CTCSS tones on repeater output

[Thetoulman]

Hello, New ham here.

In my area, the repeaters don't generally transmit PL tones. I'm curious to know; is there a technical reason for this?

There are a few repeaters that work great, but the freq is noisy, and having a PL would be handy.

 

[timkilbride]

Hello, New ham here.

In my area, the repeaters don't generally transmit PL tones. I'm curious to know; is there a technical reason for this?

There are a few repeaters that work great, but the freq is noisy, and having a PL would be handy.

Its about 50/50 in Iowa that repeaters TX and tone. We have some that TX a PL tone but are CSQ on the input. Really helps keep the noise down on the ham gear. Seems most folks don't like PL. The controller might not support it either.

Tim

 

[zz0468]

In my area, the repeaters don't generally transmit PL tones. I'm curious to know; is there a technical reason for this?

There are a few repeaters that work great, but the freq is noisy, and having a PL would be handy.

The reason depends on the particular repeater. If there's no perceived reason to run PL, some people just don't bother. For a long time, the vast majority of users radios didn't have PL decode, so there was no point. PL is a tool to solve particular problems, and if those particular problems don't exist, you're not likely to find it being used.

Other systems like the opportunity to eliminate squelch tails, and so use PL for that. Sometimes it's an aid to co-channeling with other systems.

And many systems don't run PL on either input or output because of curmudgeonly owners who haven't run PL on their repeater since 1972, and by golly, they're not about to start now.

 

[stevelton]

Some people are just old farts set in their ways

Fourtunatly, the group Im with is willing and open minded to use and try anything if its available.

Our repeater owner initially had DCS code on our OPEN 440 ARES repeater, but 2 people in the county complained that they didnt have a radio that could work with DCS.

Well, too bad for them, looks like we not only are going back to DCS, but upgrading to mix mode NXDN and analog, so if you dont have a squelch on the user radios, when someone keys up digital, the people with the older radios will just have to listen to the digital hash all day.

I believe, even if theres no reason, if you have something, use it.
Steven

 

[JStemann]

I honestly don't know why more repeaters don't have a pl on the output side. It may be that it's there, just not advertised. Our 2m repeater requires it on the input and is carried over to the output. I turned on the ctcss for the output of our 440 repeater, however it's not advertised anywhere. You might try checking the repeater with a scanner that can search for ctcss/dcs tones to see if it might be there but not advertised.


Jeff.

 

[ecps92]

Depending on how old the Repeater is and/or the history of the repeater
in your region it could be:

a.) Older Repeaters required both a CTCSS Decoder and a CTCSS Encoder, if you only need one, why spend the $$ if one worked.

b.) Older portable/mobilesTwo-Way radios were set in their ways, pick the tone and your stuck with it [long before todays technology] ie: One tone for the all the channels and a PITA to change it on the fly.

c.) and the final reason is why ? Are the other repeaters that close-by that you need tone on the output?

YMMV and just my opinion

Hello, New ham here.

In my area, the repeaters don't generally transmit PL tones. I'm curious to know; is there a technical reason for this?

There are a few repeaters that work great, but the freq is noisy, and having a PL would be handy.

 

[w2xq]

Most repeaters in the NYC/NJ/Phila area have PL on both the input and output. Driving around central NJ in the earlier days of FM, one would key/hear two or three repeaters on a frequency. If at the Jersey shore the range would extend to LI and CT, MD and VA. Temperature inversions just made the interference worse, to MA and NC. Annoying to say the least, IMHO.

 

[Thetoulman]

The reason I'd like to see pl on the output is to not have the squelch opened for noise while scanning memories on the mobile. If someone's radio can't decode pl tones, their squelch would still be opened by the carrier.

Seems to me that pl on the output wouldn't affect the "old farts", it would just provide an optional quieting feature for those that would use it.

I figured there must be a technical reason that this is not employed.

 

[kb2vxa]

Keeping it simple as always...

"I'm curious to know; is there a technical reason for this?"

For the same reason we have industrialized nations and tribes in remote areas running around in their underwear, need is the mother of invention. We had the Mothers Of Invention because we needed Frank Zappa but I digress. Pl is used to mitigate outside interference to a repeater and in crowded areas co-channel interference between repeaters same as any other radio system.

If interference isn't a problem there's no need for PL so unless you have a local QRM problem you don't need it either. If you do and there's no PL on the repeaters you'll have to find another solution, otherwise I don't see a problem.

"Some people are just old farts set in their ways."

Some people expel old farts that get in their way.
There, all fixed!
Hey, I'm one of them, check out my sig line.

 

[W2NJS]

If your receiver has an intermod problem then the repeater transmitter with PL can usually solve the problem for you. That's one good reason. My repeater group lost its main site for more than a year and at the new site we had to do without transmit PL for several months after doing the first setup. The crud and crap that dogged the frequency was unbelievable but finally the transmit PL got restored. It's not set up to do reverse burst but something is sure better than nothing.

 

[62Truck]

I never run TS on my radios some of the repeaters in my area transmit the tones and some don't. I only do encode, I like to keep the decode off just in case some one calls for help and they are using the output of the repeater and not transmitting the correct CTCSS tone. I understand there are some areas where the intermod is bad that you need it.

 

[ramal121]

If your receiver has an intermod problem then the repeater transmitter with PL can usually solve the problem for you. That's one good reason. My repeater group lost its main site for more than a year and at the new site we had to do without transmit PL for several months after doing the first setup. The crud and crap that dogged the frequency was unbelievable but finally the transmit PL got restored. It's not set up to do reverse burst but something is sure better than nothing.

IMD can also be a PITA. I put up a 2 meter repeater 20+ years ago. After a couple of years it developed a problem where a user unkeyed, the repeater would just hang up making all kinds of noise and crud and not shut off. The temporary fix was to turn off the transmit PL so the repeater would shut down, but the crud was still there on weak signals. It was then I learned not to use 9913 for coax and switched it out for hardline.

I won't point the finger at anyone, but there are some repeater owners who really need to get a clue and clean up their act. I did!