Having some issues with a XTS3000 on a UHF Smartzone System

[unleashedff248]

Well, leave it to me, but I broke my issued XTS2500 that was on the county Smartzone system. I'm paying out of pocket to get it fixed, but in the meantime need a replacement, so I grabbed my XTS3000 and went to work. It has a whored flash, namely 5910084F1E009. Host and DSP are as follows: R7.03.00 and DSPN7.03.12. I had saved the original XTS2500 codeplug after reprogramming it with some more conventional channels. The XTS2500 has a flash of 500008-000410-5. They're both "S" split radios.

Now a little about the system. It operates two sites, North and South, on a Type II Smartzone system. System voice is analog only (no digital use at all). I copied everything over from the XTS2500 just as it was originally programmed, with the exception of the talkgroup lists. The XTS3000 only has support for 15 talkgroup ID's per personality while the XTS2500 allowed me to put in all 42 on the system. I have a legit system keyfile and a legit ID, which was transferred over to the XTS3000 with no problem. I know my ID is not inhibited (checked with admin).

Now the problem. I go to key up the system on the XTS3000 and I can see the radio trying to affiliate (the red light is blinking). But for some reason it won't affiliate. I was pissed. Figured I did something wrong, but I've checked over both files and everything matches up. I can receive on the XTS3000 perfectly (but I still don't get any ID's displayed or an RSSI indicator). The radio works fine in conventional and P25 Digital, but I don't have any other trunking systems that I'm authorized on to test trunking operation. If you'd like the codeplugs please email me. I'd rather not put my ID out there for every hacker to grab and use.

I'm rather new to this whole trunking thing so maybe it's a rookie mistake. Any experts out there that can chime in?


Thanks!

[Wowbagger]

Could it be that you don't have the band plan set correctly in the radio, so that while it is receiving the control channel, it is transmitting on the wrong frequency?

Do you have any way of seeing what frequency the radio is transmitting on (e.g. a spec-an?) Do you have any way to check what it should be transmitting on?

I'm having to slog through the Smartzone protocol documentation right now, and it doesn't look to me like Smartzone has the equivalent of the APCO-25 IDEN_UP message to communication the band plan layout to the subscriber units: for things like VHF/UHF the radio has to know a priori what the channel number to frequency mapping is. If the radio's idea of where to transmit is wrong, the base radio (repeater) won't hear your registration messages.

[unleashedff248]

I don't have the ability to see what it's transmitting on beyond my scanner. I will check later on to see if it's transmitting on the zone control channel frequency. The control channel frequencies are defined for UHF trunking in the OBT Control Channels Page. This page defines the control channels for Other Band Trunking, so it seems maybe a bandplan isn't needed? Oddly enough the frequencies in this list are not only control channels. There's supposedly only one per zone according to radioreference (http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=1744). I can't really confirm.

In the Channel Assignment window I believe I specify the bandplan.
Rx Channel Ranges: Spacing Start End
1 12.5 470.0 471.7375
2 12.5 476.0 478.9875
Tx Channel Ranges: Spacing Start End
1 12.5 473.0 474.7375
2 12.5 479.0 481.9875

The odd thing is that despite the fact that I'm using the same exact settings as the XTS2500, I can't get it to work. What'd different about the XTS3000 that it won't work on a system that will work with a XTS2500? Mobiles are all XTL2500's. Is there something I'm missing here?

I put the files on rapidshare. They're in a ZIP archive so you'll need either WinZip or WinRar or the similar to open the archive. The files themselves are the print summaries of all trunking data in each radio. They're in TIF file format and should open fine with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (should be on every windows computer). You'll also need a password as the files contain sensitive information that cannot be released publicly. Please PM me for the password. Thank you all in advance for helping! Sorry about all the hoops to jump through, but we don't want the system hacked.

http://rapidshare.com/files/99102250/XT ... maries.zip

If you need the codeplugs I can provide those as well.

[unleashedff248]

No ideas anyone? This is very important. I'm not just recreationally scanning or attempting to put an unauthorized radio on the system. This radio is directly used daily in public safety and lifesaving activities of a fire department and associated EMS. There are no spares (don't ask, we just barely had enough money to pay for the system in the first place). Please guys, I need your help and expertise!

[txshooter]

I would talk to the person who is responsible for programming the rest of the radios on the system. They are probably going to be your best resource and they should be able to assist you better than we can here on the board.

It could be any number of things causing the radio to not affiliate.

[unleashedff248]

Ok I'll see what I can do. Just thought it was something obvious I may had been overlooking. Thanks for the help!

-Dave

[hvacesu78]

the the xts3k have the same feature set as the xts2500?
just a thought...

i noticed your flash on the xts2500 has the 3600 Baud (Q575) option.
i dont know if the xts3k has that option.
could that be why???

John

[unleashedff248]

Possible. I don't know too much about 3600 systems. I do know our system uses the Legacy control channel format. Is this 3600? I also thought 3600 systems were the standard and 9600 needed a special software option. I could be wrong, and most likely I am. I've never seen an XTS3000 with a 3600 baud option before. Anyone know?