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Astro Spectra, P25 works direct, not through a Quantar?

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 9:50 am
by W1HVN
Ok here's an interesting one for those up for a challenge, or just willing to help...

Have an Astro Spectra High Power. It has just been tuned, aligned has great rx sens, is on freq, good deviation, p25 deviation set, proper output power, etc... This issue found in initial testing...

On analog, no issues...

On P25:

Will communicate fine with another subscriber radio direct, however when going through a Quantar (machine has great coverage, no issues with it, all other subscriber radios including a kenwood operate fine through it) the machine will not open or recognize the Astro stream to gain access.

We've checked the CPS settings over and over, and there is nothing that would cause this from what we can see.

Will receive P25 without issue, Including activity on the Quantar.

Has a KG1 and KG2 with XL and OFB but no key loaded, for testing we have told the radio it doesn't have encryption hardware by unchecking the box.

Ideas?

Re: Astro Spectra, P25 works direct, not through a Quantar?

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 10:02 am
by Tom in D.C.
Chris,

Have you checked the receive NAC setting on the Quantar? Sounds as if you've got everything set to
293 except the Quantar receiver. Some of the guys in my area are running strange NACs instead of
293.

Regards,

Re: Astro Spectra, P25 works direct, not through a Quantar?

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:57 pm
by Will
Is this a VHF radio? On a frequency lower than 146?

Re: Astro Spectra, P25 works direct, not through a Quantar?

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:41 pm
by W1HVN
Quantar is set to a unique NAC, all other subscriber units programmed same way, no issues.

It's above the min freq of 146, I know below it may be cutting off the codec/stream, but it's above the min.

Going to try and access another VHF machine with it to see what it does there.

It's strange that it talks to an APX7k, a kenwood portable, and another AS direct without issue. I'm perplexed, but don't have the depth of knowledge as other board members do.

Re: Astro Spectra, P25 works direct, not through a Quantar?

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:43 pm
by wavetar
I have seen some instances where the "talkaround" box was checked in the personality, and the radio would default to simplex, although the display didn't give the indication it was in direct mode. Can you verify if it's transmitting on the proper frequency, perhaps by programming another portable to listen to the repeater receive frequency?

Re: Astro Spectra, P25 works direct, not through a Quantar?

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:29 pm
by W1HVN
There was something corrupt with the codeplug. Still unknown what, however a plug from a similar drawer's parameters we're imported and it seemed to clear the issue.

I personally didnt put it on a monitor, someone else was kind enough, however wavetar I checked the output with the portable when it first occurred as the radio was new to me. It was putting out astro on the corrrect input frequency. It seems to be something with the digital stream and what was encoded.

Thanks all. It seems to be happy now.