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NX-5200 2-Tone Programming

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tyson_gcvfd

Newbie
Joined
Jun 26, 2018
Messages
4
I'm trying to figure out how to program my radio for 2-tone. I'm new at this so bare with me. I have 127 channels programmed. Channel 1 is our dispatch channel however i would like to add a channel named "greenhorn fire page" that would normally stay silent until our tones were toned out for a call specific to our district. I have a list that says Tone 1= 422.1 and Tone 2= 445.7 What do I need to do exactly to make this work? There are so many options to click on that I'm not really sure which ones to select (i.e. optional signaling [?], transpond [?], busy channel lockout [?]) all of which I'm clueless about their use. Any help would be very much appreciated, thank you.
 

Jay911

Silent Key (April 15th, 2023)
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Bragg Creek, Alberta
I'm trying to figure out how to program my radio for 2-tone. I'm new at this so bare with me. I have 127 channels programmed. Channel 1 is our dispatch channel however i would like to add a channel named "greenhorn fire page" that would normally stay silent until our tones were toned out for a call specific to our district. I have a list that says Tone 1= 422.1 and Tone 2= 445.7 What do I need to do exactly to make this work? There are so many options to click on that I'm not really sure which ones to select (i.e. optional signaling [?], transpond [?], busy channel lockout [?]) all of which I'm clueless about their use. Any help would be very much appreciated, thank you.

Coincidentally I'm needing to do something very similar. I want to have a P25 Trunking channel receive a 2-tone page and alert when that happens.

For you, tyson, what you need to do is go to the "2-tone" page that matches your programming (either "2-tone (Analog)" or "2-tone (Digital)"), and set up "Decode(2-tone 1)" with your desired tones.

Set "Call Format" to "A-B", "Transpond" to "No", and "Alert Tone" and "Alert LED Color" to whatever you wish. (I made mine "1" and "Red" respectively.)

Below that grid, you will see "A Tone (Hz)" and "B Tone (Hz)". This is where you enter 422.1 in the A Tone box and 445.7 in the B Tone box.

From there, go back to the menu on the left side and pick Zone/Channel, then select the correct zone, and click "Channel Edit". Use the up and down arrow icons to choose the right Channel Number, then look down to "Optional Signaling for Group Call" and change that to "2-tone 1".

That should get you to the point where if you send your tones across that channel, the radio should alert.

If you want the channel to stay totally silent until the tones go off, I think it gets a little more complicated. I have been searching for the same thing myself, and I think I just found it, but I haven't tested it yet.

In the menu "Personal" (from the left side menu tree), choose the system you want to edit, and go to "Personal Features". From here, things look different depending if you're using trunked or conventional, digital or analog.

If you are using analog conventional, look in Personal Features at the Analog tab (second one down). In there you will see "Optional Signaling Decode Condition" and "Audio Control (Analog)". The first one, I believe, just says whether the radio needs sub-audible tone (CTCSS/PL, or in Kenwood terms QT) before it will try to decode 2-tone. If you set it to "Carrier", it will look for your 2-tone even if your sub-audible tone isn't present.

The second one is the one I think we both need. For Analog, I see three options: "QT/DQT", "QT/DQT and Optional Signaling", and "QT/DQT or Optional Signaling". The first one means, open the channel if subaudible tone is present. The second one means ONLY open the channel if both subaudible tone AND 2-tone is present. The third one means open the channel if EITHER subaudible tone OR 2-tone is present. In order to make the channel totally silent until tones go off, you want the middle option (AND). NOTE - this appears to apply to ALL channels in this system, so you may want to create a duplicate of your existing setup - leave your existing setup as is - and make the duplicate have "QT/DQT AND Optional Signaling", and assign the duplicate to the alerting channel.

For Trunking, it appears to be similar, except the only option is "Audio Control for Group Call", and the options are "Talkgroup ID" or "Talkgroup ID and Optional Signaling".

I'm going to try to set my radio up and page using that option now. I'll come back later and say how it goes.
 

