New to GMRS/Radios in general questions

[WSAU601]

OK so i have a dumb question.  I just got my GMRS License and i am helping my brother do the same but as i was on my way to work this morning i was able to hear a lot of folks on a repeater but i cant figure out how to program with the information i have found on the specific repeater. i checked it is open and not permission only. I get the Frequency but what do i use Input and Output tones for as i have both a handheld and car mobile radio.  So i am trying to tie it all to the same repeater so that i can teach my older brother and i am in over my head lol.

I currently have a Tidradio TD-F6, Boafang UV-82HP also 2 UV-5R's  and my car rig is Anytone AT-778UV

[OffRoaderX]

All of your radios are H.A.M. radios, so they probably won't be able to transmit on the GMRS repeater.. But, if they are unlocked, you can ignore the 'output' tone until you know what you're doing, and just use the input tone by entering that in your repeater-channel setup which will be specific to each radio.

You have a lot to learn - there are no simple, quick answers.. Unless you had real GMRS radios, then it is actually pretty simple and quick to use a repeater.. but you have H.A.M. radios.. sooo... 

[WRXB215]

As @OffRoaderX indicated, starting out with ham radios is going to make it a little more difficult. I have some UV-5Rs and an AT-778UV so if you have any specific questions about those I may be able to help. The way tones work is the same across the board. Here is a few very basic pointers to hopefully help you get going:

Simplex: radio to radio
Duplex: radio to repeater (offset)

GMRS offset is +5MHz. GMRS radios should already have this set on the repeater channels for you. Ham radios don't so you have to set it yourself.

When using a repeater, RX will be a frequency 462.### and TX will be a frequency of 467.### with the same .###. See note above.

Tones:
Most repeaters use a "tone" on the RX or "input" of the repeater which will be the 467.### frequency.
These tones are sometimes called PL or DPL tones, CTCSS, etc. but they work the same.
When a repeater, or radio has a tone set on the RX, it will squelch out (ignore) any signal that does not carry that same tone. Therefore, you must use the same tone on your TX that the repeater uses on it's RX.
You do not have to use a tone on your RX. Without any tone on RX, you will hear all signals in that frequency.

Hope this helps.

[OffRoaderX]

3 hours ago, WRXB215 said:

...starting out with ham radios is going to make it a little LOT more difficult...

Fixed that for you.

For someone that is already at least vaguely familiar with what repeaters are and how they work, its a "little" more difficult.. For someone that knows absolutely zero about nuthin, it is going to be a LOT more difficult.

[WSAU601]

5 hours ago, WRXB215 said:

I have some UV-5Rs and an AT-778UV so if you have any specific questions about those I may be able to help.

I am trying to figure out how to understand how to convert this information into the pc programing for the AT-778UV. and into the UV-5Rs using Tidradio Bluetooth programmer with odmaster app 

[SteveShannon]

10 minutes ago, WSAU601 said:

I am trying to figure out how to understand how to convert this information into the pc programing for the AT-778UV. and into the UV-5Rs using Tidradio Bluetooth programmer with odmaster app 

The 462.675 MHz frequency is the receive frequency for your Anytone or UV-5R radios.  467.675 MHz would be the transmit frequency.  That's either directly entered or entered as a +offset of 5.000 MHz.

The input tone is the tone your radio must transmit using CTCSS.  It's an input to the repeater so the radio you have must transmit it.

The output tone is the tone that the repeater sends out (transmits).  If your radio is set to a different CTCSS tone for receive it will not reproduce transmissions from the repeater.  However, if you don't program a receive frequency into your radio, it will not filter any transmissions and you will hear everything transmitted on that frequency.  I usually recommend that people leave the receive frequency empty until they know they have the transmit tone working and that they're activating the repeater.

Some software requires that you set a MODE.  Usually the choices in the MODE column include Tone or TSQL.  Tone means that your radio will send a tone, but not require one coming back.  That's the same as leaving the receive tone empty as described above.  TSQL means that your radio will remain squelched (silent) until the correct tone is received.  If you have the wrong tone, you'll hear nothing if you turn on TSQL.

Good luck!

[WRXB215]

If you don't understand what @Sshannon said, start with the instructions below. When you are done with that, go back and re-read what Steve wrote. By that time, you should be able to program your UV-5R. If not, let us know exactly what problem you are having.

For the AT-778UV:

First, using the OEM software(this can't be done in CHIRP) click on the Model menu and select Model Information.

Make sure Band 2 is selected.

After setting the band, double click on a channel/memory space in the grid to get to the settings for that line.

Your results should look like this:

In CHIRP, it should look like this:

Read this to get a better understanding of CHIRP, especially the Tone Mode column.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention, one of the strengths of CHIRP is that after programming your repeaters in one radio, you can copy the lines and paste them into the file of other radios. If you have multiple repeaters and multiple radios, this will save you a lot of time.

NOTE:
When using CHIRP, first read from the radio and save the file. You will need a different file for each different model of radio. You can't load the AT-778UV file into a UV-5R. There is a lot of other specific things CHIRP has to know before trying to write to a radio.

Edited March 1 by WRXB215
Added info.