Vertex 4204 No Priority Channel Set, But Still Has Brief Pauses During RX

[jaytoddmartin]

Hello All! I am programming a vertex 4204 and when I am receiving a long audio transmission the radio acts like it's checking a priority channel (it has brief breaks in the RX audio every few seconds similar to if a priority channel was set). Is there a simple way to disable this behavior? I've made sure no Priority channels are set in CE59.

Thanks!
Jay
KD9YQA

 

[radiotweester]

I sounds like Priority or possibly Dual Watch activated. As it's a mobile, it's not power save.
That pesky little P can get checked in error anywhere. If the time breaks seem uniform, I'd bet that's the culprit. Turn to an open channel, open the squelch until you get white noise and wait and see what channel(s) appear. You could do this with a NOAA WX channel too. If this doesn't work, try disabling any button set as Dual Watch Are you running CTCSS or DCS decode or just CSQ? What firmware do you have? Power on while holding A. Then 3 presses hould give you a 0### on the far left of the screen.
Also, if you're running it for ham, make sure your channel spacing is set to W. If you can't select W, you'll need to write the radio with the Wideband recovery Tool. Info is under VX82X/92X from June 1 2023.
73s

 

[jaytoddmartin]

- 0119
- I don't see any "p" in the Pri column
- Dual Watch is disabled
- I did noticed under ->Miscellaneous that Monitor Mode is Enabled, not sure if this could affect anything related to the breaks
- For SubAudio i have inputs such as C-131.8, I am not certain to tell where to view which type of encoding this is.

Could anything in the DTMF menu affect the breaks? This is the first time i have programmed a radio and have the channels scanning and I am receiving accurate audio so I am hopeful this learning journey will be enjoyable. I got this at a yard sale and paid for the ce59 from antenna farm. It is thorough software. I am encouraged by your fast response.

 

[jaytoddmartin]

I seemed to have fixed it by making a few changes to
Power on Condition: Scan (was set to Backup)
Beep: Disabled (was set to enabled)
RADIO -> Channel Allocation/Group Tag renamed Grp 1 and set option to SCAN (was set to None)

Not sure how this would have changed it. I had previously removed a "p" in past updates but perhaps I never actually downloaded those changes to the radio? Strange.

I would love to use this 4204 for UHF as I have a GMRS license. I see on Freq Band under Hardware Parameters it is set to Freq Band: VHF, it appears I can change this to UHF but haven't tried it yet because I don't want to throw everything I've done so far for VHF out of balance. So far I like the radio and may consider another one if it's cheap enough for my UHF endeavors. I am really on a budget out here building my own antennas and such. I appreciate all your help just giving me some confidence to dig deeper.

Thanks,
KD9YQA

 

[FKimble]

The VX-4204 is a VHF only radio. The CE-59 programing software probably will do the UHF version, a VX-42xx also, so that is what you are seeing in the software.

Frank

 

[radiotweester]

Yep, scan will do that.
For UHF you could add an SRX Board. If I remember right the -1 is VHF and -2 is UHF, but that will ONLY give you RX. New
the boards use to be around $110, but as those radios are no longer made/supported it could be hard to find one.
The 4200s are good radios with a LOT of features. The 4100 (8ch LED) can easily be upgraded to a 4200 (512ch LCD) just by swapping the head unit. I did it just out of curiosity and the whole display assembly was less than $30. I kind of doubt they can still be ordered, but worth a call.Yep, scan will do that.
You can edit a D UHF (450-520) down to ~440 without re-tuning, but for full HAM and GMRS, seek out an A version (400-470). I think they are more rare?