Batboard

Hello. In my personal radio system, I use a few handhelds and a couple mobiles. The base is a VHF CDM1250. I would like to be able to alert specific radios via MDC (all are Motorola, so this should work [XTS3k, couple HT1000 and couple CDM1250])

ANYways...say for example, one of the MDC ID's in the mobiles is : 0256

Now, when I'm in the CPS to program MDC paging, it gives me the option of having it set for individual ID, Gruop ID or Fleet ID

IE: Fleet : 2
Group: 56

or, Individual as : 0256

Which one should be enabled??

Should ACK expected be enabled, as well?

Thanks for any help on this.
-Ray.


edit: I should note that I have tried individual as well as group and get no response from either the XTS3000 or HT1000 or CDM1250....just the short dos-muted MDC chirp, nothing elese. All are enabled to RX personal MDC alerts via software to the corresponding ID of the radio.

If you are trying to page an individual radio, choose Individual. If you have assigned radios to groups and / or fleets and want to page them en masse, choose Group or Fleet, as appropriate.

If you want to receive an acknowledgement when a radio receives the individual Call Alert packet enable "Ack Expected". Do not enable "Ack Expected" for group calls. The CPS will take it, but the call will give you an error tone when you try to send it. Acknowledge is not supported for Group or Fleet calls (Can you imagine what would happen if a couple thousand radios all tried to simultaneously acknowledge a call alert?) I don't know why the CPS doesn't just block it (I'm not sure if I'm actually thinking of Pro Series CPS here, or confusing it with Astro), but trying to use logic and /\/\ together can make your head hurt...

BTW- the actual format for transmitting a group or fleet call is EFGG where "E" is, well, the letter "E" to denote that this is a group call, rather than a individual call, "F" is the fleet number and "GG" is the two digit group ID. You can actually enter a group call into an individual ID field by using "E" as the first letter. That's why you can't use "E" as the first digit of an individual ID. To send a fleet call, you send a group call with the group ID set to the wildcard value of "FF".

Depending on the radio model, some of the software packages will only have an entry box for inidvidual calls, and assume that the programmer knows enough to enter group and fleet calls using the appropriate format. Some have an entry for the three digit combined fleet and group ID, and some have separate field for the single digit fleet and two digit group IDs. Likewise, sometimes the receiving radio's fleet / group ID may be entered either separately or combined.

Isn't inconsistent software interface design fun?

Thanks much for the information.


I was able to get my XTS to go 'beep beep' on the MDC page and it just lights up the top channel rotary and blinks the LED green a few times, too.


Now, as far as ACK expected goes....

If I enable ACK expected in the CDM1250 Base (paging) radio, does anything need to be enabled in the other radios to TX back the ACK? Or do I just enable ACK Expected and it sends some data in the MDC burst and tells the radio to TX back upon the RX of MDC?

Correct. The request for an acknowledgement is sent by the transmitting radio. You do not have to alter the programming of the receive radio.