Ctcss/dcs

[MarkEagleUSA]

Am I correct in assuming that CTCSS/DCS information is not part of the FCC license (meaning it's not available in the FCC database)?

Are these codes assigned arbitrarily or is there a method used to determine who gets what codes?

 

[Al42]

They're "assigned" arbitrarily - by the licensee, by the company doing the licensee's radio work, by the tech at the company. There's no general rule.

 

[SCPD]

Yes, The CTCSS data is not part of the FCC database. You need to use a scanner that can decode the CTCSS/DCS data to find out what tone is being used.

 

[nd5y]

Am I correct in assuming that CTCSS/DCS information is not part of the FCC license (meaning it's not available in the FCC database)?

Yes.

Are these codes assigned arbitrarily or is there a method used to determine who gets what codes?

Yes, and it depends. I was told once that the various frequency coordinators are supposed to
coordinate tones for repeaters & base stations to help reduce interference but I have
never verified this.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[N_Jay]

Am I correct in assuming that CTCSS/DCS information is not part of the FCC license (meaning it's not available in the FCC database)?

Are these codes assigned arbitrarily or is there a method used to determine who gets what codes?

Usually it is up to the licensee, but occasionally the coordinator will make a suggestion.
Some vendors (Motorola) used to keep a database.

 

[CCHLLM]

During 3 decades of doing the licensing paperwork, the only thing any coordinator has ever communicated to us about CTCSS/DCS was a suggestion of what tone(s) NOT to use on a particular freq based on the database notations associated with all the other licensees of that same freq within the coordinating range. Trouble is, not all of the shared resource database entries have a CTCSS/DCS tone notation added, and the portions of the FCC database that we can access don't show any of it, durn it.

 

[N_Jay]

. . . the portions of the FCC database that we can access don't show any of it, durn it.

Don't worry, they are not hiding it from you. It aint there!