Hey guys not sure if this is the right place for this but how would I be able to figure out the transmit and and receive frequencies for my radios with repeaters?
Programming
- Thread starter bnt133
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N8IAA
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Well there's a few ways you can go about it, there is value in having a few methods to locate repeaters.
You can set your radio to scan the band you're looking for repeaters on, when you hear someone talking stop take note of the frequency and refer to where it is in the band, then take that information combined with what commonly accepted and placed repeater shifts are and determine if you're listening to the input or the output, and then use a feature found in many radios to determine if there are any applicable PL/CCTS or DPL/DCS tones being used. Then set your radio appropriately and attempt to make a contact. While not the easiest or most preferred method, I think it is a highly valuable skill to have should you ever travel, or as sunspot and band activity creates band openings and you pick up repeaters for short amounts of time during an opening and want to share a long range contact. Also knowing how to find and monitor the input frequency will help let you know when you're in simplex range of other stations.
You can also look in the National databases and the repeater books, not always the most up to date they'll list the city and frequency callsign, tone and include a + or - shift which varies by band but 2m is traditionally 0.600mhz and 5Mhz on 70cm.
You'll probably find most benefit out of seeking out your local/area repeater coordination council; they'll usually publish a list of active repeaters with all the same information presented similar to other databases but I've found coordination councils to have the most up to date and freely accessible information. Here's a few coordination links you may find helpful MetroCor - Metropolitan Coordination Association, Inc. Homepage and Frequency Lists - NJ/NY - MetroCor and 144MHz.
You can set your radio to scan the band you're looking for repeaters on, when you hear someone talking stop take note of the frequency and refer to where it is in the band, then take that information combined with what commonly accepted and placed repeater shifts are and determine if you're listening to the input or the output, and then use a feature found in many radios to determine if there are any applicable PL/CCTS or DPL/DCS tones being used. Then set your radio appropriately and attempt to make a contact. While not the easiest or most preferred method, I think it is a highly valuable skill to have should you ever travel, or as sunspot and band activity creates band openings and you pick up repeaters for short amounts of time during an opening and want to share a long range contact. Also knowing how to find and monitor the input frequency will help let you know when you're in simplex range of other stations.
You can also look in the National databases and the repeater books, not always the most up to date they'll list the city and frequency callsign, tone and include a + or - shift which varies by band but 2m is traditionally 0.600mhz and 5Mhz on 70cm.
You'll probably find most benefit out of seeking out your local/area repeater coordination council; they'll usually publish a list of active repeaters with all the same information presented similar to other databases but I've found coordination councils to have the most up to date and freely accessible information. Here's a few coordination links you may find helpful MetroCor - Metropolitan Coordination Association, Inc. Homepage and Frequency Lists - NJ/NY - MetroCor and 144MHz.
In NNJ you shouldn't have any real problem as most repeaters use standard offsets and there are plenty of published lists which include the PL tone frequency. One fly in the ointment, many have gone dark but the coordinated pairs are still listed, they're called paper repeaters. The other fly is sometimes the PL has changed without notice but a tone scan (many rigs have this feature) will turn it up unless it's a closed system using a different tone on the input. That's when you test them for a response but don't just kerchunk them, toss out your callsign to keep it legal and not annoy users and the control operator. When checking the 2M listings please note that due to a repeater glut in the NY/NNJ area some use a 1MHz down offset on normal simplex frequencies. Another thing about 2M is when the output is on 147MHz the input could be either 600KHz up or down.
"You'll probably find most benefit out of seeking out your local/area repeater coordination council..."
Therein lies a major problem, the council only reports what it has coordinated on paper and doesn't check whether or not a pair is occupied or active. Please note my above comment on paper repeaters.
"You'll probably find most benefit out of seeking out your local/area repeater coordination council..."
Therein lies a major problem, the council only reports what it has coordinated on paper and doesn't check whether or not a pair is occupied or active. Please note my above comment on paper repeaters.
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