New to GMRS. Possible to Buy Radios without CTSS Tones Enabled?

[Lazynorse]

First, I know there's a fee and license, I'll get that. I'm learning many if not most radios - maybe just those sold in pairs? - come preprogrammed with CTSS tones that essentially prohibit a radio user from hearing any incoming transmission except the other radio(s) it was specifically paired with. Like, you buy a two pack and those two hear other other, but you wouldn't hear anyone else.

For emergency purposes, I'd want no restrictions at all, I'd want to scan and hear everything, and have everyone hear me, hopefully. How does one accomplish this? I'd prefer and out of the box solution, rather than some programming sequence with a laptop where I'm left a little unsure if I did it right.

My idea is to have a Baofeng or similar low barrier cost of entry as a companion to my Garmin inReach, for emergencies, both responding to one if I can or summoning help. Less for communicating with my wife or friend with a pair of radios but of course that's handy too. Also thinking 5 watt handheld with a larger antenna. I know that's not as capable as a rig-mounted system. This is emergency bag stuff I'm talking about. Something my wife can use if my head is cracked open somewhere, I would hope easy scanning and transmitting is possible without having pre-set tones restricting possibility of emergency communication.

 

[RichardHdz]

First, I know there's a fee and license, I'll get that. I'm learning many if not most radios - maybe just those sold in pairs? - come preprogrammed with CTSS tones that essentially prohibit a radio user from hearing any incoming transmission except the other radio(s) it was specifically paired with. Like, you buy a two pack and those two hear other other, but you wouldn't hear anyone else.

For emergency purposes, I'd want no restrictions at all, I'd want to scan and hear everything, and have everyone hear me, hopefully. How does one accomplish this? I'd prefer and out of the box solution, rather than some programming sequence with a laptop where I'm left a little unsure if I did it right.

My idea is to have a Baofeng or similar low barrier cost of entry as a companion to my Garmin inReach, for emergencies, both responding to one if I can or summoning help. Less for communicating with my wife or friend with a pair of radios but of course that's handy too. Also thinking 5 watt handheld with a larger antenna. I know that's not as capable as a rig-mounted system. This is emergency bag stuff I'm talking about. Something my wife can use if my head is cracked open somewhere, I would hope easy scanning and transmitting is possible without having pre-set tones restricting possibility of emergency communication.

Hello,

Those packaged radios come with the tones you can activate. The tones can be turned on and off.

If you buy a Baofeng, you’ll likely need to program it, unless you’re getting a Baofeng GMRS radio. You can still use the tones on these radios but you’ll need to know the frequencies and not just the tone number.

 

[Lazynorse]

Hello,

Those packaged radios come with the tones you can activate. The tones can be turned on and off.

If you buy a Baofeng, you’ll likely need to program it, unless you’re getting a Baofeng GMRS radio. You can still use the tones on these radios but you’ll need to know the frequencies and not just the tone number.

Ok, we'd certainly buy a GMRS radio. Just hoping to be able to purchase one with no limitations, which in my very limited knowledge a CTSS tone limits communication to between specific radios. I'd hope to be able to communicate with a stranger, with zero radio coordination before hand. Can you turn all CTSS tone off in one button press, or is that something you have to go through and do for every channel, generally speaking? I keep reading that most radios are sold with this CTSS function enabled, so those radios cannot communicate with a 'stranger's' radio out of the box.

 

[Kent R]

Look at the midland or rugged GMRS, very easy to use and its default is simplex so you dont need to worry about the tone. I give these out on trips for people that dont have a radio and there is zero issue.

 

[Shawn686]

This should help you understand ctcss tones etc:

Video

Shawn

 

[Prerunner1982]

Do you have examples of these radios that are "restricted" ?
As mentioned most radios have CTCSS tones that can be enabled if desired but do not come that way.
Some may have "extra" channels that already have CTCSS tones set, but the first 22 channels do not.

 

[RichardHdz]

Ok, we'd certainly buy a GMRS radio. Just hoping to be able to purchase one with no limitations, which in my very limited knowledge a CTSS tone limits communication to between specific radios. I'd hope to be able to communicate with a stranger, with zero radio coordination before hand. Can you turn all CTSS tone off in one button press, or is that something you have to go through and do for every channel, generally speaking? I keep reading that most radios are sold with this CTSS function enabled, so those radios cannot communicate with a 'stranger's' radio out of the box.

Look at what other's have said. I have not bought one of these types of radios. I"m a ham radio operator so I don't really use GMRS/FRS. I was under the impression, maybe mistakenly, that these radios don't come with the CTSS tones enabled. If they do, you should be able to turn them off pretty easily. I hear good things about Midland radios but Cobra, Uniden, etc. would also work. If you buy some of the Chinese radios such as a Baofeng, possibly Rugged Radios (since they're usually actually a Baofeng or something similar) then you may have more work to do to turn off CTSS but even then, it's not rocket science.

You say you want no limitations. I'm assuming you mean no limitations talking to other GMRS radios. This shouldn't be an issue. Your GMRS radio also can talk on FRS channels which these two services share. They will transmit at lower power but it will still work. Also just to clarify, these CTSS tone do not encrypt the communication in any way. So if you have your tones turned on and someone else doesn't, they can still hear you. All the tones do is send a subaudible signal along with your transmission. This tone just let's the transmission through if it matches the tones it's set for. So you can have two different brand radios but as long as you set both to the same CTSS tone, aka privacy tone, they can talk. That's all it does. The only usefulness of these tones is a situation such as if you go to some destination and there are several other people there with GMRS radios and you don't want to hear them when you talk to your family, you can separate out the communications by either changing channels to an unused channel or if they are all used, enabling the tone to further filter out other communications. But if they change their radio to the same tone you are using, they can hear and communicate with you.

By the way, don't believe the distance claims you may see on some of these radios. Some may claim you can talk up to 35 miles. To do that, you would need a very specific situation. Don't expect more than maybe 3 miles with little to no obstructions between you and maybe a few blocks in a city. Not to get too technical, but if you're standing with the radio in front of your face with the antenna about 6' from the ground, assuming the other person is about the same height and there's nothing between you two, the maximum theoretical distance you can talk is about 6.94 miles. This is due to the curvature of the earth. Your transmission will go about 3.47 miles before the curvature of the earth gets in the way. Again, this is in a perfect situation that you're unlikely to be in.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[mtn]

I've seen reports that one brand (Retevis?) comes with tone squelch enabled by default, seems like a bad idea to me.

I haven't heard this being true for other brands, I know for sure my Radioddity GM-30 did not come configured that way.

 

[smritte]

've seen reports that one brand (Retevis?) comes with tone squelch enabled by default, seems like a bad idea to me.

I can verify that. Very good commercial quality radios. It took me a while to deprogram transmit and receive tones.

 

[Shawn686]

For all your programming and deprogramming needs you need to be using CHIRP. Doing it on the radio is usually not fun or fast. Be aware that the blister pack radios do not support computer programming.

I can recommend the Tidradios, I have and use both the GMRS and HAM version. They are easy to use, setup and the Gen 2 are compliant. You can also "unlock" them

Home - CHIRP

Redmine

chirpmyradio.com

Hit the link and scroll down to see which radios are supported. If you are planning on any amount of programming, try to get a supported radio.

 

[Frank1972]

I use both a Baofang and a BTECH GMRS handheld radios for group trips. Other people in the group have a mixture of handheld and mounted radios, mostly from Midland. No additional programming is required. We just set our radios same preset GMRS channel. We've had people from outside our group contact us on that channel too. A lot of savvy radio guys will recommend you pick a GMRS radio capable of using a repeater site since this will extend your range significantly.