XTS-5000 Channel Announce

[WD6FOX]

Anyone know how to get the Channel Announce Feature to work? I know you have to record some voice files? Any help appreciated.....

Thanks,
Sean

[Batwings21]

Here are some tools for making the wav files.
http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... nt#p364384
Here's a cut and paste from the CPS help files, pretty much step by step how to do it.

The Channel Announcement Feature
(Glossary)


The Channel Announcement feature allows you to convert and compress voice/audio files from the .wav format to the .mvf (Motorola Voice File) format, then load the .mvf voice files into the CPS, and ultimately assign these individual voice files to the radio’s channels/modes. The voice recording will then play when the radio-user changes the radio to a channel with an assigned voice file. A "Channel Announcement" button-press can also be programmed allowing the radio-user to hear the radio’s current-channel voice recording whenever needed.

Note: Wav is a type of audio file that is always designated with the .wav file extension. Wav files can be recorded with your favorite audio recording/editing software.

Suggested Setup Steps:

Create audio/voice *.wav files:

If you do not currently use an audio recording/editing program, be aware that every Windows operating system comes with the very basic "Sound Recorder" program that allows you to record and save a wav file. The Sound Recorder is loaded from the ‘Start’ menu’s > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder selection.



Wav files MUST BE less than or equal to 58 Kilobytes (in size) and saved as 8.0 kHz and 16 Bit Mono, and file names MUST BE limited to 32 characters including the .wav file extension. In 8.0 Khz and 16 Bit Mono, 58K is equivalent to a two to four second sound file.

When using the "Sound Recorder" program to set a Wav file’s attributes to 8.0 kHz, 16 Bit, Mono:

From the "File" menu select "Save As"

From the "Save As" dialog box, click the "Change" button.

From the "Attributes" drop down menu select "8.0 kHz, 16 Bit, Mono"

From the "Format" drop down menu select "PCM"

After ‘Saving’ the Wav file, always remember to select ‘File > New’ before recording your next Wav file

You will also need to have a microphone attached to the computer’s sound card.

The Windows "Volume Control" feature allows you to adjust your computer’s recording settings. The "Volume Control" is loaded from the ‘Start’ menu’s > Accessories > Entertainment > Volume Control selection. From the Volume Control’s "Options" menu, select "Properties" and then select "Recording".

Compress and convert with the Voice File Compression feature.

Load with the Voice File Location feature, or load with the Import Voice File feature.

View currently loaded files with the Voice Files Report feature.

View current *.mvf file size totals with the Voice Files Memory Usage feature.

Enable the Options Page, Read/Write Voice Files field.

Enable the Channel Announcement feature with the Radio Wide, Channel Announcement field.

Assign individual files to channels with the Zone Channel Assignment, Channel Announcement field.



Other feature tones take precedence over Channel Announcement audio.

Define Channel Announcement user-preference options.

[allenm]

Is this available on ALL xts5000 model radios.

Including the model 1 radio.


Thanks

[Mfire39]

It sure is... Actually good to have on a Mod 1, since there is no display....


-Marc

[dxon2m]

I thought it is a option that can be added into Model 1? rather than a standard feature like H35.

[Mfire39]

It comes standard with Q806 Astro Digital Operation... Model 1, 2 or 3 has nothing to do with which one gets Channel Announcement..



-Marc

[tvsjr]

Are you sure about that? Channel announce has its own bit in the flashcode, and I've seen radios that have Q806 but don't have the channel announce bit turned on. Did that get blended in as a "standard feature" in later firmware revisions?

It does make sense to be unavailable without Q806 - as the IMBE codec isn't present in the DSP in analog-only radios. They're using the codec to compress and play back the voice files, since the hardware/software is already available - analog-only, no codec, no channel announce.

I'm looking for a cheap M1 VHF for fire use, and definitely want the channel announce...

[MTS2000des]

a good source of voice announcement files is the at&t true voice generator:

http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

Now you'll still have to edit them down to 8K mono files using a WAV editor such as Audacity, and sometimes at&t will put an ad in there which you'll have to edit out. I personally like "Lauren US English" though you could have different voices for different zones. It took me some time to setup my VHF model I with these files but the "professional" sound was much better than hearing my own voice or "Microsoft Sam" coming from my radio.

[jmr061]

Are you sure about that? Channel announce has its own bit in the flashcode, and I've seen radios that have Q806 but don't have the channel announce bit turned on. Did that get blended in as a "standard feature" in later firmware revisions?

It was an earlyflashcode option but with later host it is included if the the radio is IMBE.

Jason

[Mfire39]

Are you sure about that?

I'm positive about that... Back from about R07 or so, Channel announcement is paired together with Q806 on an XTS5000..



-Marc

[tvsjr]

Cool. Thanks to both for the confirmation.

[Hightower]

tvsjr, I've encountered this as well. From my experience, if the flashcode contains trunking, then channel announcement is an extra Flashport option you have to purchase seperatly. If the flashcode is conventional analog or IMBE then channel announcement is a "free" option.

000001-000000-0
If the 6th digit in the flashcode is anything but a 1, channel announcement is an additional Flashport option.
If the 6th digit is 1, then with recent firmware, channel announcement should be available.

I read a 100008-002410-2 and no channel anouncement, but read a 000001-000000-0 and channel anouncement is available. The only way I've seen channel announcement available in trunking radios (VHF or UHF or 800) is when option Q446 is purchased.

Unlike the Astro radios that can come with analog only DSP (i.e dsp A08.xx.xx), making IMBE operation impossable due to the codec not being present in the DSP firmware, there is no analog only /digital only DSP's for the Astro25 radios, so one could assume that the IMBE codec is present in all DSP firmware what resides in the Astro25 radios. IMBE just has to be turned on in the flashcode/FDB to function.

Are you sure about that? Channel announce has its own bit in the flashcode, and I've seen radios that have Q806 but don't have the channel announce bit turned on. Did that get blended in as a "standard feature" in later firmware revisions?

It does make sense to be unavailable without Q806 - as the IMBE codec isn't present in the DSP in analog-only radios. They're using the codec to compress and play back the voice files, since the hardware/software is already available - analog-only, no codec, no channel announce.

I'm looking for a cheap M1 VHF for fire use, and definitely want the channel announce...

[Mfire39]

Going back to what I said earlier.... After about R06 or R07 on an XTS5000, once Q806 is enabled, Channel Announcement is enabled along with it, trunking or no trunking in the flash...

If you've seen an XTS5000 with Q806 and no Channel Announcement, it is one of two things... Either A: it's a pre R06 or R07 radio, or B: if it has newer or current firmware and Channel Announcement is still not present in the flashcode but Q806 is, then the codeplug structure was not updated during the firmware refresh..

If you were to perform a legit firmware refresh with CPS on an older XTS5000 that has a flashcode of lets say 100001-000000-7, when it's done with the upgrade, the flashcode will be changed to 100001-000002-x automatically by the CPS when it updates the codeplug structure during the process...


-Marc

[jwood]

Hello, all

Need some help, I had a computer crash..reloaded my RSS for the xts5000, got everything working fine now..but i would like to "export" or download the voice files in the radio to my Voice directory in the rss..can this be done? how? cant seem to find any info on this task.


Thanks

[kotaguchi]

The voice files on your radio should automatically be downloaded from your radio into your Astro 25 voice directory?At least for me,that was the case.I had no voice files on my Voice directory and voice files were downloaded from my radio to my voice folder on my Astro 25 portable program..

[jwood]

Found the problem...

I needed to go to view/options/channel announcment, and turn on the options for voice files to be downloaded, as they always say "read the help files"...

Thanks.....