MOTOTRBO Voice Transmission Problem

[scopsguy]

Hello everyone,

I have a problem that is causing many of us around my area to pull our hair out. We recently swapped to Mototrbo (UHF) and overall the system is great. However we have an intermittent problem that is stumping both the radio shop, and Motorola. Here is what we are experiencing. Several different radios have had the following problem:

When the PTT button is pressed (on our digital channel) the radio's ID will be transmitted, however no voice is transmitted. When the radio is powered off and back on, the problem is fixed. This has happened to several different radios both XPR6550 and XPR4550. This seems to happen mostly when several users have been talking (ex. Radio check - we do a radio check with all users each morning).

Another group of users has the same problem when using TRBO radios in analog. They are using MDC1200 signalling for ID's, and they have the same issue where they get the MDC ID, but no voice.

Anyone else experiencing this, or have any ideas? Programming has been checked and all is well.

[escomm]

Subscriber firmware version? Repeater firmware version? Last few revisions have had varying problems with audio being dropped on calls. One would think Motorola would have had everything upgraded to the latest and greatest as the first attempt at problem resolution, unless they still have underlying bugs in the firmware (entirely possible)

[scopsguy]

Subscriber firmware version? Repeater firmware version? Last few revisions have had varying problems with audio being dropped on calls. One would think Motorola would have had everything upgraded to the latest and greatest as the first attempt at problem resolution, unless they still have underlying bugs in the firmware (entirely possible)

Our radios are running firmware version 01.07.02

I have contacted our radio shop about the repeater firmware version to see what version it is running.

The odd thing is other agencies around the area have not reported this problem. Seems to be when there is alot of traffic on the channel maybe.

[wavetar]

Are you by chance running advanced privacy? If so, the repeater needs to have the privacy key loaded into it, or you can have problems such as you describe. Found this out the hard way, as earlier firmware versions did not need the key loaded, nor do you need the key in the repeater for basic privacy use. Have a look, could be the issue.

[escomm]

Are you by chance running advanced privacy? If so, the repeater needs to have the privacy key loaded into it, or you can have problems such as you describe. Found this out the hard way, as earlier firmware versions did not need the key loaded, nor do you need the key in the repeater for basic privacy use. Have a look, could be the issue.

???

Where does one enter the key in the repeater codeplug?

[wavetar]

Are you by chance running advanced privacy? If so, the repeater needs to have the privacy key loaded into it, or you can have problems such as you describe. Found this out the hard way, as earlier firmware versions did not need the key loaded, nor do you need the key in the repeater for basic privacy use. Have a look, could be the issue.

???

Where does one enter the key in the repeater codeplug?

Take a look in a 1.07 codeplug, it's easily found.

[escomm]

Am looking in a 1.7.00 XPR8300 and XPR8380 codeplug and no box opens up when one selects Enhanced Privacy. No fields present on the digital personality, no fields present in general settings. using CPS 1.6

[com501]

Current CPS is version 6.0 build 244. NOTHING previous to around 2 supports encryption.

Update your CPS to the newest version from MOL. Remember to uninstall the old version from control panel before starting the upgrade.

In an XPR8300 codeplug, you select your encryption method on the the Privacy tab of the codeplug. If it isn't there, either your codeplug is too old or your CPS is too old.

Same with the portable.

[escomm]

Actually, I am using CPS 6.0, build 244. Codeplug version is 8.00.05 which is the latest version as best I can tell.

Are you saying encryption was enabled in version 1.07 firmware? Because I have a couple systems installed with 1.06 and it appears to be working fine. Only radios with the proper key decrypt the transmission and unmute the speaker. Radios with the wrong key or no key don't unmute.

[com501]

No, encryption was enabled way back. It is in many newer firmware releases, and without going back through the update release notes, I can't tell you where exactly.

The feature is there if the firmware is new enough and I am quite sure that 1.05 or newer is quite fine.

Remember, the repeater MUST have encryption enabled or it won't handle it. The repeater doesn't have a key, but it has to know you have encryption.

The keys reside in the radio.

[escomm]

Reread Wavetar's post. He says the keys can (and should) be loaded into the repeater directly.

[com501]

That's nice, but there isn't any place to do so in the repeater codeplug.

From the help file in the repeater.

