Channels, Zones and the VFO

A channel is a saved frequency with its mode (FM or DMR) and settings. A zone is a named list of channels. The VFO tunes any frequency by hand. Channels and zones come from the codeplug (Programming the radio).

Changing the channel

• Turn the channel knob, or press Up or Down on Home, to step through the zone's channels.
• Type the channel's position on Home and press OK. For example, 1, 2, OK goes to channel 12 of the zone.
• Type letters of the channel's name on Home (see Find) and press OK on it.
• Press OK, 4 (Zones), focus the zone and press #. The zone's channels open. Focus one and press OK.

Changing the channel ends temporary changes, the reply window, digital monitor and a scan.

Changing the zone

• Press Next zone or Previous zone (Key roles shows which keys these are on your radio). The radio shows "Zone:" and the name.
• Or press OK, 4 (Zones). The list opens with the current zone focused ("here"). Focus another zone and press OK. The radio switches to it and returns to Home.
• Or type the zone's name on Home. Find lists zones too.

The Zones list shows the VFO first, then every zone with its number of channels. Type letters to filter it.

Editing a zone

A zone's list (OK, 4, focus the zone, #) also edits the zone. Each change is saved at once: there is nothing to save or discard. On a radio without #, hold OK wherever this section says #.

• Add channel (the first row) lists every channel the zone doesn't hold. Type letters or digits to filter it and press OK on one. It goes after the channel you are on, or at the end of a zone you are not using.

• # on a channel opens its actions:

  Key	Action	Does
  1	Move up	swaps it with the channel above. The menu stays open, so press 1 again to move it on
  2	Move down	swaps it with the channel below
  3	Copy here	opens a copy at the lowest free channel number, named with " 2" added. Change what differs and hold OK: the copy is saved and put after the channel in this zone
  4	Edit channel	opens the channel's settings (Editing a channel)
  5	Share channel to...	sends the channel to another radio or a talkgroup (Sharing a zone)
  6	Remove from zone	takes it out of this zone. The channel stays in Channels and in any other zone

• Zone options (the last row):

  Key	Action	Does
  1	Rename	type the new name and press OK
  2	Copy as new zone	makes a new zone with the same channels, named with " 2" added
  3	Share zone to...	sends the zone to another radio or a talkgroup (Sharing a zone)
  4	Delete zone	asks first, with "No, keep it" focused. The zone's channels stay in Channels

Moving, adding and removing keep the radio on its channel. Removing the channel you are on moves the radio to the next channel in the zone. A zone holds a channel once, and the radio refuses a channel past the zone's size ("Zone full"). A radio whose codeplug has no zones shows one zone, "All channels"; the first change saves it as a real zone.

Deleting the zone you are using moves the radio to the zone that comes after it in the list (or the one before, when it was last). Dual watch keeps watching a channel from a deleted zone when another zone holds it, and otherwise stops. A zone marked for roaming loses the mark when it is deleted; the other marks stay on their zones.

Sharing a zone

You can send a zone, or one channel, to another radio or a talkgroup over DMR. Status: sending one channel works on a radio; sending a whole zone and receiving are tested only in the host tests so far.

Send:

1. Tune a DMR channel. The zone goes out on it.
2. Press OK, 4 (Zones). Focus the zone and press #. Its channels open.
3. For one channel: press # on it and pick 5 Share channel to..., or pick Share channel to... in the channel's settings. For the whole zone: pick Zone options (the last row), then 3 Share zone to....
4. Pick a contact or talkgroup and press OK. A banner says "Sent to ..." when it is out.

A zone too big for one send goes in part, and the radio says how much ("Sending 40 of 60 channels"). Scan lists, group lists and privacy keys are never sent.

Receive: set Settings > Connections > Zone offers to Ask. It is Off at first, and with Off the radio ignores what others send.

