Repeater Trouble

[muddysamurai]

I'm having problems it seems with voice transmission with a local repeater. the Repeater is about 17 miles from my house. I am using a Radioddity DB25-G and I have prorammed the 462.600 repeater into the radio with the correct offset and TX and RX tone of 141.3. Whenever I key up and speak my voice never breaks squelch on a HT nearby programmed the same way. However when I release the PTT button I will receive the squelch tail and roger beep on both my HT and the DB25-G. Thinking I was too far from the repeater I tried again only a couple miles away with the same results with both the HT and mobile radio. I have verified it is transmitting on 467.600 with the HT.

I'm sure anyone listening thinks I'm just kerchunking the repeater but I am not! In fact tonight while I was trying manually input everything and test, someone did respond and asked If I was having trouble. Of course he couldn't hear me speak. So he said to key the mic twice If I could hear him, so I did and he responded that he heard the two key-up's. My Radios do not have a "Talk Around" feature either.

I was able to hit another repeater in the area that was a couple miles further and got a response of a fair signal a couple weeks ago, but I have not been able to get a response lately.

The picture shows my channel settings.

[muddysamurai]

I finally got through to the repeater successfully. At home my signal mush have been just enough to trigger it. I was able to have a conversation from the top of a hill 17 miles away with my 10 watt Baofeng HT, and also with my 25 watt mobile radio........Now to build and get an antenna on my roof!

[Guest]

Next thought that bubbled up is, if you set one of your radios to monitor 467.600 and then use the other radio to transmit to the repeater, can you hear voice? I get that the repeater can receive your carrier and the tone to open the repeater but trying to find where the voice is lost. If you get voice this way, the repeater is doing something odd. There needs to be a continuous tone to keep the repeater "open". Still fishing here.

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, Socalgmrs said:

Haha you would not get a squelch tail back if either tone was bad. 

Not true with 'all' repeaters..    

[TrikeRadio]

13 hours ago, muddysamurai said:

I'm having problems it seems with voice transmission with a local repeater. the Repeater is about 17 miles from my house. I am using a Radioddity DB25-G and I have prorammed the 462.600 repeater into the radio with the correct offset and TX and RX tone of 141.3. Whenever I key up and speak my voice never breaks squelch on a HT nearby programmed the same way. However when I release the PTT button I will receive the squelch tail and roger beep on both my HT and the DB25-G. Thinking I was too far from the repeater I tried again only a couple miles away with the same results with both the HT and mobile radio. I have verified it is transmitting on 467.600 with the HT.

I'm sure anyone listening thinks I'm just kerchunking the repeater but I am not! In fact tonight while I was trying manually input everything and test, someone did respond and asked If I was having trouble. Of course he couldn't hear me speak. So he said to key the mic twice If I could hear him, so I did and he responded that he heard the two key-up's. My Radios do not have a "Talk Around" feature either.

I was able to hit another repeater in the area that was a couple miles further and got a response of a fair signal a couple weeks ago, but I have not been able to get a response lately.

The picture shows my channel settings.

Seems to me that you are indeed hitting the repeater, your signal is just not strong enough to get a transmission of your voice thorugh, but the keyup is getting through for them to hear. Try a different location.. .closer too or in visible line of sight to the repeater location... or connect a larger and/or higher up antenna to your radio and try.

Is the repeater on a mountain top? is it on a tower or tall building? do you know how high it's antenna is, and are you indoors or with any other obstructions between you and the repeater antenna?

[Guest]

I may ask dumb questions and you may ignore me, but I ask anyway... Do the two radios, your HT and your mobile work in simplex between the two? No repeater involved, no tones or weird stuff.

[WRUE951]

Sometimes and more often than none, repeater owners change up their PL tones without posting their changes.  Is it possible to contact repeater owner directly to conform PL settings.   

[muddysamurai]

39 minutes ago, WRKW566 said:

I may ask dumb questions and you may ignore me, but I ask anyway... Do the two radios, your HT and your mobile work in simplex between the two? No repeater involved, no tones or weird stuff.

Yes, everything works together on simplex, with and without tones

2 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

Sometimes and more often than none, repeater owners change up their PL tones without posting their changes.  Is it possible to contact repeater owner directly to conform PL settings.   

Yea the owner verified a couple days ago the tones were correct and the gentleman that could hear me trying told me the tones as well. I do have the TX tone set.

[WRUE951]

12 minutes ago, muddysamurai said:

Yes, everything works together on simplex, with and without tones

Yea the owner verified a couple days ago the tones were correct and the gentleman that could hear me trying told me the tones as well. I do have the TX tone set.

 

12 minutes ago, muddysamurai said:

Yes, everything works together on simplex, with and without tones

Yea the owner verified a couple days ago the tones were correct and the gentleman that could hear me trying told me the tones as well. I do have the TX tone set.

Try connecting a mobile or base antenna to the hand held (if you have the adapters). Or if you know of a location with direct line of site, try that.  Make sure to test both talkies. 

[Socalgmrs]

9 hours ago, WRUE951 said:

Sometimes and more often than none, repeater owners change up their PL tones without posting their changes.  Is it possible to contact repeater owner directly to conform PL settings.   

Haha you would not get a squelch tail back if either tone was bad. 

[Socalgmrs]

9 hours ago, WRUE951 said:

Sometimes and more often than none, repeater owners change up their PL tones without posting their changes.  Is it possible to contact repeater owner directly to conform PL settings.   

Haha you would not get a squelch tail back if either tone was bad. 

[Socalgmrs]

Op.  Can you work with the owner of the repeater to have a time that you can do a radio check with him?   You may have a desense issue going on or you have some interference messing with your signal or a hill, tree, buildings, ect that is just right to stop voice transmissions.  No one on this site is going to be able to help as much as local repeater owners and users.  The owner may know some one in your area that can come out and help trouble shoot. 

[WRXB215]

10 hours ago, muddysamurai said:

HT nearby

Sounds like desense. Put some distance between the two and try again.

[Socalgmrs]

29 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

Not true with 'all' repeaters..    

really. Listen to what you just said.  Not all repeaters have a squelch tail. Yes that’s correct BUT if you do hear a squelch tail like the op said then yes both tones are correct.  You’re activating the repeater, and you’re hearing the tail so your both tones are correct.   There is not a repeater in the world that will if your input tone is wrong is going to send out a tail. And there is not a radio in the world that is going to allow a tail If the tone is wrong. 

[quarterwave]

Your radios are too close together. One tx is desensing and blanking the rx of the other. 

crank the volume up on the receiving radio and put it 100 ft away.