Understanding CTCSS and DCS 

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks!

(laughs) I agree with you completely. Not the same without the squelch tail.

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback!

Glad it was helpful - thanks for the feedback!

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Yes, it should have been "high pass" (since it removes the lower frequency components). Thanks - good catch!

Yes. I've often seen CTCSS / DCS referred to as "privacy tones" This is a very misleading term, since neither CTCSS nor DCS provide any "privacy" at all: that is, they do not encrypt or obscure transmissions (unlike, say, the voice inversion scrambling found on some older analog radios). "Sub-channel" is a little less problematic in that you can use CTCSS/DCS to create "talkgroups" or "channels" where users only hear transmissions from other people using the same tone/code, but keep in mind that this is different from the "talkgroups" or "channels" in digital trunked radio technologies like P25. Hope that helps!

Yep, clearly I mis-spoke there :)

Neither CTCSS or DCS should affect the achievable transmission range per se. The one place where it might make a difference would be at the very edges of the Tx/Rx range -- if the receiver cannot properly detect / demodulate the CTCSS tone or DCS code (due to poor SNR), then it will not break squelch and the effective "range" is reduced. I haven't made any proper measurements of the difference, but I would *assume* that in these kinds of low-SNR situations, CTCSS is actually easier to decode than DCS. Regarding your specific example: I'm not sure how you're measuring "range" (over-the-air?) or how much "longer" the range is (meters? kilometers?). The most accurate measurement would probably be a field-strength measurement (V/m or similar) made over-the-air near the radio. I suspect that the difference you're seeing in "range" might be related to frequency: the antenna you have on your radio might be a more efficient radiator / receiver in the 2m amateur band (145.500) compared to outside of that band (168.500), and this would definitely affect the radiated and received power. I would also want to test using the same frequency and power level, only changing whether CTCSS or DCS (or neither) is used. Hope some of that is helpful!

@@pauldenisowski thank you for your help

Well, that's not really related to CTCSS or DCS, but the short answer is that two radios have to share some frequency range to communicate. The VX5 is an amateur radio transceiver and although it has a wideband receive function, it can't (normally) transmit outside of the amateur bands. The Wouxun radio is nominally a GMRS radio, and these frequencies don't overlap with the amateur radio bands. That said, it *appears* that the Wouxun has a transmit frequency range that includes the amateur band, so it might work. I do feel the need to point out that transmitting on amateur radio frequencies without a license and without proper identification is a violation of FCC rules. :)

@@pauldenisowski thank you so much for your time n knowledge, (and I did watch your video clip of couple times cuz I am interested in CTCSS and DCS), and for making an exception in answering my question. I was first ticketed in 2000 for amateur tech no code, KG6ASF, and reviewing for my renewal (hope I can keep the same call sign) I received my gmrs ticket approximately 1 month ago WRNR411.

@@jonjeffries3265 No problem at all - always happy to answer questions. :) Good luck and 73! Paul, KO4LZ

Gracias por la sugerencia! Algunos de nuestros videos ya fueron traducidos en español (por ejemplo "Introducción a metodologías para radio localización" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W0mOuYuTl0Q.html).

(laughs) I consider that a compliment - thank you!

CTCSS is much more common, but DCS has better functionality :)