VX-150 O
PERATING
M
ANUAL
17
Advanced Operation
T
ONE
S
EARCH
S
CANNING
In operating situations where you don’t know the CTCSS or DCS tone being used by
another station or stations, you can command the radio to listen to the incoming signal and
scan in search of the tone being used. Two things must be remembered in this regard:
m
You must be sure that your repeater uses the same tone type (CTCSS vs. DCS).
m
Some repeaters do not pass the CTCSS tone; you may have to listen to the station(s)
transmitting on the repeater uplink (input) frequency in order to allow Tone Search
Scanning to work.
To scan for the tone in use:
Set the radio up for either CTCSS or DCS Decoder operation (see the previous discus-
sion). In the case of CTCSS, “
T SQ
” will appear on the display; in the case of DCS,
“
DCS
” will appear on the display.
Press the [
F
] key, then immediately press the [
2
(
CODE
)] key to select the “
TN SET
”
Menu item (when TONE SQL is selected) or “
DCS SET
” (during DCS operation).
Press the [
F
] key, then press and hold in the [
s
] or [
t
] key to start scanning for the
incoming CTCSS or DCS tone/code.
When the radio detects the correct tone or code, it will halt on that tone/code, and audio
will be allowed to pass. Press the [
F
] key to lock in that tone/code.
Press the [
F
] key, then press the
PTT
key to save the new settings and exit to normal
operation.
If the Tone Scan feature does not detect a tone or code, it will continue to scan indefi-
nitely. When this happens, it may be that the other station is not sending any tone. You
can press the
PTT
switch to halt the scan at any time.
You also can press the
MONI
key during Tone Scanning to listen to the (muted) signal
from the other station. When you release the
MONI
key, Tone Scanning will resume
after about a second.
CTCSS/DCS B
ELL
O
PERATION
During CTCSS Decode or DCS operation, you may set the
VX-150
up such that a ringing
“Bell” sound alerts you to the fact that a call is coming in. Here is the procedure for activat-
ing the Bell will ring in accordance with this programming.
Set the transceiver up for CTCSS Decode (“TONE SQL”) or DCS operation, as de-
scribed previously.
Adjust the operating frequency to the desired channel.
Press the [
F
] key, then press the [
0
(
SET
)] key to activate the Set mode.
Rotate the
DIAL
to select Menu Item #18 (“
BELL
”).
Press the [
F
] key to enable adjustment of the Bell ringer.
Rotate the
DIAL
to set the desired number of rings of the Bell. The available choices
are 1, 3, 5, or 8 rings, REPEAT (continuous ringing), or OFF.
Press the
PTT
key momentarily to save the new setting and exit to normal operation.
When a station calls you whose transceiver is sending a CTCSS tone or DCS code which
matches that set into your Decoder, the Bell will ring in accordance to this programming.
