I just returned from a trip to another part of the country where I had brought along radios to listen to the local repeaters. I had looked online to find the data needed. I had entered the information into the programming software for upload to each radio.
While traveling, I found that many of the repeaters I wanted to monitor were silent - I had expected to hear the repeater ID announcements at the required intervals, but nothing was audible. While I was certain I had the repeater output frequencies correct, I had no way to test their operation in advance - being so geographically distant at the time of programming. A quick study of the online repeater book via my phone helped me realize my error.
One thing I did not fully review was the tone squelch setting for each repeater I wanted to monitor on the trip. Turns out many of the repeaters I had programmed require a tone to access the input side of the repeater, but they do not transmit the tone on the output frequency - therefore, my tone squelch setting was wrong. This was unexpected to me as the repeaters I monitor in our area do transmit the tone on the output side.
I was without a computer programming option to quickly correct the situation. This gave me the opportunity to relearn how to manually program frequencies and tone data into my radio. I will admit it was cumbersome work, but in order to listen to the local amateur scene, I had to correct my errors the long way.
The need to communicate in an emergency can come without warning. In addition to the simplex frequencies we have selected for our group, I would encourage each of you to review the Cache County ARES net frequency list called "ICS205" which can be found at barconline.org/ares. There is a link to the frequency list near the top of that page, under that name.
It’s likely you will have many of these repeaters and simplex frequencies already in your radio, having programmed and used them previously, so adding a few more frequencies to the radio is all it would take. If you want to have the entire list programmed in the order seen on the page, plugging the ordered list into an unused portion of your memory will accomplish this. Then give them a test to make sure each repeater with tone squelch responds when you transmit.
Or, if you prefer to add them at the time they are needed, you can make a hardcopy of the list and hopefully be practiced at entering frequencies into your radio manually - when the time comes.