Probably a stupid question...

Les White

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I got my ticket a while back. Have a small 2m/70cm rig in the car and a handheld baofeng. I've never used either to actually talk to someone, I primarily listen and the few times I tried to interact I didn't get a response.

The GF expressed interest in maybe getting into the hobby, mainly because you have to have a license and she thinks it's some kind of elite club, but whatever, I'm glad she's interested....so I got her a handheld of her own.

Today I was playing with both handhelds, simplex works fine but I can't work a repeater. The symptom is while transmitting no audio is transmitted, but as soon as I unkey I get a response from the repeater on both radios. I'm sure it's just a setting but I don't know which. I attached the chirp img file so someone can point out the obvious that I'm missing. I can't upload a .img file, so just rename it from txt to img.

Thanks!
 

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I can't get the file to open on my phone but it has to be a setting in the programming. If you dont get an answer on here by Tuesday when I get home. Let me know and I'll get into the programming on mine and be on a real computer.
 
Today I was playing with both handhelds, simplex works fine but I can't work a repeater. The symptom is while transmitting no audio is transmitted, but as soon as I unkey I get a response from the repeater on both radios.
If you key down and the repeater comes back to you then you have the tone and duplex settings correct. If you’re basing this on the fact that you don’t get audio out of the second radio when operating the first, my guess would be receiver desensitization. Basically, when you’re transmitting with one radio, the relatively strong signal keeps the other receiver from being able to discern the weak signal from the repeater. It overloads the receive circuitry. Try doing this from a distance, say have your GF stay home and you go a mile away in the car.
 
If you key down and the repeater comes back to you then you have the tone and duplex settings correct. If you’re basing this on the fact that you don’t get audio out of the second radio when operating the first, my guess would be receiver desensitization. Basically, when you’re transmitting with one radio, the relatively strong signal keeps the other receiver from being able to discern the weak signal from the repeater. It overloads the receive circuitry. Try doing this from a distance, say have your GF stay home and you go a mile away in the car.


That seemed likely. Gave it a shot today with the exact same symptoms. Both stations only picked up a transmission after I unkeyed.

I'm leaning towards a incorrect ctss setting.
 
Try using 146.52 and see if anyone comes back to you and also see if the second radio will copy it.

What repeater(s) are you trying to use, frequency and location?
 
Try using 146.52 and see if anyone comes back to you and also see if the second radio will copy it.

What repeater(s) are you trying to use, frequency and location?

I've tried two repeaters. The Sauratown Mtn repeater at 146.610 (-0.6) and the Farmington NC repeater at 146.100 (-0.6). Same results on both.
 
The sauratown 2m repeater has been glitchy as of late. So bad they moved the daily checkin to another repeater.
 
May also turn off the rcts. The repeater may not be opening the reciever if it is in fact densing the other radio.
 
May also turn off the rcts.
Good thought. He may have inadvertently turned on the receive tone while trying to set it up. I know the terminology on my Icom is less than clear as to which tone is which. This has caused me issues before. It’s helpful if the repeater has digital modes as it lets analog users filter out the digital traffic, but it can bite you too.
 
I've tried two repeaters. The Sauratown Mtn repeater at 146.610 (-0.6) and the Farmington NC repeater at 146.100 (-0.6). Same results on both.
Ok looked at map, how many miles away are you from the repeater site?

Remember we are on FM so it is line of sight, the built in antenna is OK,
it is a compromise given it is on a hand held radio.

Make and model of your mobile radio?

Repeater 2m NC

https://repeaterbook.com/repeaters/Display_SS.php?state_id=37&band=14&loc=%&call=%&use=%
 
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Just a stab in the dark here but do you have ctcss tones programmed for receive too? If so, delete them - they are (usually) required for transmit into the repeater but not for receive.
 
Ok looked at map, how many miles away are you from the repeater site?

Remember we are on FM so it is line of sight, the built in antenna is OK,
it is a compromise given it is on a hand held radio.

Make and model of your mobile radio?

Repeater 2m NC

https://repeaterbook.com/repeaters/Display_SS.php?state_id=37&band=14&loc=%&call=%&use=%

I can hit both repeaters just fine on 5w. They're both baofeng uv5r.

The only thing I can think of that might be tripping it up is one of the other freqs *is* programmed with a ctcss tone for both send and receive, but it only shows up in the menu under that freq and in the cfg file.

Here's a video of the menu settings.

 
looked at your image file; didn't see anything wrong. I have uv5r programmed for repeaters and other than the specific numbers for ctcss, looks the same. Might try taking the receive tones out of the one that has them and see if that makes any difference...

hope this helps.
 
I think I got it sorted out. It was a combination of two problems. The first was, as mentioned above, receiver desensitization when trying to test at home with both radios. The second issue is that the radios were purchased about 2 years apart. Minor changes in their firmware causes them to process the IMG files differently. The way around it was to take my original image file with all the freqs stored in it and export them to a CSV. I reset both radios to factory, then pulled the empty image file off each and imported the CSV, saved each image for the corresponding radio, and uploaded the individual IMG files to the correct radio. Tested today from GSO on the Sauratown 145.470 repeater and could be heard at home in Farmington.

Good times.
 
I think I got it sorted out. It was a combination of two problems. The first was, as mentioned above, receiver desensitization when trying to test at home with both radios. The second issue is that the radios were purchased about 2 years apart. Minor changes in their firmware causes them to process the IMG files differently. The way around it was to take my original image file with all the freqs stored in it and export them to a CSV. I reset both radios to factory, then pulled the empty image file off each and imported the CSV, saved each image for the corresponding radio, and uploaded the individual IMG files to the correct radio. Tested today from GSO on the Sauratown 145.470 repeater and could be heard at home in Farmington.

Good times.

I ran into this exact same problem when a friend gave me her Baofeng and asked me to program whatever we had in ours into hers. (My wife and I both have the same radio, and our img files are interchangeable) It's a GOOD THING I made a backup of what she had before I started. I uploaded the backup of MY radio into hers, and it would not work. Her radio would not receive anything unless I opened the squelch. I wound up reloading her backup, and her radio worked fine. I had to do the exact same thing you did-- Used chirp to import my programming into her img file, and everything worked fine. Keep those img files seperate, and always make a backup before you make any changes...
 
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