Motorola T5509 Talkabout disable all DCSS/DCS etc

[GeoffinOz]

Ok, I have a pair of Motorola TT5509 Talkabout Radios. I'm in Australia, so they are 40ch UHF CB here not FRS/GMRS whatever.
I cannot figure out how to disable all the useless tone squelch/interference eliminator or whatever else its called on these. I'm trying to work through a local repeater (yes we have open repeaters on UHF CB in Australia) and of course the radio can't hear my mobile radio through the repeater, apparently because it's not sending a tone to lift the squelch in the Talkabout. The radio has (apparently) 10 tones yet the book also mentions 38 'interference eliminator' tones and a QT filter which seems to be a tone squelch. I can't seem to find out how to turn ALL the darn things off. They are utterly useless no one here uses them. Even hams don't have access tones on repeaters on 2m or 70cm. Can anyone tell me the magic buttons to press to disable the darn tone squelch on receive please? The manual seems overly simplified and seems to assume you want it there all the time.


Cheers
Geoff in South Oz

 

[a417]

If the repeater isn't on channel 5/35 (in that radio), you might be out of luck. I'm sure sending the call tones makes you all the friends in the world. I'd pop those things open and cut the trace on that button to make sure that never happened.

 

[GeoffinOz]

Yes, I saw the notes.
I disabled the 'call tone' already.

5 and 35 are the Emergency Channel (5) and it's repeater pair (35).
So that suggests it's on for every other channel and can't be shut off?
That's literally imbecilic.
I've read the manual and it's not helpful at all.

And yes, already thinking about open heart surgery. Explains why they were free.
They work ok to each other, but not other radios without the tone squelch nonsense
If I can find a schematic I'll reach in and disable it, but it's probably in firmware.
Typical Motorola. I've opened a support request with Motorola which will probably amount to nothing.
We'll see. But they are looking like becoming toys for the grandkids with repeater function disabled at this rate.

Thanks for responding

Geoff in South Oz

 

[a417]

I wouldn't necessarily say that the decisions made by the manufacturer are imbecilic. It's more like they are just trying to cater to the bubble pack radio people who may not know how, want to or care if the QT features are turned off. You need to take into consideration that these are marketed towards the pointy-clicky people who need it to "just work" when their kids are at the park or around the house, and any attempts at configuration could compromise the basic usability of them. Moto knows this. They aren't going to be as configurable as you want. Moto likely will tell you that they aren't designed or marketed for that use case.

They apparently are not the best hardware for you, despite being free.

Sorry.