DTMF use

[spiritwolfpr]

Ok, now I was wondering if the DTMF can let you do regular phone calls.
If this is possible how is done from my new Baofeng UV-5R Vhf/Uhf dual band.
Any help will be appriciated

 

[n5ims]

It used to be very common for ham repeaters to have a phone patch that used the DTMF keypad to make calls with. Now that nearly everyone has cell phones many repeaters have removed this nearly never used feature. Your radio's manual should explain how the DTMF tones are transmitted from your radio (often it's done by pressing the keys while the PTT is also pressed). As far as how to bring up any autopatch that may exist on a local repeater, you'll need to contact the group that owns or controls the repeater for how they have it activated. Often there's a special code you'll need to enter to activate the function to prevent folks that abuse it from accessing it. They also may limit access to paying members to help offset the cost of the monthly phone service.

The folks that control the repeaters often do use their DTMF keypads to control the repeaters although the tones are almost never rebroadcast over the repeater's transmitter. You may hear some of the repeater's responses when they're doing this however. Often when the repeater changes modes during the start and end of a net (such as a regular club net, swap net, or even skywarn net) you may hear them.

 

[WB4CS]

DTMF tones are also used quite a bit for accessing IRLP and Echolink nodes. Also a few radios do have the ability to do DTMF paging.

 

[N8OHU]

It's also available on Digital Voice radios for D-Star, DMR/MotoTRBO and NXDN; it is usually used on D-Star to link and unlink from certain types of reflector systems.

 

[KD2DXF]

You would need a phone patch interface, such as a Zetron World Patch. The patch would interface between your radio and a phone. And depending on the RF Band, you most likely require a license of some sort. Also, you have to think about people listening in on conversations. So your best bet would be to get a FCC lisense for business band, and use an encrypted system.

 

[AK9R]

It's also available on Digital Voice radios for D-Star, DMR/MotoTRBO and NXDN; it is usually used on D-Star to link and unlink from certain types of reflector systems.

Are you saying that analog DTMF tones are digitized by these systems, transmitted over the air, and then decoded by a receiving radio back to DTMF in order to control certain system functions? Or does the transmitting radio just recognize that a certain code has been entered on the keypad of the transmitting radio which then causes a code to be sent over the air?

 

[N8OHU]

Are you saying that analog DTMF tones are digitized by these systems, transmitted over the air, and then decoded by a receiving radio back to DTMF in order to control certain system functions? Or does the transmitting radio just recognize that a certain code has been entered on the keypad of the transmitting radio which then causes a code to be sent over the air?

Same keypad, different chip inside the radio; I have even read somewhere that early MotoTRBO radios had the ability to do analog tones but needed a firmware update to use digital DTMF.

 

[robertmac]

If KF4-LED is asking about dialing on a ham radio or other sources? With so many people buying these cheap Chinese radios, we mustn't assume they are for ham radio use.

 

[spiritwolfpr]

Ok phone patch I think that here 145.370MHz- has it , thanks u all.

 

[AgentCOPP1]

The vast majority of repeaters nowadays don't have phone patch, but you can still use DTMF for IRLP nodes. In fact, DTMF is the prevailing method for controlling the IRLP nodes. As for how to use it on the UV-5R, you have to go through the menus until you find something that has DTMF in it, and then change it to "DTMF+AI" or something like that. I'm doing this off of memory, but the option that you need is something like what I quoted. If you look on the Baofeng's manual (as useless as it is), you can find a table that explains what each menu function does.

 

[Darth_vader]

That's menu 16, "DTMFST", which controls how the radio's computer-programmable five-digit DTMF identifier is sent (defult "80808".) In probably all cases that I can think of, you'd just leave it set to "OFF".

But that has absolutely nothing to do with what the OP wants to know.

On the 5R, you just key up and push the number buttons while keyed up to send DTMF. That's as complicated as it gets.

"MENU", "/\", "\/", "EXIT" send A through D. "A/B" and "BAND" send 1750 (?) Hz SF.

So now you know.

 

[spiritwolfpr]

Very nicely explained, thanks

 

[LtDoc]

DTMF tones are merely a means of controlling something, sort of a 'switch' to turn something on/off. They can be used in a huge number of ways to do things, just depends on what you want to do. That "wanting to do" thingy also depends on practicality and convenience. That can certainly be abused, so it's a matter of what's it worth to you...
- 'Doc