Hello all. I have a question. How come with some commercial radios, Tone
Squelch only works when the mic clip is grounded, so when you remove the mic
from the clip, it opens the receive to everything?

I recently bought a Standard UHF radio for GMRS use and it has this, so my wife
can listen for me without hearing other junk, but when she removes the mic
(that I had to ground), she hears everything on the freq!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

Hello all. I have a question. How come with some commercial radios, Tone
Squelch only works when the mic clip is grounded, so when you remove the
mic
from the clip, it opens the receive to everything?

I recently bought a Standard UHF radio for GMRS use and it has this, so my
wife
can listen for me without hearing other junk, but when she removes the mic
(that I had to ground), she hears everything on the freq!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

It is so that you will hear the other users. That way you will know not to
try and talk while the frequency is in use by others that have a differant
tone setting.

It is so that you will hear the other users. That way you will know not to
try and talk while the frequency is in use by others that have a differant
tone setting.

If that's the case, then it's opposite in thinking to amateur radio, where a
repeater may have a PL decode tone, which will allow you to talk on the
repeater, but not hear anyone else on that same frequency. The local repeater
here is on 146.910 and another on 147.045. There's other repeaters that often
will start coming in on the same frequencies, but if you have decode on, you'll
never know you're transmitting while others are talking on the other repeaters.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

It is so that you will hear the other users. That way you will know not
to
try and talk while the frequency is in use by others that have a
differant
tone setting.

If that's the case, then it's opposite in thinking to amateur radio, where
a
repeater may have a PL decode tone, which will allow you to talk on the
repeater, but not hear anyone else on that same frequency. The local
repeater
here is on 146.910 and another on 147.045. There's other repeaters that
often
will start coming in on the same frequencies, but if you have decode on,
you'll
never know you're transmitting while others are talking on the other
repeaters.

Ham radio is opposite of most comercial thinking. On a local ham repeater
most hams want ot be able to hear all that is going on on the repeater so
that if anyone puts out a call he can be answered by anyone for a casual
chat. GMRS users are usually only interisted in the other parties they want
to talk to and not hear all the chatter on the frequency. That is why the
hook switch blocks out the gmrs and also releases the tone decoder when off
hook.

Ham radio is opposite of most comercial thinking. On a local ham repeater
most hams want ot be able to hear all that is going on on the repeater so
that if anyone puts out a call he can be answered by anyone for a casual
chat. GMRS users are usually only interisted in the other parties they want
to talk to and not hear all the chatter on the frequency. That is why the
hook switch blocks out the gmrs and also releases the tone decoder when off
hook.

I am a volunteer EMT on a first aid squad and I never understood why they made
it so when the mic was picked up, you'd hear everything. We don't want to hear
everything when we pick the mic up. We wanna hear the other EMS units from our
area, not some dispatch center 60 miles north of us. With the squelch open like
that, sometimes it makes it difficult for us to communicate. With the squelch
closed, there's no problem.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

On 24 Nov 2003 05:03:35 GMT, pamme (VHFRadioBuff) wrote:

Ham radio is opposite of most comercial thinking. On a local ham repeater
most hams want ot be able to hear all that is going on on the repeater so
that if anyone puts out a call he can be answered by anyone for a casual
chat. GMRS users are usually only interisted in the other parties they want
to talk to and not hear all the chatter on the frequency. That is why the
hook switch blocks out the gmrs and also releases the tone decoder when off
hook.

I am a volunteer EMT on a first aid squad and I never understood why they made
it so when the mic was picked up, you'd hear everything. We don't want to hear
everything when we pick the mic up. We wanna hear the other EMS units from our
area, not some dispatch center 60 miles north of us. With the squelch open like
that, sometimes it makes it difficult for us to communicate. With the squelch
closed, there's no problem.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

The reason you hear everything when you pick the mike up is because you are
supposed to listen to everything before transmitting so you can avoid
interfering with other traffic that may already be using the channel.

