Remote mounting XTL2500 control head - maximum cable length?

[joescanner]

I see on Motorola Online that the longest remote mount cable that is manufactured for the XTL2500 is 131 feet (40 meters). Is that an absolute maximum? Is there any issue with going out to, say, 250 feet, aside from having to build the cable assembly by hand?

[Jim202]

I see on Motorola Online that the longest remote mount cable that is manufactured for the XTL2500 is 131 feet (40 meters). Is that an absolute maximum? Is there any issue with going out to, say, 250 feet, aside from having to build the cable assembly by hand?

Your probably pushing the functional ability of the digital bus to function beyond the 131 feet. There must be another way to be able to run the radio over the distance your trying to make it work. Are you looking for full functionality or can you work with the simple PTT and audio? If you only need one channel operation, then a much better way would be to use a tone remote control adapter at the radio. There are ways to make it multi channel, but not full functionality.

Jim

[joescanner]

I see on Motorola Online that the longest remote mount cable that is manufactured for the XTL2500 is 131 feet (40 meters). Is that an absolute maximum? Is there any issue with going out to, say, 250 feet, aside from having to build the cable assembly by hand?

Your probably pushing the functional ability of the digital bus to function beyond the 131 feet. There must be another way to be able to run the radio over the distance your trying to make it work. Are you looking for full functionality or can you work with the simple PTT and audio? If you only need one channel operation, then a much better way would be to use a tone remote control adapter at the radio. There are ways to make it multi channel, but not full functionality.

Jim

It's completely hypothetical at this point, looking for different options.

We will have 24 XTL2500's in a comm closet, affiliated to specific talkgroups on a local Smartzone system, and attached to RoIP adapters to our new P25 system as an temporary interop solution. After the entire agency is moved over (which will take some time), those radios will be reused for control stations at the dispatch consoles. We want the ability to retain the RoIP connection so we can do ad-hoc patches as needed, and I figured the easiest way might be to just remote the heads out to the dispatch consoles.

It was a nice thought, but you pretty much confirmed what I figured out on my own. What I will probably recommend is that we just run some low-loss coax between each of the dispatch consoles and the 24-port combiner in the comm closet. Maybe if I get the suggestion in soon enough we can get the contractors to do it while they're doing the rest of the wire runs...

Thanks for the feedback, and pretty much confirming what I thought.

[Jim202]

It's completely hypothetical at this point, looking for different options.

We will have 24 XTL2500's in a comm closet, affiliated to specific talkgroups on a local Smartzone system, and attached to RoIP adapters to our new P25 system as an temporary interop solution. After the entire agency is moved over (which will take some time), those radios will be reused for control stations at the dispatch consoles. We want the ability to retain the RoIP connection so we can do ad-hoc patches as needed, and I figured the easiest way might be to just remote the heads out to the dispatch consoles.

It was a nice thought, but you pretty much confirmed what I figured out on my own. What I will probably recommend is that we just run some low-loss coax between each of the dispatch consoles and the 24-port combiner in the comm closet. Maybe if I get the suggestion in soon enough we can get the contractors to do it while they're doing the rest of the wire runs...

Thanks for the feedback, and pretty much confirming what I thought.[/quote]

One thought that comes to mind is what the state of Virginia is currently doing. They started a state interoperability system several years ago using a gateway that has IP ability. This has allowed them to inter connect some 90 plus gateways now and this gives them the ability to share the connected radio channels between the different 911 dispatch centers. You can take a look at the "Virginia COMLINC Project" online. Some of these agencies even have the ability to remotely control some selected radios like the XTL5000 for channels and zones through the gateway. There are a number of different threads and articles that have been published on what is going on. This has allowed the different agencies to interconnect many different types of radio systems including simplex channels, repeater channels, EDACS trunking and several different Motorola trunked systems.

Not that I am suggesting that you use multiple gateways, but a gateway would provide you with great flexibility. The new software that the RIOS gateway now has, that Virginia is using or looking to update to, does provide some added features. Like the ability to use PDA type cell phones to be able to control the gateway and connections being patched together. It also has the ability to stream live video from the PDA type cell phones through the gateway to other PDA type cell phones. Many law enforcement agencies are showing strong interest in this feature for their tactical teams and the likes. You might want to do some homework on the subject.

Jim

[firemedic4]

I was at an mtug meeting last week and a rep said they sell 150 foot cables.

[allanif]

I was at an mtug meeting last week and a rep said they sell 150 foot cables.

Hi, I'm also using 131 foot of remote mount cable for my XTL 2500 remote mount radio. Do you know what is the size and how many pairs this cable?

In addition, once you lay this 131 foot remote mount cable from transceiver to control head. You also need to consider the power cable length (red, yellow and black wires) which has the same length of 131ft to power up the control head. Anyone knows what is the required size of cable I needed for this power cable?
Does #16AWG size is enough to prevent any voltage drop? thanks