Batboard

Unfortunately, I do not have any /\/\ programming sotware but whn I have this radio reprogrammed, I will make sure that I pass this ino along to the programmer. In any case, I appreciate all the help.

Thanks all!

Have the radio set up for MDC1200 Pre PTT ID, with sidetone enabled and you will get a short beep when you first press the PTT button. Your radio ID will also be sent over the air in data burst form. (the squak noise) Which can be decoded by a varity of decoders.

Also, if you haven't already done so, go to
http://www.batlabs.com and then hit the "model specific"
section where you will find a lot of information
about Sabers and all of the other Motorola
radios.

themedic66 wrote:I have a motorola saber 2 and I would like to get it programmed for MDC 1200 signalling.

Every Saber I've worked with has had support for MDC1200. (I'm going to assume that you do your own programming; if not, you need to have whoever does your radio programming set it up for you.) It's in RSS, under the options (F4?), just called "MDC Pre-ID" or something of the sort. (Non-secure-capable Sabers may allow Post-ID, which is transmitted after you finish speaking, but I've never dealt with a non-secure-capable Saber.) From there, it'll ask you to input your ID; it can be four characters, 0-9 and A-E.

If I am correct, this sends a radio designator when my PTT button is pressed correct? How does that work?

Yes, that's exactly what MDC does. When you press the PTT button, it sends out a data burst containing the unit ID you set up above. (Batlabs has way more information than you could ever want here: http://batlabs.com/mdc1200.html )

I have also seen that on other city radios that the radio "beeps" a tone before you start speaking. How can I get my radio to do that?

There could be two things at play here... Secure-capable Sabers give you a very short beep when they're transmitting in the clear. However, there's a longer (150-250 ms?) beep, called the sidetone, which is to indicate to the operator that the radio is currently transmitting the MDC1200 data. When you set MDC up, I believe this happens automatically. (There's a setting in RSS for sidetone volume--pay attention to it. I've had some radios with that setting cranked up all the way, which is quite loud. The sidetone volume is not affected by how you have the radio volume set.)

Hope this helps!