Need help or advice

[REBorn04]

I’m trying to set up a simple repeater channel using a Revetis RA-87 and just can’t seem to figure out what I am doing wrong. I can transmit just fine through the repeater however I am not receiving any traffic from the repeater. WQGV202 Rexburg Idaho on 17RP

[WRQC527]

7 minutes ago, REBorn04 said:

I am not receiving any traffic from the repeater.

What kind of traffic are you expecting to hear? How do you know you are transmitting just fine through the repeater? Are you hearing your transmission on another radio? Maybe there's just no one listening to the repeater.

[SteveShannon]

9 minutes ago, REBorn04 said:

I’m trying to set up a simple repeater channel using a Revetis RA-87 and just can’t seem to figure out what I am doing wrong. I can transmit just fine through the repeater however I am not receiving any traffic from the repeater. WQGV202 Rexburg Idaho on 17RP

Change to Tone instead of TSQL. 

[WRKC935]

Set your Repeater tuning steps to 25 as well.

 

[WRUU653]

It does seem odd that you know you can get into the repeater but can’t hear the repeater. I have the same questions as @WRQC527. Is there traffic to be heard? By changing to tone like @SteveShannon recommends you should hear everything on that frequency. Do you have different results when using an HT?  Are you sure the repeater is on line?

I looked at the repeater page and it says it’s on line however the owners page has both a green dot next to the named repeater and a triangle exclamation symbol. I don’t know what to make of that. What does this mean? It seems contradictory. Or is it trying to yell “Yes it’s on line”

[REBorn04]

I am testing with my HT as well as MXT500, I can hear my transmission from the RA-87 on both my HT and confirmed with my MXT500. However I cannot receive transmissions from either. I have held 2 way conversations over the repeater with both radios as well as a side conversation with another user while trying to test the setup via my MXT500. Steve Shannon…. Set tone instead of TSQL then set RX tone and TX tone both to 123.00? WRKC935can you explain tuning steps? I have researched that and was under the impression that it is primarily for non GMRS use?

[SteveShannon]

7 hours ago, REBorn04 said:

I am testing with my HT as well as MXT500, I can hear my transmission from the RA-87 on both my HT and confirmed with my MXT500. However I cannot receive transmissions from either. I have held 2 way conversations over the repeater with both radios as well as a side conversation with another user while trying to test the setup via my MXT500. Steve Shannon…. Set tone instead of TSQL then set RX tone and TX tone both to 123.00? WRKC935can you explain tuning steps? I have researched that and was under the impression that it is primarily for non GMRS use?

Have you ever received anything on the RA-87? There are only four reasons your RA87 wouldn’t receive from your HT and MXT500: wrong tone, desense, wrong frequency, or broken receiver.

You undid setting Tone Mode to Tone when you set the RX Tone to 123.00. Set Tone Mode to Tone and leave the RX tone clear.  Setting the RX tone to something is the same as setting TSQL and filters your incoming signals. Leaving your RX tone clear and setting Tone Mode to Tone tells your radio not to filter on tones but to allow everything through.Red redemption.

 When you’re troubleshooting reception problems you want to start by let everything in.  Setting Tone Mode to Tone tells your radio to send a tone on transmit, but to let everything through on receive. Most times when someone cannot hear transmissions from another transmitter it’s because they have the wrong tone set for RX.

Another common reason not to receive from another radio is because you’re too close to the transmitting radio and your receiver is desensing. Make sure your transmitting radio and receiving radio have some distance between them.

Finally, if you’re not too close and you’re not filtering on tones and you still don’t receive things on your RA-87 maybe the RA-87 doesn’t receive.  Have you ever received anything on the RA-87?

[WRUU653]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Have you ever received anything on the RA-87? There are only four reasons your RA87 wouldn’t receive from your HT and MXT500: wrong tone, desense, wrong frequency, or broken receiver

May sound silly but there is a fifth reason, the volume could be turned down. It happens to the best of us. The back of the RA87 also has two plug ins, one for speaker and one for data. Is there anything plugged into the back of the radio? Are you using the radios speaker or an external one?

