Batboard

I have been trying to figure out a problem happening to our police department for a while with no luck. We have each car and portable set up to activate the emergency function if a man is in trouble. It works well but other radios from distant departments seem to be tripping our radios to give the emergency beeps The display shows unknown MDC ID #s not ours. We are using CDM1550s and even had one flash upgraded for the problem with no success. On the conventional personality signaling tab I have checked "TPL/DPL Required for Data" which I thought was the key to keeping other units from tripping our radios. Any ideas? Thanks, Bill.

How often does this happen? Do the emergencies always come from the same radio ID? Are there any other agencies on this frequency that are close enough for you to normally hear?

Depending on your answers, I'd almost bet that somebody has a radio on your channel that isn't supposed to. I mean, how often could a legit agency be sending MDC emergencies? If they have the PL for your system programmed, maybe thats why selecting that cps option made no difference.

If it keeps happening and it doesn't seem legit, try to MDC inhibit it. It may or may not work, but its worth a shot

In CPS, check the box that says "PL Required for data" in MDC settings.

Thanks for the responses. It happens fairly often like once a day and the ID #'s are different most of the time. Yes there are departments on the same channel but I don't see their MDC #s at all normally. I see what you mean about it possibly being someone intentionally doing it. I also agree about the unlikeliness of other departments sending out that many emergency calls. I don't think any other agency has our pl programmed because we never hear anything else coming through the repeater. Thanks, Bill.

Zack08 wrote:How often does this happen? Do the emergencies always come from the same radio ID? Are there any other agencies on this frequency that are close enough for you to normally hear?

Depending on your answers, I'd almost bet that somebody has a radio on your channel that isn't supposed to. I mean, how often could a legit agency be sending MDC emergencies? If they have the PL for your system programmed, maybe thats why selecting that cps option made no difference.

If it keeps happening and it doesn't seem legit, try to MDC inhibit it. It may or may not work, but its worth a shot

Boy, does MDC inhibit sound nice! The changing of IDs is weird. Do the IDs have a pattern? Like at Munster PD, there portables are usually their badge numbers, and their mobiles is their car number. Say badge number 19 talks, ID is "19". If ht uses car radio 32, it would say "C32".

Anyways, you would have to inhibit right after he does it before he changes his ID. Maybe your dispatcher console will let you do this. If he sends an ID of 1234, then send an inhibit to 1234, and you should get a ACK back to let you know it worked! And then you can smile!

if it was not legit, then you won't hear from them again. If it was, then the radio will have to be serviced and you can find out what the heck was going on!

I really don't know what MDC inhibit is but would like to know more. We have a CDM1550 on the desk and in the cars.
I haven't been there for all of the false trips to know what the pattern of the ID's is.
Thanks

A cdm1550 would not send an inhibit command. You would need a remote with advanced mdc functions or a console. A Centracom Gold Elite like Munster Pd has would work...

I would do a little research and find out who else is on your frequency. The reason I say this is there was a time that out of state units were hitting our repeater and they were using the same PL. I know that sounds strange and even stranger is it was happening on UHF (453), I guess the conditions were right.

I would hate to have my radio inhibited by some other agency. As far as how many emergencies could there be, there are some days that my local police are getting them a awful lot. It may be the radio or the operator.

Before we set our radios up with PL/DPL needed for data they were going off at least once every two or three days, there must a be a police department (in New Jersy) that uses the "Emergency" for pursuits. We are located in Long Island NY.

Batwings21 wrote:A cdm1550 would not send an inhibit command. You would need a remote with advanced mdc functions or a console. A Centracom Gold Elite like Munster Pd has would work...

I wonder if their CDM1550 that they have on the console is connected to the computer and software controlled? Like the Centracom, does the Centracom have its own radio or is it connected to an actual radio?

If your radios can be software controlled at dispatch, it might be able to generate a MDC Inhibit command.

pfd radio wrote:I would do a little research and find out who else is on your frequency. The reason I say this is there was a time that out of state units were hitting our repeater and they were using the same PL. I know that sounds strange and even stranger is it was happening on UHF (453), I guess the conditions were right.

I would hate to have my radio inhibited by some other agency. As far as how many emergencies could there be, there are some days that my local police are getting them a awful lot. It may be the radio or the operator.

Before we set our radios up with PL/DPL needed for data they were going off at least once every two or three days, there must a be a police department (in New Jersy) that uses the "Emergency" for pursuits. We are located in Long Island NY.

That could be the case, but he says it happens very often. I mean if he is getting more than 2 an hour, it sounds unlikely that their are that many pursuits. I would Def look into your input and output frequencies and see who is assigned it nearby and contact them.

He said it happens one time a day.. that could be.. If it's a large angency.. the Emergency when a pursuit starts could be... even if somone is using it to break in to radio traffic on a busy day.... yeah........some places do that....

I would check for who uses your freq and do a search for others.. there are plenty of web sites that have the freq info and the car Id's. might help track it down.


you might find it will be easyier to change your pl/dpl or ID's than figure out thiers course.. the other agencies who have radios programmed with your stuff for mutual aid may not be happy!

Just MHO


DFC2

I'm fairly certain there are no radios that generate the mdc inhibit command. Any remote / console handles the audio and is connected to a radio in the back room for the rf part.

Thanks guys- good info. I will be listening to get more clues. Bill.

MC2000 consolette is probably the cheapest thing you can get which is capable of generating MDC1200 inhibit messages. I have only used it with a tone controlled base station so I don't know if you can connect it through a radio.

FWIW: I use a C200 advanced Tone remote deskset interfaced to a Astro Spectra consolette for my MDC functions and it's working great. I normally use it for radio checks but an occasional MDC Disable/Enable command gets sent from it every now and then. Not bad considering I got those 2 components off of Ebay, kinda scary to.

Batwings21 wrote:I'm fairly certain there are no radios that generate the mdc inhibit command. Any remote / console handles the audio and is connected to a radio in the back room for the rf part.

Well, maybe not Motorola Radios. When I was looking into commercial radios, I came across a ICOM F5061.

Judging by the software it can do MDC ID, Inhibit, revive, selcall, emergency, status, message, call alert, radio check.

it can Receive these as well as TRANSMIT them. When receiving, it can also ACK back. Most mobile radios can do all of this, but only RX and ACK (except PTT ID). As far as I know, the ICOM F5061 (F6061) can RX, ACK, and TX. And the radio retails on eBay brand new for like $400.

I may not have a solution to your problem, but there are dept's that test there radios daily by setting off the EMERGENCY. NYSP Thruway Division do a daily check before the officer goes out. MTA PD also does the same.

Is it possible that the Emergency Decode features ignore PL/DPL, therefore rendering the 'PL required for data' setting mentioned earlier in this post?

If this is true, then it would explain why you are decoding everyone else's emergencies. It seems like M would have the Emergency decode regardless of PL, because 'a mayday is a mayday' and they don't want to get sued if it failed to receive the code. If there are so many muni's on the same freq, maybe it's time to invest in some coordination or a new frequency.

werdnuts wrote:Is it possible that the Emergency Decode features ignore PL/DPL, therefore rendering the 'PL required for data' setting mentioned earlier in this post?

If this is true, then it would explain why you are decoding everyone else's emergencies. It seems like M would have the Emergency decode regardless of PL, because 'a mayday is a mayday' and they don't want to get sued if it failed to receive the code. If there are so many muni's on the same freq, maybe it's time to invest in some coordination or a new frequency.

I had a similar issue with Emergencies and set our radios for PL/DPL needed for Data and it was solved. No more emergencies from the other agency.