UV-9G won’t transmit on programmed channels and it’s Notarubicon’s fault

[KekistaniRefugee]

Hello, I have a question about programming my radio to specific repeaters in my area instead of using just the preprogrammed repeaters. So here’s the deal, I have followed Notarubicon’s work for a while and he got me into GMRS. I’ve had a CB radio for years and now and I’m excited to get into a new hobby. I plan on buying the Midland MXT575 in the near future as well.

I have followed the instructions to the letter and I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong because I can’t hit a repeater. Preprogrammed or not. I have the freq set on 462.675. The TX tone is set to 123 Hz. I have tried the RX tone on the same 123 Hz but apparently not a lot of repeaters use that. I didn’t mess with the offset or freq shift since that seems to be for HAM. I have programmed 462.675 and 467.675 into the memory (as shown in the second video), this is on channel 5 and 28 by the way. I have also tried this same thing on channel 127 another time. And yes I am doing this from the keypad on the radio and not through Chirp.

The bottom line is this, when I try to key up on these channels that I have tried to set to a repeater, it won’t even key up. It doesn’t show the radio is transmitting at all, the screen doesn’t turn Orange indicating I am transmitting, nothing. But if I go up or down a channel, it begins transmitting normally when I press the PTT. I have occasionally gotten traffic on the programmed channels when people have been on, which I thought was interesting since I can’t transmit. Needless to say, I am stumped. I have followed the instructions completely step by step in both videos but there must still be something I am missing or doing wrong or maybe they are faulty radios? I have two of them and they both do the same thing. So if anyone one out there can help me with this issue, I would be forever grateful.

I haven’t been able to make contact with anyone through these radios yet and it has been discouraging to say the least. And yes I fully blame you, Notarubicon, for getting me into this mess. And yes I know you’re reading this because you’ve told me I am your favorite viewer. I appreciate you noticing me by the way.

(I’m -mostly- kidding for those who have trouble reading between the lines).

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

I have watched this video: 

I have even watched this video:

 

[Sshannon]

Some radios will scan for the tone coming from the repeater and Notarubicon ( @OffRoaderX ) has a couple videos about that, but there’s no guarantee that the input tone and output tone are the same.

Anyway, until you need it, leave it blank for the receive side.

[MichaelLAX]

Wide Band for most Repeaters for sure

 

[MichaelLAX]

[Sshannon]

@KekistaniRefugee I’m sorry, I had to go to bed. I’ve got a full day tomorrow too, but in the afternoon I’ll check to see how you are doing. Hopefully, you’ll get on the repeater by then.

Don’t worry about asking questions.  We were all beginners once.  And I really don’t think Notarubicon picks on honest questions based on lack of experience, but rather “know it alls” or “experts” who don’t truly contribute anything.  A lot of us enjoy his videos.  

[Sshannon]

Okay, first, just use the preprogrammed repeater channel for 462.675. Just change the tone. 
Second, clear out the receive tone. If a receive tone is incorrect you will never hear the repeater. If you leave it blank you hear everything on the channel. 
Good luck!

[KekistaniRefugee]

3 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Okay, first, just use the preprogrammed repeater channel for 462.675. Just change the tone. 
Second, clear out the receive tone. If a receive tone is incorrect you will never hear the repeater. If you leave it blank you hear everything on the channel. 
Good luck!

Thank you for your response. So I have cleared out the RX tone, but how would I know what to set the tone to? Is there a way of finding out what tone a repeater is using?

[Borage257]

6 minutes ago, KekistaniRefugee said:

Is there a way of finding out what tone a repeater is using?

The repeater section of this website. Also the map.

Unless there is a lot of noise on your RX frequency , leave the tone off.

[WRUU653]

4 minutes ago, KekistaniRefugee said:

Is there a way of finding out what tone a repeater is using?

You get it from the repeater owner. Go to the repeater page of whatever repeater you are interested in using (you can find them on the map page of MYGMRS) and request access. 

[KekistaniRefugee]

Just now, WRUU653 said:

You get it from the repeater owner. Go to the repeater page of whatever repeater you are interested in using (you can find them on the map page of MYGMRS) and request access. 

