DB20 mic gain adjustment?

[OldJunk2]

I can't find a setting in the programming software from radioddity and it isn't adjustable from the radio.

I can't get this radio to transmit. I can listen to local repeaters but I can't hit them. One repeater tower is less than 5 miles away, direct line of sight, from my house. 

I can't hear my transmission on simplex from my DB20 to my mobile KG-1000G-PLUS in my vehicle sitting in the driveway. 

My gut says the mic gain is turned down or off. How do I adjust?

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, OldJunk2 said:

I can't find a setting in the programming software from radioddity and it isn't adjustable from the radio.

I can't get this radio to transmit. I can listen to local repeaters but I can't hit them. One repeater tower is less than 5 miles away, direct line of sight, from my house. 

I can't hear my transmission on simplex from my DB20 to my mobile KG-1000G-PLUS in my vehicle sitting in the driveway. 

My gut says the mic gain is turned down or off. How do I adjust?

I’ve not found a mic gain setting but there is an xmit inhibit setting.  Which channel is it? Post your configuration file and let us look at it. There is a per channel checkbox for Compander, which just sounds bad on the db20.  I recommend unchecking it.

And Merry Christmas!

[tcp2525]

1 hour ago, OldJunk2 said:

I can't find a setting in the programming software from radioddity and it isn't adjustable from the radio.

I can't get this radio to transmit. I can listen to local repeaters but I can't hit them. One repeater tower is less than 5 miles away, direct line of sight, from my house. 

I can't hear my transmission on simplex from my DB20 to my mobile KG-1000G-PLUS in my vehicle sitting in the driveway. 

My gut says the mic gain is turned down or off. How do I adjust?

It sounds more of an issue of a defective mic element or broken wire going to the radio. As for an adjustable feature for gain, you really don't need one if the radio was calibrated correctly from the factory. I'm assuming you are hearing a carrier with no audio?

[WRYS709]

6 hours ago, OldJunk2 said:

I can't find a setting in the programming software from radioddity and it isn't adjustable from the radio.

I can't get this radio to transmit. I can listen to local repeaters but I can't hit them. One repeater tower is less than 5 miles away, direct line of sight, from my house. 

I can't hear my transmission on simplex from my DB20 to my mobile KG-1000G-PLUS in my vehicle sitting in the driveway. 

My gut says the mic gain is turned down or off. How do I adjust?

How long have you had the DB20-G?  Did it work before?

You are probably encountering "desense" between your DB20-G and the mobile as they are too close to each other.  If you can drive away and have someone work you from the DB20-G that is a better test. What Channel are you using for Simplex?

The older units, including the Anytone AT-779UVs, did have a microphone hole issue, but the more recent generation of these mini-mobiles have mostly fixed that problem.

Don't use Tones for Receive for now.  That may also be the problem.

[OldJunk2]

8 hours ago, tcp2525 said:

It sounds more of an issue of a defective mic element or broken wire going to the radio. As for an adjustable feature for gain, you really don't need one if the radio was calibrated correctly from the factory. I'm assuming you are hearing a carrier with no audio?

Correct, I can hear conversations, they can't hear me

[OffRoaderX]

are you transmitting, but with no audio, or are you not even transmitting?

[OldJunk2]

3 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

How long have you had the DB20-G?  Did it work before?

You are probably encountering "desense" between your DB20-G and the mobile as they are too close to each other.  If you can drive away and have someone work you from the DB20-G that is a better test. What Channel are you using for Simplex?

The older units, including the Anytone AT-779UVs, did have a microphone hole issue, but the more recent generation of these mini-mobiles have mostly fixed that problem.

Don't use Tones for Receive for now.  That may also be the problem.

I do have recieve tones on all of mt gmrs radios. Not having any issues on my other radios.

Are we not supposed to program in recieve tones? I'm a ametur operator also, we always use tones for in/out

[OldJunk2]

1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:

are you transmitting, but with no audio, or are you not even transmitting?

I'm not getting any audio out.

[OffRoaderX]

14 minutes ago, OldJunk2 said:

I'm not getting any audio out.

Ok - so, just to confirm.  other radios are picking up the signal, correct? So you know that the radio is transmitting?

[OldJunk2]

1 hour ago, OffRoaderX said:

Ok - so, just to confirm.  other radios are picking up the signal, correct? So you know that the radio is transmitting?

No, no one can hear me on this radio. My other 3 gmrs mobiles and 4 HT's work great 

[OffRoaderX]

34 minutes ago, OldJunk2 said:

No, no one can hear me on this radio. My other 3 gmrs mobiles and 4 HT's work great 

I am trying to make a determination between the radio transmitting, but with no audio, and the radio not transmitting at all - and you still have not confirmed which is occurring.  These are two very different things with two very different causes.

Please answer either #1 or #2

• Answer number one: the guys at the other end are receiving a signal when I transmit, but with no voice
• Answer number two: the guys at the other end are not receiving any transmission/signal at all.