Dave Head
K8DH

On 24 Nov 2003 05:03:35 GMT, pamme (VHFRadioBuff) wrote:

Ham radio is opposite of most comercial thinking. On a local ham repeater
most hams want ot be able to hear all that is going on on the repeater so
that if anyone puts out a call he can be answered by anyone for a casual
chat. GMRS users are usually only interisted in the other parties they want
to talk to and not hear all the chatter on the frequency. That is why the
hook switch blocks out the gmrs and also releases the tone decoder when off
hook.

I am a volunteer EMT on a first aid squad and I never understood why they made
it so when the mic was picked up, you'd hear everything. We don't want to hear
everything when we pick the mic up. We wanna hear the other EMS units from our
area, not some dispatch center 60 miles north of us. With the squelch open like
that, sometimes it makes it difficult for us to communicate. With the squelch
closed, there's no problem.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

The reason you hear everything when you pick the mike up is because you are
supposed to listen to everything before transmitting so you can avoid
interfering with other traffic that may already be using the channel.

Dave Head
K8DH

Ham radio is opposite of most comercial thinking. On a local ham repeater
most hams want ot be able to hear all that is going on on the repeater so
that if anyone puts out a call he can be answered by anyone for a casual
chat. GMRS users are usually only interisted in the other parties they want
to talk to and not hear all the chatter on the frequency. That is why the
hook switch blocks out the gmrs and also releases the tone decoder when off
hook.

I am a volunteer EMT on a first aid squad and I never understood why they made
it so when the mic was picked up, you'd hear everything. We don't want to hear
everything when we pick the mic up. We wanna hear the other EMS units from our
area, not some dispatch center 60 miles north of us. With the squelch open like
that, sometimes it makes it difficult for us to communicate. With the squelch
closed, there's no problem.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73! de Andy KC2SSB - WPYI880 (GMRS)
Beachwood, NJ USA! Grid FM29vw
http://vhfradiobuff.tripod.com

Howdy Andy.....Reread what Ralph described to you carefully and, when
you
think about it, you'll see that he's described exactly the same
reasoning
amateur repeaters use PL tones, with the same benefits and consequences
if their use is misunderstood (a user who, using the correct PL tones,
and is accessing a repeater may be interferred with by another station
transmitting on the same frequency but not using PL tones or who may be
using a different PL tone...of course the difference in signal strengths
received by the repeater will determine the degree of interference).

Maybe some amateur repeaters are transmitting a PL tone....if so I
didn't realize that, and persons in the coverage area could be open to
interference if for some reason they attempted to share the frequency
using a different tone or no tone (and vice versa). The best bet, as
we all (should) know, is to listen first, ensure the frequency is clear,
then transmit.

Howdy Andy.....Reread what Ralph described to you carefully and, when
you
think about it, you'll see that he's described exactly the same
reasoning
amateur repeaters use PL tones, with the same benefits and consequences
if their use is misunderstood (a user who, using the correct PL tones,
and is accessing a repeater may be interferred with by another station
transmitting on the same frequency but not using PL tones or who may be
using a different PL tone...of course the difference in signal strengths
received by the repeater will determine the degree of interference).

Maybe some amateur repeaters are transmitting a PL tone....if so I
didn't realize that, and persons in the coverage area could be open to
interference if for some reason they attempted to share the frequency
using a different tone or no tone (and vice versa).

Quite a few repeaters here in SCV-land do put a tone on their output
(almost always the same one they use for their primary receiver).
There are a couple of reasons for having tone-squelch turned on, on a
mobile rig using these repeaters:

- There's quite a lot of QRM on certain 2-meter repeater output
frequencies - commonest cause seems to be leakage from improperly-
installed cable TV systems in homes and apartments. It's often
strong enough to unmute a rig driving through the area of the QRM
emitter, unless tone-squelch is used or carrier-squelch is cranked
*way* up.

- We occasionally get tropospheric "skip" from repeaters on the same
frequencies, 100 miles or more away, which use different
(usually county-based) PL tones.

The best bet, as
we all (should) know, is to listen first, ensure the frequency is clear,
then transmit.

Definitely agreed!

My own mobile and HT rigs will show the incoming signal strength, or a
BUSY indication, even if the tone squelch is suppressing the audio...
so "look before transmit" works pretty well with these rigs ;-)
Unfortunately this isn't possible with all rigs, or in an eyes-are-
busy-elsewhere situation.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
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