

Thanks

[BoxCar]

1 hour ago, noopykat said:

Hi everyone, greetings from up North!

I would like to learn what everything does, how it works and how changing one setting on a channel can break or fix things.

Thanks in adavance for all the advice!

 

Depending on how deep you want to dive you have a choice of attending a college to study Electrical Engineering with an emphasis on wireless communications or perhaps picking up a couple ARRL manuals. 

ARRL Handbook 2022 (Softcover)

The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications is your complete guide to radio experimentation, discovery, and innovation. It is the Handbook, written by radio amateurs for everyone with a desire to advance the pursuit of wireless technology.

 

ARRL Antenna Book 24th Edition

The ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is a single resource covering antenna theory, design and construction, and practical treatments and projects. This book contains everything you need to understand how radio signals propagate, how antennas work, and how to construct your own antenna system.

[BoxCar]

You need to be a little more explicit about which settings you want to know about. We can guess you are talking about tone settings, and if that's the case then the simple explanation is tones act as filters. If you have a tone set, then everything not sent with a matching tone is rejected. Some radios can use two tones, one transmit and another receive. This is called Split Tones. Split tones do not have to be the same but your radio has to specifically support using tones in this manner. In programming tones you are often given a choice as to the manner in which the tone is used. A setting of TONE means you will transmit the tone when you press the PTT key. TQSL means the same tone is needed for both transmit and receive. Not using a tone sets the radio to CARRIER SQUELCH which means it will activate on any signal received and not send one with the PTT.

[SteveShannon]

Watch these two videos. 

Really the only thing you need to know at first is power, volume, channel, and push to talk. You can find them all in the manual. 
Don’t change anything else for now. 
Then practice. Don’t wait until you need them. 
Eventually you’ll need to know about tones, but you shouldn’t change them right away. 

[wayoverthere]

5 hours ago, noopykat said:

Thanks @wayoverthere, what I was hoping to find was some technical materials to learn about the settings; what they are, how they work, etc. 

Do you know of any books?

Thanks

(3rd try at replying...first 2 on mobile kept dumping half composed posts...)

Books...I haven't found much, and little to nothing specific to GMRS...the only physical books i've actually grabbed in the general radio field were the "easy way ham books" (which are more study aids for the tests than full on technical materials) and read through "ham radio for dummies" awhile back from my local library.  I don't know how well the classic publishing model works with the pace technology moves.

From the online side of things

• the UV_CTCSS page on the miklor site does a good high level breakdown of some of the basic stuff, 
• I think the manuals for the GMRS-V1 and GMRS-50X1 are actually decently well written to be reasonably understandable, though there is a bit of jargon to work out.
• The wikipedia entry for Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System (CTCSS) goes into a good bit of depth on that topic..i imagine some of the other pieces are covered equally well.
• BuyTwoWayRadios has a decently complete feature guide with descriptions of a lot of things you may run across.
• While it's aimed at hams, ARRL has a Quick Reference Operating Aids section; Chapters 2 and 7 may have links to a lot of the material you may be looking for, without being completely stuck in the ham realm.  Some of the specific equipment may not carry over to GRMS, but most of the radio fundamentals do carry over (GMRS not being much off of the 70cm/440 ham band).

If you run across materials or guides (such as on the miklor site) related to the baofeng UV-82, those may be useful as well as that's the radio your V1 is based on.  (if you look a little, you'll find similar "twins" for many of the GMRS options on the market)

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by wayoverthere
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[noopykat]

22 hours ago, BoxCar said:

Depending on how deep you want to dive you have a choice of attending a college to study Electrical Engineering with an emphasis on wireless communications or perhaps picking up a couple ARRL manuals. 

ARRL Handbook 2022 (Softcover)

The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications is your complete guide to radio experimentation, discovery, and innovation. It is the Handbook, written by radio amateurs for everyone with a desire to advance the pursuit of wireless technology.

 

ARRL Antenna Book 24th Edition

The ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is a single resource covering antenna theory, design and construction, and practical treatments and projects. This book contains everything you need to understand how radio signals propagate, how antennas work, and how to construct your own antenna system.

I want to learn more about the specific settings in the radios, I have a good undertsanding of how they work; antennas, power, etc.

I want to learn more about settings like DTCS, Tone, Cross Mode, etc. are and thought there would be a book I could read.

Thanks 

[MichaelLAX]

This instructional video, while specific to the UV-5R, goes menu item by item and explains what they do:

How To Use Baofeng UV-5R Menus & All Menu Settings Explained - For UV5R & Other Ham & GMRS Radios