Batboard

Guys,

A couple of members in the 'general' discussion area helped me work out my TX audio setting on my HT1550, now I'm looking for suggestions for both of my XTS's. Doing side-by-side comparisons to my HT1550, the XTS's seem 'flat', without any real punch to the audio.

I've got a friend that manages a fairly large Type-II ASTRO system, and he helped me get the digital audio set at a good level, all I need are some tips for analog...

I opened my codeplug up for you, and here's what I use in respect to audio (XTS5000R):

1) The "Hear Clear" per personality I do not use [NOT Checked]. Totally useless for me. It makes everyone sound like that teacher on Snoopy.
1a) Rx & Tx Emphasis Per Personality [Checked]
2) "Radio Wide" > "Tx Audio Control Per Mode" I use all fields "Fixed Gain" at +12 (All AGC boxes [Unchecked])
2a) Digital / Analog Balance [Checked]
2b) Noise Suppression [Checked]
2c) Attenuation Level: [Advanced]
3) "Radio Wide" > "Rx Audio Control" Treble Control- Analog [20] Digital [5] Securenet [10]
3a) Midrange Equalization [Checked]
3b) Concurrent Rx Enable [Checked]

I've tested every selection you could imagine with different levels, and have even checked with our dispatchers. The dispatchers stated that the aforementioned settings sounded great; this is what works well for me. I use simplex analog on fire ground while wearing SCBA (with no voice amplification in the mask) and the incident commanders say that my audio is the best. "Crisp and Clear" as they say. This is using the Commander GPS speaker mic. Someone else was in my vehicle the other day communicating with me via P25, which was the first time I got to hear any digital audio from my radio, and it sounded very clear as well. This is using an XTVA with HHCH.

Also FYI I used these settings, as applicable, with my XTS3000 as well with good results.

Try this out and get some radio checks. The digital voice works very well too at these levels.

Good luck!

-Daniel

Daniel,

Thanks a million for the advice! They guys on my local VHF amateur repeater said that my audio was great, almost too good for a portable!

Outstanding man! Glad I could help. Did you try analog, digital or both?

Both, but I ended up changing the settings back that you had posted for the RX audio control. I spent an hour or so listening to my local public safety agencies, and I noticed that they all we lacking any kind of 'bass' to the audio (quite tinny to my ears).

I don't know if it was the treble control, or the mid-range equalization, but I put those both back to default...

Let me know what you changed them to. I'd like to try it out.

Just to the defaults of '0' on the treble control, and then I turned off midrange equalization.

I've got other problems now with MDC I need to deal with. My bordering town had a working structure this evening, and as I sat on their TAC repeater, I noticed that MDC-ID's where flashing across the screen, but no audio was coming out of the speaker! A quick tap on the PTT made the audio come back. I still haven't figured out this evening what setting I have wrong in my MDC settings (or personality settings for that matter!). Having the radio in scan caused the channel to behave just fine...

It took me the better part of a week to figure out a similar issue with the HT1550, but none of the option choices seem to apply here to the XTS.

Anyone care to chime in on what my proper settings need to be to display MDC ID on my screen, but have any traffic on the repeater with the proper PL open the squelch?

w2sjw wrote:Just to the defaults of '0' on the treble control, and then I turned off midrange equalization.

I've got other problems now with MDC I need to deal with. My bordering town had a working structure this evening, and as I sat on their TAC repeater, I noticed that MDC-ID's where flashing across the screen, but no audio was coming out of the speaker! A quick tap on the PTT made the audio come back. I still haven't figured out this evening what setting I have wrong in my MDC settings (or personality settings for that matter!). Having the radio in scan caused the channel to behave just fine...

It took me the better part of a week to figure out a similar issue with the HT1550, but none of the option choices seem to apply here to the XTS.

Anyone care to chime in on what my proper settings need to be to display MDC ID on my screen, but have any traffic on the repeater with the proper PL open the squelch?

