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Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:14 pm
by Pump3
Hey guys,
I have a VHF desktrac repeater, I tore the desktrac "control head" apart, removed the button blanks and put in real buttons, so I can make it scan and change channels. I programmed 3 channels in, the 3 channels are the same repeater split, but with differing tones.
Ch.1 = DPL 223
Ch.2 = TPL 156.7
Ch.3 = TPL 141.3

enabled scan and programmed the scan list accordingly
what I want to accomplish is to have this run in a sort of a cheap community repeater type of way (ie, dont wanna buy a external controller), this isnt gonna be used for a mission critical anything, just mostly to satisfy my own curiosity, anyways, I program it all correctly, using Maxtrac RSS on the individual radios inside the case, the transmit radio will transmit the correct tone on each of the 3 channels, but the DPL of channel one, repeats itself on Ch.2 and 3 in receive....even though the software is reporting the ones I want, only DPL223 will key the repeater, on all 3 channels, but it transmits the wanted ones on the output....

any ideas? or am I beating a dead horse?
thanks in advance

Re: Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 3:33 am
by kcbooboo
I believe you have to run the DeskTrack program after programming each individual radio, so it can read all the mode information from the radios and put some of that into the DeskTrac controller which the front panel buttons access. Otherwise weird things will happen.

Bob M.

Re: Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 6:14 am
by firemedic
Dektrac software, change the switch setting when it says to. The RX deck and TX decks are programmed seperate similar to the suitcase spectra repeaters. The switch changes the address lines to the correct radio for programming. That should take care of the problem. It's essentially 2 radios with a rick and no pa on the rx radio in a spectra consolette case. Both radios appear to regular maxtrac RSS as standard mobiles and depending on the switch is sees only the tx or the rx deck. the standard position of the switch if I remember right only sees the tx deck.

Re: Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:23 pm
by Pump3
Okay, maybe im doing something wrong or not in the right order but I still cant get it...

I program the radios with Maxtrac RSS, everything seems to go in correctly...
but the receive radio is still repeating the DPL of Channel 1 onto Channels 2 and 3

I tried programming with Desktrac RSS after programming the individual radios with Maxtrac RSS, it gives me the You must reprogram with Maxtrac RSS to reduce the number of modes to 1 error, and afterwards the Channel 2 and 3 are still in it, but identical to Channel 1....

Is there some kind of exact order this has to be done in, I cant seem to get it to take...

Re: Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:07 am
by kcbooboo
Maybe the RSS is trying to tell you something. The missing channel buttons might be a hint that it only wants to let you have one and only one channel, perhaps based on the model number of the station. Most repeaters, because of duplexer tuning, are only capable of one channel. You may be trying to make it do something it was never designed to do.

Bob M.

Re: Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 8:05 am
by Pump3
Thank you for the very helpful reply
If everyone here never tried anything new or tried to push the limits on anything we wouldnt have the wealth of knowledge that batboard has today
From what I gather from the previous posts, its possible, I would just like to know how....

I did mention all three channels are the same repeater pair, with differing PL tones, hence duplexer tuning wouldnt be an issue, give me some credit now....lol

Re: Desktrac Modifications

Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 6:23 pm
by 35echo
It sounds like the tx radio is changeing freq's but the rx is not. The channel controls on the front only affect the tx radio. In order to change freq's on the rx radio you might try paralleling the control lines but you may still have a problem with the radios getting out of sync with each other.

Regards,

Allen