[chirp_users] Tone Settings TX, RX (TSQL & DCL) discussion

Tue Jul 22 14:03:53 PDT 2014

Greetings Whit & list,

Hope this is not getting too far off Chirp-topic.

Other than having had to program about 40 radios with
Chirp, which worked vy well, I have almost no knowledge
of it so I have to defer your template question to
someone who knows a lot more about it than I do.

The voice channel that my wife (also a ham) and
I use is a simplex one not far from some other simplex
channels. Using around 50 watts on 2m we are able to
talk about 25 miles house-to-car; J-Pole on our house
with some elevation, hence the reason that repeaters
were invented, to increase range.

If you contacted your local repeater council people
and asked for a repeater pair of frequencies, they
may be able to assign them to you. If you did not
want others to use it, your repeater would be considered
'closed' I think. The Council members would have to
look into your questions.

Also, as John mentioned, a repeater may require a
tone to get into it, but the repeater may or may
not transmit a tone out.

73 de Bill WB2SXY

---

On 7/22/2014 1:48 PM, Dr. Whit Woodard wrote:
> Bill,
> Thanks, that is very helpful.  The question that comes
to my mind is why then does chirp require us to put some
value in the ToneSql column on every memory channel?
I have just put in the lowest tone, because the software
does not allow me to leave it blank.  It would be very
helpful if we had the option of leaving unnecessary
columns blank.  We can only do that with a couple of
the entries.  I would just amend the template to
eliminate those columns, but I do not know which are
necessary and which are not.  I hope in time I will
gain a better understanding of the template which
apparently is restricted by both the hardware and
the chirp software.  Your arrangement for communication
just with your family is a great idea.  I would like
to do something very similar.  Do you employ that on
a repeater so that you can obtain better coverage? or
must you just set it up on simplex?
>
> 73
> Whit
> k3wb
>
> On Jul 22, 2014, at 10:29 AM, Bill Kasper<williamkasper at frontiernet.net>  wrote:
>
>> Hi Forrest et al,
>>
>> The TX tone (CTCSS DCL and other names) may be required
>> for the ham repeaters that use it. Modern radios' menus
>> may set the tone independently for each channel or
>> for the entire rig. This tells the repeater that
>> "I really want to talk thru you" and I'm not some
>> skip-signal coming from a different part of the country.
>>
>> Historically (a hundred years ago?) commercial repeaters
>> had several to many business users on them, as they were
>> expensive and each business that used, ie. paid for the
>> repeater service, had a different tone to open only that
>> businesses own radios: a taxi had one tone, the road-repair
>> company another tone, and the delivery company another tone
>> and so on. They had to share the resource (the repeater) and not
>> interfere with each other any more than necessary. CTCSS is the
>> modern technical name of that tone process that used to be
>> called PL - Private Line (Motorola), CG - Channel Guard,
>> General Electric, and privacy codes for various FRS radios,
>> plus other names.
>>
>> It is the tone ENGAGED on the RECEIVER end that can be
>> problematic: the exact tone MUST be present on the
>> transmitted signal for the receiver squelch (TSQL)
>> to open so you can hear the other station on that
>> frequency; which may or may not be what you want.
>>
>> As an example, I setup a simplex ham voice channel
>> for myself and XYL to use as a 'Private Line'
>> (Motorola trademark) only for us: car-house, car-car
>> etc. This is fine for us, and I have TSQL set on both
>> radios for this channel. On this 'unused' simplex
>> channel she can only hear me and I can only hear her.
>> If someone else hears us, which they could, and then
>> tries to answer me, I would not hear them unless they
>> figured out and then transmitted our 'PL' tone.
>>
>> As an aside, this feature, as implemented on the FRS
>> private channel radios, means that you can only hear
>> people transmitting your private code on your channel;
>> people with no (RX) tone set can hear you too, so not
>> really very private, but helps reduce chatter from
>> other users when listening on a shared resource/channel.
>> The implication is that, if you use your FRS channel 1,
>> by convention, as an emergency receiver, make sure the
>> privacy codes are turned off, so you will be able to
>> hear everyone on channel 1, even if they have a privacy
>> tone enabled.
>>
>> other comments?
>>
>> 73 de Bill WB2SXY
>>
>> --
>>
>> On 7/22/2014 12:26 PM, Forrest wrote:
>>> Curious why you say that using tone squelch on both TX and RX is not recommended???
>>>
>>> THX.
>>> Forrest
>>>
>>> On Jul 21, 2014, at 6:51 PM, John LaMartina<JohnLa at usa.net>   wrote:
>>>
>>>> Yes, TSQL sets the CTCSS or DCS tone on both TX and RX. (Not Recommended).
>>>> Tone sets CTCSS or DCS on TX only.
>>>> This explains in a bit more detail. http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CTCSS.php
>>>> I hope this helps...
>>>>
>>>> John K3NXU
>>>> http://www.miklor.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: chirp_users-bounces at intrepid.danplanet.com [mailto:chirp_users-bounces at intrepid.danplanet.com] On Behalf Of Dave Nathanson
>>>> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 7:22 PM
>>>> To: Discussion of CHIRP
>>>> Subject: Re: [chirp_users] Settings
>>>>
>>>> Someone else will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong, (and I didn't look this up) but I believe that in this usage, "Tone" applies
>>>> when transmitting only.
>>>> TSQL, or Tone Squelch applies to both transmitting&   receiving.
>>>>
>>>> "Tone" is more common.
>>>> If you use TSQL when you should have used Tone, others will be able to hear you, but you will only be able to hear them if they also
>>>> use the same tone.
>>>> To complicate things slightly, many repeaters require a tone to activate them, but many repeaters strip out the tone as the
>>>> re-transmit.
>>>> It is often a good idea to start with "tone" and only use TSQL if needed.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Dave Nathanson
>>>> KG6ZJO
>>>>
>>
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