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Posted: 6/4/2021 9:46:12 PM EDT
So I was scanning some frequencies today and listened to a couple of guys talking.
Now when I tune to that frequency I see a signal but no audio. Squelch is just above the noise .  Attached FileI haven't really delved in to 2m. And not sure why there is a strong signal but no audio. It also happened when I heard those two guys talking earlier. Audio was fine signal was fine. Pulled up to a signal light and audio stopped. Turned the corner and audio was back. Signal strength never really changed. |
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Posted: 6/4/2021 10:31:42 PM EDT
[#1]
I see a T on the display got your ctcss tones turned on?
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Posted: 6/4/2021 10:48:12 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I see a T on the display got your ctcss tones turned on? That's just a transmit tone. Not tone squelch. OP- What happens when you break the squelch open? Do you hear noise? |
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Posted: 6/4/2021 10:50:41 PM EDT
[#3]
K, not as familiar with icom.
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Posted: 6/4/2021 10:52:29 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I see a T on the display got your ctcss tones turned on? I did hear the robot lady announce that it is PL tone 136.5 So I set my radio to that and seems I was able to open the repeater. But even before that I could listen to a couple guys talking. The signal strength is what has me. I did figure out that it may be be the LED lights. Idk. When I took the pic in my garage, I was under LEDs the same as at the signal light earlier. I pulled out into the driveway and the signal on the meter went away. When I pulled back in the garage under the LEDs I noticed it came back. But still no audio. |
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Posted: 6/4/2021 11:04:25 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I did hear the robot lady announce that it is PL tone 136.5 So I set my radio to that and seems I was able to open the repeater. But even before that I could listen to a couple guys talking. The signal strength is what has me. I did figure out that it may be be the LED lights. Idk. When I took the pic in my garage, I was under LEDs the same as at the signal light earlier. I pulled out into the driveway and the signal on the meter went away. When I pulled back in the garage under the LEDs I noticed it came back. But still no audio. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I see a T on the display got your ctcss tones turned on? I did hear the robot lady announce that it is PL tone 136.5 So I set my radio to that and seems I was able to open the repeater. But even before that I could listen to a couple guys talking. The signal strength is what has me. I did figure out that it may be be the LED lights. Idk. When I took the pic in my garage, I was under LEDs the same as at the signal light earlier. I pulled out into the driveway and the signal on the meter went away. When I pulled back in the garage under the LEDs I noticed it came back. But still no audio. More than likely a spurious emission from something then. The 2720 is a good radio. I had one for a little while. |
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Posted: 6/5/2021 6:38:52 AM EDT
[#6]
looks like you 'found' a localized spur near the frequency your radio was receiving OR a strong enough spur to overload your radios front-end.
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Posted: 6/5/2021 10:09:45 AM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: looks like you 'found' a localized spur near the frequency your radio was receiving OR a strong enough spur to overload your radios front-end. This is my guess. Gas stations in my AO always seem to do this on my radios. |
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Posted: 6/5/2021 4:26:13 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This is my guess. Gas stations in my AO always seem to do this on my radios. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: looks like you 'found' a localized spur near the frequency your radio was receiving OR a strong enough spur to overload your radios front-end. This is my guess. Gas stations in my AO always seem to do this on my radios. I think that may be it. Pulled up to the hardware store this morning and the s meter was almost pegged out but no audio. As soon as I backed out it stopped. I only notice it on 2m , nothing like that on 70cm. |
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Posted: 6/5/2021 9:17:20 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This is my guess. Gas stations in my AO always seem to do this on my radios. This. Especially Shell stations. ETA: only on UHF though. |
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Posted: 6/5/2021 11:07:32 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I pulled out into the driveway and the signal on the meter went away. When I pulled back in the garage under the LEDs I noticed it came back. But still no audio. The S meter is showing you noise level. You're getting a lot of RFI from something, probably LED drivers or who knows what else in the garage/house. Modern homes tend to be cesspools of RFI. |
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Posted: 6/6/2021 12:21:08 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The S meter is showing you noise level. You're getting a lot of RFI from something, probably LED drivers or who knows what else in the garage/house. Modern homes tend to be cesspools of RFI. Is a recently built house? As in the past 5 or 10 years? If so you probably have some AFCI circuit breakers and they are known to cause RFI, especially those made by Eaton. The breakers are mandated by the National Electric Code since 1999 on circuits feeding receptacles in bedrooms of dwellings, and the manufacturers are aware of the interference they are causing. They are supposedly working on resolutions to the problem and Eaton has even been known to supply new breakers at no cost to some people. Check and see if you have any. They should have a test button and a label that reads AFCI on them. If you do there's a good chance you found the source of your noise. |
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Posted: 6/6/2021 8:09:58 AM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This is my guess. Gas stations in my AO always seem to do this on my radios. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: looks like you 'found' a localized spur near the frequency your radio was receiving OR a strong enough spur to overload your radios front-end. This is my guess. Gas stations in my AO always seem to do this on my radios. The bane of my work rig. It’s the interference from the pumps talking to the computers inside. 
