Transmission through repeater issue

[KTM500pro]

Hey everyone, newly licensed ham starting off with handheld Baofengs.

I programmed both HT using the same file and connected to a local repeater, made contact, loud and clear. Im holding one HT, wife in another room holding the other HT. We can both hear feedback loud and clear from the repeater (person I made contact with) but wife cannot hear anything except a hum when I transmit to repeater- HT makes connection with repeater but does not hear my voice. I switched HT's, same thing. Is this a settings issue in the HT? or am I doing something wrong?

 

[KTM500pro]

*Edited post:

Hey everyone, newly licensed ham starting off with handheld Baofengs.

I programmed both HT using the same file downloaded from chirp →import→ repeaterbook and connected to a local repeater, made contact, loud and clear. Im holding one HT, wife in another room holding the other HT. We can both hear feedback loud and clear from the repeater (person I made contact with) but wife cannot hear anything except a hum when I transmit to repeater- repeater makes connection with receiving HT but does not transmit my voice. I switched HT's, same thing. Is this a settings issue in the HT? or am I doing something wrong?

 

[AK9R]

We can both hear feedback loud and clear from the repeater (person I made contact with) but wife cannot hear anything except a hum when I transmit to repeater...

This is called "desense".

To access a repeater, you must program your radio with a repeater offset. Let's say you are working the 444.000 MHz repeater. The repeater listens on 449.000 MHz and transmits on 444.000 MHz. In order to access the repeater, you must transmit on 449.000. When you unkey, your radio goes back to listening on 444.000.

So, in your scenario, you are transmitting on 449.000 to access the repeater, but your wife is listening on 444.000. Your radio produces enough signal strength that it overwhelms, or desensitizes, the receiver in your wife's radio. As a result, the receiver in your wife's radio generates mostly noise.

Try your experiment again by reducing the transmit power on your radio or increasing the distance between your radio and your wife's radio. You'll find a point where your experiment may work.

 

[KTM500pro]

Got it. I will try that.
Huge thanks for your response!

 

[a417]

This is called "desense".

<snip>

So, in your scenario, you are transmitting on 449.000 to access the repeater, but your wife is listening on 444.000. Your radio produces enough signal strength that it overwhelms, or desensitizes, the receiver in your wife's radio. As a result, the receiver in your wife's radio generates mostly noise.

Try your experiment again by reducing the transmit power on your radio or increasing the distance between your radio and your wife's radio. You'll find a point where your experiment may work.

This will also be more prevalent with cheaper devices. They usually lack filtering and the desense will be dramatically more noticable than with a higher grade device.