SO.... I got my ticket... and I got my HX370s radio all programmed up.    Got Ce68 going, and it is great.  

I programmed it up on my local repeater, and listened for about 2 weeks until my call sign showed up over at the FCC goons page.   I started attempting contacts, and am having some difficulty.  

The guys that can hear me, say I am barely audible.   I can barely be made out above the static even when I speak very loudly into the mic, BUT they also say I am hitting the repeater fine.    I can key it up no problem.   I even drove to the repeater site, and it performs the same as when I am 20 miles from it.  

Ive got the correct tone.. obviously.. and the correct offset because I can key the repeater up, and I can gear everyone else talking very clearly.    

Is there a mic gain somewhere, or am I missing a setting somewhere??    Any help is appreciated.    I'd like to be able to use this HX370 for backpacking comms, and be able to rag chew, and get used to the lingo while I decide on what mobile, and base rig to get.      FWIW, a friend as the same radio, programmed it the same as me, and has the same problem.    

Thanks in advance guys.  

KF5LJJ

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=22&t=604623

I assume you are aware of this thread....I think I remember that unit mentioned?.....

sorry I can't help further

Your description sounds like you have the right offset but are either 5khz off the repeater input frequency or  that you are using the wrong deviation. I have not played with the 370s yet, but I assume you can set 2.5, 5, or 12.5 khz. 5 khz ought to be standard for 2M FM repeaters here in CONUS.  

I'm sure someone with experience on this particular radio will jump in soon.

Can you two work simplex between the two HT's? It may be the repeater is slightly off frequency.

I did not see a deviation setting in there.    There is a "narrow" and "wide" option, and I tried both.   We are going to try simplex out saturday at our local 3 gun match.    

Thanks for offering input guys!!

I had that problem at first because I used the Narrow option. It needs to be set on the Wide option. With the Narrow Deviation you will activate the repeater but your audio will be low.

Once I switched it to wide deviation then I was full quieting into the repeater. Also remember that the factory antenna is tuned for the Marine band, a good 2 meter antenna will do wonders on the radio.

Fixed it for you, the SRHF40 has the SMA connector needed for the HX370s

Both of the suggestions I would make have already been made, so I'll reiterate... most likely either "narrow" FM has been selected, or you're off frequency by 2.5 or 5kHz.

Not using some kind of external mic are you?  If so that opens up a whole new set of potential problems.

No.. not using an external Mic.  I'm thinking the waterproof membrane over the mic may be causing this.  A friend called standard horizon, and they said to carefully poke a hole in it with tweezers, but I am not so keen on that idea.    I think I will try a speaker Mic, and see if that helps.  

I have tried narrow, and wide settings.   Wide seems to work better.    

I also built the 2 meter backpacking yagi, and I will see if that helps things out as well.

Anything you do for amateur radio should be "wide" unless you have specific reason to use narrow... ie, no one uses narrow in the amateur world.

The yagi will be irrelevant to this problem, signal strength has no impact on audio level in an FM system.

The speaker mic will easily identify whether the internal mic element is the problem.

Have you tried raising the mic gain?

No Mic Gain that I can find.  

**Update

I used another repeater this morning while at work, and was able to comm back and forth easily without yelling into the mic with another HX370S user.  

SO.... I still dunno exactly what is going on.    I quadruple checked the repeater settings, and they are correct according to everythign I have read on the net, and the local clubs website.

Repeaters have problems now and then. Maybe the receive site that you were hitting was having problems. Both the big repeaters here in Central Ohio use multiple receive sites and if one is having a problem you may have quite a bit of trouble on it. The transmit site may also have problems on that repeater you were experiencing problems on. Always go to another repeater before thinking that your rig is the problem.

My Mobile is 60 watts into a 5/8ths wave antenna. I have been trumped by an HT at 5 watts when the receive site on my end of the county was down. A quick change of frequency to a different repeater showed that it was not my rig.

I was told that my audio was low on my HX370 also. I hooked up the external mic and was told I sounded much better.



.02 ymmv

Couldn't a lot of this be the waterproof membrane over the mic and speaker?  I noticed mine was down when monitoring through my base.  You have to get a lot closer to the mic with these to get much volume out.  I can talk at my FT-60 and FT-2900R from three or four inches away but I have to almost touch my lips to the HX370S mic (kind of like the older aircraft mics).  You had to close-talk them to be heard also.

I suffered with horrible audio reports for years on the local repeater until someone informed me that I was 5k off .  Boy, did I ever feel like a dumbass.  

That was my first thought as well, especially with this model being 'marine' and all.  The VX-7R is somewhat known for mucky mic input due to the membrane you refer to.  So much aso that many people sacrifice the waterproofness of the radio for better audio by poking a hole in the membrane.  Alternatively, a good headset or speakermic will also often fix this problem and without giving up the waterproof rating of the unit.