Batboard

Hello,

I own a Motorola GP380 and I was curious if it even has the feature to sound a short tone, after you press the PTT prior to transmission to let you know you a clear to transmit. I am not sure of the technical name of this option. Many of my co workers have this option and it seems to help them with knowing exactly when to transmit. Does anyone know if the GP380 has this option and if so where in the programming software would i configure it? Thanks alot!

-Brandon

The tone you describe it called a "talk permit" tone and is used only on trunked radio systems. The person with the radio hears it only at the place where the radio is located. On your 380 you can set it up to transmit a data burst at either the beginning or end of your transmissions but everyone on the channel will hear it and before long they'll come looking for you and they'll be carrying hatchets because the sound will drive them nuts. The purpose of the digital signal is to identify the transmitting unit to a dispatcher and sometimes to other users of the system.

Copy,

Thanks for the info I was not aware that had to function on a trunked system. We use a county-wide dispatch with multiple agencies, and different types of equipment. Thanks for the heads up.

Don't know about the GP380 but some radios allow you to specify the Talk permit tone on conventional channels just so that all channels behave the same. If you switch between a trunked system and a conventional channel a few times you quickly realize that the trunked system behavior gets into your head and you end up pressing the PTT and waiting whenever you go on the conventional channel.
The talk permit tone doesn't do anything useful on a conventional channel but it does force you to pause before speaking which is good practice anyway.

Are you using MDC in your system? If so, some radios can be programmed for a side tone to let you know when the MDC squawk is already gone out and then you can talk. It sort of sounds like a TP tone.

I am honestly not sure if it uses MDC. I played around with some of the settings and got it to give a tone prior to transmitting, but I want to make sure its not heard on the other end of the transmission. I would imagin with the host of features the GP380 has there has to be some option I can select to utilize it, I am really new at the whole programming thing, so I was just happy to get it working lol