Privacy Type
This feature allows privacy on selected digital channels. Privacy is a software-based scrambling solution that is not robust, and is only meant to prevent eavesdropping. The signaling and user identification portions of a transmission are not scrambled. Receiving radio(s) must have the same Basic Privacy Key (for Basic Privacy) or the same Key Value and Key ID (for Enhanced Privacy) as the transmitting radio in order to unscramble the privacy-enabled voice call or to receive the privacy-enabled data transmission. Channels may have their privacy enabled or disabled via a short or long programmable button press (Privacy On/Off) or Privacy (Utilities Menu). A radio must have privacy enabled on the channel to transmit a privacy-enabled transmission, but this is not necessary for receiving radio(s). Privacy-enabled channels are still able to receive clear (unscrambled) transmissions. A visual indication appears on all display radios if the channel is privacy-enabled. The radio LED lights up green when transmitting and blinks rapidly when receiving an ongoing privacy-enabled transmission. The same behavior will be observed during scan operations. This is a radio-wide feature. This feature is not available on certain radio models.

Options
None Radio will not support any privacy feature.
Basic Basic Privacy is allowed on selected digital channels. Each radio must have one Basic Privacy Key selected from a pre-defined list. Garbled voice is heard on receiving radios with Basic Privacy Keys which do not match that of the radio transmitting a privacy-enabled voice transmission.
Enhanced Enhanced Privacy is allowed on selected digital channels. Each privacy-enabled channel must have a securely-configured Key Value associated with it. Nothing is heard on receiving radios with Key Values which do not match that of the radio transmitting a privacy-enabled voice transmission.


Notes
The Privacy, Basic Privacy Key, Privacy Alias, Key Alias, Key ID, Key Value, and Privacy (Utilities Menu) features are disabled if this feature is set to None.
The Privacy Alias, Key Alias, Key ID, and Key Value features are disabled if this feature is set to Basic.
The Basic Privacy Key feature is disabled if this feature is set to Enhanced.
This feature is applicable to MOTOTRBO Conventional radios in Digital mode only.
This feature is introduced in Codeplug version 04.00.xx (where xx is any number between 0 to 99).
This feature is available only when the Digital feature is enabled in the device. This is applicable in Codeplug version 05.01.xx only.
The Enhanced option is available only when the Enhanced Privacy feature is enabled in the device. This is applicable in Codeplug version 05.01.xx only.

Firmware 1.07.02, CPS build 244, view mode 'expert', radio received from Ma M on Friday. I have ten of these XPR8300s here we got on Friday for a project. The 8400s have not come in yet.

[com501]

So, to sum up:

The repeater and the radio firmware both must support encryption.

The repeater must know what type of encryption.

The subscriber radios must have the same type and same key loaded to communicate.

Encryption only works in digital mode.

[escomm]

Yes, I'm familiar with how encryption works in the TRBO. Hence my confusion when it was stated the keys could (and even had to be) loaded into the repeater in order for the encryption to work properly.

ETA: I can see where I caused some confusion of my own. I meant to say CPS version 6, not 1.6, earlier in the thread.

[com501]

[com501]

Are you by chance running advanced privacy? If so, the repeater needs to have the privacy key loaded into it, or you can have problems such as you describe. Found this out the hard way, as earlier firmware versions did not need the key loaded, nor do you need the key in the repeater for basic privacy use. Have a look, could be the issue.

This should be amended to the repeater needs to have encryption enabled, but the keys reside in the radio. If the repeater has encryption turned off, it ain't gonna.

[wavetar]

Are you by chance running advanced privacy? If so, the repeater needs to have the privacy key loaded into it, or you can have problems such as you describe. Found this out the hard way, as earlier firmware versions did not need the key loaded, nor do you need the key in the repeater for basic privacy use. Have a look, could be the issue.

This should be amended to the repeater needs to have encryption enabled, but the keys reside in the radio. If the repeater has encryption turned off, it ain't gonna.

Yes, sorry for the confusion guys. I didn't have my work computer handy when I made the post, and thought the key needed to be loaded. It does have to be set to 'advanced' privacy if the field radios are running it though. We had repeaters with 1.04 and the radios with advanced privacy worked fine through them...upgraded to 1.07 during a PM, then had intermittent issues with field radios unmuting until we went back & set the privacy properly in the repeaters. Funny thing is, most of the time, the radios worked fine.