Batboard

I'm looking for information, manuals, manual part numbers, etc on how to program an XTS2500 VHF radio with FPP. The radio I purchased has not arrived yet; maybe it will be pretty easy to figure out. If not, any information pointing me in the right direction would be most appreciated.

Before posting I searched the forum but didn't find any discussion on this topic. I'm a new member, apologies in advance if I missed it somehow.

It is easy and fairly intuitive. Here's how my 5Ks work; I'm sure the 2500 is the same:

1. Push FPP button
2. Hit EDIT three times, assuming you're not using a password.
3. TX frequency comes up; hit EDIT then enter your frequency. Decimal placement is
automatic. Hit DONE when finished.
4. Do the same thing for the receive frequency. Hit DONE when finished.
5. Program will then move you through additional selections, such as TX PL, RX PL, TX DPL,
RX DPL, NAC, RX Type (analog, mixed, or P25), TX type (same as RX choices), TX NAC,
RX NAC, bandwidth and...finally...the channel readout selection which works pretty much the same as text messaging on your cell phone. Punctuation and other odd symbols are found under the 1, #, and * keys.
6. When you're all done you'll be prompted to exit.
7. One other thing; when you going through all the menus and settings you can always go
back, either to correct an entry or a whole step if you've just completed a step. In other
words, the left and right arrows work in both directions.

Sounds a lot more complicated than it is, believe me.

Regards,

Thanks for the information Tom!

Download this link

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/niicd/docs/XT ... _guide.pdf

cbus wrote:Download this link

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/niicd/docs/XT ... _guide.pdf

Perfect! Thank you.

Yet another question. Does FPP allow the customization of buttons and the concentric dial? Or can that only be accomplished with CPS? (With FPP, both Q52 and Q53, from what I understand it's best to avoid CPS because it could wipe out FPP.) I ask because the concentric dial doesn't seem to do anything as currently programmed.

Finally, the radio is currently setup for 4 zones, with 16 channels each. Can I enable additional zones and channels?

Thanks to those of you who have answered my newbie questions.

No, you can't customize buttons using the FPP function, and you can't change the concentric switch around, and you can't change the rotary switch from channel to zone or vice-versa. You need to use the CPS to do these and many other functions. You can also add zones and channels with the CPS. Depending on your radio's flash, host, and DSP you might have up to 1,000 channels, and I forget how many zones, but it's a lot. One other thing is that the FPP works only on the first 15 zones.

On the Q52 and Q53 you've been given some bad data. At one time a certain version of CPS would not work right with FPP. Assuming you've got 52 AND 53 installed, as well as CPS 11 or 12 you should have no problem. As I recall there were some radios around that had only, I think, Q52 and not Q53 on them and these units could wipe out the FPP capability under certain conditions. Just another reason to keep your radios always set up with the latest host and DSP, as well as CPS.

One other thing. That Fire Guide for FPP is intended for use by specific agencies and some of the data, while not exactly incorrect, is written in a narrow way for the agency's use and might be somewhat misleading for the uses you and I probably make of these radios.

Regards,

So if my radio is only showing 4 zones, and only three of them are reachable in FPP, I might need CPS to "fix" that? I'm trying to set my radio up to mirror the CAP channel plan which currently has tons of channels, along with 2m ham in other zones.

It's good to know the newest CPS won't wipe out FPP. That did seem curious. I might save my pennies for CPS, or a one time visit to a Motorola shop might be in order.

Otherwise this radio is just what the doctor ordered, and so are your answers.

FPP is usually a radio-wide setting, so you should have it in all four zones. It can be disabled via a unique "lockout" box in the CPS but I've actually never seen it used, though of course it's possible. It's chosen via the menu function that controls what is displayed on the front of the radio. Now the scan function, OTOH, is selected and set up by zone, so it's possible to have the scan function appear or not appear as you go from zone to zone, but not the FPP, at least for the first fifteen zones. If you haven't written an actual scan list for each scanned zone then the word SCAN won't appear on the radio's display, even though you've assigned the channel to a scan list in the conventional personality selection. This all becomes clear when you work with the CPS.

You probably won't be very happy with the radio unless or until you buy the latest CPS for it. It will work okay but you'll be limited to the setup you got with the radio or you'll get tired of shelling out money to the MSS all the time for various changes as you learn more and more about what you want and need on the radio.

Regards,

If you are a member of CAP, check with your wing radio guru. The wing here in Nevada purchased the software for their radios, yours might have done the same.