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Posted: 6/6/2021 2:31:39 PM EDT
[#13]
The noise will show on the signal strength meter but will not get through the FM ( quadrature ) detector. You can get noise on a marginal signal when it rides through on top of the FM signal.
73, Rob |
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Posted: 6/7/2021 11:08:36 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Is a recently built house? As in the past 5 or 10 years? If so you probably have some AFCI circuit breakers and they are known to cause RFI, especially those made by Eaton. The breakers are mandated by the National Electric Code since 1999 on circuits feeding receptacles in bedrooms of dwellings, and the manufacturers are aware of the interference they are causing. They are supposedly working on resolutions to the problem and Eaton has even been known to supply new breakers at no cost to some people. Check and see if you have any. They should have a test button and a label that reads AFCI on them. If you do there's a good chance you found the source of your noise. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: The S meter is showing you noise level. You're getting a lot of RFI from something, probably LED drivers or who knows what else in the garage/house. Modern homes tend to be cesspools of RFI. Is a recently built house? As in the past 5 or 10 years? If so you probably have some AFCI circuit breakers and they are known to cause RFI, especially those made by Eaton. The breakers are mandated by the National Electric Code since 1999 on circuits feeding receptacles in bedrooms of dwellings, and the manufacturers are aware of the interference they are causing. They are supposedly working on resolutions to the problem and Eaton has even been known to supply new breakers at no cost to some people. Check and see if you have any. They should have a test button and a label that reads AFCI on them. If you do there's a good chance you found the source of your noise. I don't have any AFCI breakers. Built it in 2006. I'll probably have to add them to sell the house though. |
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Posted: 6/8/2021 7:17:07 PM EDT
[#15]
I guess I have a similar question. My radio is an icom 2730.
On Friday nights, someone runs a repeater crawl. We start and end with the same repeater and in between there are 8 other repeaters. We check in on the first one and report signal strength and then move to the next repeater. I programmed all the frequencies using Chirp. The first 7 repeaters worked fine. Repeaters 8 and 9 had no audio although I could see the meter moving. I was parked off the side of the road in an area where the elevation is pretty high (about 300 ft higher than my house which is surrounded by hills). I never moved or started the Jeep during this activity. There are high voltage line running parallel to the street somewhere between 50 and 100 yards away on the other side of the street. It seemed really strange. I've done the repeater crawl 3 times I think and this was the only time I had an issue. I have parked in the same spot each time. |
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Posted: 6/9/2021 6:32:22 PM EDT
[#16]
I have an Icom 2730 in one of my trucks. When I pull under my car port at home (with LED can lights that I leave on all the time) both bands will indicate signal just like your picture, but they oscillate constantly from low to high. I just assume that's what is causing interference, because it goes away as soon as I clear the roof.