Check your AND/OR settings under Unmute.


Also (not related to the MDC issue) unless you have RX interference I would leave the Concurrent Rx disabled. With it enabled you could loose some weak signals.

Jim.

Hey thanks Jim. I'll try that out as well. I'll post back in a few days.

Jim,

My codeplug defaults are at 'And Unmute, Or Mute' for all personalities...

OK, I got the 'wonky' MDC behavior to stop, I had SelCall enabled. I don't want the radio to limit calls based on specific user PTT-ID's, I just want to see them on the screen.

Hmm, now the DOS stopped once I shut off SelCall...

w2sjw wrote:Jim,

My codeplug defaults are at 'And Unmute, Or Mute' for all personalities...

I was talking about the and/or under the MDC, it will show up when you re-check the selcall decode box. It is the pull down right below that.

Jim

Jim,

Ahh, yes. That box is set for 'And' mode. Here's the strange thing, my HT1550 is behaving just the way I want it to. SelCall enabled, DOS doing it's best to mute the burst, and the channel's audio stays open regardless of the user's PTT-ID (only proper PL on the channel/repeater causes unmuting).

It's killing me why I can't get the 5000 to behave the same way. I saw the settings in CPS for SelCall resume (or something similar), and that's exactly what the radio was doing. 5 seconds or more of silence on the channel, and it would revert to a mode where nothing came over the speaker, just PTT-ID's flashing on the screen from the engines & chiefs (and a brief push of the PTT caused the timer to reset). I had the 1550 going right next to it, and it was receiving the whole incident...

EDIT - I just noticed the one glaring difference in the programming for the 1550, compared to the 5000 - in the 1550's signaling tab, I have it set to 'Or', with 'PL/DPL' required. The 5000 is set for 'And', and doesn't have that kind of PL/DPL requirement option (MDC ID's from another agency with RX range were causing my 1550 to un-mute, even without matching PL!).

Also (not related to the MDC issue) unless you have RX interference I would leave the Concurrent Rx disabled. With it enabled you could loose some weak signals.

Jim.

Jim,

If you have read the help file on the Concurrent Rx setting then would you mind explaining your interpretation of it as when I read it the file states the loss of rx if disabled as the function will mute / chop the digitized audio for low signal reception leading you to not hear someone going "digital" as they fade from coverage.

I enable this setting in all of my programming as the user can hear any kind of a response versus none at all if the box was left unchecked.

Concurrent Rx Enable

(Radio Wide, Rx Audio Control)

Enables the radio to remain unmuted even when multiple transmissions occur at the same time and on the same channel. This is only true when operating on analog talk-around channels. These simultaneous transmissions are only heard when their received signal strengths are relatively strong and equal. Note that the audio from these concurrent transmissions is mostly unintelligible. Receiving simultaneous transmissions is sometimes needed when managing on-scene incidents where it may be very important to receive all communications. For example, having this feature enabled may be crucial to incident management where analog-only communications are used, chaotic conditions are expected, and any received transmission is better than no transmission at all.



Enabling this feature will cause some weak signals that are normally received by the radio to remain muted; therefore it is only recommended to enable this feature if the ability to receive concurrent transmissions has been identified as necessary.

­ See More Information ­

I also only use mixed mode for Rx which enables this option as there are too many people in this are who cannot program radios properly.

After I first started using this feature, I tested the option enabled and disabled where I found better Rx activation times on both 12 db and 20 db tests with it enabled

Not flaming, just seeing if I have missed something,

CoM

chartofmaryland wrote:Jim,

If you have read the help file on the Concurrent Rx setting then would you mind explaining your interpretation of it as when I read it the file states the loss of rx if disabled as the function will mute / chop the digitized audio for low signal reception leading you to not hear someone going "digital" as they fade from coverage.

First of all, as the help file you posted states:

chartofmaryland wrote: This is only true when operating on analog talk-around channels.
­

So I don't see how you'd get your interpretation of it having anything to do with digital at all.