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

May sound silly but there is a fifth reason, the volume could be turned down. It happens to the best of us. The back of the RA87 also has two plug ins, one for speaker and one for data. Is there anything plugged into the back of the radio? Are you using the radios speaker or an external one?

Great point!  A bad speaker jack could do that.

[REBorn04]

I’m not using an external speaker and I do receive on another channel as well as weather. I’m fairly sure that I just don’t have the repeater settings correct just trying to understand the differences between the Revetis and my Midland radios without the benefit of a user manual that makes any sense.

[SteveShannon]

11 minutes ago, REBorn04 said:

I’m not using an external speaker and I do receive on another channel as well as weather. I’m fairly sure that I just don’t have the repeater settings correct just trying to understand the differences between the Revetis and my Midland radios without the benefit of a user manual that makes any sense.

Then it really comes down to the RX tones or frequencies used. 
If you’re transmitting directly from your HT to your Retevis you must be using a simplex channel and I recommend doing that without any tones at first. 
I always recommend minimizing the number of moving parts that must line up. Tones are useful in minimizing interruptions but can add confusion. Especially when communicating via simplex turning off tones can help you diagnose other problems. 

[WRUU653]

Looking at your program It looks like you are programmed correctly for frequency and tones according to the repeater map page. I agree with @SteveShannon that removing the RX tone will at least take that issue out of the mix. Do you hear the repeater on simplex? I’m leaning toward a desense issue in the testing which can happen when radios are too close to each other. 

[REBorn04]

When testing with my Midland MXT 500 I’m 1.3 miles from the RA-87 and 35.2 miles from the repeater. I figured that radios being to close might be part of the problem when testing with the HT while at the RA-87 location but I’ve consistently retested from the MXT-500 to be sure. I’m going to attempt switching from TSQL to tone and try that as I’m fairly sure it is something really simple that I’m just overlooking or overthinking. I don’t completely understand the difference in TSQL vs Tone.

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, REBorn04 said:

I don’t completely understand the difference in TSQL vs Tone.

When your radio is set to TSQL it sends a tone while transmitting and it remains quiet (squelched) during receive unless exactly the right tone is received. 
When it’s set to Tone, it sends the tone but it doesn’t require one when receiving. 

[REBorn04]

Can anyone explain tuning steps?

[SteveShannon]

35 minutes ago, REBorn04 said:

Can anyone explain tuning steps?

It depends on the antenna, but for a single band whip antenna without a trap you “simply” adjust the length of the antenna until it matches the frequency you wish to transmit and receive. Connect an analyzer to your antenna and look to see where the dip is. If the dip is at a lower frequency than desired your whip is too long. Take off a tiny bit and check again. The dip should have moved to a slightly higher frequency. 
If taking off a half inch changes the resonant frequency by 2 MHz (I made that number up; you’ll have to figure it out for your situation. It could be less or it could be more!) and you only want to change 500 kHz then you’ll need to take off an eighth of an inch more. 
Approach it very carefully because it’s damned hard to make the radiator longer. 
Most antennas that are intended to be tuned will have some sort of instructions and maybe a cutting chart. 
Here’s a video on tuning the Tram 1486 to GMRS frequencies:

 

[REBorn04]

Thats not at all what i was asking, in chirp there is a column for Tuning Step that is currently set at 12.5, WRKC935 commented changing that to 25.

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, REBorn04 said:

Thats not at all what i was asking, in chirp there is a column for Tuning Step that is currently set at 12.5, WRKC935 commented changing that to 25.

I agree; that’s completely different.
“Tuning Step” sets incremental frequency change when you’re in VFO mode and press either the up or down arrow  

That’s really only important for VFO tuning. Because the bandwidth and the center frequency for all 30 channels are preordained by regulations, “Tuning Step” is immaterial to GMRS and can even cause problems. The channels in GMRS are not sequential and have differing bandwidths. Some channels are interstitial even. 
Here’s the list of GMRS channels:

https://mygmrs.com/help/about-gmrs

[REBorn04]

So I don’t need to worry about the tuning steps for repeater channel 17.

[BoxCar]

Nope. Tuning step has no bearing as the channels are fixed./

[SteveShannon]

37 minutes ago, REBorn04 said:

So I don’t need to worry about the tuning steps for repeater channel 17.

Correct