MURS Question

[MeanStreaker]

Does anyone know what the privacy tones on MURS Radios map to? I have a Dakota HT. What is Tone 1 that radio uses? Is it something that maps to normal CTCSS tones in Hz like I'd see on a 2m ham HT?

Thanks for your help.

 

[nd5y]

I varies with different brands. The radio users manual should contain a tone chart. You can probably download the manual from the manufacturer's web site.

 

[gewecke]

Tone 1. is usually 67.0 hz.

73,
n9zas

 

[MeanStreaker]

That's what I thought as well. Here's the weird thing though. I have a Dakota HT (Model 538-HT) that is set up on channel 1 (151.820) and CTCSS of 1.

I have a Baofeng UV-5R that hears that Dakota HT set up that way. When I have the UV-5R on that freq with a CTCSS of 67.0Hz, the Dakota HT can not hear the UV-5R.

But when I have both of those radios set to that frequency with CTCSS off, they both hear each other.

Not sure why the Dakota does not hear the Baofeng when CTCSS is set to 67.0. Makes me think MURS privacy tone CTCSS 1 is not 67.0?

Tone 1. is usually 67.0 hz.

73,
n9zas

 

[gewecke]

True. the 1st tone may not always be 67.0 in which case you might check your manual or google for the tone list for each radio?
I have a neighbor with a dakota radio set up to monitor his driveway.
"Alert, zone 1" is usually what I hear on 151.820/ 67.0

If you don't have a manual, here you go,

http://www.dakotaalert.com/manuals/M538BS.pdf

73,
n9zas

 

[MeanStreaker]

Thanks, I found the same PDF but it doesn't have the CTCSS tones listed out. I guess I could go through each one, but that sounds painful. Was hoping someone here knew as I'm feeling lazy.

 

[gewecke]

Thanks, I found the same PDF but it doesn't have the CTCSS tones listed out. I guess I could go through each one, but that sounds painful. Was hoping someone here knew as I'm feeling lazy.

Well after checking only 38 times, then you can be lazy again! :lol:

73,
n9zas

 

[Mike_G_D]

Make sure the UV5R is really transmitting the tone - it likely has the ability to separately engage CTCSS transmit and receive tones. You may have yours set up to receive 67.0Hz but transmit no tone or a completely different tone which is why it hears the Dakota but the Dakota is not "hearing" (really "un-muting") the UV-5R.

Also, do you have access to a tone search capable scanner? If so just set the scanner in tone search mode on the correct frequency and see what both radios are really transmitting. I'm not sure if the 5R has a tone search capability but if so you could use that also.

The so-called "privacy tones" are usually manufacturer-specific; MURS, generically as a service, doesn't have a "special privacy tone" arrangement.

Another thing to check is the transmit deviation - the UV-5R, I believe, is capable of "narrow band FM" or "NFM" modes as well as standard FM. The Dakota is likely setup as narrow +/-2.5KHz deviation as that is what current MURS regulations designate for the first three MURS channel frequencies (the 151MHz ones). So make sure that the UV-5R is set to +/-2.5KHz deviation ("narrow band") FM for both receive and transmit as well as receive and transmitting the correct tone or else the Dakota may not unmute the receiver properly. Over deviating an FM signal can cause its modulated information to fall outside the passband of a receiver set to receive a narrower deviation limit.

-Mike

 

[MeanStreaker]

Thanks Mike. I found out about a half hour before reading this that you are 100% correct.

I did not have both the receive and transmit freq's in the UV-5R set to the CTCSS tone of 67.0 since both need programmed separately in this little radio.

I of course remembered to do that when programming in repeaters due to the +/-600 offsets......... but didn't think to do that here for MURS. I had to make sure both receive and transmit were programmed in with the CTCSS of 67.0. Doh!

Problem resolved. Thanks all.