Help a CPS newbie out - HT1250's PTT-ID, cloning & other ?'s

[Brandon_K]

I'll try to give the Cliff's notes to start with;

Our organization is a non-profit, 501c3 charity haunted attraction. We are quite well known, the largest in our region and nationally ranked. The owner has always refused to put money into my area (tech, pneumatics, infrastructure, etc) but will gladly spend $300 on a spool of Romex for the designer to tack to the walls as decoration As such, we've been using Motorola CLS's since we've opened 10 years ago. The first batch of radio's were CLS 1000's, then picked up another few rounds of CLS 1110's. I wanted to move to DTR's, but "the budget isn't there", so I've taken the liberty of scrounging ebay and Craigslist to pick up HT750's and HT1250's to replace the old CLS's and I have some questions. I will have a mix of 28 HT's; (17) HT750's and (11) HT1250's. All UHF, some 403-470, others 450-512. Most of them are severely beat and all of them will be getting re-cased and new, aftermarket Li-Ion batteries as well as new antennas and belt clips. (Any tips for getting the escutcheon off on the universal connector without trashing it? I've de-cased one as a test and that is by far the most difficult part)

Starter items - Since these are all coming from a mix of places, should I update the firmware to whatever the latest firmware is for that radio? Is there a default "blank" codeplug I should load into each one before loading my setup into them? All of these radios that I have are already programmed from their existing life, so I'm not sure what the default settings actually are.

We are currently operating on analog squelch codes (85.4 and 114. Is there any reason to move or not to move to a DPL?

As far as the actually programming, I thought the easiest thing to do would be to setup my channel \ personality list, save it, then load that into each radio. Unfortunately since I have a mix of models, it won't load and comes back with an error. Is the simple thing to do just create an identical setup, one for the high split radio's and one for the low split? Same with the 750's? They will all need identical programming, with the exception of my and the other Operation Managers radio and the exception of the PTT-ID.

Speaking of PTT-ID... I would really like to have them transmit their ID so I can see who is talking. Can someone give me a primer on where to start with this? I see there is a Primary ID and Group ID. I assume Primary ID is the ID of the individual radio? Is there a preference on naming structure? IE, 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003 or a different format? Is there a way for the radio to have an alias, IE 1001 = "OPs Damon", 1002 = "Actor Cathy", etc? I suspect at the very least I would want pre-ID on, if not pre and post? (I realize this is somewhat personal preference, but if I want to see who is currently talking, I would at least need pre, correct?)

I haven't fully wrapped my head around Sel-Call yet. If I'm understanding it right, it would allow me to talk one-to-one with another user? Does this tie up the channel or does it just use a different squelch code?

My users have a terrible time waiting for the radio to key up, so the first ~1-2 seconds of their transmission gets cut off. Testing with the DTR's last year, the TPT chirps eliminated the issue. I know I saw a "work around" video on how to create a fake Talk Permit Tone on the 1250's, but for the life of me I can't find it. Any thoughts on what I can do with that?

Lastly, my users also have a terrible time with stepping on each other. They just simply don't listen to the radio, even though every radio has a headset. Is there a way to lock out the user (and ideally give them an error tone) if the channel is busy? This is something else the DTR's had that worked very well in testing.

I'm sure I'll have numerous other questions. Thanks guys!

-Brandon

R06.12.02, XP, Dell laptop with a physical serial port, RIB-less cable

[escomm]

What is your organization's FCC call sign?

[Brandon_K]

That is a fine question that I don't have an answer to. The FCC licensing was done back in 2004 when we picked up the initial batch of CLS's and that was the last my hands were involved with the licensing. I know it was renewed in 2008 or 2009.

[Brandon_K]

I spent a few hours playing around with a pair of radio's last night and figured some things out. PTT-ID is pretty easy and I figured out aliases. So now my PTT-ID of "1234" comes up on the other radio as "Damon". Neat.

I also played with sidetones. The short sidetone is close to what I want, but I was hoping to get a "chirp chirp chirp" out of it. I tried the recommendation in a user on the RR boards of;

"Try DTMF with #### it sounds very close you'll need a pl or dpl code so it gets muted at the beginning I use it works great."

So I set the TX to DTMF and used ####, but I heard nothing on the transmitting radio as far as chirping goes.

I also understand how the "busy channel" works, so I can now lock the user out from transmitting over top of another user.

I still don't understand SelCall yet and if it will even work for my needs. Additionally, I would still like to get some direction on what I should do with firmware updating; if I should do it to all of them, some of them, or none of them. And lastly, what is the easiest way to program ~28 radios? I thought about cloning one radio to the rest, but I don't know if that will work between different models and band splits and further, won't that just duplicate the PTT-ID? I suppose if it took care of the bulk of it, channel personalities, alias lists and radio settings, it wouldn't be to bad to go back in and change the PTT ID on each radio.

Thoughts?

[wavetar]

Sounds like you've had some fun & figured out much of what you need on your own, which is certainly the best way to learn.

As far as firmware, if you have the means, then I'd recommend getting them all up to the same revision, just for consistency's sake.

I wouldn't bother with Sel Call...yeah it's possible to make a "private call" with it...but only if all the radios are set to require it. Effectively then EVERY call is a private call that requires you to enter the ID of the target radio. So it's a pain to implement & use, and you basically lose your simple push-to-talk that you typically want in a radio system.

And yes, you would manually increment the ID for each subsequent radio...save each codeplug as you change it with it's ID in the file name, that way it's easy to find to pull up & make changes for particular radios if needed.

[Brandon_K]

Thanks for the reply and info.

Regarding the firmware, is there a different software package and cable required for that, or can I do it with what I have? I'm running R6.12.02 with a "Kawa" (ebay) RIB-less serial cable with both the HT connector and the RJ45 for doing GM series radio's, as I would like to add a GM base station in my tech office. Which reminds me, I need to contact the FCC regarding our license since I think we're only listed to use 4w ERP.

Can I "clone" a radio with the CPS software, or do I need to buy the cloning cable with the two HT style connectors?

[wavetar]

Yes, firmware is a different software package, and a DB25 dongle needs to be inserted between the RIB and cable with a switch to put the radio in bootstrap mode. Quite frankly, unless you run into some weird issue with a unit or two after all your units are programmed, I wouldn't worry about it.

And yes, you can clone with the CPS...simply increment your MDC ID and press 'write' again...no special clone menu for the Professional Series stuff.