Home >> Hobbies >> Ham Radio

Troubleshooting a Maratrac VHF

The Maratrac VHF is a ham radio for vehicles where users can listen to emergency frequencies and communicate with other drivers on the road. Once installed, this device will run off of the power of your vehicle. However, you may occasionally have problems operating it. When this happens, you will hear a series of beeps to help you diagnose and troubleshoot the problem.

Instructions

- 1
  Listen for a series of beeps when you are having issues operating your Maratrac VHF. Turn the "On/Off" switch to the "On" position. You will hear one high-pitched beep from the speakers. This indicates the radio passed a self-diagnostic test and is operating normally. If you hear multiple beeps, contact the manufacturer or a technician as there is a hardware problem.
- 2
  Press a button to perform an operation as normal. If you hear one high-pitched chirp, then the button press was succesfull and your Maratrac will perform the desired operation. If you hear a low-pitched tone, the operation could not be performed. Make sure you pressed the proper button. If you did and the button still will not work, contact a technician.
- 3
  Wait for the current transmission to complete if you hear a long low-pitched tone after pressing the "PPT" button. The machine may have to finish the previous transmission before you can send a new one. If you are unable to send the transmission to the sender, try the transmission again a second time. If it still doesn't work, you may have a hardware problem.
- 4
  Stop transmission if you hear a long low-pitched tone while transmitting. This means that your transmission session has timed out and you must start a new one. If this repeatedly happens, you or the party you are trying to communicate with might have a hardware issue that will need to be resolved by the manufacturer or a technician.

Ham Radio