Is my radio working? How do I know?

[Guest That new guy]

Got my GMRS callsign assigned yesterday. I can't register here because it's not in your system.  I just purchased a Baofeng UV-9G and it seems there are a couple things going on:

Either:

A: Nobody has a radio on near me (or cares to answer me)

B: My radio isn't working 

After perusing this forum here, it would appear  there are a few 'issues' with the UV-9G.  Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.  I did notice in OffroadX's youtube video about this radio, he mentions I should get a transmission back after transmitting to a repeater.  That's not happening...

[Sshannon]

7 hours ago, Guest That new guy said:

Got my GMRS callsign assigned yesterday. I can't register here because it's not in your system.  I just purchased a Baofeng UV-9G and it seems there are a couple things going on:

Either:

A: Nobody has a radio on near me (or cares to answer me)

B: My radio isn't working 

After perusing this forum here, it would appear  there are a few 'issues' with the UV-9G.  Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.  I did notice in OffroadX's youtube video about this radio, he mentions I should get a transmission back after transmitting to a repeater.  That's not happening...

Not all repeaters are configured to send any kind of acknowledgement or squelch tail. 
Some places there’s just nobody comment on a transmission. 

[Sheldon]

if I'm looking at an open system repeater on the mygmrs map I see a repeater that operates on 462.650  the input tone: none  output tone: 136.5Hz.  

I'm assuming the output tone is what the repeater is transmitting out so I would set my "R-CTSC" to 136.5Hz?  

[WRMF558]

Exactly correct.  But how will you know someone is really transmitting?

 

[Guest Sheldon]

1 hour ago, WRMF558 said:

Exactly correct.  But how will you know someone is really transmitting?

 

I don’t know?  That’s what I’m trying to learn. 
so if a repeater does have an input tone that would be the “T-CTSC” then I’m assuming?
I guess my problem is that I’m greater than 30 miles from these repeaters and they are listed as 10 mile ranges. (Must be small mobile repeaters I’m guessing)

I primarily got gmrs for off-road group rides but trying to experiment with it and learn the hobby a bit as well but don’t know where to start

[Sshannon]

Sheldon,

On the Receive side, if you leave the CTCSS or DTCSS tone empty, or set the radio tone mode to Tone instead of TSQL, you will receive everything transmitted on that frequency 462.650 MHz.   I recommend that you do that at first.  Once you are certain that you are able to hear transmissions from the repeater, and if there is other traffic on that same frequency that you would like to filter out, then you can always put the receive tone back in or switch to TSQL (which is the same thing).

As far as output versus input tone, the convention is that the Repeater INPUT tone is the OUTPUT tone of your radio, which is the way you have it.  But it’s not really common for a repeater to leave it’s input tone empty AND have an output tone.  That implies that it will re-transmit everything on that 462.650 MHz frequency.  It’s more common for a repeater to filter access with an input tone. It’s possible that the person who put the repeater into the database made a simple mistake and put the input tone into the output tone field of the database.  If that’s the case,and you’re not sending a tone when you transmit, the repeater would ignore your transmissions.

Finally, don’t be afraid to get closer to the repeater.  If it claims a 10 mile range and you’re at 30 miles you could very easily be completely out of range.

So, here’s what I would do:

1. Make sure your radio is set to a repeater channel, not a simplex channel.  Otherwise the repeater will never hear you.
2. Get to within a few miles of the repeater.
3. Clear out the receiver CTCSS tone.
4. Double check with the repeater owner to see if it truly expects a tone on the repeater input.  If it does, use it.
5. Listen. 
6. Try transmitting your call sign and ask if anyone can hear you.

[WRUU653]

As @Sshannon mentions no tones would be required because if you don’t set a receive tone you’re going to hear everything. Hmm so why would someone that didn’t set an input bother with an output tone? You got me. 
Most repeaters have both an input and output tone. Though some have an input tone with no output tone, which makes sense to me… but one with no input tone and then have an output tone? I haven’t seen that before. I’m not sure why you would set one up that way. I looked at the repeater page and even reading his answers to people asking about his set up it appears that’s what he is saying he did. I would follow @Sshannon’s recommendations, get closer to the repeater and test accordingly. I would be interested if this is really how it’s set up or if there’s a misunderstanding in how the repeater owner has posted his set up. 

[Sheldon]

learning a little more and I think I understand some.  I also read through the comments on his repeater.  he uses an output tone to separate the repeater from channel 19 because a group of local volunteers use it.

 

That's his explanation anyway.  

[WRUU653]

11 minutes ago, Sheldon said:

learning a little more and I think I understand some.  I also read through the comments on his repeater.  he uses an output tone to separate the repeater from channel 19 because a group of local volunteers use it.

 

That's his explanation anyway.  

Only the SHARP site says they use the same PL of 136.5 on the repeater and there is no statment of input vs output on their site. so the norm would be input. I maybe wrong but I think when he says it dosen't use an input he means your radios recieve. It just dosen't make since to me to do it the other way but hey it's his repeater. I remain skeptical though. If the SHARP team used an input and everyone else used only an output I could see an issue where they would be using the repeater and others would be unaware. I love a mystery, please test and report back.