Hi! During the Icicle Rally we figured out we bought the wrong type of walkie-talkies and could only hear the conversations of the others, but not participate. :(
We now have a different set. YAY!
But we have a question on the settings. We know the channel is 7, subset 21. Our walkie-talkies have two different security settings though. One is CTCSS and the other is DCS. If we have both radios set to the same security setting they talk to each other, but if they are on the different security settings, they don't. Which one is the setting you all use for the drives? We would like to get them all set up for the Leprechaun Run on the 8th.

Thanks!

 

I think that if you set your walkie talkie to channel 7, sub-channel 21 (the "universal" MINI radio setting) you'll be compatible with the common, consumer FRS/GMRS radios. Before the drive begins, test your radio with other members' radios. The CTCSS/DCS settings pertain to tone squelch, which may not be supported by all FRS/GMRS radios, so you'll want to turn them off. What brand/model are your walkies?

 

Hi,
CobraMicrotalk CXT345. The manual stated there are two types of privacy codes ( I assume this is subchannel):

1. Continious Tone Coded Squelch that provides 38 privacy channels

2. Digitally Coded Squelch that provides 83 privacy codes

So both types allow picking subchannel 21. The radio required allows that I select none, or only one of these at a a time.

So seems like these are advanced radios with a choice of encoding. Maybe if someone has a radio that is on Colorado Mini Channel, they could try to change the sub channel noting if the maximum subchannel number is 83 or 38 to tell which encoding it is. Any takers?
Carl (Rhonda's copilot)

 

Hey Carl,

You peaked my interest. We have radios too but unfortunately we forgot them for the Ice rally. We used Jamie's extra so it worked for us.

It's been years since I've used our radios. So long that I needed to download the manual to dig in to try and understand then to try and answer your question.

Our radios also have both the CTCSS and DCS too. How ours work is that the "sub channel" list are as follows:

1-38 is CTCSS (listed as CODE in my manual)
39-99 is DTS (listed as TONE in my manual)

Therefore We don't select a specific security setting as your seems to require. Ours is automatic based on the sub channel selection.

With that being said, on yours, select channel 7 with CTCSS then sub channel 21.


Hope that works. We'll find out Saturday eh?

EDIT: Mike here. My wife's plate is BRITVIK. We parked next to you at the gas station and helped to test your radios early in the ride up to the Ice.

 

Thanks Mike, I hope to have better transmission results this time lol. We will be at the Wednesday meeting tomorrow for spaghetti, hope to see you two there!
Carl