Amateur Radio Question

[RadioGuy3007]

I am very new to Amateur Radio I apologize,
I was recently told by a friend that you can actually type in frequencies just like on a scanner and your ham radio will scan them just like a scanner. My question is, If you type in a fire department channel on your ham radio to scan and it goes off and you accidentally press the talk button can the firefighters/dispatch hear you? I also wanted to know are you only able to hear analog channels or analog and digital on your ham?

 

[WX9EMS]

On the rigs that have extended receive, they will not transmit frequencies that are out of the band. I really do not have much of an answer for you on the analog/digital, but most Ham rigs are analog, unless it is D-Star, which I know nothing about. Maybe someone else will chime in here....

 

[N9HQ]

On the rigs that have extended receive, they will not transmit frequencies that are out of the band. I really do not have much of an answer for you on the analog/digital, but most Ham rigs are analog, unless it is D-Star, which I know nothing about. Maybe someone else will chime in here....

Well said. Icom (as far as I know) is the only manufacturer that makes amateur radio digital transceivers (D-Star). Unless you purchase one of the D-Star radios, which are both analog and digital, you will not be able to receive digital transmissions.

 

[n5ims]

If you type in a fire department channel on your ham radio to scan and it goes off and you accidentally press the talk button can the firefighters/dispatch hear you?

There are a few different types of radios where this can be done and the answer depends on what type of radio you have (and possibly what type of modifications you made to that radio).

1) Many standard VHF and/or UHF ham radios include extended receive as a standard feature. For those types of radios you can only transmit on the ham bands unless you modify the radio to enable the extended transmit feature.

2) There are some amateur radios that are also Part-90 certified (these are generally those fairly cheap radios from China like the Wouxun and Baofeng brand radios). These are designed to both transmit and receive on both the ham bands and the nearby public service bands. If you happen to press the talk button you will transmit regardless of where you have it tuned to a ham frequency or other frequency like your fire department channel.

3) Often a VHF and/or UHF ham radio can be modified to activate the ability to transmit outside of the ham bands which generally includes the nearby public service bands. This modification generally requires that the radio be opened up and a tiny component removed or possibly shorting two nearby connections using a solder bridge. Once this is done, you can transmit on most any frequency your radio is tuned to. Be aware that this modification only makes it possible to transmit on those frequencies, but since the radio (modified or not) is not certified to transmit on anything but the ham frequencies, it will be against the FCC rules to do so, even with departmental permission.

4) It is often possible to get a standard public service radio to work on a ham frequency. This is quite legal and many hams like the extra ruggedness the public service radios provide. However, generally they must be programmed for where you want to transmit (both frequency and tone) and there isn't the ability to "tune" the radio to frequencies where it isn't already programmed.

I also wanted to know are you only able to hear analog channels or analog and digital on your ham?

As others have said, ham radios are generally analog only, with a few exceptions. DStar is the most popular digital operation on the ham bands and it is not compatible with the public service agency's digital signals. Some groups have modified standard public service digital radios to work on the ham frequencies, but currently this is a rare exception. It is expected that the use of P-25 and MotoTRBO digital signals will increase on the ham bands as the price drops on them and they become more available on the used market.

 

[KG4INW]

To add, you'll only ever be able to listen to conventional systems as ham rigs cannot trunk in any way. They're also typically a little slower at scanning but I still enjoy listening to what I can with extended RX.

 

[W8RMH]

You CAN use it to monitor small trunked systems. I monitor a five frequency Motorola trunked system using a Yaesu FT60R.

I scan all the system's 800 MHz. frequencies in conventional (No Delay), locking out / unlocking the active control channel everyday. You will hear "everything" on the system and cannot track individual talk groups but it does work.

It works great for the system I use it for. Grove City Trunking System, Grove City, Ohio

 

[AF5JQ]

If you're using one of the Wouxun or Baofeng or similar radios that are Part 90 certified, it will be able to transmit in the public safety bands. Some programming software will allow you to set certain channels as "receive-only" or "no-tx". Some don't, and I know Wouxun doesn't. The fix I've found for that is to set the transmit frequency on those channels to something that you won't get in trouble for using, just in case you do accidentally hit the PTT button.

 

[sloop]

Don't worry about accidentally keying up on public service...all public services use tone encoding on both transmit and recieve. As long as you did not program the tones (and transmit freq. if different than recieve) they will not hear you. I would not key up and test that however...the FCC always monitors those frequencies on a rotating basis. If you did program the tones then my question is why?...tones don't help you recieve any better, they only keep out others that might be on the same freq. Thats why most scanners don't require or accept tones (yes I know some do), they only require the receive frequency.

 

[AF5JQ]

Programming PL tones into a scanner does serve a purpose. One example would be if two agencies are using the same frequency but you only want to monitor one of them. There are also agencies that use the same frequency for multiple applications by putting different PL codes on each of the channels. Putting those codes into your scanner helps keep the alphanumeric labeling accurate.

 

[WB4CS]

Don't worry about accidentally keying up on public service...all public services use tone encoding on both transmit and recieve. As long as you did not program the tones (and transmit freq. if different than recieve) they will not hear you. I would not key up and test that however...the FCC always monitors those frequencies on a rotating basis. If you did program the tones then my question is why?...tones don't help you recieve any better, they only keep out others that might be on the same freq. Thats why most scanners don't require or accept tones (yes I know some do), they only require the receive frequency.

I'm sorry, but your post sounds a little like this: "Don't worry if you drive the wrong way on the interstate at 2AM. It's 2AM so probably no one will see you do it."

Even if the PL isn't programmed in and your signal doesn't activate the repeater, it's still a bad thing. Depending on how close you are to the repeater or other users, transmitting (even without PL) and cause interference if someone is trying to transmit to the repeater. If you're close enough to the repeater or closer than a distant portable, the capture effect of FM could totally block a transmission from being picked up by the repeater. When dealing with Public Service frequencies this is a very bad thing.

It's a good idea to keep any radio from being able to transmit on a frequency where you are not licensed to transmit. If you're using an amateur transceiver (not modified for out-of-band TX and not a Chinese cheap rig) there's nothing to worry about since pressing the PTT will not do anything if you are on a frequency out of the ham bands. However, if the radio can TX on those frequencies (and you're not authorized to use the frequency) find a way to program the radio to either NO TX or RX Only (if your radio supports that) or at the very least program the TX frequency to something you are licensed to operate on.