Quantar 8 Wire?

[The Pager Geek]

So...

I'm working on a Conventional Quantar, and I'd like to have two 4wire inputs. (Lines 1 & 2, and 3 & 4)
I'm using an 8 wire card, however, even after changing the hardware setting in the CPS to an 8 wire card I can only select a max of 6 wire full duplex in the wireline settings. Why won't it let me choose 8wire full duplex? It's not even in the menu.

Ideas / suggestions?

tpg

[RKG]

I believe the 8-wire is only for trunked systems.

[xmo]

Go into your hardware configuration tab where you see the choice of 4-wire or 8-wire hardware, then set the wildcard type to enhanced. Next, go back to the wireline configuration tab where you should now be able to select 8-wire.

I used the Quantar's 8-wire capability to develop a back-to-back mutual aid repeater configuration for use during rebanding. Console transmit audio is bridged to one wireline input of each station, one receive line from each station [bridged] feeds the console receive input. The other TX and RX from each station are cross connected.

This solution allows setup and knockdown of both stations simultaneously. There is also a SAM in each station for over-the-air setup and knockdown from either repeater - all interactive, i.e over-the-air can knock down regardless of whether the setup was by RF or wireline and visa-versa.

I also have status outputs for connection [via E&M] to console I/O for repeater setup status indication as well as another for connection to MOSCAD for a time-stamped log of repeater activation and deactivation

It took a week+ to develop the wildcard and SAM programming!

[The Pager Geek]

Cool. I'll give it a whirl Monday when I'm back on site.

My goal is to have line 1 microwave, line 3 telco.

Anything else needed in wildcard for this set-up? Or can I leave that be...

Thanks,
tpg

[xmo]

I believe you will be in for some work to get the station to do what you want.

When you choose "Enhanced" wildcard on the hardware setup, the program will tell you that 8-wire defaults will be used. Home free now? Not.

Actually, at that point, nothing happens to the wildcard programming. You must go to each of the three wildcard tabs: wildcard inputs, wildcard outputs, and wildcard tables and then click the box to set the defaults. You should do that even if you know you are going to make changes.

Once the defaults are set, look at the tables - I don't think you will have what you need. Read all the wildcard programming help regarding the various wireline inputs, outputs, etc. You will have to set the audio routing and priorities. It gets more complicated than you might think.

Let's look at a simple case. Suppose you have 2 inputs, 1 and 2. When input 1 is active you want to transmit from wireline 1 and when input 2 is active you want to transmit from line 3. You will make a table for each case. Call the first one "LINE 1 PTT" and the second "LINE 3 PTT". For the first table you have State = "INPUT 1". Then for actions you have "KEY FROM WL" and for inaction you have "DEKEY FROM WL"

You would have a similar table for the other input. You will have to decide if you want to mix the two audio sources or prioritize them. Those commands also go in your tables. So the second table might have and action "WL3-TX ON" and inaction "WL3-TX OFF". The last inaction will be "DEKEY FROM WL".

All well and good? Works fine.
OK, so what happens if, while wireline 3 is transmitting, something blips input 1?

Well the inaction in that table is "DEKEY FROM WL" - so you stop transmitting! Even though input 2 is still active. Now you get to practice your Boolean skills! Also, if one of your inputs is TRC rather than E&M that complicates things because your tone remote and wildcard programming must work together. You may find that you can't get there from here. You may need to leave the TRC programming section blank and process all TRC with wildcard tables!

The wildcard capability of the Quantar is extremely powerful and versatile but you must remember to think of it as a computer - it is VERY literal.

You really need to test ALL the possible combinations of actions. Even then, after you have tried every conceivable combination, your users and dispatchers will find something you didn't anticipate. That is why I recommend that you set the station up in a lab environment:



Note that there is a laptop for programming, a console for testing the tone remote capability, a punchblock, clipleads, and transmission testset for testing the E&M port capability, plus service monitors and radios to verify the over the air and repeat functions.

The "EASY" button doesn't seem to help.

[The Pager Geek]

Ok. Sounds fun....

I'm only using tone keying. Not E&M. I'm not using any I/O's.

I guess this will be something I have to play with...

Thanks for the help. At least I can get it to where I can screw with it.

tpg

[xmo]

If you were planning on tone keying from both sources - OOPS - there's only one TRC path in the Quantar!

You should probably be looking at bridging the lines external to the station.

If you have a need for parallel audio for monitoring, i.e. telco rx gets microwave tx & visa-versa - simple physical bridging of the circuits won't do that so you should look at an external audio bridge.

Give Raven Electronics a call.

[The Pager Geek]

Well...

I could do tone via line 1 (Telco) and E&M via Microwave. So I guess that enters me into the fun of wildcard programming.

I'll have some time to play with a twin in the shop. I use a similar set-up for testing, so it will be a joy I'm sure...

tpg