Question regarding emergency feature and trunking

[randymince]

The sites I support have recently migrated to a trunking system. We have users that were previously utilizing the emergency function, conventional. While operating in conventional mode the user would initiate emergency and the audible tone would continue until a user acknowledged it, this allowed time for the dispatch and any other user to notice the radio id. They are only interested in initiating the emergency button to verify the radio id, for users who are at certain locations, that is all. There is no console operation with the ability to ack or see the actual ids/emergency indicators, they have a XTS-5000 radio that is used to verify the RSI.

With trunking, utilizing talk groups and the emergency function, the symptom I am facing is that there is no continual alarm. When the emergency is initiated it just displays the RSI and stops, without any form of ack from a user. I have checked all settings under cps, and everything that would affect the emergency portion seems to be correct.

What are the differences in how the emergency function operates, radio to radio, between conventional and trunking?

I have reached out to a source and they were saying that within trunking utilizing talk groups the emergency signal does not repeat at the radio level, it is more for a console dispatch operator. I just want to make sure I am not overlooking something simple, or trying to duplicate a conventional feature on a TG when it is not possible. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

In the end I am just looking for a way that a user on a TG can initiate the emergency command, and the signal will keep repeating displaying the RSI until a user acknowledges it.

[randymince]

Any suggestions by anybody?

[wavetar]

You didn't specify whether this a SmartNet based system, or P25...not sure if it matters. I know with the MCS2000 at least, the operation you describe for Emergency Receive is what I found too...only a single beep to acknowledge anything even really happened. I don't believe you'll get what you want in trunking without a console.

That said, if you wanted to send the codeplug my way, I could have a look & see if anything jumps out at me.

troberts (at) bellaliant (dot) net

[judoka]

Assuming
i) P25
ii) The emergency signalling in conventional sent the small data packet form of the emergency (TSBK) rather than a short voice burst
There is no way to do the same thing in trunking because the small data packet is only defined on the uplink for a trunked system ie It is impossible to use that signalling on a trunked system to anything other than a line dispatcher/console.
If you send a short voice burst, and the system lets you in, then you can do what you want (but there is no acknowledgement).

[randymince]

I had already tested the emergency function and between TG settings and Codeplug options I was still getting the same result, just wanted to see if anything else was out there. I already had reached out to someone else and they said a console/RCM is required to acknowledge, so I just got further confirmation. Thanks for the help.

[MSS-Dave]

Can you tell us what type of trunking you are using? I know how we use it on SmartZone 7.13.....

[randymince]

P25 7.11

[MSS-Dave]

In the end I am just looking for a way that a user on a TG can initiate the emergency command, and the signal will keep repeating displaying the RSI until a user acknowledges it.

Just making sure... you want ANY user to be able to ack a emergency on the TG or a dedicated radio at a dispatch center? I see you have no consoles. Do your emergencies go out on the TG they were initated on or is there a revert (emergency) TG that has been defined? Last question, what radios and firmware versions being used? My stuff is older (XTS2500i with 12.xx firmware) on the system now, newer firmware added some new tricks on trunked emergency from what I have read.

What we do...

I have CCGE consoles. We do Tactical emergency which puts the button press out on the working TG. The console beeps and flashes the TG box in RED with the ID or Alias if programmed. The console op can ACK or the original radio can cancel with a long press of the emergency button. I don't think any other radio can ACK but I am going to try that later today. The radios will indicate with a beep and EMERGENCY indicated on the display but no ID. That is another function you want on your field radios that may not happen.

I'm curious now on my fleet how much flexibility I have with emergency. I don't own the system so can't make changes in programming there, just on the subscribers. It works as we requested 5 years ago. I going to play with settings as I can to see if I can do anything close to what you are looking for. I can see why conventional works as you want because there is no supporting infrastructure so the radios have to do that.

Dave

[randymince]

Just making sure... you want ANY user to be able to ack a emergency on the TG or a dedicated radio at a dispatch center?

Yes, that is correct. I have tactical enabled, with no revert, the emergency signal will go out over the selected TG.

From previous programming at the CPS level I could get the emergency signal with ID, but it would not keep repeating.

We are currently using Telex CSOFT consoles with IP-223 ethernet adapters, the IP-223 does not support the P25 standard, so it won't display the radio id or give a way to display emergency or acknowledge.

Under conventional, I have used the same feature and any radio with the press of the PTT button would acknowledge the emergency, the audible beeping would continue until acknowledged or based on the polite/inpolite settings in the codeplug.

I am beginning to see that a lot of the radio to radio features that exist under conventional aren't there when operating on a trunking system, and that most of those features are now integrated into a console function. I have nothing against the MCC7500, but we only have a single agency that even uses the emergency function, and they don't use the alias function,so the cost and increase of infrastructure compared to benefits received doesn't justify the upgrade. I just want to research all options that exist without using a console to incorporate the emergency function.

Again they only want the emergency tone displaying radio id, not emergency call.

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I know my way around CPS, but am new to managing a trunking system so I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something at the system level that was trumping the codeplug at the radio level.