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Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:28 pm
by a1emt
Hello group,

my county is deploying an 800 MHz Astro 7.14 Trunked System. I would like our portable and mobile subscriber units to have the ability to display an alphanumeric alias of the unit calling on the system. For instance, I would like "Engine 1" to appear on the display, as opposed to the numeric P25 ID.

I know about assigning an alias list to the trunked system, however, every time a radio is reassigned to a different user, it would require each radio to be reprogrammed to update the alias list.

Is there a programmable function that can be programmed to transmit a unique alphanumeric identifier within the P25 data stream? I thought this was the "Soft ID" function, but the system techs are telling me there is no such feature....

Subscribers involved will be APX/XTS/XTL all updated to the latest firmware...

Anyone with previous experience in this area? Any documentation would be extremely appreciated.

THANKS!

Jim

Re: Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 6:27 am
by resqguy911
Short answer: No.

Soft ID is a Motorola proprietary feature for Astro Conventional systems. Since you are deploying a 7.14 system, are you also using OTAP? You could manage your alias list fairly easily with that, as the latest firmware & Radio Management supports incremental updates to subscribers. You could do a monthly or quarterly UCL update to keep relatively correct information in your subscribers. I don't want to tell you how to run your system, but maybe you need to really consider why your users are exchanging radios.

Re: Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:21 am
by a1emt
Thanks for the reply! We, unfortunately are not implementing OTAP. The "Exchanging radios" does not occur daily, but many times with new vehicle purchases, redeployment of staff, etc. unit ID's change. We can probably get away with updating the subscribers with an annual "touch" if we have to.

Thanks again,

Jim

Re: Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:39 pm
by resqguy911
My suggestion would be to leverage the alias import feature for your APX subscribers (fw12 and up) and try read hard to keep IDs constant. Unless a radio is lost or stolen, when a device is broken or transferred the ID should remain with the original user.

Re: Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:15 am
by chartofmaryland
Yeah we looked into this,

We have too many users, i.e. 1000+ so ID management on that scale is humm interesting.

To add, I haven't checked H/D 12.00 but before 12 only 1500 alias's could be loaded in one APX subscriber.

The best tool to use for this so far is Radio Management.

Using a local programming interface over an internal LAN is the best way so far to handle large changes and back this up with OTAP when one is missed.

Love to see what 7.15 and 13 H/D has in store.

CoM

Re: Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:32 pm
by a1emt
Thanks for your post, CoM. I will only be managing about 120 subscribers, but the alias feature is a big "want" from our end users. Our system won't have OTAP, so that radio management tool may be of great assistance. Heard 7.15 is right around the corner...

Jim

Re: Subscriber Unit ID Display on Astro 7.14 Trunking

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:24 pm
by chartofmaryland
Sounds good,

Give it a try, we love it and are setting up the virtual server now once the rest of the server licenses are up and running.

You'll have to check but I believe you can do up to 100 radios with RM before you have to purchase a license per subscriber.

So for your application, if there are 20 or so radios that do not need all contacts to be up to date, load the 20 with "common" alias's that would not change often, i.e. dispatch, command vehicle, engine XX, ambulance XX and so on, and load the other 100 up in RM and pickup some extra programming cables that can be left in the local stations, admin offices or anywhere else a programming point would work well.

There is a RM client that is loaded on the programming computers in those places mentioned above and this runs as a service so the user only needs to connect their radio to a computer with a programming cable running the client. There is no CPS screen or any input the user needs to do, just cable up the radio and wait for the display on the radio to change. No change, all is good and go on.

One user I know who has quite a large roll out of this, and has gone as far as to put a programming cable in each of their apparatus maintenance shops where when a unit comes in for service, as part of the PM or quick lube, the programming cable is placed on the radio and if an update is needed the radio gets it, if not then the unit stays in a normal mode.

There is that little learning curve on what programming mode looks and sounds like so when the shop tech cables up the head, he doesn't just plug it in and then jerk the cable back out.

They are given a once over on the dee dee dee and "programming mode" on the screen which means LEAVE THE THING ALONE..... And once everything is done and the radio resets then pull the cable out.

So happy we are well past the nightmares of OH FU&K, the cable just pulled out of the RIB and now the radio is Booooooooo ......... FAIL 01/91, FAIL 01/90, power cycle ....... Nope its dead now.....



"When I program a radio I always program with RM"

Live wisely my friend

CoM