TMS through a Quantar, anyone know the setup??

[jmr061]

I got TMS to work on direct, trying to get it to work through the "repeater" setting and its not working.

Radios are XTL5000 and XTS5000 both properly flashed for data/tms. Can get them to talk via the TMS direct mode. Have a quantar set up in the ham band, works fine for imbe voice, can "see" the TMS message going through the quantar (rx/tx) but receiving radio isn't alerting to the message. I am guessing its a codeplug setup issue. Anyone play with this yet or am I the first??

Thanks

Jason

[batdude]

ur the first


at least that i know of


good luck with your qwest




doug

[Bruce1807]

If i'm not wrong,
TMS is Radio to Radio or a 7.x function

I will look at the TMS manuals tonight but I'm pretty sure its not for conventional repeat as it goes over the control channel on trunking.

A wild guess here but try setting the repeater as analog and see what happens. That way the signal wont be interfered with.

[radioinstl]

have a fairly new uhf quantar that run mixed mode here, will try it and let you know in the next few days

[jmr061]

Well I did more programming and playing, I made a mistake though, the quantar rx light is not coming on with the data packet so there is some issue somewhere. One of the board members helped me set up the ip's on the mobile, portable and quantar and it is still a no go.

Jason

[radioinstl]

tried it multiple ways today and no go. try to get to the site tonight and see whats up

[mr.syntrx]

I'm not familiar with ASTRO 25 text messaging, it if I understand right, when you use it in repeater mode, it requires you to specify the IP address of a base station in repeater mode? If so, I imagine that refers to an RNC or something.

If so, can you run it using the same configuration as you do in simplex, but use two frequencies as you normally would for repeater operation?

[akardam]

TMS is simply a feature running over APCO Packet Data. According to the documentation, there are three ways to configure the packet data mode for a given Astro system:

Direct: Uses the channel's talkaround/direct frequency for packet data.
Repeated: Uses the channel's normal TX and RX for packet data.
FNE: Fixed Network Equipment. Uses the channel's normal TX and RX, and communicates through a fixed packet data network.

Why Motorola made a distinction between the first two, I don't know. Ideally you'd think the radio would just use whatever repeated/talkaround mode the radio is currently in - e.g. if you're on a duplex channel, but in talkaround, it would use the talkaround frequency, just like voice.

Nope. The packet data is slaved to however you've configured it in the Astro System. So that means if you want to do packet data in the absence of FNE, on a repeater channel, in theory you'd have to have two Astro systems, one set for Direct and the other for Repeated.

Given all that... I'm beginning to wonder if the radios are simply not transmitting a NAC when in packet data mode, or transmitting 293 (digital carrier squelch) regardless of what the channel is programmed for. When doing TMS on a simplex channel, I don't recall seeing the recieving radio's LED flash, as when recieving voice traffic, though I may not have been paying attention to it.

My next suggestion would be to take the two radios, put them on opposite sides of a duplex pair (e.g. one TX high RX low, the other TX low RX high), set the Astro system for Repeated, and see what happens...

[Bruce1807]

I had a look at the manuals I have

6871004P64-A Text Messaging Services - Infrastructure
6871004P76-A Text Messaging Services
Fixed Messaging Client Installation Guide
and
6871004P72-A Text Messaging Services
Server Software Installation

and they all seem to lead to lots of infrastructure.
No examples of a single repeater at all.

Akardam which manual did you get your info from?

[emsbuff3240]

I asked /\/\ about this and this is the response i recieved:

Can you do conventional text messaging on a quantar repeater?

o       Quantar supports P25 trunking and conventional IV&D. We tested the we found that the Quantar (PDR) repeats the text no problem (with one caveat)
That caveat is:
o       The unit will repeat text, at least in conventional operation, BUT requires "RDLAP Repeat" to be enabled in the Quantar.
o       That is the feature that was removed early this year from the CPS, according to CSAFE Manager,

[jmr061]

Have to check into that with some older RSS for the quantar then.

Jason

[Astro Spectra]

Yes I can confirm that RDLAP must be enabled. I've tested TMS through it and it works fine with the 'Repeated' setting.

However on my Quantar the station TX hangs on transmit after each successful TMS. None of the time-out timers shut down the TX although it will reset after the next Astro voice transmission or button push.

I’m using RSS Release 12.30 and the Quantar has 1996 vintage SC software of R 016.08.008 which might need an update. I have an R20 something system to try but that will need a trip up the hill.

Any ideas on this?

John

[jmr061]

Did you ask them how they had the radios setup to do this as well?

Jason

I asked /\/\ about this and this is the response i recieved:

Can you do conventional text messaging on a quantar repeater?

o       Quantar supports P25 trunking and conventional IV&D. We tested the we found that the Quantar (PDR) repeats the text no problem (with one caveat)
That caveat is:
o       The unit will repeat text, at least in conventional operation, BUT requires "RDLAP Repeat" to be enabled in the Quantar.
o       That is the feature that was removed early this year from the CPS, according to CSAFE Manager,

[emsbuff3240]

No I did not, I asked during a Mission Critical radios training session.

You should be able to call them, they always gladly answer our questions.

[Rayjk110]

It was just done locally the other night on one of the local UHF Quantars - everyone followed Akardam's tutorial on TMS (Thanks, Peter!!) and it all worked well.

[akardam]

*sniffle*

Wish *I* had a UHF Quantar to play with.

[Rayjk110]

Really? You'd think in a dense RF area like CA that there'd be a few around...

[akardam]

Surprisingly not much commercial interest in P25 around here, and no local ham has taken up the gauntlet, even though I've been pushing for it at every opportunity... even offered to put up part of the cost, but nobody else wanted to pony up *sigh*

[n7maq]

Surprisingly not much commercial interest in P25 around here, and no local ham has taken up the gauntlet, even though I've been pushing for it at every opportunity... even offered to put up part of the cost, but nobody else wanted to pony up *sigh*

That is sad, we have 5 ham P25 machines up here in Oregon (it will be 6 when I get up to the hill to put in the UHF Quantar).

I have a spare 25 watt Quantar all set up for you Peter, it's on 145.25 right now.

Jim

[akardam]

That is sad, we have 5 ham P25 machines up here in Oregon (it will be 6 when I get up to the hill to put in the UHF Quantar).

I have a spare 25 watt Quantar all set up for you Peter, it's on 145.25 right now.

Jim

Unfortunately in the bay area, trying to get a VHF pair is like trying to pull teeth... and 5.250 is the AMES ARC at Moffett Field... would be fun to try and step on 'em.

In any event, I'd love to put up a UHF Quantar, but I can't do it myself, so as soon as some other folk decide they'd like to pony up, we'll do it.

[MikeOxlong]

Has anybody confirmed that RD-Lap must be enabled for TMS to work?

The option was greyed out in the RSS for my Quantar. Time to do a little reading and find out why.

[Rayjk110]

Yes, you do need to enable RD-Lap for it to work.