Batboard

Hi guys,

I'm brand new to programming radios but I just picked up an ex500 and got the cable and CPS software to program it as well. I'm trying to program the FRS/GMRS frequencies into it so that I can contact friends/family after finishing a scene (i'm a ski patroller.) Here's what i'm running into:

When set to the same frequency my FRS radio can contact the ex500. After the ex500 transmits to the FRS, the FRS cannot contact the ex500 again. I have a ham radio friend who had me run it open squelch and it cannot even pick up the FRS with that. I've tried using CSQ setting on the ex500 and no CTCSS on the radio and I've also tried setting a TPL tone and matching it on the FRS radio, both to no avail. Here are the settings I currently have for the FRS channels on the ex500:

Settings on CPS are: Bandwidth 25kHz

Squelch type: CSQ for Tx and Rx

Options set: Tx power is high, Time out is 60 sec, Squelch setting is normal, Busy channel lockout is disabled

Signaling is Tx none rx none (only MDC 1-4 available options...thought quickcall2 was supposed to be available as well?)

Advanced: Compression type: disabled
Expansion type: Low level expansion
Emphasis Selection: De emphasis and pre emphasis

Reference frequencies are set to default for Tx and Rx.

These settings are applied to each FRS/GMRS channel I have programmed (1-12.) My ham friend thinks the ex500 is looking for a digital packet to receive a transmission from the FRS radio. He thinks it's looking for it once it transmits once on a station. Does that sound like a problem I could be having? Any ideas on settings that would allow me to transmit and receive full time on the FRS/GMRS channels? I've set it to the FRS channels that are specified in the FRS radio's manual. And I found the TPL codes for the cobra brand listed online as well so I know it's not a frequency deal.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,

Ben

Set your transmit deviation to 2.5KHz, narrowband, and your rx Bandwidth to 12.5KHz on the EX when using the FRS channels.

I suspect your EX is deviating out of the FRS receivers RX bandpass.


Mike

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the idea. Can you give me a clue as to how to do that? I'm running 6.11.05. On the conventional personality screen I have one choice for channel bandwidth and it's 12.5/20/25. I don't see anywhere to change one of them to 2.5. Is there a menu i'm missing or something?

12.5 channel spacing is 2.5 deviation. You can search on here or google for "narrowband" and find more than you would ever want to know.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I did try changing the spacing on the channels but I didn't have any luck with it whatsoever. It actually caused some of the channels not to receive or transmit at all. The ones that did work still had the whole "once the motorola has made a transmission on the channel it won't accept any incoming transmissions" problem though. Any other ideas for me to try? Firmware on this guy is 3.0.

Thanks

Ben