1. A banner says "Zone from ...". Press # to open it. It also waits under Tools > Zones/Chs Received for 10 minutes. The screen is titled Zone Share Received, or Channel Share Received for one channel.
2. The offer shows the zone's name, its channels, the sender and how many channels are outside your radio's bands.
3. Pick Preview to see the channels, Import to add them, or Reject.

What an import does:

• The zone is added after your zones. If you have a zone with that name, it gets " 2".
• Only channels your radio can receive come in. Every one is receive only: turn transmit on per channel when you know you may use it.
• Talkgroups and contacts you already have are used with your names. Missing ones are added.
• The same zone sent again by the same radio updates your copy instead of adding another. It replaces only the channels from the earlier import that you left as they were. Channels you added to the zone or changed stay, after the new ones.
• A single channel is added to a zone you pick.

At most 6 offers an hour are shown, one at a time. The format is in zone-share.md.

Every channel

OK, 5 (Channels) lists every channel in the codeplug by number and name, whichever zones hold it. Each row ends with the RX frequency and the talkgroup (DMR) or FM. A long name stays whole and the row shortens the rest: "TG" goes first, then the frequency. The channel you are on is marked. Type letters to filter the list.

• OK on a channel opens its settings, where you can change them (below).
• # in the list goes to the channel: in the current zone if it holds it, otherwise in the first zone that does. A channel in no zone says "Not in any zone".
• The first row, New from current, starts a new channel from what the radio uses now (below).

Editing a channel

The channel's page lists every setting: name, mode, RX and TX frequency, power, RX only, then bandwidth, tones and VOX on FM, or color code, timeslot, TX contact, RX group list, own ID, direct mode, talk permit beeps and talker alias on DMR, then TX time-out, scan, battery saver and the zones that hold it. The list scrolls.

Focus a row and press OK:

A changed row is marked until you save. Hold OK anywhere on the page to save, or pick the Save row. The radio writes the channel in the background and says "Saved channel 3". Back with unsaved changes asks whether to discard them; the answer starts on "No, keep editing". Saving any channel drops the quick-settings changes on the channel you are on: the radio reloads it from the codeplug.

The radio won't save a channel without a name, with RX outside its bands, with TX where it can't transmit (set RX only instead), or a DMR channel without a TX contact. It says which.

Save as new channel stores the edited copy at the lowest free number and leaves the original as it was. Go to it tunes the channel and Share channel to... sends it to another radio (Sharing a zone); save or discard your changes first.

Text entry

It works like a phone keypad. Keys 2 to 9 type their letters, then the digit, then the letters in the other case: press 2 once for A, twice for B, four times for 2, five times for a. Press the same key again within a second for the next character; another key, or a pause, moves on. 1 types punctuation (. - / , ' & ( ) @ _ ! ? and 1), 0 a space, 0, +, # and *. The title shows the mode.

# switches the mode: ABC (capitals, the start), then 123 (each key types its digit), then abc (lower case), then back to ABC. Holding a digit key types the digit in any mode. Back deletes the last character (* does too). OK keeps the name. To leave without changing it, press Back until the field is empty and once more. Names hold up to 16 characters.

On a radio without a keypad, Up / Down change the last character, OK adds another, and holding OK keeps the name.

New channel from current settings

OK, 5, then the first row, New from current. It opens an unsaved copy of the channel you are on, with any quick-settings changes, or of the VFO, at the lowest free channel number. The name gets " 2" added (from the VFO, the frequency). Change what differs, then hold OK to save it. A new channel is in no zone yet: add it to one with Add channel in the zone's list (Editing a zone), or use Copy here there to make the copy and add it in one step.

Saving changes to a channel

Change power, squelch, tone, bandwidth, timeslot, color code or mode with quick settings. Then hold OK on Home or in quick settings. The radio writes the channel in the background and shows "Saved to channel". The squelch is saved as the radio's default squelch, not in the channel.

A save that fails shows "Couldn't save: ..." and the change stays for now only.

