New to repeaters and UHF

[ImNoSpaz]

I finally figured out my new old stock Vertex Standard VX-3000U radio and am off to learn about repeaters.

Today I loaded 5 of the local repeaters into the radio and went for a listen. I didn't really expect to hear anything going channel to channel so I went for a scan of the bank that I placed those frequencies in. This radio provides 72 channels on bank 4 which I find strange, 12 channels each on banks 0-3, and these repeaters are in bank 4. While scanning, I did see "busy" pop up from time to time with no audio. I assume the signal was too far to break squelch, so no biggie.

But at one point I heard a recording asking for users to pause for a few seconds after transmission, then it said something about Las Vegas and channel 7. Vegas is over 400 miles from me? When this recording played, my display read HOM instead of that channel number. I can find nothing in my manual as far as scanning or any other display that refers to HOM. When it was done, I pressed the scan button to take it off scan and that HOM was on the display? I had to go either up or down a channel to get it back to what I think is "normal". Then I scanned again and didn't hear that transmission and took it off scan just to see that HOM on the display again.

What does this HOM mean, and why does the display show HOM when I take the radio out of scan?
And while this transmission is active, why does it say HOM instead of the channel number?
Is HOM short for Home?
Is this a generic transmission sent to all frequencies of repeaters as a general "Please do or don't....."?

This radio does not do alpha numeric, so is it something within the non-user radio programming IN the radio? I have no priority channel set for that bank either. Because of this I have no idea what channel it was on or the frequency of that channel.

I believe I have the repeater frequencies set up correctly. I look at that repeater on the net for my area, and it may say for example 440.0000 +, tone 88.5. So I put 440.0000 in the receive and 445.0000 in the transmit, and go CTCSS then 88.5 and 88.5.

Here's my next question. Why do these repeaters transmit at the lower part of the UHF scale 440-450 (In my area)? The "business" radios and antennas (just my observation) are in the 450+- to 470+-mhz range? Do they not want business folks using repeaters? What if my guy is out in the middle of nowhere and needs help?

And my last question for now.
My radio has 8 scanning modes. One of them is (GDS) group dealer scan and another is (GUS) group user scan. I can't access either of those 2. The manual says if I press the scan button for 1.5 seconds, it will scan ALL channels in ALL groups, but from what I can tell it doesn't. So the 2 scan types is what I want to try but they are nowhere to be found. Is this something beyond my control, or is something wrong? When I program, the only options I get for scanning is either D for dealer scan, U for user scan or B for both dealer and user, or none. Could this be a problem with the software not showing something to do one of those 2 scans? I can pick between the other 6, just can't see or find those 2.

Any suggestions or advise? Be nice as I am just learning these things.

*** Moderator's Note: This post includes questions specific to the VX-3000U and more general questions about amateur radio UHF repeaters. As the VX-3000U is not marketed towards amateur radio, questions and answers specific to that radio belong in the Vertex Standard forum in the Commercial Radio group of forums at RadioReference. Please address the VX-3000U questions in this thread http://forums.radioreference.com/ve...vx-3000u-configuration-new-repeaters-uhf.html and address the amateur radio repeater questions here.

 

[FKimble]

The busy light but no audio is probably because of "and go CTCSS then 88.5 and 88.5". CTCSS requires the repeater to be transmitting the tone in order for you to hear the audio. Most folks in the ham world program TONE instead of CTCSS, this way you will hear the repeater reqardless of whether it transmits the tone or not. Sometimes it is good to have CTCSS programed if propagation sends other repeater output on the same frequency your way breaking sql but a signal too weak to comfortably listen to.

 

[ImNoSpaz]

I'm a lot newer to this than you think.
If the repeater is transmitting a tone of 88.5, the only place I find that value is in the CTCSS sub-menu for encode/decode.
Are you saying to leave the CTCSS/DCS fields and the encode/decode fields blank?

 

[jaspence]

Tones

The radio I programmed an hour ago refers to it as CTCSS, some refer to just TONE, Tone squelch, and there are other terms used. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squelch for an explanation of these. You may hear a repeater on a linked system such as Echolink. Our local university has a Sunday night net, and people check in everywhere from Hawaii to Florida using a repeater that is connected to the internet. The voice usually sounds like a local because it is coming through a local repeater.

Amateur radios are assigned to certain frequency ranges, and business to different frequencies. Frequency Allocations will show you the break down for amateur radio. Other services (business, public service, medical, etc) have similar assigned frequency lists.

Try reprogramming without the CTCSS or tones on one of the 12 channel banks or finding a local ham club to help you get started.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Most amatuer repeaters do not transmit a PL tone (CTCSS). This requires that the mobile radio be setup to be in CSQ for the receive side. Most amateur reapeters these days however require a tone be sent by the mobile access the repeater, therefore the TX PL option should be filled.



When looking up tones online, it is only recommended to program a receive tone on a mobile when the repeater entry lists both a TX and RX tone, otherwise leave the RX side of the mobile in CSQ.



Depending on the local coordinating body, 70 cm repeaters can have either a postive offset or a negatvie offset. Great example of this, in Texas we use only positive offsets while in Colorado they use a mix of positive and negative offsets for 70 cm.



Amateur and commerical services are two completly different services. LMR manufacturers tend to advertise for the LMR band. A 1/4 wave 450-470 MHz antenna will work okay for 440-450 but below that they start getting a little poor in the performance antenna. As gain increases, band width generally decreases. There are a few specific antennas that are widebanded (430-480 MHz) and aimed to be a solution for either market or be a solution for those who hold multiple licenses but the average LMR user or amateur users just doesn't have a need for that trade of gain/bandwidth.

 

[n5ims]

That Las Vegas station you heard was probably actually on one of your local repeaters that is linked to others using the internet via an application called IRLP (IRLP - Internet Radio Linking Project). There are "reflectors" that allow various linked repeaters to be connected together. The reflectors have various channels to allow them to have multiple groups linked together while keeping them isolated from each other. This is so one reflector can have up to 10 different linked conversations active and still keep them from interfering with each other.

That comment you heard asking users to pause at the end of their transmissions is common on those linked repeaters. The system works by giving local users priority. If they don't pause at the end of their transmissions, the users over the link won't be heard, since the local repeater won't allow the link to transmitter over a local user. Pausing will allow the repeater link user to be able to talk over that local repeater since the local user interface is then idle.

"HOM" is probably indeed short for "Home" and would indicate the radio's home channel. This channel could be anything, but is probably the first channel programmed into the radio. Your "home" channel and my "home" channel can be (and often is) different. This is because you may have your friends on one repeater and my friends may be on another one. The home channel isn't really magic, but simply a placeholder that allows you to quickly find your radio's starting channel.

 

[AK9R]

Do they not want business folks using repeaters? What if my guy is out in the middle of nowhere and needs help?

If "your guy" is not a licensed amateur radio operator, it is against FCC rules for him to transmit on amateur radio frequencies. Likewise, it is against FCC rules for a licensed amateur radio operator to transmit on public safety or business frequencies unless he also has a license for those PS or business frequencies. Some will argue this point, but the FCC rules are not meant to be ignored except in dire emergency.

As the note I added to your original post states, you have asked many questions that are specific to the configuration of the VX-3000U which is not marketed towards amateur radio. Questions and answers specific to that radio belong in the Vertex Standard forum in the Commercial Radio group of forums at RadioReference. Please address the VX-3000U questions in this thread http://forums.radioreference.com/ve...vx-3000u-configuration-new-repeaters-uhf.html and address the amateur radio repeater questions here.

 

[ImNoSpaz]

Understood and thank you guys for the help.