Jay911

Silent Key (April 15th, 2023)
Feed Provider
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9,378
Location
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I just tested this on my system and while it didn't work for me, that was probably more to do with the digital system and the tones used than the procedure. I think the above should work for you, if you're on analog.

To explain my issue:

I'm using a Motorola MCC7500 console to send Motorola QuikCall IIB tones. I am using the following tone pairs, but I think they're off just enough that the radio isn't able to pick them up:

Cap code 1210:
1 sec 600.9
3 sec 569.1
(closest approximation in KPG-D1 is 593.75/562.50)

Cap code 2657:
1 sec 726.8
3 sec 832.5
(closest: 718.75/843.75)

Cap code 2658:
1 sec 726.8
3 sec 879.0
(closest 718.75/875.00)

Cap code 2659:
1 sec 726.8
3 sec 928.1
(closest 718.75/937.50)
 
Last edited:

tyson_gcvfd

Newbie
Joined
Jun 26, 2018
Messages
4
Thanks! That was a lot of really helpful information and was written in a way that makes it easy to follow like a manual. I’m going to print that out and stick it in my programming binder for future reference. I’ll give it a shot when I have some time here in a couple of days.
 

tyson_gcvfd

Newbie
Joined
Jun 26, 2018
Messages
4
It worked!

I just tested this on my system and while it didn't work for me, that was probably more to do with the digital system and the tones used than the procedure. I think the above should work for you, if you're on analog.

To explain my issue:

I'm using a Motorola MCC7500 console to send Motorola QuikCall IIB tones. I am using the following tone pairs, but I think they're off just enough that the radio isn't able to pick them up:

Cap code 1210:
1 sec 600.9
3 sec 569.1
(closest approximation in KPG-D1 is 593.75/562.50)

Cap code 2657:
1 sec 726.8
3 sec 832.5
(closest: 718.75/843.75)

Cap code 2658:
1 sec 726.8
3 sec 879.0
(closest 718.75/875.00)

Cap code 2659:
1 sec 726.8
3 sec 928.1
(closest 718.75/937.50)

Thank you thank you thank you! I finally had a moment to give it a try and it worked perfectly. Thank you for all your help, expertise, and time.
 

dapaq2

Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2005
Messages
308
Location
Northwest Indiana
Does anyone know if there is a way to assign multiple 2-tone codes to the same channel? I am trying to assign up to four 2-tone codes on one channel on a Kenwood NX series model but I do not see anywhere in the software that I can do this...
 

dapaq2

Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2005
Messages
308
Location
Northwest Indiana
Adding to the above post I made since the forum will not let me edit it to add additional info...
I have three different departments programmed into one zone. All three departments have different 2-tone codes, all three departments monitor the same frequency to receive their 2-tone calls. Currently I have each department on their own channel with their own 2-tone code assigned to their channel. If I am on channel one and a 2-tone (call) comes in on frequency for the department that is on channel two or channel three I won't get the message or call because the 2-tone code doesn't match what is assigned to channel one. I am trying to figure out how I can add all three 2-tone codes to one channel on one frequency. I have been all through the programming and I do not see anyway to accomplish this!
 

ohiohonda

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2017
Messages
67
Adding to the above post I made since the forum will not let me edit it to add additional info...
I have three different departments programmed into one zone. All three departments have different 2-tone codes, all three departments monitor the same frequency to receive their 2-tone calls. Currently I have each department on their own channel with their own 2-tone code assigned to their channel. If I am on channel one and a 2-tone (call) comes in on frequency for the department that is on channel two or channel three I won't get the message or call because the 2-tone code doesn't match what is assigned to channel one. I am trying to figure out how I can add all three 2-tone codes to one channel on one frequency. I have been all through the programming and I do not see anyway to accomplish this!

I don't believe that it is possible unless the first tone ( A tone) is the same for all departments. If tone A is the same you can set the B, C, and D tones for each department and it would work on a single channel. You would assign the A-B, A-C, and the A-D tones on the Call Format section of the program .If this is not the case you still would be able to do two departments on one channel. This would be accomplished by making the A and B tones the first department and the C and D tones the second department. You would need to select the A-B and C-D on the Call Format to make this work.
 
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