  AmnChode Premium join:2001-03-27 San Antonio, TX
| reply to dispatcher21 Re: Why not use PL tones?
All the PL Tone does is tell the radio to "un-mute" when the tone is, for lack of better words, heard. Otherwise, the freq stays squelched. This works great if everyone uses the same freq, the same tone, and you can guarantee that you are in range of the contact without interference being an issue. It also keeps the radio nice and quiet when not being used.
However, when we are talking long distance contacts, which HAMs are more likely to deal with, you can't hear the contact or the tone over the interference, thus nullifying CTCSS tones. This is neglecting the fact that they would be searching for unknown contacts, to begin with. As such, they would not be squelching the radio purposely.
However, I believe what goes to the heart of the issue is that HAMs have to operate within specific guidelines and part of those guidelines is that they do not interfere with others traffic. Yet, at the same time, the FCC was allowing BPL to interfere with theirs, thus narrowing their radio spectrum even further. |