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CTCSS tone numbers are useless ! Written and Maintained by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

This table should show anyone why it's totally useless to give someone a tone number. You need to give them the tone frequency and let them be responsible for keeping a cheat sheet for their own radio with them. This is especially true with the multitude of FRS and PMR radios used by CERT and similar teams.

There is a separate web page at this site oriented towards FRS handhelds.

As Andrew S. Tanenbaum (the author of many standard computer science textbooks) said, "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from."

Sorry about this table being so wide, but there was no other way to present the information.

Two other tone charts for add-on CTCSS tone boards are here: Communications Specialists modules with 5 switches and Communications Specialists modules with 6 switches

Tone Numbers in Various Standards and Tone Lists
Tone Freq. (Hz)	UK MPT1306 standard (32 tones)	UK standard 38 tones (note 1)	UK standard 39 tones (adds 69.3 Hz)	MX- Comm Tone Encoder- Decoder chips 43 tones (note 2)	Some Older Yaesu radios (note 3)	Newer Yaesu 50-tone CTCSS list	A different 38 tone list (missing 7 standard tones, adds 3 unique tones)	41 tones	47 tones	Many ICOM radios	Moto 1965 list of 26 tones	EIA Grp A	EIA Grp B	EIA Grp C	Moto standard code list (42 tones)	EIA/TIA RS-220 standard (37 tones)	Comment
67.0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		A			XZ or L1	1	Listed as 67.1 in some manuals and in some radios actually is 67.1 Hz.
69.3			2	2		2	2	2	2						WZ		Listed as 69.4 in some manuals and in some radios actually is 69.4 Hz.
71.0																	Found in some Icom radios
71.9	2	2	3	3	2	3	3	3	3	2			B		XA or L2	2
74.4		3	4	4	36	4	4	4	4	3				C	WA	3
77.0	3	4	5	5	3	5	5	5	5	4		A			XB or L3	4
79.7		5	6	6	38	6	6	6	6	5				C	WB/SP	5
82.5	4	6	7	7	4	7	7	7	7	6	1		B		YZ or L4	6
85.4		7	8	8	40	8	8	8	8	7	2			C	YA	7
88.5	5	8	9	9	5	9	9	9	9	8	3	A			YB or L4A	8
91.5		9	10	10	42	10	10	10	10	9	4			C	ZZ	9
94.8	6	10	11	11	6	11	11	11	11	10	5		B		ZA or L5	10	Note that this tone is not present in some older radios.
97.4		11	12	12		12	12	12	12		6				ZB		Not listed in EIA/TIA standard RS-220
100.0		12	13	13	7	13	13	13	13	11	7	A			1Z	11
103.5	7	13	14	14	8	14	14	14	14	12	8		B		1A	12
107.2	8	14	15	15	9	15	15	15	15	13	9	A			1B	13
110.9	9	15	16	16	10	16	16	16	16	14	10		B		2Z	14
114.8	10	16	17	17	11	17	17	17	17	15	11	A			2A	15
118.8	11	17	18	18	12	18	18	18	18	16	12		B		2B	16
123.0	12	18	19	19	13	19	19	19	19	17	13	A			3Z	17
127.3	13	19	20	20	14	20	20	20	20	18	14		B		3A	18
131.8	14	20	21	21	15	21	21	21	21	19	15	A			3B	19
136.5	15	21	22	22	16	22	22	22	22	20	16		B		4Z	20
141.3	16	22	23	23	17	23	23	23	23	21	17	A			4A	21
146.2	17	23	24	24	18	24	24	24	24	22	18		B		4B	22
151.4	18	24	25	25	19	25	25	25	25	23	19	A			5Z	23
156.7	19	25	26	26	20	26	26	26	26	24	20		B		5A	24
159.8				27		27	27		27
162.2	20	26	27	28	21	28	28	26	28	25	21	A			5B	25
165.5			29			29
167.9	21	27	28	29	22	30	30	27	29	26	22		B		6Z	26
171.3						31	31
173.8	22	28	29	30	23	32	32	28	30	27	23	A			6A	27
177.3						33	33
179.9	23	29	30	31	24	34	34	29	31	28	24		B		6B	28
183.5				32		35	35		32
186.2	24	30	31	33	25	36	36	30	33	29	25	A			7Z	29
189.9				34		37	37		34
192.8	25	31	32	35	26	38	38	31	35	30	26		B		7A	30
196.6				36		39			36
199.5						40			37
203.5	26	32	33	37	27	41		32	38	31		A			M1	31
206.5						42		33	39						8Z		Use the tones above 203.5 Hz only if you are absolutely sure that all the user's radios have them. Many do not, or have different combinations of them.
210.7	27	33	34	38	28	43		34	40	32			B		M2	32
218.1	28	34	35	39	29	44		35	41	33		A			M3	33
225.7	29	35	36	40	30	45		36	42	34			B		M4	34
229.1						46		37	43						9Z
233.6	30	36	37	41	31	47		38	44	35		A			M5	35
241.8	31	37	38	42	32	48		39	45	36			B		M6	36
250.3	32	38	39	43	33	49		40	46	37		A			M7	37
254.1						50		41	47	38					0Z		The Motorola name for this tone is "zero-Z" due to the unfortunate truncation of "10Z" into a two digit field.
Tone Freq. (Hz)	UK MPT1306 standard (32 tones)	UK standard 38 tones (note 1)	UK standard 39 tones (adds 69.3 Hz)	MX- Comm Tone Encoder- Decoder chips 43 tones (note 2)	Some older Yaesu radios (note 3)	Newer Yaesu 50-tone CTCSS list	A different 38 tone list (missing 7 standard tones, adds 3 unique tones)	41 tones	47 tones	Many ICOM radios	Moto 1965 list of 26 tones	EIA Grp A	EIA Grp B	EIA Grp C	Moto standard code list (42 tones)	EIA/TIA RS-220 standard  (37 tones)	Comment

Table Note 1:
Despite the MPT standard most UK manufacturers use this list (it's the same as the EIA/TIA standard plus 97.4 Hz), or the 39 tone list. Kenwood uses this list in some of their FRS radios.

Table note 2:
These chips are used by a number of manufacturers as embedded tone generators and decoders.

Table Note 3: No, it's not an error, the list really does skip 34, 35, 37, 39, and 41.
An even older series of Yaesu radios skipped from 27 to 36, then skipped 37, 39, and 41.

Some older mobile telephone systems used some strange "Connect Tones" in their handshaking protocol:

CONNECT TONES

The connect tone is a sub-audible tone transmitted with the mobile's
clear audio for detection by the station and Central Controller. One
or two connect tones may be decoded simultaneously by the station.
Connect Tone 1 is also encoded to the Central Controller during coded
transmissions from the mobile to allow the Central to detect a connect
tone. Connect Tone 2 will not be encoded to the Central under any
circumstances. The valid Connect Tone list is show below.

Connect Tones:
CT#0 = 105.9 Hz.  CT#1 =  76.6 Hz.  CT#2 =  83.7 Hz.  CT#3 =  90.0 Hz.
CT#4 =  97.3 Hz.  CT#5 = 116.1 Hz.  CT#6 = 128.6 Hz.  CT#7 = 138.5 Hz.

Contact Information:

The author can be contacted at: his-callsign // at // repeater-builder // dot // com.

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This page originally posted on 18-Sep-2009

Article text and hand-coded HTML © Copyright 2006 and date of last update by Mike Morris WA6ILQ.

This web page, this web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors. All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.