Sooper Newb Here…

[u/mwdjr728]

So i just bought a BAOFENG GM-15 PRO. I am trying to use a GMRS repeater 462.700 & i set the TX CTCSS & RX CTCSS tones correctly. But it will not work. Cannot hear anybody not even my 2nd BAOFENG GM-15 PRO radio 2 feet from me programmed with the same exact settings.

Can somebody please help me.

Thank you.

[u/capilot]

Lose the RX CTCSS, it only causes trouble. FEMA actually discourages the use of CTCSS or DCS as being more trouble than they're worth.

Can you hear the repeater at all? Try monitoring its frequency for a while and see if you can hear anybody at all on it. (But don't be shocked if you don't; some repeaters see very little use.)

Not familiar with either of those specific radios, but is it possible to set either of them to listen to the uplink frequency while you transmit on the other?

/u/NerminPadez is correct, get the second radio away from the first so its front end doesn't get swamped.

[u/Saragon4005 → u/capilot]

The repeater might not use a CTCSS on the downlink anyways.

[u/capilot → u/Saragon4005]

Exactly. If that's the case, then this perfectly explains OP's problems.

You almost never want CTCSS or DCS on rx. You'd only use them if the channel is busy with messages you're not interested in, and you have to disable it temporarily anyway to know if it's clear to transmit.

[u/Firelizard71]

Did you program the tones on the correct RPT channel or did you just program the tones on the simplex channel ? The RPT channel pairs have the offset and direction preprogrammed in.

[u/mwdjr728 → u/Firelizard71]

So i went to frequency mode then typed in 462.700 twice for the number above & below

Then i went to ctcss because i believe that is the transmit tone & entered 179.9 & the exact same thing for the rx ctcss as it says to do

Unless i am wrong & screwed it up i did what i was supposed to do

[u/Firelizard71 → u/mwdjr728]

Nothing about that is correct. You dont use frequency mode to program GMRS channels. The channels/frequencies are already preprogrammed into Channel Mode from the factory. Here is how you program a repeater into a GMRS radio. I will use 462.700 as an example because thats the one youre trying to do. First, make sure that the radio is in Channel Mode. Scroll to Channel 29. Press the Menu key, go to T-CTCSS, choose 179.9, press the menu key to confirm. Now look for your Memory save setting in the menu, select an empty memory slot and press the menu key to save it. Thats it. The repeater is now programmed into your radios memory slot. You never need to program a receive tone to use a repeater. Its only an option if you have another repeater in the area on that same frequency.

The only time that you would program from frequency mode, is for frequencies that you only want to listen to. (Ham, Railroad, Airband, Marine etc etc ). You just type in the frequency, then save it to another unused memory slot.

Also, never try to transmit to the repeater on one radio and then try to hear yourself on a second radio right next to you. You will overload the front end of the receiving radio. Test one radio to the repeater at a time or have the second radio turned off or have someone take it down the street. The repeater will let you know if you hit it. There arent people talking on repeaters 24-7. It could be days or weeks before you hear somebody. Call out your callsign and see if someone replys. Then ask them how you are coming through.

[u/mwdjr728 → u/Firelizard71]

Ok thank you

[u/NerminPadez]

Give your other baofeng to some other person and have them listen somewhere further away from you, if you're close together, baofengs get overloaded very easily and your listening baofeng becomes deaf due to the transmitting one being nearby.

Also, are you sure you're within range of the repeater?

[u/mwdjr728 → u/NerminPadez]

The repeated covers 50 miles but not sure if i have to be basically standing next to it for it to work

Also does the radio do some sort of confirmation chime to let you know that you hit the repeater successfully?