Batboard

A couple of years ago we 'uppgraded' from MTS2000s to XTS5000s for our public safety folks. Last year we upgraded our Smartzone system to 4.1. Most of the cops don't really like the XTS. They complain that the volume is lower than the MTS. (and it's bigger,heavier) It seems that way to me too. Due to political restraints, we have not switched over to digital comms. On the few digital channels we have , the audio output is significantly higher than that of the conventional audio. Audio levels throughout the system are supposedly set in the same ballpark. There's no real problem here, just wondering if others have noticed the same situation. It is an impossible task, but we do try to keep our cops happy.

Merry Christmas to all.

For transmit audio, there is a parameter called something like "digital/analog audio balance" on the radio configuration/radio wide page.

For receive audio, the problem may lie in the spectral differences between analog audio and recovered digital audio. We found that some tinkering with the values on the "Rx Audio" tab (something like that) of radio configuration/radio wide page helped to make the Rx audio sound like the analog radios that had been previously in use. We didn't do this scientifically or take notes, so I don't remember exactly what changes we made.

Motorola made some audio enhancement changes a few years back [preceeding your system] They issued PSB907B which describes these changes. Although the changes would already be implemented in your case, you might find the document useful to explain how all the adjustments interact.

Jayce-

What DSP version are you running in the XTS3000s? I'm wondering if you're on an older DSP... in my experience, DSP8 has far less audio balance issues (and far better recovered audio quality) than its predecessors.

There's a DSP8 for the XTS5000?

Nope.

Duh, I thought I read 3000. Ignore the idiot in the corner.

I made some measurements on the most recent DSP versions and found that the digital audio on the 800 MHz XTS3000 is 3 dB lower than that of the 700/800 MHz XTS5000.

In other bands, UHF and VHF, they are the same. This is the result of the MIDRANGE EQUILIZATION being permantly enabled on the XTS5000 700/800 radios.

In the XTS5000 you have a lot of receiver audio gain controls for analog, digital and securenet.

I set my 700/800 MHz XTS5000 digital gain to around -29 to make the audio sound the same whether using a XTS3000 or XTS5000.

Don't touch the analog received setting as it royally screws up the de-emphasis curve.



Mike