Batboard

I am operating on a few 800 and UHF astro smartzone systems and I have noticed something rather peculiar on both the XTS3000 and the astro saber in use when keying up.

Most of the time I get the familiar talk chirp that sounds like a low pitched nextel PTT that I am sure everyone here knows. But other times, on the same talk group, all I get is a highpitched quick beep, like those emitted on sabers etc that warned you of unsecure transmissions or a pre-transmission MDC sidetone. Either way, I can attain access to the system, but I was puzzled as to why and when it would give me a chirp or a beep at times. It seems to only run like this on the portables - the mobiles always chirp on key up.

Any clues to solve the mystery?

Sounds like you have TX CLEAR ALERT TONE enabled. On a trunking system (with XTS3K/Digital Saber) the PTT access tone sounds like this:

"high high low"

When you're secure, it would go:

"high high high"

If you don't like this, disable the feature in the radio-wide secure menu.

I've seen what you're talking about, lots of times. It happens when the system is about to give you a 'busy' tone, but then a channel frees up & it then decides to allow access...it all happens within hundreths of a second...and it messes up the radio. It sort of runs the busy into the talk permit tones.

I can't say it doesn't happen with mobiles, but portables are what I'm working with most of the time, so that's where I've noticed it.

Todd

Does it happen mostly when you in a conversation or on an initial PTT with no other traffic occuring? You could be doing a PTT too fast and the channel hasn't dropped yet if the system is set for transmission trunking.

Thanks for all the insights. Glad this isn't only happening to me!

It is weird, because there is no rhyme or reason to it. I only key up once when trying to talk (so no fast keying) and hit or miss. Don't think it has much to do with programming of unsecure-alert, because, when the trunking chirp comes up and I talk, there is no unsecure warning.

To answer Mark's question, sometimes I get the beep on the initial key up and then into a conversation, I get the chirp and vice versa. What is notable however, is that when a transmission starts with a chirp, the TX LED stays lit about 2 seconds after you let go of the PTT, whereas with the transmit beep, the red LED goes out the moment you let go of the PTT.

Most trunked radios "hang" if you just tap the PTT instead of holding it giving you the few seconds of TX hang.