Midland Base Camp XT511 Won't Transmit

FRS / GMRS Radios
#1

Looking for ideas. I have tried with multiple radios and across many channels but I can’t seem to get my Base Camp radio to transmit.

I’m currently testing like this:

Channel 1
CTCSS Off
DTS Off
Every other setting on the XT511 off

Radio receives fine from my other radio(s).
When I hit the PTT, other radio(s) go into RX.
No voice comes through to other radios.

I have tried with and without the external mic. I have everything unplugged. I’m starting to think it may just be bad hardware, but I can’t figure out why the other radios would be going into RX. The PTT button is doing something but maybe the Mic circuit is shot?

Thanks for any suggestions.

#2

The other radios are programmed to look for a tone to open the squelch, your ‘off’ settings stop your radio sending the tone they need. Your radio hears their tones and ignores them. Just find their tone and enter it. If you don’t know it, then set your recipe tone, one by one, until the other radios transmitting make yours burst into life, then set yours to transmit the same tone. All done.

#3

Thanks for the reply. I feel I’ve tried all the settings but I must be missing one. I set both my midland Base Camp and My Motorola Talkabout on channel 15. I set the ‘privacy’ tone on the Motorola at 27 and the CTCSS on the midland at 27. I cycled through all the different tones and this is the only one that seems to at least allow transmit from Motorola to Midland. Still no communication from Midland to Motorola.

On the Midland, there are DCS settings and CTCSS settings. There is a Uo setting (off), a CA setting (off) and rb setting (off) a bp setting (off).

Seems I’d have to spend hours going through ever setting and saying ‘test’, ‘test’ ‘test’ to figure this out.

I’m going to keep on looking for some kind of cross reference.

I was able to find reference to be my ham to hear the GPRS signal from Motorola’s (I know I can’t transmit the other way). Both the Ham and the motorola’s recognize when I hit PTT on the Midland, just silent.

Will keep trying.

#4

Yep - there seems no real lookup table between makes. If you have a meter, it’s easy - you can press the PTT and read the tone frequency - otherwise, yes, one by one it is!

#5

The easiest way to troubleshoot this is to turn the tones and codes off on all the radios and try TX and RX between all the radios with the frequencies wide open. Some Motorola Talkabouts often set their channels to code 1 by default, so you will need to be sure they are all set to 0 (off). If your Talkabout supports Qt tones, make sure those are off.

If the radios can talk to each other wide open, with no tones or codes at all, it is an interference eliminator tone/code or Qt code issue.

#6

I turned both off and not difference. CTCSS, DTS off on Midland, privacy code 0 on Motorola. Same result. Midland receives from Moto, Moto goes into RX from Midland but no audio comes through.

Starting to think there is a defect. According to all I read, the first group of codes are common between the two brands. It is only when you get up into the 30’s that they change.

#7

You mentioned that your other radios are Motorola and ham. What specific models are they?

#8

I have Motorola talkabout t5420. I tested the receive on one of my Baofeng UV5R’s. I can seem to get everything to work (with and without privacy codes) except the transmit side on the Midland. Nothing comes out no matter if I have CTCSS on or off.

I can receive fine on it.

#9

You mentiioned when you press the PTT on the XT511, all the other radios acknowledge that they receive the signal, but they just don’t hear a voice. If so, that means the XT511 is transmitting the signal, but something is getting in the way of hearing what is on it.

How far away from the other radios are you when you are transmitting on the XT511? The Midland is a more powerful radio than the Talkabout, so it could be desensing if the radios are too close. Other than the CTCSS/DCS/interference eliminator codes, there aren’t too many other things that would get in the way, as these are fairly simple comms.

If you’ve tried everything else without success, including using another Midland radio if available, you may need to contact the dealer or Midland. If you purchased it from us and within the last 30 days, give us a call directly. If it was purchased after 30 days or from another dealer, you may want to contact Midland, as they do have a very good 3 year warranty on their radios.

#10

Thank you for all the replies. I did wonder if I was too close. I moved to a different room in the house with the same results, but maybe that is still too close? I will try a little further. If not, I may buy a few inexpensive midland walkie talkie’s and see if those work as it never hurts to have a few extra radios in the drawer.