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CP 200XLS VHF recieves, will not transmit in house.

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CSFD390

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Seneca, SC
Hi! I have a CP 200XLS VHF radio, programmed by myself, with my FD County repeater set as my priority channel. I program all of our radios in the department, so I have the correct frequenices, tone level, etc. In the radio.


Where I live, our coverage isn't good. I can receive all day long, and hear loud and clear.


If we get a call at night, in order for me to copy the call, I must go outside, and walk in my yard to get out on the radio. Why is this? Is It possibly my house, or some other form of interference, that is prohibiting me from transmitting ?


My radio works well, outside. If I key up, I can hear it cause interfence with my tv, and pager. For some reason, I key up, and it dosent catch the repeater, but its like it goes to "simplex" mode, & just transmits locally.



Any help is appreciated!!
 

sfd119

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You're probably just a bit out of range of the repeater for it to work. I can hear our repeaters in my house and other buildings but there's no way I could hit a few of them because I'm simply too far away.
 

WA0CBW

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This happens because you can hear farther than you can transmit. Your handheld transmits with a power level of about 4 watts. The repeater is transmitting with a power level many, many times that and usually from a higher elevation ( like a tall building or tower).
BB
 

SteveC0625

Order of the Golden Dino since 1972
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Northville, NY (Fulton County)
The radio is not going into simplex mode, it simply is not quite powerful enough to punch through to the repeater's receiver.

As I just pointed in a thread over in another sub-forum, distance, terrain, height above ground, transmitter ERP, and more all affect how well a transmitted signal will or will not reach the intended receiver. In this case, it sounds like the OP is located just far enough from the repeater's receiver site that he can hit it outside of his home with a 5 watt transmitter, but the walls of the house are enough to block the signal. It's a fringe situation and not much to be done with the current radio. I suppose it might be worth a bench check to make sure it's putting out full strength and that the antenna is working properly.

If stepping outside is enough to hit the receiver, a bit of elevation might as well, depending on terrain between radios. If it's a two story house, just going upstairs might be enough to reach the receiver. However, we need to remember that residential homes, like commercial structures, can act as Faraday cages. Depending on construction material, the blockage can be quite significant. Older manufactured housing that has steel or aluminum exterior walls or roofs will really block radio waves.

If you can, have the radio bench checked. If ERP is a bit low, the tech can tweak it. That may be enough additional power to get through from in the house.

Failing that, if answering up before you pull on your shoes is that critical, then captaincab's suggestion of a mobile base setup may be the only solution. Probably not particularly legal under whatever FCC license covers the system, however.
 

CSFD390

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Seneca, SC
Ok. Thanks for that reply....very informative! Our dispatchers....if you don't answer up almost immediately, will. Retone you and another station....so yeah. Thanks again!
 

12dbsinad

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Does the repeater seem to have really really good talk out coverage but very poor talk in with portables? How do you hear the repeater inside your house, is it pretty much full quieting or is it spotty and drop out when you move around? The reason I am saying this is it is possible that the actual repeater itself has a receive problem. The tell tail sign of this is to have a rock solid signal from the repeater but yet accessing it is troublesome. I've seen repeaters degrade over time and finally it gets serviced because someone remembers, "hey, we used to be able to talk here!"
 

CSFD390

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Seneca, SC
It works, ok, on mobiles and base stations. If your inside the city....radio communication isn't an issue. I think its mainly placement of repeaters.... and ours needs to be repaired, its been mentioned by several folks.
 

12dbsinad

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Even at the best location possible, a repeater with problems will make it seem worthless. Definently a check would be in order to see how it is working, along with any voter recievers in the City.
 

CSFD390

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Jul 4, 2014
Messages
39
Location
Seneca, SC
We have a decent sized city. ..and we provide coverage in the county as well....after doing some "testing", I found that my stubby antenna works better than standard inside the city, & it dosent work well outside of the city, but works well when on simplex..
 
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