Worldwide DX Amateur Radio Forums - Ham - CB - HF - VHF - UHF

I recently purchased a Yaesu VX-8R to use as a backup radio for my job. On the job, we regularly use Motorola HT1000's that when keyed, provide a 1 second "beep" tone on the portable. The purpose of the tone, as I understand it, is to allow enough lapse time for the portable to engage the repeater. When the tone stops, it is your indication that enough time has passed so that when you begin to speak, your voice transmission will be engaged. At least this is what they tell me.

Here is my question. Now that I have set up the proper receive and transmit frequencies (and DCS code), is there a way to emulate a tone on the radio itself so that when I key it, like the Motorola, it will provide the same or similar one second beep? I got so used to the beep on the Motorola, that not having it is somewhat annoying. Any help with this would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

dmarotti

The closest thing you can do to emulate this is to turn on the Tone Calling (page 45 of the manual). This changes the functionality of the monitor button on the side so it causes the radio to emit a tone when pressed. After you enable this, you would hit that button for a second, which will cause it to emit a tone, then hit the PTT to talk. Does that sound like what you're trying to accomplish?

That tone on the Motorola is telling you the ID burst tone has finished and you can then transmit. Your radios on the job have an identifier in them that shows up on the dispatch screen if they have the full system configured.

Just don't transmit tones that aren't needed....people will just ignore you quickly if you are doing that on purpose. Most of the function for burst tones and WIRES actually transmit the tones over the air.

Moleculo,

Thanks for the advice, but I cannot send a tone, I think it would in fact make the telecommunicator (dispatcher) crazy (if that is what is the result of following the instructions on page 45.) So unfortunately, that won't work. Additionally, the radio is stationary in a holster so I can only practically get to the speaker mike that attaches to my shirt. Regardless, thank you for the reply.

SR385, you are correct. The telecommunicator (dispatcher) does see our assigned shield number on the screen when we key up. Until you explained it, I didn't realize that one thing had to do with the other. He did tell me that when I am on the VX-R8, he cannot see anything on the screen. This is not ideal, but doable because whenever I key up, I always identify myself.

So it sounds like there is no practical way to emulate the functionality of the HT1000. Thanks again to you both.

If anyone else has a idea, I'd still be willing to try to make this work on the VX-R8. Thanks.

dmarotti

If you have spare channels on the HT1000...they can be programmed for 2m or 440 (depending on which you have) ham repeaters no problem. If you just want a radio to use for both, that might be an easier answer if you make nice with the radio guy at the job.

You could reprogram one yourself maybe....but many fleet HTs have passwords set in them.