Tone vs ctcss

[WRUJ544]

New to the gmrs world. Are the “tones” on the repeater the same as ctcss? My radios all say ctcss but don’t say anything about “tones” 

[OffRoaderX]

Basically yes, but there are also DTC/DCS tones in addition to CTCSS tones.

[KAF6045]

9 hours ago, WRUJ544 said:

New to the gmrs world. Are the “tones” on the repeater the same as ctcss? My radios all say ctcss but don’t say anything about “tones” 

As mentioned, there are the digital tones (these somehow send a numeric value). If you see something like DN999 (or D999N -- N could also be a I for inverted) it is a digital tone.

CTCSS => Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System (AKA: PL => Motorola's name: Private Line, though there is nothing private about it -- anyone set for "no tone" can hear the traffic, it only means the unit /with/ a receive tone set does not hear traffic that does not match).

Confusingly some rigs in their settings use "Tone"/"T" for transmit only, no-tone receive, and reserve "CTCSS"/"CT" for when both transmit and receive tones are being used. (And similar options for digital tones.)