I applied to join a GMRS group where I am but I haven’t heard back yet. There is a repeater about 10 miles from me and I thought this radio would be able to reach it but maybe there is too much in the way? Geographically I’m up on a hill, so there are a lot more trees than buildings in the way. There are some guys in this group that are well over 10 miles from me talking to each other and I can hear them clearly, but I can’t seem to reach them and I’m just trying to understand why that is. So the owner of a repeater can restrict access even if someone is tuned in and the tone is set correctly?

[KekistaniRefugee]

6 minutes ago, Borage257 said:

The repeater section of this website. Also the map.

Unless there is a lot of noise on your RX frequency , leave the tone off.

Thank you for your response. In the picture I posted that’s where I got this information for the repeater I’m trying to hit. But since there are 8 repeater channels, how would I know which one is the right one I’m trying to reach?

[KekistaniRefugee]

4 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Some radios will scan for the tone coming from the repeater and Notarubicon ( @OffRoaderX ) has a couple videos about that, but there’s no guarantee that the input tone and output tone are the same.

Anyway, until you need it, leave it blank for the receive side.

Oh my… please don’t answer that last reply, I just realized in the back of the manual the repeater channels are all designated already. I was thinking that the repeaters use unique frequencies.

[KekistaniRefugee]

12 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Some radios will scan for the tone coming from the repeater and Notarubicon ( @OffRoaderX ) has a couple videos about that, but there’s no guarantee that the input tone and output tone are the same.

Anyway, until you need it, leave it blank for the receive side.

Well while I have you here answering my ridiculous nooby questions that hope don’t get highlighted in a Notarubicon video, I noticed that on the repeater channels they are set to narrow band. Should I leave it that way or change it to wide band?

[KekistaniRefugee]

Just now, MichaelLAX said:

Wide Band for Repeaters for sure

I kind of thought so. That would make sense to me as well, thank you.

[KekistaniRefugee]

3 hours ago, Sshannon said:

@KekistaniRefugee I’m sorry, I had to go to bed. I’ve got a full day tomorrow too, but in the afternoon I’ll check to see how you are doing. Hopefully, you’ll get on the repeater by then.

Don’t worry about asking questions.  We were all beginners once.  And I really don’t think Notarubicon picks on honest questions based on lack of experience, but rather “know it alls” or “experts” who don’t truly contribute anything.  A lot of us enjoy his videos.  

Ahhh! Thank you so much! It finally clicked in my head, or was that the repeater sound? With your and others help I can hit two different repeaters in my area this morning! I guess I was over complicating things instead using the available frequencies! Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it. One more tool in the tool belt now.

And I really enjoy Notarubicon’s videos as well, I know he doesn’t poke fun at newbies and that’s what I like about him, he wants people to be able to enjoy the hobby.

[KekistaniRefugee]

8 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Thank you very much, this map really helped me this morning in seeing it like that, I didn’t realize there was a map view.

[KAF6045]

16 hours ago, KekistaniRefugee said:

I have followed the instructions to the letter and I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong because I can’t hit a repeater. Preprogrammed or not. I have the freq set on 462.675. The TX tone is set to 123 Hz. I have tried the RX tone on the same 123 Hz but apparently not a lot of repeaters use that. I didn’t mess with the offset or freq shift since that seems to be for HAM. I have programmed 462.675 and 467.675 into the memory (as shown in the second video), this is on channel 5 and 28 by the way. I have also tried this same thing on channel 127 another time. And yes I am doing this from the keypad on the radio and not through Chirp.

Coming in late to the thread, and if I understand it you did finally manage to get a functional system. However, in general...