The VFO

The VFO is an FM VFO or, on a radio with DMR, a DMR VFO. It keeps its mode like its frequency. Everything you change in the VFO (mode, color code, timeslot, talk target) is kept, also when you go to a channel and come back, and after a restart.

1. OK, 4 (Zones). The VFO is the first row.
2. Press OK. Home shows the frequency large, and the radio says "VFO: type a frequency".

Copy a channel to the VFO

To start from a channel, press *, 4 ("To VFO") on it. The channel's settings become the VFO's and Home shows the VFO ("Copied to VFO"). On a radio with a VFO/MR key, hold it instead. Settings > Keys can give any side key "Copy to VFO", on a press or a hold.

• The VFO gets what is in effect now, so a temporary change you made on the channel (a bandwidth, a power level, a talk target) is copied too.
• The channel stays as it was. The VFO keeps the values like its other settings, also after a restart.
• Not copied: the RX group list, the privacy key, roaming, the data and emergency settings, and the squelch level. The VFO uses the radio's own values for these.
• A channel the VFO can't hold is refused with a short message and nothing changes: a DMR channel on a radio build whose VFO is FM only (or the other way round), or a frequency outside the radio's bands.
• In the VFO the same key says "Already in VFO".

Typing a frequency

On Home in the VFO, type the frequency digits from the hundreds of MHz down, without a decimal point. The radio shows what you typed as you go.

• Type at least the three MHz digits, then press OK (or # where the radio has that key) to tune.
• Back deletes the last digit.
• A digit that can't lead to a frequency in the radio's bands is refused, and the radio shows the bands. The bands depend on the radio (Radio reference).
• Up to eight digits (10 Hz). After 10 s without a key, the entry is dropped.

Stepping

Up, Down and the channel knob change the VFO frequency by its step. The step is Settings > Talk > VFO step. Its default, Auto, follows the width: 25 kHz at 25K (and in AM), 12.5 kHz at 12.5K, and the FM broadcast step in the broadcast band. The step is in the status strip.

DMR in the VFO

*, 4 in the VFO switches it between FM and DMR on the same frequency ("VFO: DMR"). In DMR the quick settings are the DMR ones:

• Pick the color code and timeslot of the repeater or the simplex frequency you use. The radio talks to talkgroup 9 until you pick another target, with your own DMR ID.
• The VFO has no listen list. It plays calls to its talk target, all calls and private calls to you. Other talkgroups show as "Other TG: not played". To hear everything on the slot, turn on digital monitor.
• Home shows the frequency, the talk target, the timeslot and the color code. Changes here don't show a dot and Back doesn't undo them.
• The DMR VFO sends data messages and can start an emergency, as a DMR channel does. It sends no talker alias.

Leaving the VFO

Press OK, 4, then OK on the VFO row again ("Back to channels"). Or pick a zone or channel.

Air band and FM broadcast

Some radios also receive the aircraft band in AM and FM broadcast stations (Radio reference). There is no mode to pick and no menu: the frequency decides.

Tune there in the VFO (type 1 1 8 1, or 0 8 8 1, and press OK), or program an FM channel on the frequency in the codeplug. Both are receive only: PTT shows "Air band: receive only" or "Broadcast: receive only" and the radio doesn't transmit. Sub-audio tones are ignored.

In the air band the squelch works as on any FM channel. A broadcast station plays whatever the squelch level, so a fading station isn't cut, and the screen and LED show it is receiving. The squelch only stops a scan on a station: while a scan runs, the broadcast band is quiet between stations.

In the broadcast band the knob and Up / Down step 200 kHz, landing on the odd tenths (88.1, 88.3 ... 107.9) where stations are in the Americas. For 100 kHz steps set Settings > Talk & listen > FM broadcast step to 100 kHz. Either way you can type any frequency, 90.2 for example. In the air band Auto steps 25 kHz; set the VFO step to 8.33 kHz for the narrow channels.

Channels the radio can't use

Channels outside the radio's bands don't transmit ("Outside ..."). Receive-only channels show "RX only" as the talk target.

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