Secondly, as to how he gets his interpretation, again from the help file you quoted:

chartofmaryland wrote: Enabling this feature will cause some weak signals that are normally received by the radio to remain muted; therefore it is only recommended to enable this feature if the ability to receive concurrent transmissions has been identified as necessary.
­

Seems pretty clear to me.

I was bored today waiting for the Mrs to finish her appointment...so I did the above on my XTL5k, and so far I like it. Prior to that the settings were default and the AGC settings per the SRN that came out with the ASTRO Spectra's a few years ago. So far, seems good. I'll try it with my XTS this weekend.

So I don't see how you'd get your interpretation of it having anything to do with digital at all.

Secondly, as to how he gets his interpretation, again from the help file you quoted:

Alright, I follow,

The RX option for Voice / Signal Type was set to Mixed Mode so the feature can be used

CoM

I felt off in my information after reading completely through all of my posts and benching some depot returns recently so I ran some new testing today on both older Host / DSP and newer, and to my surprise when the same XTL / PM product line, has 7.00 firmware versus 12.00 there are two results on the outcome with Concurrent Rx.

Older firmware the radios perform better with the option enabled ( -124.5 dbm or .142uv ), but when up'ed it performed as if the function is off ( -120.0 dbm or .22uv ) .

So enabling this feature for me on older firmware worked fine, but when upgraded the radio does not need this.

I stand corrected on the setting and for those who play with programming, do not enable the setting unless you know the radios will be subjected to a high RF environment and will need to mash audio together when the seconds count.


CoM

Alright i have tried all of the settings listed here on my xts2500 but the audio quality is horrid. it sounds like you are talking through a pillow. Does anyone have any ideas? My cheap kenwood's sound better then my $1000 radio. I read somewhere else that you cant get the audio to sound perfect because of some digital compression or something in the xts series but one of our loca fire departments just switched to the xts2500's and they sound perfect. Any help is appreciated.

-Conner

When was the radio last verified to be within proper tuning specs?

cms1126 wrote:Alright i have tried all of the settings listed here on my xts2500 but the audio quality is horrid. it sounds like you are talking through a pillow. Does anyone have any ideas? My cheap kenwood's sound better then my $1000 radio. I read somewhere else that you cant get the audio to sound perfect because of some digital compression or something in the xts series but one of our loca fire departments just switched to the xts2500's and they sound perfect. Any help is appreciated.

-Conner

Also is this TX, or RX audio that sounds bad? Is your radio a factory unit or a 123ABC1234 unit? A lot of the 123's have bad speakers, so if it's RX audio try a SP/MIC and see how it sounds. If it is better than it is the speaker.

Jim

It was alligned a month or 2 ago. and it is a factory unit not 123abc. Its the tx audio that sounds bad.

If this is on conventional analog, make sure that the setting for TX Emphasis is enabled. I think this is on the personality screen, but I don't have CPS in front of me to check. If this is disabled, it will cause the audio to sound muffled. If you are not using conventional analog, disregard the above.

If the above doesn't work, you can go back to square one by setting all of the gain numbers to 0, and turning off AGC if it's on. Other things to try are to compare the audio between the radio's internal mic and a speaker mic, and If possible, compare digital and analog audio for differences.

These worked well for me on my XTS5000. I have a friend at a local police department that has an XTS2500 that I programmed these audio settings in. He sounds good to me, and their dispatch has not complained either. He's been on air with these settings for about two years.

Motorola has a document with settings for fireground audio, but I think that it pertains to digital. I used these settings as well. Mine sounds great in digital as well as conventional, as I use both.

If everything is in check like you stated, do what I did; start programming settings in and try different combination's.

Daniel

Alright well i figured out the problem after my radio stopped transmitting audio. The flex connector inside came loose. All back together now and sounds great with the original settings in the thread. Thanks for everyone's help!!!