Hearing nothing on Repeater? Am I setup correctly?

[CoastalDude]

I'm listening on our repeater here (newbie) on Navarre 444.20000 K4ECR Florida Repeater I cannot find this repeater on the RR site but it's definitely in your database too, the repeater is up and running. The thing is I cannot hear anything on it? I'm listening on both transmit and receive frequencies for it out of desperation . I am definitely picking up traffic on other frequencies. I programmed by Baofeng F8-BFHP using Chirp and RR Premium, it worked great, have about 89 channels setup. I expected to hear a lot of traffic as this repeater is setup on a Water Tower 150ft up and I'm not even three miles from it.

Could it literally be that there is no traffic? That seems strange to me that this would be the case. See the image below, screen shot from Chrip

 

[mass-man]

VERY possible there is not much traffic. Why don't you go over to the Florida group and post a question and see if you get a response! There are repeaters here in the Dallas-Ft Worth area that I have heard nothing but an ID in several months.

 

[CoastalDude]

VERY possible there is not much traffic. Why don't you go over to the Florida group and post a question and see if you get a response! There are repeaters here in the Dallas-Ft Worth area that I have heard nothing but an ID in several months.

Thank you, I did just that a moment ago, I'm going to start attending thier meetings, one is tomorrow night but I can't go, but the rest I wont miss. I wish I would have got into this years ago, so fun and interesting. Honestly, grid down scenarios are want spurred me to get into HAM radio and I'm really happy I did.

 

[kb2idx]

I'm listening on our repeater here (newbie) on Navarre 444.20000 K4ECR Florida Repeater I cannot find this repeater on the RR site but it's definitely in your database too, the repeater is up and running. The thing is I cannot hear anything on it? I'm listening on both transmit and receive frequencies for it out of desperation . I am definitely picking up traffic on other frequencies. I programmed by Baofeng F8-BFHP using Chirp and RR Premium, it worked great, have about 89 channels setup. I expected to hear a lot of traffic as this repeater is setup on a Water Tower 150ft up and I'm not even three miles from it.

Could it literally be that there is no traffic? That seems strange to me that this would be the case. See the image below, screen shot from ChripView attachment 149164

Check to make sure you have the correct CTCSS. you might not need tsql for the recieve.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Some repeaters go down for maintenance, upgrades, etc.

Since the individual amateur or club has to fund everything and do it themselves, it can go down for days, weeks, or months. Don't overlook COVID supply chain issues either.

 

[N4DES]

It's also listed as a Fusion capable repeater so could be the users are operating in digital or, because is say's it's primary use is CERT, the users just have their radios on a shelf powered down waiting for a local activation.

Navarre 444.20000 K4ECR Florida Repeater

Amateur radio K4ECR 444.2 repeater at Navarre, Florida

www.repeaterbook.com

 

[ladn]

I'm listening on our repeater here (newbie) on Navarre 444.20000 K4ECR Florida Repeater I

If you are a licensed ham, have you tried "kerchunking" (keying) the repeater and asking for a radio check?
Also, try changing your receive squelch mode to just plain carrier squelch. It's possible the repeater may not be transmitting tone squelch, or the tone may have been changed. Using just plain vanilla carrier squelch will let you hear anything on the frequency.

 

[scanphreak]

Because it's a fusion repeater if the majority of the users are in digital you won't ever hear any traffic with your radio in TSQL mode. For monitoring you might want to set the radio to CSQ or NONE for the tone. Its very possible that there just isn't any traffic. We have several repeaters where I live that are on the air, but have little to no activity. One in particular is at an EOC, since it's range is limited no one ever uses it. The other repeaters in my area are only active during certain times of the day like early morning, or evening before and after work, usually completely dead on weekends, and usually just active during evening nets.

 

[WRQI583]

From personal experience, if it is a fusion repeater, unless you are going to operate fusion, either program it according to the way it is shown and dont bother with it or dont bother putting it in your radio. 99.9999% of the time, you will never hear anyone using analog on a fusion repeater even though it is possible to do.
My personal thought on it is this, why would you allow digital and analog on the same repeater if everyone is going to use digital which trumps analog and will squash an analog user right out of the repeater? We have a linked network around my state on fusion and if you decided to talk analog with someone and another station comes on using digital, your conversation is done because the system switches over to digital as if you weren't even there talking. It seems to me that a rude person designed the system or maybe they had good intentions in allowing use of both modes but didn't realize that what they essentially did was create a 4 way traffic intersection with no stop signs.
Just something to think about when programming your radio(s).

 

[MTS2000des]

Mixed mode operation on P25 and Fusion makes sense if you have a need for local analog traffic to still be able to use the repeater for nets, emergencies, etc. If an analog user doesn't want to hear digital "hash", using CTCSS/DCS decode will eliminate that, unless they use some low rent radio like a Bowelturd which has buggy firmware and will stop on busy channels with CTCSS/DCS decode on, otherwise real radios will keep scanning and stay quiet unless analog traffic is present.

