CTCSS tone coming through

[rem1473]

I have a HT1250 VHF. When I use CSQ on the receive for a 2m repeater, I can hear the sub audible tone coming through. If I switch over to TPL on receive, then I don't hear the tone any longer. Everyone is copyable over the tone. Its just damned annoying.

[wavetar]

I have a HT1250 VHF. When I use CSQ on the receive for a 2m repeater, I can hear the sub audible tone coming through. If I switch over to TPL on receive, then I don't hear the tone any longer. Everyone is copyable over the tone. Its just damned annoying.

Well, your radio will faithfully reproduce whatever the repeater is putting out, and you'll hear it in CSQ as it's no longer filtering out sub 300Hz frequencies. What is the tone? Higher tones like 192.8 and higher can be heard in CSQ, especially if the repeater is putting out higher than the standard .75KHz deviation for the tone (.45 in narrow band).

[Bill_G]

+1 the repeater must have LOUD PL because I never hear it in csq rcvrs.

I thought all modern rcvrs still applied a high pass filter no matter whether PL was enabled or not. Learn something new everyday.

[rem1473]

It's a 110.9 tone. I have no idea what is the deviation of the tone. I can hear the tone in many of the repeaters in the area, but it's relatively quiet in most. It's just barely there. Except this one repeater in particular, it's really loud.

All my amateur transceivers filter out the tone, even if they're set to carrier squelch. I've never heard any tone in any repeater, until I got this Motorola. Unfortunately, I can't set tone squelch for this particular repeater. The club has two repeaters on the same output frequency in close proximity. One is the primary and one is backup. Both are activated with different tones. Both output the tone that's used to activate them. Some people will use the backup, as it has slightly better coverage for an HT in the northern part of the county. So tone squelch will squelch people using that repeater.

I might have a solution. I can set up a personality for each repeater with tone squelch receive. Then I'll set up two scan groups. One scan group for the primary repeater and one scan group for the secondary repeater. the primary repeater scan group will only have the two repeaters, but I will designate the primary repeater as the designated TX channel. The Secondary repeater scan group will scan both repeaters, but will have the secondary repeater as the designated TX channel. I'll assign the primary repeater scan group to the primary repeater personality and check the box for auto scan. Do the same thing for the secondary repeater scan group. That way when I tune the radio to the primary repeater channel, it should start scanning both personalities. The default minimum hold time 500ms. I wonder what's the smallest hold time that I can use to decode to tone?

I'm very new to Motorola. I've only had it a week. Is this a decent plan? I'll have to experiment to see if that works. It's slightly disappointing to see the Motorola not filtering the tone. I really love the radio. Besides this issue, it really feels a step above all my Amateur gear. I'm ready to buy a mobile for my car now as well.

[wavetar]

I am surprised you can hear that low of a tone in the radio, filter off or not. That one particular repeater must really have the level cranked.

It's possible a firmware upgrade might fix your issue, if your radio has really old firmware. I haven't played with CSQ vs PL to see if tones bleed through specifically in the HT1250. It makes sense the filter would remain even in CSQ, but you never know with Motorola! What is the firmware version of your radio?

[Bill_G]

If you have another radio - any radio - working the same repeater that doesn't hear the tone, then chances are the HT1250 has a failure. If you have a friendly radio shop near by, ask them to just check it.

Perhaps this why it was for sale before it became yours. !!!