Batboard

Wondering about these.....

I was at a local PD today and was inspecting their radio setup and noticed they had an A7 unit hooked up in the back electronics room. Until today I was under the mistaken impression that they had a wireline link to the repeater due to their frequent use of DES encryption....imagine my shock when I found out it was simply a transparent MSF5000 and a consolette in the back room with a secure spectra in it!

The PD dispatchers are using CommandPlus consoles at the (2) OP Positions.....and can turn the encryption on and off with the "coded" and "clear" buttons on the consoles. My real question here is that I was under the impression that a Spectra couldn't be tone remoted.....nor could they have features enabled or disabled via function tones. Do the consolettes have internal tone remotes in them and a unique electronics that allow them to actually be useful in a "control base" setup? Do all the consolettes have the tone remote functionality in them - as well as the ability to enable the securenet feature on the radio? Can a non-securenet consolette be outfitted with a secure tray and have the above features function correctly? Any help on this would be appreciated as I would like to have the same securenet functionality on my home CommandPlus.

Yes, in the Spectra Consolette there is a spot for an optional tone/dc remote adaptor. Most Spectra consolettes came with the wire line tone/dc remote option.
They are also capable of 'extended local control' also.

If a spectra consolette states it has the tone remote option does that mean it will function with a tone remote handset but needs an adapter or it has one built in and just requires the actual tone remotes?

Thanks Will.....do you know if those things require certain RSS or do they program with my regular spectra stuff?

Flatbush97 wrote:If a spectra consolette states it has the tone remote option does that mean it will function with a tone remote handset but needs an adapter or it has one built in and just requires the actual tone remotes?

At least with the XTL5000 consolette with the tone option (L146) you just connect the TRC to the appropriate pins of the backplane (consolette backplane) connector. The interface board, which lies between the radio deck and the control head, translates the tone remote commands into the data commands that would otherwise be send to the deck by the control head.

Is this something a novice (at least in this aspect ) can attempt or will I need a service monitor or such to configure?

I had a Spectra Consolette connected to a TNA200 (tone remote) to a CommandPLUS and then later a Comtegra, worked fine you just need all of the correct cables and documentation to set the DIP switches correctly on the TNA.

If you're talking about the L146 Option, you don't need any tools. Just follow the instructions in the Consolette Set-Up manual. As I recall, the only "programming" of the board that was required was done by switches and jumpers. A bit of a PITA to get access, but hardly rocket science.