As far as networking a mixed mode repeater, this is a decision the repeater owner, who invested thousands of dollars and pays site rent, utilities and upkeep can make.

One is always free to invest in a repeater system, locate a suitable site, get a lease, and enjoy all the benefits of running a system how they wish, as well as bearing all the costs of such.

 

[WRQI583]

Mixed mode operation on P25 and Fusion makes sense if you have a need for local analog traffic to still be able to use the repeater for nets, emergencies, etc. If an analog user doesn't want to hear digital "hash", using CTCSS/DCS decode will eliminate that, unless they use some low rent radio like a Bowelturd which has buggy firmware and will stop on busy channels with CTCSS/DCS decode on, otherwise real radios will keep scanning and stay quiet unless analog traffic is present.

As far as networking a mixed mode repeater, this is a decision the repeater owner, who invested thousands of dollars and pays site rent, utilities and upkeep can make.

One is always free to invest in a repeater system, locate a suitable site, get a lease, and enjoy all the benefits of running a system how they wish, as well as bearing all the costs of such.

I understand what you are saying. I am not trying to complain about what someone who spends thousands of their own money does with it. I just find it a little strange when it comes to mixed mode repeaters that you would say go ahead and use analog or digital but then have it where digital trumps analog and can disrupt a conversation between two people. I just stay away from it all. I wont even program the repeaters in my radio seeing as how I dont have the ability to do fusion. Makes it much easier and frees up space in my radio. Besides, I use droidstar to do my digital modes seeing as how digital voice activity in my area is so low that it doesn't warrant spending close to $2000 on multiple radios that probably wont ever get used.

 

[WRQI583]

It seems to me that a rude person designed the system

just for clarification - What I am speaking of here is the person or persons who designed Yaesu fusion itself, specifically the mixed mode ability, not the ones who put repeaters up.

 

[MTS2000des]

As someone who operates a mixed mode P25 repeater, with P25 networked operation, the way networked operation works, the remote digital users have no way of knowing there is local analog traffic- kind of a trade off- and may be an annoyance to an analog only user, but the intention of the system is to have wide area coverage. If it's a problem, then one is free to use one of the dozen or so dead analog only repeaters that stay quiet for hours and even days, sans for kerchunking CCR users.

I keep analog up on the Quantar "just in case" it's needed or if someone locally doesn't have a digital radio- but the standing rule is that by design, digital voice will take precedence if it's coming from a network. Local users are required to program their subscriber in "mixed mode" receive and to not transmit digital voice if an analog only user(s) are using the system (until they are clear).

 

[WRQI583]

As someone who operates a mixed mode P25 repeater, with P25 networked operation, the way networked operation works, the remote digital users have no way of knowing there is local analog traffic- kind of a trade off- and may be an annoyance to an analog only user, but the intention of the system is to have wide area coverage. If it's a problem, then one is free to use one of the dozen or so dead analog only repeaters that stay quiet for hours and even days, sans for kerchunking CCR users.

I keep analog up on the Quantar "just in case" it's needed or if someone locally doesn't have a digital radio- but the standing rule is that by design, digital voice will take precedence if it's coming from a network. Local users are required to program their subscriber in "mixed mode" receive and to not transmit digital voice if an analog only user(s) are using the system (until they are clear).

And that is exactly why I cannot figure out why they would mix analog and digital other than a redundancy in an emergency or the digital end of the repeater not working? It seems to me that if Hams who operate digital are not going to be able to hear if someone on analog comes through, then analog capability should not be on the repeater, and like you said, for those who operate analog only, they can use one of the other analog only repeaters, so a digital only wouldn't be a problem for anyone. Eh, that's Ham radio for ya. I dont let it get to me, but it does make me pretty confused from an interoperability aspect between digital and analog.

 

[mmckenna]

And that is exactly why I cannot figure out why they would mix analog and digital other than a redundancy in an emergency or the digital end of the repeater not working? It seems to me that if Hams who operate digital are not going to be able to hear if someone on analog comes through,

Every digital commercial radio I've worked with had a matching "mixed" setting on the mobile/portable. So no matter if the repeater was transmitting digital or analog, the subscriber radio would hear the traffic, and for a set amount of time, reply in analog mode.

Where it was an issue was with the users that still had analog only radios. They would not hear the digital traffic.

But, that sort of setup was usually there to ease transitions as systems migrated from analog to digital.

In some applications, it leaves an interoperability capacity to the system for the few times an analog only radio rolls onto the system.

 

[AK9R]

Folks, lets try to stay focused on helping the OP.