Basic Settings Descriptions

This is a list and description of some of the more important settings in the RT Systems programmer. Please note that this is a general list, some radios may not have all of these settings, and some will have settings not described here. If you're ever uncertain about what a setting does, it will be described in your radio's manual.

For the absolute beginner, the most important settings in most cases are Receive Frequency, Offset Direction, Tone Mode, and CTCSS.

Receive frequency:

This is the most important column. It is the frequency your radio listens on. Most of the time, if your radio is showing a frequency on the face, that frequency is the receive frequency.

Based on the receive frequency you've entered; the software may automatically select offset and transmit frequency settings for you. These automatic settings will be based on the most typical setups for a particular frequency band, if the automatic settings are not correct in your case, you can change them manually.

If you're using a repeater, the receive frequency setting will be equivalent to the repeaters output.

Transmit frequency:

Generally, this column is only shown for clarity usually it's defined by the combination of receive frequency, offset direction and offset frequency. If you set the offset direction to split, you can set this directly, instead.

If you're using a repeater, the transmit frequency setting will be equivalent to the repeaters input. Please note, however, that many repeater listings do not explicitly include a transmit frequency. Rather, they may be formatted as a receive frequency and a + or sign. This corresponds to offset settings, as described below.

Offset Frequency:

The setting here allows you to define how large the offset will be. The most typical offsets in amateur use are 600 kHz in the 2m band, and 5 MHz in the 70 cm band.

Offset direction:

Often, especially if you're trying to access a repeater, you will want your radio to transmit and receive on different frequencies. If you are doing this, you will use whats called an offset.

Simplex: This means that there is no offset. This is most frequently used for radio-to-radio communications

Plus/minus: This means the transmit frequency is either above or below the receive frequency, respectively.

Split: This allows you to set the transmit frequency independently of the receive frequency

No transmit: This will disable transmitting for the channel