Using Channels 15-22 and "filtering" out repeaters

[WRZB493]

Hi all, been watching lots of videos and read the manual (as evidenced by the 5 million questions I posted in a recent thread), just want to confirm I'm understanding the below correctly.

So as I understand it, privacy tones aren't exactly privacy tones, as folks can still hear you no matter what you program in, but they can be leveraged as a way for two (or more) radios to speak on a channel and filter out other conversations on that channel not using those transmit+receive tones. 

If I want to use channels 15 - 22 to communicate with other GMRS radios in the area via simplex (for camping or other local purposes), and want to make sure those folks on the other end don't get confused with repeaters we may run into - we should program whichever channel we land on with a Transmit and Receive Tone that hopefully does not happen to be the same as what's being used by the repeater. This way, if there's a repeater that uses the frequency of channel 17, we won't hear that chatter because we'll have different transmit/receive tones than what's on that repeater.

Is this right? Or no matter what, we'll always hear the repeaters if we're on channels 15-22 (assuming we're dialed into the channel the repeater is on), and our only recourse is to switch to a different channel? If so, then I need to go back and relearn privacy tones and what their purpose is.

Thanks in advance.

[WRUE951]

you are suppose to press 'monitor' button which breaks the squelch to confirm you will not interfere with anyone before transmitting..  Now you may ask,  'all radios do not have a 'Monitor' button so how do you break the squelch....  And my answer to that,,  I don't know.....  But i do know, as an operator, it is our responsibly to make sure we do not cause any interference with other parties.     

[WRZB493]

14 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

you are suppose to press 'monitor' button which breaks the squelch to confirm you will not interfere with anyone before transmitting..  Now you may ask,  'all radios do not have a 'Monitor' button so how do you break the squelch....  And my answer to that,,  I don't know.....  But i do know, as an operator, it is our responsibly to make sure we do not cause any interference with other parties.     

Thanks - so just because we setup a transmit tone/receive, we are still "polluting" the airwaves with our conversation for those who do NOT have transmit/receive tones setup, is that right? Our convenience could be making others lives miserable, if I'm following correctly, because we could ignorantly be talking over them and be none the wiser.

Is the "monitor" button similar to busy channel lockout, where you can program the radio to not allow you to transmit if it detects an active signal? Or is that different?

[WRUE951]

6 minutes ago, WRZB493 said:

Thanks - so just because we setup a transmit tone/receive, we are still "polluting" the airwaves with our conversation for those who do NOT have transmit/receive tones setup, is that right? Our convenience could be making others lives miserable, if I'm following correctly, because we could ignorantly be talking over them and be none the wiser.

Is the "monitor" button similar to busy channel lockout, where you can program the radio to not allow you to transmit if it detects an active signal? Or is that different?

my current radios have 'monitor' button... Some of the Baofangs i used early on did not, but i believe you can program the monitor function on those somehow....   Waiting for someone to ping in that can answer that...  But in a nutshell to answer your question,,  It's operator responsibly to insure they dont interfere with other parties..  A monitor function does that well..  A monitor button simply breaks the squelch so you can hear traffic on the channels..  In other words, it breaks the privacy tones enabling you to hear anyone on the frequencies

[WRUU653]

Many radios have a status bar that shows receiving signal strength as well. That's a good indicator that someone is using the channel even if you don't hear them do to some tone settings.