Have you ever been on a 4×4 trip and found that you can’t find a clear channel that you and your mates can get on? Or is it all nice and quiet apart from a smart ass on the other side of town who every now and then jumps on with an interesting noise mid conversation.

Well, mid 2011 year, the powers that be are expanding the UHF range of frequencies available to the public which effectively means that we’ll get a full 77 channels to play with. So does that mean you should dump your old 40 channel UHF radio as your tour leader is now running on channel 60? Well, no, why don’t you just convince him to use the CTSS / DCS function that comes with most CB radios now days.

CTSS stands for “Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System”.

DCS stands for “Digital-Coded Squelch”.

Despite the cryptic names, the CTSS / DCS functions are actually very easy to use, most of the newer CB radios have them, and they can provide you and your team with effectively an uninterrupted radio channel without much effort at all.

In laymen’s terms, switching on CTSS basically causes your UHF radio to listen out for, an analogue ‘SQUELCH’ as an undertone which is inaudible to the human ear with every transmission. Similarly it will also send this ‘SQUELCH’ with every transmission you make.

Now, with CTSS there is a range of 38 different ‘SQUELCH’ tones that can be used across every available channel on the UHF range.

DCS is exactly the same except the ‘SQUELCH’ is a digital signal as opposed to being analogue. With DCS you have a total of 104 different ‘SQUELCH’ signals available again per channel.

On the 40 channel system we have about 38 channels available for transmission. With 38 CTSS options and 104 DCS options on each channel, you effectively have 38 x (38+104) = 5396 combinations to choose from to find a quiet channel to share between you and your mates.

Using CTSS and DCS

If you can use your microwave, you can use CTSS / DCS on your UHF radio. It’s simple.

For this demo, I’m using my Uniden 500SX (40 channel) which is set in a din slot within my trusty old GQ Nissan Patrol. (Don’t mind the mud) Other recent UHF CB Radio brands and models work in a very similar way.

First up, tune to an available channel on your UHF radio. For this demo, we’re going to use channel 20.

Next, we’re going to hit the ‘DCT/CTSS’ button.

The CTSS logo lights up and it displays ‘oF’ telling us that CTSS is off.

Then simply use the dial as you would with a channel and the small number switches over to your desired CTSS ‘SQUELCH’ tone. In this case I’m setting it to 10.

Then, Bob’s your uncle. Tell your mates to set their UHF radio to channel 20 – CTSS 10 (for example) and you’ll be listening and transmitting on channel 20, but all the background noise will be filtered out as your radio will ignore anything that doesn’t have a ‘SQUELCH’ tone of 10 transmitted along with it.

To use DCS (the digital ‘SQUELCH’ levels), simply turn the dial past CTSS tone 32 and it’ll start on the DCS signal numbers from 1 to 104. Same thing, tell your mates to go to channel 20 – DCS 95 (for example) and more often than not, you’ll have a nice and quiet channel to yourself and your group.

To switch CTSS / DCS off, simply turn the dial back to off and you’ll be back and listening to the open channel.

Quirks with using CTSS / DCS

You’ll find that when you switch over to using CTSS you need to just give it half a second before speaking into your mic after hitting the transmit button.

This is because your radio needs to start sending the ‘SQUELCH’ tone and the other radios need to pick it up before they decide that it’s the right code and start outputting it to the receivers’ speaker.

On DCS the problem is a little more pronounced and I’ve found that the Uniden’s are a little sensitive with DCS so you need to take a longer amount of time before speaking after hitting the transmit button to make sure the message gets through.

Have fun, and happy four wheel driving!

Muz

TORQ4x4

TORQ4x4 sell a great range of Uniden 4×4 UHF CB Radios which are 77 channel ready and include both the CTSS and DCS ‘SQUELCH’ capability.

I was particularly looking forward to this trip as it would give me a chance to test out my new Mickey Thompson MTZ 33 x 12.5 muddies. These are the biggest I was willing to go with my 2 inch lift and even then they’re getting pretty close to the guards and particularly the mudflaps.

Thinking that we’d get off early and avoid the rush, we headed out of Brisbane and up to The Gap on Thursday before getting stuck in an hours worth of one way traffic. They’re fixing up the roads after land slides and the Easter traffic made it not much fun.

After a quick loo and coffee stop at Macca’s in Warwick, we got to Glendon (about 35kms west of Warwick) just in-time to have an hour of daylight left to setup the tents (and finish them in the dark), then settled down to a nice couple of beers by the campfire.

Day 1 – Dave, Rachel and Max (the woofer) arrived and the TORQ4x4 crew were ready to roll. For this trip, we were only two vehicles, but very capable ones indeed. They included:

• 1991 Nissan Patrol GQ 4.2 Litre Petrol with a 2 inch Old Man Emu Lift and 33×12.5 inch Mickey Thompson MTZ’s.
• 2009 Nissan Navara D40 with a 2 inch EFS Heavy Duty Lift and 32 inch Maxxis Bighorn Mud tires.

