what does tone mean in the frequency list

so for example i am in randolph county il. under county home tab there is the box that shows freq, license, type, tone, and so on.

so for example randolph county sherriff is 154.785 and tone would be 192.8 what is the tone mean? is that a programmable frequency? or something you can listen to?

The "tone" is a CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System) that when used will only allow that specific transmission to open the squelch on a receiver.

For purposes of scanner listeners, that means that any transmission with no tone or a different tone will not be heard. I suspect that most scanner listeners don't bother with programming the tone, preferring to hear everything... :wink:

For the sheriff's radios, they must transmit that precise tone in order to use the repeater and be heard.

Here is a little more information that will tie this to your other post about interference:

By using tones, two different agencies can use the same frequency and by programming the tone, they will not hear the transmissions of the other agency. In the other thread you state your hearing "st francois county missouri". By programming the tone for the Randolph County Sheriff Dept., you will no longer hear this "interference".

And, continuing with your example in the other thread, if someone lived in between these two agencies, they could program both agencies with the same frequency but with different tones.

Hope this helps.

how would i program the tone for my radio shack pro 94 thousand channel scanner for that certain frequency. acually i think someone before me may have done it..

i got that one at a yard sale.. and i have not heard mo on that one.

the one i have heard it on is my bc80xlt 50 ch.. how would i use the tone option or frequency for my scanner.

rockey_f_squirrell said:

how would i program the tone for my radio shack pro 94 thousand channel scanner for that certain frequency. acually i think someone before me may have done it..

i got that one at a yard sale.. and i have not heard mo on that one.

the one i have heard it on is my bc80xlt 50 ch.. how would i use the tone option or frequency for my scanner.

Click to expand...

Can't do CTCSS/DCS on the 94. Wasn't built into the scanner. 17 year old radio.
Larry

rockey_f_squirrell said:

how would i program the tone for my radio shack pro 94 thousand channel scanner for that certain frequency.

Click to expand...

You can't. The PRO-94 doesn't have CTCSS/DCS decode capability.

rockey_f_squirrell said:

so for example i am in randolph county il. under county home tab there is the box that shows freq, license, type, tone, and so on.

so for example randolph county sherriff is 154.785 and tone would be 192.8 what is the tone mean? is that a programmable frequency? or something you can listen to?

Click to expand...

You can think of the tone as a filter. If you program the tone, only signals with that tone will be heard. Other signals with different tones (or no tones) will not be heard. If you program your scanner without any tone, you'll hear everything on that frequency, regardless of what tone they use or if they use no tone.

Why does it matter? Well, some agencies that only have a single frequency will use the tones to add an additional channel that only "special" radios will hear. For example, an agency uses the single frequency of 155.000 MHz for all of their communications. They normal use a 100 Hz tone for typical communications. Their supervisors have a second channel programmed with the frequency of 155.000 MHz but a 110 Hz tone. When a supervisor wants to communicate with another supervisor, they switch to this "private" channel that they can hear, but the typical officer can't. If you program your scanner for using the 100 Hz tone, you won't hear this "private" channel but if you program it for no tone, you'll hear both. Now, this is only a single example, but agencies use their tones to help them expand their radio "channels" for other reasons as well.

The typical scanner probably should be programed without a tone since they often want to hear everything. If you have some special issues, programming a tone may help though. For example, you live outside of the normal area an agency covers and another agency uses the same frequency you may be able to isolate the one you want using the correct tone. If you have some interference on a channel, programming the tone may help eliminate that interference as well. Keep in mind that by programming in a tone, you may miss some conversations though. Agencies can change the tone at any time or add "private" channels by using other tones. Also when conditions are just right, you may hear distant agencies on your normal frequencies that may use different tones. Those distant signals can be quite interesting to monitor!