[SteveShannon]

34 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

I am trying to make a determination between the radio transmitting, but with no audio, and the radio not transmitting at all - and you still have not confirmed which is occurring.  These are two very different things with two very different causes.

Please answer either #1 or #2

• Answer number one: the guys at the other end are receiving a signal when I transmit, but with no voice
• Answer number two: the guys at the other end are not receiving any transmission/signal at all.

Pardon the intrusion, Question 0:  does the screen indicate the radio is transmitting when the PTT is pressed. 

[OldJunk2]

35 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

I am trying to make a determination between the radio transmitting, but with no audio, and the radio not transmitting at all - and you still have not confirmed which is occurring.  These are two very different things with two very different causes.

Please answer either #1 or #2

• Answer number one: the guys at the other end are receiving a signal when I transmit, but with no voice
• Answer number two: the guys at the other end are not receiving any transmission/signal at all.

I'm not hitting the repeater 

My original question is if it could simply be that the mic gain is low, I've had this programming problem on HT's in the past.

This unit is a base station. I live in a HOA, so my antenna is in the attic along with my 2m antenna. My 2m hits repeaters as far as 65 miles away. It's not an interference issue.

My current gmrs base antenna is a comet ground plane and I'm using M&P low loss UHF coax

[OldJunk2]

4 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Pardon the intrusion, Question 0:  does the screen indicate the radio is transmitting when the PTT is pressed. 

Yes, I get a full red line showing TX

[SteveShannon]

13 minutes ago, OldJunk2 said:

Yes, I get a full red line showing TX

Is the frequency shown when transmitting the correct one?

[WRYS709]

How long have you had the DB20-G?  Did it work before; that is, have others heard you?

Yes: I recommend leaving out Receive Tones for now

[WSAM454]

It is still not clear if you are actually transmitting a carrier or not.  It may not matter if the radio shows a full red line or not.   If you key the radio, can you hear an audio-less signal (carrier) on another radio?  if not, then you are not actually transmitting, and mic gain really does not enter into whether or not you are hitting a repeater, since it is the carrier that will activate the repeater, even if you have no audio.  If another radio can 'hear' your carrier, but no audio when you talk, then the mic may be defective.

Another thought:  Does the repeater you are trying to access have a CTCSS (PL) tone needed by your transmitter, and if so, are you sure you have it programmed in correctly?

 

[OldJunk2]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Is the frequency shown when transmitting the correct one?

Yes

[OldJunk2]

1 hour ago, WRYS709 said:

How long have you had the DB20-G?  Did it work before; that is, have others heard you?

Yes: I recommend leaving out Receive Tones for now

It's brand new, maybe a week old

[OldJunk2]

18 minutes ago, WSAM454 said:

It is still not clear if you are actually transmitting a carrier or not.  It may not matter if the radio shows a full red line or not.   If you key the radio, can you hear an audio-less signal (carrier) on another radio?  if not, then you are not actually transmitting, and mic gain really does not enter into whether or not you are hitting a repeater, since it is the carrier that will activate the repeater, even if you have no audio.  If another radio can 'hear' your carrier, but no audio when you talk, then the mic may be defective.

Another thought:  Does the repeater you are trying to access have a CTCSS (PL) tone needed by your transmitter, and if so, are you sure you have it programmed in correctly?

 

Yes, I've tried hitting two separate repeaters that are both line of sight from my house. I'm using the same tones that are working with my 6 other radios.

One repeater is a few miles away at 3000ft, the other is 12 miles away at 1500ft. I can physically see the repeaters from my house, which is on the side of a mountain at 1000ft

 

It's either a programming issue, or faulty equipment. 

I'm going to hook my nanovna up tomorrow and test my antenna and coax, then go from there

[SteveShannon]

6 minutes ago, OldJunk2 said:

Yes

What frequency shows on transmit?

[OffRoaderX]

5 minutes ago, OldJunk2 said:

I'm going to hook my nanovna up tomorrow and test my antenna and coax, then go from there

You should hook up your power meter to see if anything is coming out of the radio, and how much.

[OldJunk2]

5 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

You should hook up your power meter to see if anything is coming out of the radio, and how much.

I hooked up a dummy load when i first got it and it's constantly putting out 17w on high. I will check it again 

[OffRoaderX]

1 minute ago, OldJunk2 said:

I hooked up a dummy load when i first got it and it's constantly putting out 17w

I assume you mean the dummy load AND your power meter? or are you relying on what the internal meter of the radio says (if it has one?)

[SteveShannon]

33 minutes ago, OldJunk2 said:

I hooked up a dummy load when i first got it and it's constantly putting out 17w on high. I will check it again 

Using an antenna my db20g puts out about 19 watts on high power, 6-7 watts on medium, and 3-4 watts on low power.