How to Program the TIDRADIO H8

What this is

A tested, worked example: programming the Stone Mountain Amateur Radio Club repeater (W4GSO) into a TIDRADIO H8. The video shows it. The guide sheet is yours to download and keep. And the steps below give you the exact menu numbers — so once you've done this one, you can program any repeater into this radio.

Watch: programming the H8

TIDRADIO H8 · Stone Mountain repeater W4GSO · 146.760 / −0.600 / 107.2 Hz

Twelve illustrated steps — TIDRADIO H8, worked on the Stone Mountain repeater.

Free to download and print. Fits in a go-bag.

1. In VFO mode, enter the receive frequency: 1 4 6 . 7 6 0 0 0
2. Menu 0 — Bandwidth → Wide. Press MENU, 0, Wide, MENU to save
3. Menu 2 — TX Power → High
4. Menu 23 — Direction → Minus (−)
5. Menu 24 — Offset → 00.60000
6. Menu 13 — Tx CTCSS → 107.2 Hz
7. Menu 28 — Save Channel → 001. Press MENU, enter 2 8, select 001, press MENU. 'Save Success' appears
8. Press VFO/MR to switch to Memory mode. Channel 001 should show 146.760
9. Listen for activity, then transmit and confirm you can open the repeater

A repeater listens on one frequency and transmits on another. You do the mirror image — you listen where it transmits, and transmit where it listens. That's all an offset is. Here you receive on 146.760 and, because the offset is minus 600 kHz, your radio transmits on 146.160 without you having to think about it. Get the direction backwards and you'll hear the repeater perfectly and never get into it.

The PL tone

• A sub-audible tone your radio sends underneath your voice. You never hear it — the repeater does
• It exists so the repeater ignores noise, distant stations, and interference
• Without the right tone you can transmit all day and nothing happens
• Most repeaters only need a tone on your transmit. Some send one too, which you can use to squelch out everything else — leave that off until you're comfortable

Why 600 kHz

• On the 2 m band, repeater offsets are standardised at 600 kHz — so nearly every 2 m repeater is either minus or plus 0.600
• Which direction depends on where the output sits in the band. Above roughly 147 MHz it's usually plus; below, usually minus
• On 70 cm the standard is 5 MHz instead
• Some radios set the offset automatically once you enter the frequency. Check it rather than assume

The four common mistakes

• Wrong offset direction — should be Minus for this repeater
• Wrong offset amount — should be 0.600 MHz
• Wrong PL tone
• Forgetting to save to memory. The settings look right in VFO and vanish when you switch modes

• Look it up on RepeaterBook — output frequency, offset direction, offset amount and tone
• Program the OUTPUT frequency as your receive. That's the one listed
• Check whether it's open or club-only. Most are open; a few aren't
• Listen before you transmit — every repeater has its own culture, and many have nets at fixed times
• Repeater details change. Clubs adjust tones and move frequencies, so verify before a trip

One repeater by keypad is fine. Twenty is not. Once this one works you'll want your whole local area in the radio — the club repeater, the wide-area machine, the linked system, the ones you only hit from the interstate. That's twenty or thirty channels, each needing a frequency, an offset direction, an offset amount and a tone. Doing that on a keypad is an evening you won't enjoy. This is where you stop typing and start loading.

The workflow that scales

• Find your local repeaters on RepeaterBook — output frequency, offset, tone, and whether they're open
• Build the list once, somewhere you can edit it properly
• Export it to whatever your radio speaks — CHIRP for most, OdMaster for TIDRADIO
• Load it, and never retype it again
• When you buy your next radio, you already have the list

Keep your repeater list in one place

The HamCompass Radio Memory Manager holds one master channel list and exports to CHIRP and other formats. Build it once, load it into any radio, and it follows you across devices. Free with an account.

• TIDRADIO handhelds are generally programmed through their own OdMaster app rather than CHIRP — so the CHIRP workflow you may know from Baofengs doesn't transfer directly
• Keypad programming is fine for one or two channels and tedious beyond that
• A cable or the app will save real time on a full memory list
• Whichever you use, keep the source list somewhere you control — the export is disposable, the list isn't

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