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Posted

Your radios TX is transmit. Your radios RX is receive. The repeater is going to RX (recieve) your TX and TX (transmit to your receive) RX.  Yes it can be complicating. What you need to remember is the TX and RX listed is where you need to program those numbers for your radio.  Hope that helps. 

Posted
2 hours ago, WRUU653 said:

Your radios TX is transmit. Your radios RX is receive. The repeater is going to RX (recieve) your TX and TX (transmit to your receive) RX.  [...]

Simple enough: T is R and R is T ... and sometimes there is no R or was it T or ... really easy 🥴

🤣 😂 🤣

Honestly, it is simple once you allow for the shift in perspective - your "right side" is "left" for someone looking at you - same thing 👍

 

Posted
7 minutes ago, WRXD372 said:

Simple enough: T is R and R is T ... and sometimes there is no R or was it T or ... really easy 🥴

🤣 😂 🤣

Honestly, it is simple once you allow for the shift in perspective - your "right side" is "left" for someone looking at you - same thing 👍

 

It helps if you are ambidextrous. 🤣 

Wasn't that the lyrics to a Beatles song? R is T and T is R and we are all together... 🎼 😂

Posted
Quote

Is this statement true?

Repeater : RX is Output and TX is Input

Maybe, but you weren’t specific enough.  The repeater’s Output is its TX but is heard on your radio’s RX.  

Similarly, your radio’s TX frequency or TX tone, must match the repeater’s Input frequency and tone.

Your radio transmits at 467.xxx MHz to the repeater.  The repeater transmits at 462.xxx to anyone listening. There are only eight 467/462 repeater frequency pairs. Those frequencies are established by the FCC rules.

Nearly all repeaters require a tone, otherwise they would be re-transmitting everything they receive.

Your radio transmits a specific tone (CTCSS or PL, they’re two names for the same thing) or digital pattern (DTCSS or DCS or DPL) to open the repeater.  That’s called the input or uplink or even receive tone for the repeater.  

The repeater usually sends a tone or digital pattern along with its transmissions. That’s the output or downlink or transmit tone of the repeater.  Those terms are standardized so we can share information. The repeater output tone is for your convenience to lessen interruptions, but it doesn’t provide any kind of security.  

There are only eight frequencies that repeaters can receive on and only eight that they can transmit on. The frequencies that repeaters transmit on are the same as people use for simplex communications as well. If you are within range of a couple of repeaters that receive and transmit on the same frequencies, using different tones can ensure that your transmissions are being repeated by the correct one and that you’re hearing the correct one.  

So, for example, repeater Sandhawk and repeater Black Brant both receive on 467.550 MHz and transmit on 462.550 MHz.  They’re far enough apart that they don’t usually bother each other, but you happen to live where you receive them both.

Sandhawk uses an uplink or input tone of 67.5 Hz.  That means that you MUST set your transmit or TX tone to 67.5 Hz or Sandhawk will just disregard your transmissions.

Sandhawk uses a different tone, 100 Hz, for its output tone.  Using two different tones for TX and RX is referred to as having a “split tone”.  It’s usually done by repeater operators who want to protect against unauthorized access to their repeaters.  Why? Because it’s easy to scan for the repeater output tone.  It’s not as easy to scan for the input tone.

The Black Brant repeater uses 103.5 Hz for both input and output.

What a lot of people don’t initially understand is that these tones work like filters.  If I set my handheld radio to a receive tone of 103.5 Hz my radio will only break squelch when it receives a transmission that incorporates that tone, which would be the Black Brant repeater.  If I set my radio receive tone to 100 Hz it will only reproduce transmissions it receives which include a 100 Hz tone.  But, if I don’t set a receive tone in my radio, it does no filtering.  It literally reproduces everything that has a signal strength sufficient to break squelch.  That’s useful, especially when trying to troubleshoot.

Don’t fall into the trap of referring to a tone by a number or some other shorthand because not all radios number the codes the same.  Always refer to the frequency of the tone, such as 103.5 Hz, or the DCS code.

Not all radios include all the tones.  Motorola and Midland include the standard tones, but fail to include some of the tones included in the overseas brands. Thus they might not be able to access some repeaters.

Posted
17 minutes ago, WRXE944 said:

CHIRP? Or proprietary CPS software? 

I recommend leave out the Receive Tone on your radio to get started. Mistakes can leave you with no reception on a busy repeater 

Proprietary, I guess. The programming screen has KG-1000G+ on the upper left and a picture of the 1000G+ on the desktop icon. Leave out the RX tone? Then I won't be able to comm on the programmed RPT stations....why would I want to do that?

Posted
29 minutes ago, JamesBrox said:

Proprietary, I guess. The programming screen has KG-1000G+ on the upper left and a picture of the 1000G+ on the desktop icon. Leave out the RX tone? Then I won't be able to comm on the programmed RPT stations....why would I want to do that?

No, if you leave out the receive tone you receive everything. Add the receive tone after making sure you have the transmit tone correct. 

Posted
12 hours ago, WRXB215 said:

@Sshannon Very well said. You should expand that slightly and put it into a PDF. Is there an FAQ area on this forum?

12 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Thank you! I’ll try to expand on it.

I haven’t seen an FAQ.

An FAQ section or WIKI would help to answer some basic questions. - You know, those that are "frequently asked" 

Posted
3 minutes ago, BoxCar said:

Its been suggested several times 

I think it’s a great idea. We answer the same questions over and over. 
But it does no good to give them lip service in the forums. People who are willing to compile the questions and answers that already exist on this site should put something together and write to Rich, offering to maintain them. 
Or even start a new thread called FAQs. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Sshannon said:

I understand what an FAQ is. 
I said I haven’t seen one, meaning on this site. 

I did not doubt that you know that - my argument just got circular on accident and there was no way to recover 🤣

Posted
2 minutes ago, WRXD372 said:

I did not doubt that you know that - my argument just got circular on accident and there was no way to recover 🤣

If anything I have ever posted would help, I have no problem if someone uses it in part or completely. 

Posted
56 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

I think it’s a great idea. We answer the same questions over and over. 
But it does no good to give them lip service in the forums. People who are willing to compile the questions and answers that already exist on this site should put something together and write to Rich, offering to maintain them. 
Or even start a new thread called FAQs. 

If you are looking at the members who most often answer on that level - basic knowledge and helpful tips - I would guess that putting together a WIKI or FAQ is no problem.

This might take a few weeks or even month, but it would make this forum a high value asset !!!

Posted
1 minute ago, Sshannon said:

If anything I have ever posted would help, I have no problem if someone uses it in part or completely. 

I "bet" the answers / articles are all over the forum ... if we could just collate and curate them ... ?!?

 

Posted
2 minutes ago, WRXD372 said:

I "bet" the answers / articles are all over the forum ... if we could just collate and curate them ... ?!?

 

They are. Unfortunately, I’m working on two different manuals and NFPA submissions right now so I don’t have the time. 

Posted

Maybe it's time to get started at the drawing board...

What would we need from admin to get this started ?!?

- We might need a new category - FAQ or Knowledgebase or WIKI - that board should not be a discussion board buy rather an 'announcement board'/

- Writing and editing privileges for selected / level headed volunteers.

- Editing privileges should include going back and editing / collaboration on the posts.

- Some collaboration of the contributors to decide on an initial set of topics

- ...

... time to weigh in !!!

 

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