These vehicles include the essential snorkels and CB radios. And the Navara sported some decent bash plate protection and XXX Xenophot driving lights.

Glendon is a pretty dusty and rocky place so after letting the tires down to 24 PSI, we decided to head out.

We were told about some old mine shafts from the good old days of the Gold Rush in these parts and a decent little hill climb nearby so we decided to go and check them out. The mines were a great piece of Aussie history and with the terrain we were in, it pains to think how people survived out here without the modern comforts we enjoy today.

Anyway, back to the four wheel driving, and nearby to the mines was a fairly steep incline with quite a few big rocks to navigate over. This was a hill which required low range and a bit of control. Many of the rocks were quite sharp and a heavy foot could have meant those muddies became shreddies. As usual, the camera never does it justice on the hills, but here are a few shots of the Navara climbing.

Up the top of the hill and around the bend was a nice grassy plateau where you can get a 360 view of the countryside and see the Great Dividing Range including the traffic jam that was The Gap.

Day 2

We headed out again to check out some of the other tracks. One thing noticeable about Glendon Camping Grounds is that it is very popular with the trail bike riders (more so than for the four wheel driving). The tracks are shared and you need to keep an eye out, but for the most part, everything was very civilised between bike riders and the 4wd’s.

Soon enough, we came across an eroded piece of track where we could test out our flex and show off some angles. And so we did…

It was great to get the cars up on a few angles but I’m not sure the dogs knew what was going on. Afterwards we had an amusing moment where we came accross a quad biker who was limping around on the side of his track. We asked him if he was ok and needed help etc, to which he replied ‘I’m fine, my leg was already broken and my mates are coming to get me’. I gotta admit, those bikers are tough. We then headed back for tucker and more beers.

Day 3

This day was a pretty quiet one, and it had to be after the drinks the night before around the camp fire. The young lad got out and did a bit of metal detecting hoping to find some Gold.

And we then found what seemed to be the hardest hill climb of the trip. This one again required low-range, plus a bit of momentum. Wheel spin was inevitable even with the muddies to get up this one. Didn’t get a good photo on this unfortunately.

After all that, we went for a spot of fishing by the lake. We didn’t get a single bite, but we did enjoy the serenity!

Day 4

This was the last real day of four wheel driving on the Easter break and everywhere we went had been bone dry. We were starting to think that we wouldn’t find the sacred mud, but there by the lake, was a bog hole that couldn’t be missed.

And sure enough, it wasn’t too long until we’d dug out ruts deep enough to sink even the muddies to an inevitable stand-still. Dave was first to get bogged with his Navara, so it was up to the Patrol to pull him out.

This gave us the perfect opportunity to try out the new Black Rat 4WD Recovery Gear which we’re now offering in-store and online. With the winch on the Navara not working, and not too many recovery points on the Patrol, this test only looked at the 9000kg minimum breaking strain snatch strap.

The snatch strap came with a set of clear recovery and safety guidelines which is great for 4×4 beginners or for brushing up.

The strap itself just by look and feel is of excellent quality. We’re told that all Black Rat straps are tested individually prior to packaging and that gives us some piece of mind. These straps have safety overload indicators which are basically red threads which are sewn into the strap weaves. These will tell you if your snatch strap is warn and due for replacement.

The re-inforced leather eyes look very durable and slotted straight into our tow-bar hitch points for the recovery.

The Navara was bogged up pretty high, and I could tell. This recovery took a few tugs at the strap and was one of the hardest I’ve done yet. The Patrol is no slouch and after a bit more accelerator the Navara came free.

Next it was the Patrols turn to get bogged, and with a bit more clearance than the Navara, it took a good five minutes of digging up the hole until it found itself with nowhere to go.

During the recoveries, the Black Rat snatch strap allowed a reasonable amount of stretch before applying a smooth application of elastic force minimising the dynamic forces applied to each vehicle. This was gentler on our machines and made the job of getting out much smoother and safer.

The strap didn’t show any obvious signs of wear and tear (apart from being covered in mud) and overall, we’d have to give the snatch strap 10 out of 10 for the recoveries, and the bog hole a 8 out of 10 for difficulty.

We’re now looking forward to testing out the rest of the Black Rat recovery equipment on our next trip.

In Summary

Overall, I’d have to say that Glendon was a great place to spend Easter. Whilst the four wheel driving wasn’t the most difficult we’d encountered, it has a few good challenges in the form of hill climbs and a good few decent ruts that you can make your own fun out of. It would have to rate in the easy-to-moderate 4×4 terrain category with a couple of tough bits thrown in. Great for those who are just getting into four wheel driving, and an excellent place for camping and enjoying the bush. The camp grounds were big and clean, with decent facilities and entertainment put on for the campers on the Friday and Saturday nights. We had a great time and recommend it to you all.