There are something like 38 possible CTCSS tones. The odds of any particular repeater using "123Hz" is, therefore, rather low (the most common for the West MI Amateur repeaters is 94.8, while Lansing seems to prefer 100.0 -- CTCSS tones are supposed to be "subaudible", as the common voice band is filtered to be around 300-6000Hz; the higher the CTCSS tone, the higher the chance a poor filter could let it pass to the audio output). 141.3 used to be common on 462.675/467.675 back when the FCC regulations defined that as an emergency frequency (back in the days when one had to specify which two of the 8 MAIN frequencies one would be licensed to use -- this limitation went away back in 1999 when the FCC allowed any GMRS license to use all 8 main frequencies) [note: channel numbers were not used for GMRS in those days, as most radios were Part 90 LMR (business band) units and had to have whatever channels they supported programmed by a shop with the licensed frequencies]

OFFSET/SHIFT is always used with repeaters -- in any service, not limited to Amateur. For GMRS repeaters, that is 5MHz + (transmit on 467.xxx, receive on 462.xxx). A 0 offset means one is working simplex (no repeater).

16 hours ago, KekistaniRefugee said:

The bottom line is this, when I try to key up on these channels that I have tried to set to a repeater, it won’t even key up. It doesn’t show the radio is transmitting at all, the screen doesn’t turn Orange indicating I am transmitting, nothing. But if I go up or down a channel, it begins transmitting normally when I press the PTT. I have occasionally gotten traffic on the programmed channels when people have been on, which I thought was interesting since I can’t transmit. Needless to say, I am stumped. I have followed the instructions completely step by step in both videos but there must still be something I am missing or doing wrong or maybe they are faulty radios? I have two of them and they both do the same thing. So if anyone one out there can help me with this issue, I would be forever grateful.

You never stated what radio you were using [Okay, didn't notice model in subject line] (and my browser blocks embedded videos -- I try to avoid YouTube), so I can only speak in general terms.

Many of the GMRS radios available are preprogrammed and only permit transmitting on (since the FCC unification of GMRS & FRS frequency assignments) channels 1-30. Channels 1-7 are GMRS interstitials, which only provide simplex (no repeater usage); 8-14 are the former FRS-only 467.xxxx interstitials, which are limited to 0.5W ERP NFM; 15-22 are GMRS main simplex frequencies; 23-30 (which may show up as 15rp-22rp, or similar notation) are GMRS main repeater frequencies. The only programming one can do for these radios is to set CTCSS/DCS tones on any channel, and possible change from FM (20kHz) to NFM (11kHz) for 1-7/15-22/23-30. Any other channels the radio supports are locked into receive-only (basically, slow public service scanning capability).

Some radios may allow for up to 10 "DIY" repeater channels -- useful if you have more than one repeater using the same frequency pair but with different tones, but still limited. The Retevis RA85 [a pair came as a package with the RT97 (not RT97s) repeater] is one such, but the programming software seemed to lack the FM/NFM toggle and had everything locked to NFM. I made an inquiry about that problem and they sent me the link to the RA685 (the Amateur version of the radio) programming software -- besides allowing for the FM/NFM toggle to work, that software also enabled ALL channel slots for transmit configuration. I now have something like 30 "DIY" repeater entries in the unit. The Radioddity DB20-G, as shipped, is also quite restricted in features -- but can be unlocked (technically, no longer legal for GMRS) to open up frequency ranges and channel slots for transmit.

"The bottom line is this, when I try to key up on these channels that I have tried to set to a repeater, it won’t even key up. It doesn’t show the radio is transmitting at all, the screen doesn’t turn Orange indicating I am transmitting, nothing. But if I go up or down a channel, it begins transmitting normally when I press the PTT. I have occasionally gotten traffic on the programmed channels when people have been on, which I thought was interesting since I can’t transmit."

This tends to indicate, to me, that your radio is one that is preconfigured to specific simplex and repeater /channels/, and that the channels you are using are not permitted to operate with repeaters. Changing channel has put you back into an unmodified slot, and the radio operates normally there. Also, if it is a simplex channel, you would hear others transmitting simplex even if you were configured for repeater (the receive frequency from a repeater is the same as the simplex frequency).

[Wbailey85]

If you are trying to program that WPTU754-675 Repeater you have the WRONG tone...that's why your not getting into the repeater...This Repeater is part of the Club only SWOH-GMRS Club...check em out on Facebook ,Become part of the Club and have access to the Repeater. Hope to catch on the repeater WRMR358 clear...

[Wbailey85]

Nothing wrong with your radio you just have wrong PL tone...