Baofeng teardown

"It also features tone generators capable of generating Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System (CTCSS) and Dual Tone Modulated Frequency (DTMF), as well as detectors for both. These can be used as a means of access control to a repeater—a radio that broadcasts the CTCSS tone will have its message relayed, while a radio that doesn't broadcast the tone will not.

Alternatively, it can be used to enable reception on a particular receiver without disturbing other listeners on the channel. Imagine having a dozen users on the same channel and the ability to transmit to an individual user, subgroup, or the entire userbase."

Interesting.. I didn't know this was a possibility. Now to figure out how to make this happen on my radio.

Thanks
 
All modern VHF-up radios have transmit and receive tone squelch ability. This is a common capability. You have to set a transmitted tone squelch to "open" most repeaters.
 
Done that part. In simplex, do I just set both radios to the same tone squelch so that others on the same freq don't receive the message?
 
Setting tone squelch on your receiver prevents you from hearing stations that don't transmit a tone. Nothing you do prevents others from hearing you.
 
Yes, this is a popular mis-conception. It doesn't help that the bubble pack FRS/GMRS world calls it a "Privacy Tone", implying some sort of secure communications. The idea is that you can select only the traffic you want to hear if a lot of others are using a busy channel, basically a selective hearing filter. Turn it off and you hear everyone. Most have it off, so everybody hears everything.
As to the DTMF, that's pretty standard too, often used to turn features on or off on repeaters, such as linking up two or more repeaters. If you every hear a steady beat tone on a repeater, it's usually someone configuring the repeater and they have masking turned on to keep others from hearing the DTMF tones. This may vary with different controllers.
 
"PL, an acronym for Private Line, is Motorola's proprietary name for a communications industry signaling scheme called the Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System, or CTCSS. It is used to prevent a repeater from responding to unwanted signals or interference."

A PL Tone or CTCSS tone can be used on receive to prevent your radio from responding to unwanted transmissions (or interference). This is helpful in groups when you share a frequency, but certain people only need to hear certain transmissions for their group. This scheme is used mostly by business and government comm systems.
 
htperry said:
"PL, an acronym for Private Line, is Motorola's proprietary name for a communications industry signaling scheme called the Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System, or CTCSS. It is used to prevent a repeater from responding to unwanted signals or interference."

A PL Tone or CTCSS tone can be used on receive to prevent your radio from responding to unwanted transmissions (or interference). This is helpful in groups when you share a frequency, but certain people only need to hear certain transmissions for their group. This scheme is used mostly by business and government comm systems.
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If multiple parties are on the same frequency and using tone-access to separate conversations, wouldn't those also need to be time-deconflicted? Eg if two people on different "conversations" keyed up at the same time, they'd be talking over each other?
 
WeepingAngel said:
If multiple parties are on the same frequency and using tone-access to separate conversations, wouldn't those also need to be time-deconflicted? Eg if two people on different "conversations" keyed up at the same time, they'd be talking over each other?
Click to expand...

The tone squelch on receive only prevents you from being bothered by unwanted transmissions on the frequency. Many radio have a "busy" setting that will help prevent you keying on other traffic when the frequency is in use. Ham radio operators rarely use CTCSS on receive, except repeaters.
 
WeepingAngel said:
If multiple parties are on the same frequency and using tone-access to separate conversations, wouldn't those also need to be time-deconflicted? Eg if two people on different "conversations" keyed up at the same time, they'd be talking over each other?
Click to expand...
In a practical sense, yes. So, it's not as useful as it seems for simplex. There, I think it's most useful in the FRS/GMRS bubble pack radio world. Just a convenience, so you don't have to listen to others, if you don't have a choice to go to another frequency. It also deludes you into thinking you're the only ones on the frequency.
In repeaters, it's a different perspective and used to prevent them from being activated by unintentional signals on the same frequency.
 
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