Batboard

I am a relative novice to LMR, but am working to get our system fully operational.

We are running 3 XPR 8400 UHF Repeaters connected via IPSC and a combination of SL7550, XPR 7550, and XPR 3500 radios.

Radios are used for everyday operational purposes, facilities, securities, logistics, etc., as well as for emergency purposes. Currently we use one slot for all day-to-day operational needs (with approximately 5 talk groups) and the other slot is dedicated for emergency communications.

I have done some research on implementing an emergency mode on the Mototrbo system, but have a few questions...

1) Is it possible to force all radios "on" when an emergency alert is issued? I doubt this is possible, but would be great.
2) Is it possible to force all radios to slot 2, our emergency channel, when an emergency alert is issued? Many of our users live on Slot 1 for day to day operations and fail to switch channels/slots in an emergency.

Any other suggestions/models for emergency mode would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

The issue with slots in IPSC is that they don't "cross over". What happens on one slot has no direct effect on the other.

Some people may suggest to use the auto-scan function to have all radios scan the emergency slot. But, there are no scan functions available in IPSC, since the radio is using that circuitry for IPSC roaming.

You would be much better off having the emergency on the slot your users normally use. You can make it very effective, more so than scanning, with the use of the transmit interrupt and emergency transmit interrupt feature. I believe it is a pay feature for the 3000 series, so you'd need to look into that. But, it will work perfectly for your needs.

I'm not sure what you mean by forcing all radios "on". They can be programmed to both sound an alert, and give a visual indication (if they have a screen) when receiving an emergency call. You can program the radio that is sending the emergency to have a 'hot mic' timer where the other users can hear what he is saying. You cannot program them to all have a 'hot mic' at the same time...that would defeat the purpose of half duplex radio communications in general...if everyone's talking, then who's listening?

Now if you mean can the radios be remotely turned on (from physically being off) by the alert, then no, that's not possible.

First, happy holidays to all. Thanks to all w oh have taken the time to look at my post and especially to those who have responded.

We purchased our system through one of the larger national distributors and while they did an excellent job, they didn't offer too much guidance on how to setup the channels. We have 20 radios, 15 are used for day-to-day operations for our facility, security, and event staff and 5 are used by floor wardens only during emergency situations. The 15 day-to-day users all have emergency responsibilities as well. As I mentioned currently Time Slot 1 is dedicated to day-to-day operations and we have 5 talk groups to accommodate the various user groups. Time Slot 2 is dedicated to emergency use. The floor wardens keep their radios on Time Slot 2 all the time, so they are prepared in an emergency, but our day-to-day operational users have to manually switch to Time Slot 2 when an emergency occurs. Many of these users forget to make the switch and our emergency communications have been compromised.

Based on your experience, what would you recommend we do? I think creating an emergency/all call talk group on Time Slot 1 is a great idea, but what do we use Time Slot 2 for? How do most users make use of the two time slots? I am looking into a c-bridge controller, but more info on that option would be helpful too.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

astubs wrote: Based on your experience, what would you recommend we do? I think creating an emergency/all call talk group on Time Slot 1 is a great idea, but what do we use Time Slot 2 for? How do most users make use of the two time slots? I am looking into a c-bridge controller, but more info on that option would be helpful too.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

With IPSC, the second slot use is somewhat limited, since scanning cannot be used. It makes sense in theory to dedicate a slot for emergencies, but as you've seen, it's not such a great idea when human intervention is needed. The second slot is great in terms of user capacity, but not so great when trying to pull users from both slots together. Many systems use the second slot for off-loading data such as GPS updates.

Although I believe C-Soft controllers are capable of having talkgroups cross over slots, so your wardens on slot 2 could in theory be heard on slot 1, I don't see it helping you, as it would still require users on slot 1 to select the 'emergency' talkgroup position on the channel selector switch...same as they would need to anyway, they just wouldn't be switching slots. Also, then the 'dedicated' slot 2 is no longer dedicated, since it is now dependent on slot 1 traffic not tying it up...just a mess, really.

Without going to a full blown Linked Capacity Plus system, my best advice is to use the "All Call" with a fully populated RX Group List on slot 1 for the wardens, and give their radios transmit interrupt capability over your 15 'regular' users. This allows them to talk to all groups at once, and also hear all groups respond, without the users needing to do anything.

The wardens can stay on slot 2 for regular day-to-day comms among themselves if desired, but they switch to slot 1 in emergencies...it's effectively the same as the regular users switching to slot 2...but now you have trained (hopefully) wardens that understand what they are doing by making the switch, removing the burden from the users.