WHY CAN'T THEY HEAR ME? WHY CAN'T I HEAR THEM? (Troubleshooting VHF/UHF in the field)

We've all been there, could hear others but couldn't be heard, or could be heard but couldn't hear.  As you practice, you'll get to know how to troubleshoot really rapidly in the field any issues.  For starters, here's a checklist - you'll have to go through your radio manual for each item if you don't know how to work with that item. 

This list is for VHF UHF. 

HOW DO I KNOW?  

This is where practice is needed, sooner or later you're going to go through all these and you're going to get to where you can recognize it with others - practice practice practice!

You can't hear them:

1) power - on? 

2) Volume - up? 

3) Right frequency? (Right channel?  If you have an A/B split, are you looking at the A channel while you're on the B channel?).

4) Squelch too high?  

5) R-CTCS - or "Receive, continuous tone coded squelch" - should be set to "off" otherwise you won't pick up a signal because your radio will be filtering it out unless they are transmitting a tone (e.g. 100Hz or whatever your radio is set to). (Different radios call this different things, some call it "code" others call it "tone squelch" or "CTCS".

6) Location?  - is there something between you and them, power supplies, terrain?  Can you move around and hear a difference?

7) Is THEIR power down?  Are THEY on the right frequency?  Are they transmitting on an offset frequency on simplex? Do they have something near them that's blocking them?  Are THEY in a bad area?  (If you have a waterfall display, you'll be able to see what's happening better). Are they transmitting on the repeater output frequency via simplex so their signal isn't going out very far and only a few people can hear them?  (You don't have much control over this?)

8) Do you have a good antenna?  Rubber duckie antennas aren't very effective if you're using a handheld, the 15" Nagoya whips are better, and the 3' "tactical" antennas, while a bit unwieldy, are a "half wave" for VHF and can get some range - depending on #7.

9) Is your antenna connected properly?  Does it need to be tightened?  Is there water in the connection (for a vehicle or outdoor antenna)?  Is there snow on it?  Did you go through a car-wash with it on?  Did your kids run a lawn-mower over your coax?  

10) Do you have two people "doubling down" where you are transmitting at the same time or someone is transmitting over you? 

11) Is there interference - atmospheric, solar, electrical grid, other operators? 

!2) Is the repeater working?  Sometimes they go down.  Usually you'll hear a "ker chunk" after someone stops transmitting on a repeater, if that disappears and it's just silent, the power for the repeater (e.g. battery system) may be down.

They can't hear you - similar to the above list: 

1) Is your power on?  

2) Is your transmit power up?  Low/Med/High? (Start high and then power down as needed).

3) Are you on the right frequency? 

4) Do you have an A/B  channel and you're looking at A not transmitting on B? 

5) Are you using an offset, using the wrong offset? (Are you using a "+" when it should be  "-" or are you on simplex with an offset, or on a repeater with the offset off?). 

6) Do you have the right tone for the repeater (CTCS - Continuous Tone Coded Squelch)? 

7) Is your radio set to "encode" the CTCS?  You can have it set on some radios, but it won't be using it until you set it to "encode". 

8) Is your antenna connected properly?  

9) Are you using an effective antenna (e.g. rubber duckie vs. whip) or even a quarter-wave has a significant difference from a half-wave on VHF (~18" vs ~39" antenna).

10) Is your antenna vertical?  If you're holding it at an angle, a portion of your signal is going to the sky and another portion to the ground. 

11)  Did your kids or you run a lawnmower over the coax, or does it have water in the connections, or did you run your car through a car wash and get water in your antenna? 

12) Are you "doubling down" or "being doubled down on" with/by someone else transmitting at the same time? 

13) Is their equipment set up right? (You don't have much control over this).

14) Do you need to relocate and retransmit? 

 Sometimes we need to RTM (read the manual - been there, done that) - but if we learn it once, we don't have to learn it again, we just have to remember it.   If none of these work, you can phone a friend for help!  Just keep at it, one of the most satisfying things in life can be finally winning at a challenge, solving a problem and that can definitely be amateur radio!