New Guy Needs Help:What am I doing wrong?

[jhernandez8205]

There is probably a very easy answer, but if were a snake right in front of me, I'd be dead. I am doing radio checks and picked a random frequency 446.187. When I key up my ICOM T70A and send out a voice radio check transmission, the transmission is clearly heard on both my Yaesu HTs. (VX6 and FTD2). But....I can't get a transmission to go out from either of my Yaesu to the ICOM. I've tried radio checks on known repeaters in my area but I get no response to my radio check requests. I assume they cant hear me. It has to be me and some setting that I just cant figure out. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[zz0468]

The display on the Yaesu looks like it's set to a minus offset, which would mean it's NOT transmitting on the frequency you have set on the display. So, a couple of things are in order...

RTM... read the manual for the radios, and understand what the display is telling you, and how to operate the various features. These radios are actually pretty sophisticated, and unless you have things set up right, you won't be able to talk through a repeater and, as you have seen, you won't be able to talk to yourself.

Some homework:

Learn about repeater input and output frequencies, and which is which.
Learn about PL tones.
Learn how to set minus and plus offset frequencies, and when one or the other is appropriate.
Learn what offset your local repeaters use.

Don't transmit on random frequencies. It could be someone's repeater input that's hearing you just fine, and you would have no idea what you're interfering with, so familiarize yourself with the local bandplan.

Hope that helps. The specifics in your situation are unknown, so we can't tell you what frequency to plug in, what offset, PL, etc. You need to figure that out on your own, once you learn the stuff I mentioned above. Good luck!

 

[Sconnick]

Welcome!

zz0468 is right on all accounts.

Yaesu is definitely showing a "minus" offset, which is why you're not hearing it simplex on the other HT.

There's a ton of great information available here at RR - that covers just about everything that isn't in the manual. Spend some time perusing.

 

[N5TWB]

Another vote for the advice from zz0468 with one small add/clue. When you key the Yaesu, you should see the displayed frequency shift to the actual transmit frequency. This is further confirmation that you have the shift engaged rather than using the displayed frequency as a simplex operation.

 

[kc4jgc]

Ditto to what everyone above has said plus one more item: The displayed freq on both units is 446.1875.

Not knowing where you're located, 12.5khz steps are generally not used for FM; I've seen 12.5khz steps used for digital repeaters.

446 MHz segment is generally simplex so in this instance you should have been OK; trusting you were transmitting lowest power possible (either 1w or 500mw) while you were testing.

73,

 

[robertmac]

As others have said the - ve offset is on. You have to remember with Yaesu radios, in the UHF section the Auto repeater offsets often are a problem. That is, there really is no simplex setting for 440 to 449. One has to manually set the offset to OFF.

 

[1hardyanimal]

I am a new guy myself and let me tell you what makes me feel like a million bucks when it comes to programing a radio (by new I mean literally just got my call sign last week)… Buy the programing cable, usually can be purchased with the driver software for anywhere from a few to maybe $20 bux? And then get on Chirp. What I do is copy and paste the frequencies from one radio to another and I can have a radio programed with 127 channels in about 3 minutes flat if even that. This completely alleviates all worries about offsets, tones etc.

 

[robertmac]

And there is always a manual so RTFM as it will cover most of the problems experienced on these sites.