Baofeng Tone Settings

[dslinfreak]

Ladies and Gents,

I've hit a small snag. Though I still haven't gotten my license posted by the FCC, I am still listening on the national simplex frequency. But I also want to listen to my local repeater. I have CHIRP, and I've done a little tinkering with the radio programming, but when I have to put in a RX and TX tone, I'm not sure what type to use.
The list of options is as follow:
Tone
TSQL
DTCS
Cross

I'm not sure on any of these settings. I know what the offset is and I've properly programmed that. But would anyone be able to explain the tone settings for me? I understand the use of tones to gain access to repeaters and other radios, so that you can leave out. I'm just a little confused about it right now. Any help is very much appreciated.

[KK0G]

I'll preface my response with the fact that I don't own a Baofeng and I've only played with one for a few minutes so I really don't know the intricacies of that particular radio. That said, CTCS tones are CTCS tones, so......

If your goal is only to listen to repeaters at this point, then you don't need to worry about programming any tones, just dial up the output frequency of the repeater and listen. The only required tone is when you transmit to the repeater. What you have to transmit is a CTCS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch) which is sometimes also called by it's Motorola trade name - PL tone (Private Line). From the list of options you listed my guess is that the CTCS option is simply listed as "Tone" - "TSQL" would be tone squelch which is used on your receiver in order to only open the squelch when it hears the tone from the transmitter (I seldom program a tone in the receive side of my rigs); "DTCS" is Dual Tone Coded Squelch which for all intents and purposes is never used in amateur radio, these are the audible tones you hear on fire paging systems; and I have no idea what "Cross" is for.

[cockpitbob]

Ditto on what KK0G said.  For Rx I never use a tone.  It would only be used in some strange situation where there were people transmitting on your frequency you want to ignore, so you and your friends pick a tone.  It doens't keep others from stepping on your friend's transmissions, or keep your transmissions private.  It just keeps your radio quiet until your freind transmitts.

[gil]

Hello,

It is "Tone."

You can program them in, so you won't have to go back in later.

The microphone jack on the UV5R is very fragile, and can break just by using it a few times. It leaves you with a handheld that can receive only, unless oyu you an external microphone. Use the programming cable as little as possible and don't use the included earplug.

Gil.

[KC3AOL]

FYI, if you go into the Radio menu in CHIRP, you can import repeater info (name, frequency, offset, tone, etc) from various web sources. That makes it much easier/faster to get stuff programmed.

[NCGunDude]

I have two Baofeng UV-B6 radios, which I program with CHIRP, KC3AOL is correct, you can connect to web sources and d/l the freqs and tones for a locale.

I tried the UV-82 but ended up sending it back because of front end overload. Had the same problem with the B6, until I figured out the Narrow setting prevents overload, i.e. receive audio cutting out. Now that I know, I don't know if the UV-82 has a wide/narrow setting. Upon further investigation, it does, so I don't know if I was too hasty in judgement with the UV-82.

I like the UV-B6, and you'll find http://www.miklor.com/ an excellent reference for all things Baofeng.