On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 11:02 PM, Benton Holzwarth bcgh@aracnet.com wrote:
I'm helping organize a base set of frequencies -- a 'standard load' -- for our local CERT group, Tigard, OR. I've read a ton of posts and come up with a base set of guidelines that I'm hoping will cover the 'least common denominator' radio that someone might show up with.
o Don't use row zero, some radios start at row-1 o Hold to 5 characters for the memory 'name' o Include the FRS and official frequencies as Rx only o Different radios have different numbers of memories, pack the highest priority bits into the lowest memory-rows. Some radios stop at 16 memory-rows, others go to 100 or 128
Seems like a good set of criteria.
We'd like to load some Rx-only frequencies -- FRS, the local police forces and ambulance service that use UHF, but in Rx-only. When I set 'duplex' to 'off' Chirp says something about not all radios support this setting.
o Is there a list of radios that do support?
As others have mentioned, http://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_daily/LATEST/Model_Support.html shows the list of duplex options for every radios.
o If I try to program duplex-off into a radio that doesn't support it, what is the reaction from Chirp? Does it let me know there's a problem or just gloss over and make those frequencies tx-able?
When you import a duplex-off channel into a radio that doesn't support it, it defaults to "none" (simplex).
Typical ham radios do not have a per-channel TX inhibit feature, but do prevent transmitting outside the ham band. In the case of an unmodified Kenwood, Icom, or Yaesu ham radio, settings out-of-band channels to simplex will still prevent transmitting. All bets are off if the owner modifies their radio for out-of-band transmit.
I'm trying to figure out how best -- across a wide field of radios -- to manage a set of frequencies that should be Rx-only. Duplex off/split/offset One solution seems to be to dial in 'split' pointing the tx-side to a harmless corner of the Amateur band.
Blindly transmitting into the ham band isn't harmless! You could interfere with a ham. That ham probably doesn't have lights on their car and carry a gun and handcuffs, but you never know. ;-)
Tom KD7LXL