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Posted: 6/10/2021 11:46:24 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I guess I have a similar question. My radio is an icom 2730. On Friday nights, someone runs a repeater crawl. We start and end with the same repeater and in between there are 8 other repeaters. We check in on the first one and report signal strength and then move to the next repeater. I programmed all the frequencies using Chirp. The first 7 repeaters worked fine. Repeaters 8 and 9 had no audio although I could see the meter moving. I was parked off the side of the road in an area where the elevation is pretty high (about 300 ft higher than my house which is surrounded by hills). I never moved or started the Jeep during this activity. There are high voltage line running parallel to the street somewhere between 50 and 100 yards away on the other side of the street. It seemed really strange. I've done the repeater crawl 3 times I think and this was the only time I had an issue. I have parked in the same spot each time. Did you program the receive with a CTCSS or DCS tone for filtering? Maybe you have the incorrect tone. |
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Posted: 6/26/2021 4:37:02 PM EDT
[#18]
I'm not familiar with this radio, is it possible that you are in duplex mode, tx on one band and Rx on that other? does it auto mute the Tx band to prevent feedback?
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Posted: 6/26/2021 5:11:56 PM EDT
[#19]
Sorry for not responding to the previous post. I haven't had time to play with this to see what the issue is. It did repeat again last night.
Here are the two repeaters that I have programmed where I can't hear audio but I can see the meter moving.  Attached FileI have similar settings for repeaters on other frequencies. These are the only two repeaters where I have had issues. I will readily admit that I don't have much of an idea about what I am doing. I used CHIRP to program the radio. The other repeaters I have used have worked fine. Edited to fix the chart. |
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Posted: 6/26/2021 5:36:54 PM EDT
[#20]
Try changing the tone column from TSQL to tone. Those repeaters may not transmit a tone.
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Posted: 6/26/2021 6:05:22 PM EDT
[#21]
I lived in an area where power line insulator noise was a repeated struggle. The noise would raise the S-meter sometimes 30 over or higher, but it would not open the squelch and no audio heard. If a signal was stronger than the noise it would open up the radio but the audio would carry the noise so it was often difficult to hear.
The issue is the noise is amplitude modulated so it is not detected by the FM receiver. But it still has very strong field strength and it is in band so it will desense your receiver. When I could hear the noise along with a strong signal is was a low buzz with a lot of frying noise. |
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Posted: 6/26/2021 6:09:08 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Try changing the tone column from TSQL to tone. Those repeaters may not transmit a tone. This. It's very common for amateur repeaters to require a tone to access, but the repeater itself does not transmit a tone. I would take the DTCS info out also. |
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Posted: 6/26/2021 6:13:36 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Here are the two repeaters that I have programmed where I can't hear audio but I can see the meter moving. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/67686/Screenshot_2021-06-26_171756_png-1992176.JPG Despite what I wrote, after seeing this chart I think you have tone squelch set on receive and you need to change your setting to use tone on transmit only. |
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Posted: 7/24/2021 9:10:26 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This. It's very common for amateur repeaters to require a tone to access, but the repeater itself does not transmit a tone. I would take the DTCS info out also. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Try changing the tone column from TSQL to tone. Those repeaters may not transmit a tone. This. It's very common for amateur repeaters to require a tone to access, but the repeater itself does not transmit a tone. I would take the DTCS info out also. Update for you guys. I finally got around to changing TSQL to tone and it worked - I could hear the audio. I'm not sure anyone heard me on the two repeaters listed above. Will have to try some more. The change to tone worked on a third repeater and they could hear me on that one once I made the change. Thanks for the suggestion. |
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Posted: 7/24/2021 10:36:35 AM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Update for you guys. I finally got around to changing TSQL to tone and it worked - I could hear the audio. I'm not sure anyone heard me on the two repeaters listed above. Will have to try some more. The change to tone worked on a third repeater and they could hear me on that one once I made the change. Thanks for the suggestion. If you could key up the repeater and heard the tail squelch then people can hear you. |
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