What is CALL ID in my radio settings?

[srbecker58]

So I searched both google and here but no one seems to really even mention it.



What is CALLID? Every GMRS radio I have used so far, BaoFeng, Radioddity, Retevis all have a menu item called CALLID and sometimes it is 80808 by default, sometimes it changes to 12345 once I write channels to it, but what is it? What is the significance of that number and how can I use it productively?

 

[littona]

On digital radio systems, like DMR, that's the radio ID. Not sure you'd get much use out of it on GMRS.

 

[03msc]

If it was DMR I'd say your DMR ID. On analog...only thing I can think of is MDC-1200 or something. Wouldn't be used on GMRS either way. Not sure why they'd have the menu option otherwise. Maybe someone else will know. All that you listed are Chinese radios (GMRS-accepted??) so I'm not sure if it's something specific to them and not really MDC or what.

 

[mmckenna]

I don't think the CCR's/Baofengs support MDC1200.
Likely it's DTMF.

You can confirm this by trying to add hexidecimal. Try a radio ID like 12ABC and see if it takes. If it doesn't, it's not MDC.

Basically what the Call ID does is allow the radio to send out a DTMF (telephone touch tone) signal when keying up or dekeying the radio. It sends out those numbers so the other radios know what radio is transmitting.

It probably requires enabling it in another field.

If you don't need radio ID's, make sure it's shut off. It gets really annoying for anyone who has to listen to it for any length of time, and it'll just confuse the hell out of new users. If you are using a GMRS repeater, you may find that the repeater owner will request you turn it off.