[HCRA] INformation needed:

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 00:37:57 -0400

Greetings!

Eric's got it right. A "PL" (which stands for the Motorola trade mark
"Private Line") or "CTCSS" tone (CTCSS stands for "continuous tone-coded
squelch system") tone is a subaudible audio note that permits access to
a repeater system (ie, the repeater receiver's squelch will not open
unless the signal is accompanied by the CTCSS/PL tone). The tone
"number," shown in the repeater directories, is the audio frequency of
the tone in hertz. I'll bet Jim's repeater manual says something about
CTCSS but not PL, because that's a trade mark.

The original idea behind CTCSS tones on repeater inputs was to eliminate
annoying (and often inadvertent) "kerchunking" by transient signals on
the input channel, but many repeaters have CTCSS tone enabled that
probably don't need it. Many transceivers allow the user to set a CTCSS
tone for receive as well as transmit, but this practice is not common in
Amateur Radio. Several transceivers have "tone scan" capability that can
read the tone when another station is transmitting and you don't have
anywhere to look up the CTCSS frequency.

"Subaudible" is a misnomer really, because the tone frequencies all are
within the normal range of human hearing. They're only "subaudible"
because you cannot hear them via most repeaters and/or transceivers.

See http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~dra/pl.html for more info.

Don't confuse CTCSS/PL tones with DTMF (dual-tone-multi-frequency) tones
that often are used to access such things as autopatch, control repeater
functions and to "dial" telephone numbers. Different animals.

73 Rick N1RL

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Eric Richardson
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 9:43 PM
To: Jim Harrington; HCRA
Subject: RE: [HCRA] INformation needed:

______________________________________________
-------Hampden County Radio Association-------
-----------e-mail list (reflector)-------------
______________________________________________
Jim,

	If my teaching is correct, a PL tone is a sub-audible tone that
is needed
to transmit on a repeater. Some repeaters have PL tones, some don't.
Usually if you do a lookup for a repeater, if it is an open repeater, it
will say the frequency for the PL tone. I just did a look up for the PL
tones for the W1TOM repeaters and there are no PL tones needed. If you
would like an example of a PL tone tune into the 147.105 repeater
(W1OBQ)
in Palmer (my QSO). The PL tone for that is 162.2. I looked this info up
on
the New England Repeater Directory which can be found at
http://www.nerepeaters.com/2m.htm. If some of the more knowledgable
members
tell me the rest about the Palmer repeater it would be appreciated.

73's

Eric Richardson
[email protected]
KB1JVI

> [Original Message]
> From: Jim Harrington <[email protected]>
> To: HCRA <[email protected]>
> Date: 7/21/2003 7:02:09 PM
> Subject: [HCRA] INformation needed:
>
> ______________________________________________
> -------Hampden County Radio Association-------
> -----------e-mail list (reflector)-------------
> ______________________________________________
> Hi Guys & Gals..
>
>     On our IRLP site it says " This is the KX1X node #7270, simples 
> repeater on 146.46 MHZ with a PL of  114.8." So what's a PL? Some
times 
> we for got there are newbies in the crowd? I looked in the book that 
> came with the Transceiver I own and it doesn't say a thing on PL. I
got 
> the repeater on the dial, and heard an add for the June Field Day..
PTT 
> and got a TX signal but not knowing a PL, I didn't go further.. So
Help!
> Thanks
> Jim
>
> ------Hampden County Radio Association-------
> An ARRL Special Services Club for over 50 years
> ------------http://www.hcra.org------------
> ________________________________________________________
>
> To unsubscribe from the list please visit:
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>
> Address any comments to:
> -Jim, KK1W  -  [email protected]
> _______________________________________________
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> [email protected]
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/hcra

------Hampden County Radio Association-------
An ARRL Special Services Club for over 50 years
------------http://www.hcra.org------------
________________________________________________________

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Address any comments to:
-Jim, KK1W  -  [email protected]
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